Do you automatically give respect to your elders, people in power, The Queen? 

Or is respect earned?

And what if you make a mistake, do you lose all respect for that person or do you give them the benefit of the doubt. 

This and many other questions regarding the subject R.E.S.P.E.C.T are discussed by Andrew and Roger in this episode of the Take This Personally podcast. Social media comes along, of course, so does Trump because man oh man, is that a good example to discuss when it comes to respect.

You can bet on it that the combined 100 years of life experience will be present in the discussion about respect and yes, the phrase; in our youth it was different may be mentioned a few times. As well as the word; eroded. 

Quotes from the show;

Roger:

" So, language isn't used anymore or less in a way where it was, , somewhat designed or developed or not developed, but it grew into this thing to express, you know, if your vocabulary is large enough, you can express yourself exactly to the point. What it is that you feel or ,how you interpret something or how you believe to be something to be, if I just go on Twitter and say vaccinations are stupid, that can mean so many things that it can also be interpreted in like a hundred different ways."

Andrew:

" I don't know, I would find it hard to respect a belief system that diminishes others.  So the, one that springs to mind, historically, the Catholic church has found that homosexuality is a sin. I find it hard to respect that because it diminishes other people. It assumes that other people are less than based on no evidence or proof."

What kind of responsibility does a citizen take for his or her country or their country and is voting enough or do you start a political party in order to make a difference? Or do you go out on the streets and demonstrate.?

In this episode, Andrew and Roger talk about responsibility, what is your responsibility, what is the government's responsibility? They discuss the demonstrations around the Iraq war, climate change and living sustainably. Oh is that all you might think because let's face it, these are not the easiest subjects to feel responsible about. As per usual they are clearly opinionated about all this, even Catholic confession is mentioned.

So get ready for another witty episode!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Book: The more beautiful world our hearts know is possible by Charles Eisenstein

https://charleseisenstein.org/books/the-more-beautiful-world-our-hearts-know-is-possible/

Andrew; " It's a great book. It's one of these you can read and reread. There's a bit that stuck with me, which is there's no difference between somebody who generates change on the world stage someone like Mandela or mother Teresa. There's no difference between somebody like that and somebody who takes a year off work to care for their, their sick mother. Who's dying. There's no difference. There's no difference. It's not about scale. It's about the energy of generating kindness and interconnections, the act.

The freedom of speech, personal freedom, what is more important? Freedom is a difficult subject to discuss in the time of a pandemic and lockdown when some of the freedom you had before is not available. 

Spoiler alert, let's just say that in the end, the conclusion is that freedom is not a subject that can be discussed in just one episode. However, there are still plenty of reasons to listen to this episode where Andrew talks about the freedom to walk in the ice-cold rain to go to the park with his dog. Or the moment Roger mentions the Auschwitz shirts that the Capitol rioters wore. 

Andrew; "Freedom comes with a responsibility, you are free to choose to get vaccinated against Covid, you are free to do what you like, it is your body, but when you start to curtail other people's freedom to do what they want to with their body, through disinformation or coercion, that's where I take issue."

Roger; "About being looked down, having your freedom being taken away from you because that's how far they go, and you go like, well, no, it's not entirely true. I mean, it's not really fair to put it that way because, and I'm okay with having the discussion that's fine. But the problem with it is that when that is your reasoning, then your mindset will go to I'm a prisoner."

As per usual the episodes of Take this Personally are full of controversial, philosophical thoughts of two guys with a boatload of life experience looking at the world and raising their point of view.