When I was a youth, generally you respected your elders. They had more experience of life and the workplace than you. You felt that you could trust them.
Of course, there was only a newspaper to read and one news bulletin that lasted ten minutes in those days because there were only two tv channels and there were better things to watch, so we thought, than the boring news. Now we have 24 hour news, somebody sneezes in Little Snoring and someone will record it with a tweet or facebook post and, if it’s a really big sneeze, it will make it on to the BBC website and maybe the tv news.
The upshot is that no one can get away with anything now. Our ‘elders’ probably had flaws but we didn’t know about them so our respect was never seriously threatened. Conversely, now when you choose to put yourself in a position of responsibility, every action is subject to examination and it becomes increasingly difficult to tell one group of society to follow one set of rules while you flagrantly break the rules yourself.
Currently, the younger members of our society are being blamed, probably correctly, for not strictly following Covid rules. I understand their frustration. While they protest about the environment, A-levels or black lives, from the 60s we have been on the warpath over Vietnam, women’s rights, gay rights, Northern Ireland, nuclear disarmament, the Iraq war to name but a few. And we partied – anyone that denies it must have been asleep for 20 years or more.
The problem is that if you want to win and maintain respect you have to set an example and follow the rules. You win no respect if you say to someone ‘you can’t do this, but I can’. It was bad enough when our supposed opinion leaders and policy makers flouted their own policies in self-interest. An excellent opportunity for the rest of us to ignore the rules when they become inconvenient.
But they were rules sent down from on high and, to a certain extent, we have a right to challenge them. It’s a different matter when you have signed an agreement. The important bit here is agreement. No one forced you to sign it, bullied, cajoled or blackmailed. You sat in a room, had a discussion, agreed on something, had it written down and added your name to it. It is binding, it is a contract. Trying to re-write the Withdrawal Agreement is tantamount to you telling your building society that, although you have signed an agreement with them, you aren’t going to make any more payments. Or exchanging contracts to sell your house, but refusing to move out.
Agreements are fundamental to the way the world operates. On a smaller scale and currently pertinent, for every purchase you make on ebay you leave feedback. Suppliers are desperate to get as close to 100% as they can because if their rating drops by even a few points, they know you and countless others will be using the more dependable, trustworthy supplier with a better record. Trump-like, our nation’s leadership has decided that an international agreement we entered into doesn’t suit us any more. How many countries will now enter an agreement with us if they know we will tear it up at any time we feel it is no longer in our interest?
And that brings us back to respect. Some things don’t change, you earn respect and with respect goes trust. Who can we trust anymore?