Realistically speaking, it's not possible to love all mankind. It's not even possible to love the population of a city. Human beings are able to love, in a broad sense, a group of 150 to 200 people with whom they have affective bonds in some way, from friendship and family, to a romantic envolvement. Love is a feeling, and therefore we don't have much control over it. Love is also something very difficult to define, people use the term to justify quite strange behavior sometimes. Some can even kill in the name of "love".
On the other hand I have never seen anybody kill or behave in an irrational way in the name of respect. Respect is an attitude that we can decide to assume in a controlled and conscious way.
I concluded a long time ago that, concerning life in society, respect is infinitely superior to love. Love exhausts us, love demands a lot from us, we can only truly love a quite small number of people.
Respect is something we can have for any person, even if it is only with respect to his physical integrity.
Had somebody said "Thou shalt respect one another" at the right time and in the right place, many tragedies could have been avoided.
No comments:
Post a Comment