’Nuff respect
From Daniel O’Flaherty Sir: Using that drearily fashionable word ‘respect’ seems to have become an epidemic among politicians (Leading article, 14 January). First we had George Galloway, whose ego-driven Respect party cashed in on anti-Iraq war sentiments. Then we have had the launch (or rather relaunch) of Labour’s Respect Action Plan, an attempt to win brownie points with the middle class. Now the vacuous poster-boy of the Tories, David Cameron, has entered the fray, threatening to unleash real respect on the English public.
All this is brought into sharp perspective in my frequent visits to my anxiety clinic. The walls, otherwise drab, are festooned with posters proclaiming your right to respect!, replete with happy multicultural faces smiling toothily beneath. Such posters are to be found everywhere in council buildings and seem to perform the modern equivalent of mediaeval icons or tribal fetishes.
It is clear that respect is a magic word for today’s political establishment; the one word they think crosses all boundaries between class, religion and race. It is claimed by both Left and Right as their word, but the problem is that these two distinct meanings of ‘respect’ are incompatible. To one section of society ‘respect’ means deference to one’s elders and good manners; to another it is an unconditional right to be treated as an individual. The pop-culture use of the word, anthemised in Aretha Franklin’s great song, is obviously the one on which Galloway’s party and the local council posters depend. It is the sense of individual freedom, the women’s movement and civil rights. New Labour’s and the Tories’ use of the word is almost the exact opposite, i.e., curbing one’s individualism in order to create greater social cohesion.
Daniel O’Flaherty Croydon, Surrey
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