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Wednesday, August 30, 2006

"Respect is not free: it must be earned"

That was the huge poster I saw at the bookshop I visited earlier, and the thought occured to me that there's something wrong with it. It is false and it is a corruption. It is the beginning of the end of charity, which should be accorded to everyone -- even our enemies. It begins with a premise that everyone should be accorded with disrespect until respect is earned. That everyone is guilty until proven innocent.

And it is no wonder crimes against persons are rampant, even in developed countries where education is widely available and obtained. Even against the unborn, who have yet to be accorded the opportunity to earn respect by achievement.

It also seems to go against the very grains of logic, for that tenet assumes that everything is false until proven true. If everything is false to begin with, then there is no basis for proving anything to be true. Logic demands a basis that can be universally considered a truth, upon which other truths can be tested. Without such a basis, nothing can be built and everything is futile.

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