Can too much respect be bad?

[tackattack]

Ok, sorry if I mistook your cynicism/tone/style of humor with me personally over our conversations elsewhere as an indicator of your general pessimism. To be clear, since the topic of soldiers seems a sticking point between us. I would respect an unidentified racist or soldier with the same basic respect. A soldier, for his duty (an action), IMO deserves more respect, for their duty. When ephemeral identification solidify by observance of reasoned action or general deed, that respect is reevaluated. I grant a soldier who did X(good) for good Y as being more respected one doing X(good) for bad Z. I grant a racist who did X (good) for good Y as being more respected one doing X (good) for bad Z.

I would agree that it's interesting that we all do seem to have upper and lower limits. "No one deserves...." and "That can't be real..." are the usual indicators. While the lower end seems to just be a base evaluation of shared human decency, I find the top threshold vastly more perplexing. In your case of Bill Gates vs the 5 yr old I think that the example highlights the value of the level of sacrifice being a compensable trait to identify in others. I think growing inequity between the image of who the observed person is believed to be by the observer and the demonstrable difference in what is observed ("He can't be that nice/good looking/rich..) created dissonance in our perception of that person, which induces doubt "that it's real". Most people then normally revert to their already solidified beliefs as they've been what's "real" for so long, rather than re-evaluate our new perspective on what's "real". idk, though, it's nice to stretch the mental legs and think about these things though.