I keep hearing the opinion voiced (by great luminaries including my
Mother and John Humphrys) that respect and trust need to be earned.
I fundamentally disagree.
I think that all humans should be automatically respected, firstly
purely on the basis of being human beings (in a
responsibilities/rights sort of way) and as individuals in
themselves. Similarly, everybody should be inherently trusted.
Only when someone does something to suggest that they shouldn't be
trusted or respected should you reduce the amount of trust or respect
that you have for them.
Of course you cannot respect someone for a specific action that they
have done until you know about it, but at the same time you cannot
reduce your respect for someone until you know about some fault that
they have perpetrated. I do not think that the same comparisons are
applicable to trust, you can either trust someone absolutely or less
than absolutely and the default position should always be absolute
trust in my mind. I would also suggest that the respect due for some
person's actions should be considered of less worth than the respect
for their humanity and individuality.
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