By D.S. Cook for Apostoic Venn.
If you’ve stayed with this series through four installments, thank you. You’ve watched the modern concept of “respect” collapse under scrutiny. You’ve read that respect is an indifferent byproduct of the behaviors you choose, is gained in measure by those who also choose it, and lost by those who choose otherwise. The equation of Respect with Agreement has fallen apart under a microscope, and the deletion of the concepts of “better and worse” has been exposed like a fraud scandal. Most recently, we’ve discovered that in the pursuit of respect, none is gained by acquiring envy in substitution.
This is the NCF (Nominal Conquest Fallacy) that occurs when respect is viewed as a fungible currency. Respect is admiration and regard in a domain in which you are excellent, and when rightly ordered, is a natural response to demonstrated virtue in that domain. It doesn’t go into your inventory like a consumable item in a video game, nor can you stash it up in a bank account to be used in an unrelated area later on. Great expertise can be gained in a given field, but the respect earned in that domain is not fungible, ready to be lent out or spent out in completely unrelated domains. Failing to understand this can yield very undesirable results indeed. This error is far more likely to tarnish your regard and legacy than to bolster it, as we see so often in celebrity culture.
Biblical Foundations for Excellence
To the Christian, can it be shown that excellence in a particular skill is virtuous in God’s eyes? It can, with a caveat. Scripture repeatedly affirms that genuine virtue is expressed through diligent excellence in one’s calling. Yet it never grants blanket authority or approval. 1 Corinthians 10:31 reads: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the Glory of God.” This verse establishes that excellence itself is virtuous, but not without the prerequisite orientation toward God’s glory and not one’s own. Virtue in excellence of skill is predicated on the delivery of thanksgiving and all praise to the giver of that skill, God himself. Refusal to do so is like taking credit for winning a raffle ticket, a thing that might have fallen to someone else, but fell to you, in God’s ineffable providence.
Colossians 3:23 reinforces this. Work “with all your heart, as working for the Lord.” A short verse, but one that shows clearly the right-minded order of one’s principles. God values hard work, when it is done in alignment with his rightful authority over the hands and brain he gave you. The best of work, done with all your heart for the purpose of self-glorification, is not valued by the giver. A man of hard-won skill and natural gifting, who returns the glory to the God who gave him those things, is certainly deserving of respect.
Biblical Foundations Against Overreach
In the book of James (a more worthy James than the one we shall discuss shortly), the Apostle warns against stretching your authority beyond your calling. He says that very few should become teachers, insinuating that even great charisma or eloquence do not necessarily qualify a believer for the pastorate. This passage is narrow, speaking on the ascension of the common Christian believer to Minister of Christ. But, we would do well to apply its wisdom more broadly, coupling it with Solomon’s teachings: wisdom is best accompanied by humility, pride goeth before the fall. Christ’s words “You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” should do more than instruct us on examining an individual for saving faith. They should teach us to look for the right things in the right places, discriminately. A man who leads a for-profit company with success, and is good at rallying the troops, is not necessarily a shepherd of souls. Well then, let us not try to pick national policy grapes from thespian thornbushes.
Stoic Clarity on Domain-Specific Virtue
The Stoics understood this with some degree of precision. Virtue was the highest pursuit for them, though I must hedge as ever: they fall short on both understanding why, and from which lectern virtue can be drawn. But to them, ongoing self-examination and honesty with oneself was key. Epictetus reminds us that our focus must be always on what is ours to command, and to avoid stretching out our hand for what is not ours. Marcus Aurelius too, warning against the pursuit of admiration, wrote “Do not waste the remainder of thy life in thoughts about others, when thou dost not refer thy thoughts to some object of common utility… such thoughts make us wander away from the observation of our own ruling power.” Chasing transferred respect, or the admiration of others at all, is not the goal of the Stoic. He notices where he stands, and works on cultivating excellence on his own ground. Reputation and admiration are indifferents.
So then, the man who excels at basketball, but widely promotes his thoughts on economics, theology, ideology, or governance, is behaving as if his athletic virtue transfers to those areas. He is violating a core Stoic principle. Know where your virtue is. To claim more is irrationality and self-deception. A man may excel in more than one area, true. A man may be a good thinker in general, and his thoughts may blanket a wide range of topics. But a man who seeks to use celebrity in one skill to influence areas in which he has no excellence is destined to destroy the respect he has earned.
The Fallacy in Action
This transference error appears most potently in celebrity, among actors and athletes like Lebron James and George Clooney. LeBron is an extraordinary athlete. He has wonderful work ethic and incredible physical ability, and the gift of entertaining. These gifts are worthy of respect, provided that he returns thanksgiving to the Giver. Yet, serious heads give him no nods when he stretches beyond those gifts to wield cultural influence over education or public policy. No respect is given him in those areas, nor should it be. High achievement in sport, it turns out, is NOT an indicator of wisdom in social theory. Insisting that it should be, he has forever tarnished his legacy, and will be recalled by future generations as a physically skilled but intellectually comical buffoon. His is a cautionary tale.
This is true in minor, every-day celebrity as well, as we shall soon see.
Anecdotal Examples
An individual that I knew was extremely gifted in her field, one of the very best and fastest technical accountants in our company. On that basis, she was made a manager. But, there was a big problem. She had terrible people skills, no sympathy or justice, and lacked the social intelligence necessary to interact in a manner that wasn’t awkward and abrasive. She demanded the impossible, gave bad reviews to great employees, mocked, ridiculed, and belittled everyone under her authority ad nauseum. As a result, the turnover in her department was, well, entire. Nobody wanted to work for this woman, despite her immense skill. One year in, I was her senior team member on a team of seven. Everyone had left for happier environments. After sticking it out for two years, I too abandoned her, no longer able to work beneath her thumb.
Yet, I cannot help but feel some sympathy for her. She was a victim of the transference fallacy, partly though her own overreach, and partly the shortsightedness of those who placed a person of her make-up in that losing position.
Respect for one virtue does not transfer to another. This is mere reality, not cruelty. As the Stoics and Scripture both teach, character and competence are tested in their proper spheres.
Another case involved an English student of mine, during my many years teaching non-native speakers abroad. She held a doctorate and was highly credentialled in a medical field that I can no longer remember. Having experimented with multiple English teachers, she landed on me, deeming me excellent in that domain. We had many fascinating conversations together on all areas of life, despite our drastic differences in values.
You see, Dr. Elaine was an openly promiscuous woman. She loved to talk about her exploits with great pride, boasting of the many different kinds of people she had slept with and “sexual types” she experienced. She was now in her sixties, lived alone, had been divorced 5 times, and mothered no children. Yet still, at an age where one should have acquired much wisdom, she was still on the hunt for her next sexual partner. I would listen to these tales and correct and guide her English, as was my job; always trying to redirect to a more appropriate topic. Occasionally, when asked, I would give insight into my own Christian worldview, and my monogamous life-long commitment to my wife.
The collapse occurred one day when the conversation turned to childrearing. My 6 year-old-son had burst into my home office during teaching hours and disrupted the session with loud vocalizations, a thing he knew well to be prohibited. When I scolded him and told him no, this woman nearly had a conniption. “You cannot tell no to a 6 year-old.” She said, in her thick German accent, before launching into a long scolding about the correct way to raise children, with complete liberty and licence. After several failed attempts to deflect and return the focus back to her English class, I politely but firmly put her in her place. I made it clear, as kindly as I could, that her opinions had no authority in my home. She flew into a rage, belittling my credentials and education. “I am a doctor.” She said. “You are not. You are an English teacher with a lower degree. You do not have the qualifications to say “no” to me in matters of psychology.” A telling portrayal of one who had never said “no” to herself. She could not bear it when others did so, and thought this attitude should be the desired future for my children as well. When I refused her again, she stormed out of the virtual classroom, and I never saw her again.
Thus, she put an end to a year-and-a-half-long relationship, one that she had searched hard to find. Having frequently stated her appreciation for our lessons, and how long she had hunted for this experience, she destroyed it by her own over-reach and hubris. Another victim of the respect transference NCF.
Respect is not a fungible currency.
The Liberating Conclusion of the ‘Respect in Ruins’ Series
Once we see respect clearly, we can begin the long process of freeing ourselves from chasing it. Respect cannot be demanded. It cannot be transferred. It can only be earned. Even then, it can only be earned in limited domains, and will be lost in equal proportion from those who choose other behaviors and values.
Attempting to design a society in which everyone gets respect in all areas, regardless of virtue or choices, is no more desirable than it is possible. It is like trying to supply a product to everyone in the world, without any means of production. It violates both natural law and divine order. Therefore, pursue virtue with all your might. Do your work heartily unto the Lord. Cultivate excellence where God has placed you. Let the respect that comes, or does not come, remain a matter of indifference. Your worth is not located in the approval of others, but in faithful obedience to Christ and the disciplined cultivation of a character that is like His. The man who lives this way cannot be manipulated by praise or destroyed by criticism.
The Respect in Ruins series ends here, but the pursuit of virtue has only just begun. Get to it, friends!
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