Why Respect A Person?

Question: What basic feelings and virtues of each person deserve respect and why are so many people deprived of it?

Answer: We need to respect only the aspirations and efforts of a person that are aimed at humanity’s benefit. Not for the good of oneself, one’s nation, or one’s family, but only for the benefit of humanity. If we respect this, we will see the extent to which a person overcomes his egoistic nature for the sake of belonging to, and sacrificing for, the entire world.

I think all people should overcome themselves, their egoistic desire. If each of us sacrifices ourselves in this way, then in response we should receive gratitude and respect from society. Everyone—the children at home, the wife, the relatives, the parents, the environment, the friends, and the whole world—should be grateful to a person and appreciate him only to the extent of his contribution to society.

A person is created in such a way that he needs the recognition of society. By this, in essence, he expresses himself, his “I.” If we make society protect a person and respond to his contribution to humanity, this will obligate everyone to be an active part of humanity. We will see from everyone only good things in relation to the entirety of human society and we will see what contribution each one makes.

Therefore, we need to establish such laws in our society so that everyone can be assessed only by their contribution to humanity and so that it is easily visible.

If we measure a person only according to these criteria, if everyone knows that this is how he is assessed, this is how he is treated, then he will have no way out. He will have to become a healthy cell in the general body, that is, a person that is as useful as possible for humanity.
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The Round Table of Independent Opinions, Berlin 9/9/06