Well, that silenced the room for awhile, and I guess we all did have some time to think it over.
But, putting 'love, understanding, and admiration' aside for the moment, let's get back to respect - it is quite obvious from the poll (still active) that the universally required treatment that people want is 'Respect'.
Is 'Respect' being interchanged with the others? Is it possibly 'Fear' we want?
Apart from being loved, respected, understood, admired . . . why would one want to be feared?
This answer IRL came from mostly younger people, and from those I had perceived as being intimidated by life in some way. To know fear gives one the knowledge of (if not the inclination) its effects and how to instil it.
And yet - at the other end of the spectrum,
if I were to really ask a corporate head, or head of state, or boss of the gang, or even some rebel leader the question that carries this topic -
How would you like to be perceived as? How may I treat you? - and they would in all probability say 'I would like to be feared'.
By my subordinates, by all corporations, lawmakers and all the other countries, too.
Grand plan, though somewhat like child-play.
And yet, destinies of all sorts await the hand of such.
How far away from respect is that?
In the initial discussion we sorted out what is meant to be polite, and where the default state is when one meets a stranger.
Which brings to mind the scene of one meeting a stranger for the first time.
IRL.
At what point is it at which
who first makes the first move of respect and gets the train rolling - or does it matter?
Should we all, right of the bat, give someone 'the benefit of the doubt' and treat them as having the same principles of respect as we do - would that be construed as weakness?
Or snobbishness?
Or even disrespect - if I were to ask the Pope for respect would that be impertinent? Or Obama? Or Putin?
So what then truly is respect that most members are voting for?
Starting at this median point that allows us to approach strangers and interact with them, putting aside all programmed prejudices - fears, want of love and admiration and other things important that may be a factor in how one would be treated - putting aside all those - how does one express, and require of another, respect?
How would, or should, they treat each other to get this respect train rolling?
Factoring personal programming, cultural prejudices, intellectual snobbery, expertise addiction, existential anxiety, the adaptive unconscious, analysis paralysis, social insecurities, fears, and other 'personality-shadings' - if we factor those in ourselves, and factor that the other person is also riddled with such perspectives - then meeting each other for the first time at that median point is crucial for the development of mutual respect that leads to understanding, and from there to love and admiration.
Yeah?
Now take that and apply it to Virtual Reality.
Where you are right now, perceiving me.
How much of
yourself are you seeing?
Maybe even parts of yourself that you dislike - and so seeing it in me dislike me. Naturally.
Well, that can get in the way of respect, wouldn't it?
It is easy IRL to express stuff. We can do that with a smile, a nod, a bow, or a high-five.
In Virtual Reality - we walk in a fog.
Respect is hard to give, hard to perceive and receive. We work for it with words, 'tones'. and smilies (smillies, smylies, smileys . . . )
The careful use of smilies - and how they're perceived by others - is extremely important in conveying 'manner' or 'tone' or attitude of the person who lives in the Virtual Reality of a Forum Community.
Now back to the poll.
And of course your thoughts on these matters - paid with respect - will be repaid with respect.
