Simply Respect
Posted by sammyk2 on April 15, 2008
Samantha Kujala
4/15/08 Simply Respect
Han Fei Tzu mentions how you must be cautious of what you say to a ruler in order to not be punished or killed. Except some of the examples he gives seem to be more common sense and that we should be respectful to others. This is not only true for rulers, but for everyone including your close friends. Some thoughts are better kept to yourself.
Han Fei Tzu says, “If you talk about what he hates, he will suspect you of trying to test his patience” (559). This seems so obvious to me. I know if one of my friends purposely talked about a certain issue that bothered me; it of course will anger me. That is called “picking on that person.” Sure sometimes picking on your friends is just harmless fun as long as you all can laugh about it. Though, doing this with the wrong intentions to purposely annoy someone is just disrespectful and that goes for everyone you communicate with; not just rulers.
I think Han Fei Tzu did have a deeper meaning to his story. This message is that we should be respectful to one another. Also we should possibly thankful that when we are disrespectful, we should be thankful that our friends do not physically punish us or harshly judge us. More on the topic of persuasion though, being respectful may become more difficult when trying to make a strong point. Sometimes you may be trying to persuade someone to like something they hate and this is not really being respectful of their opinions. I think Han Fei Tzu makes another important point though. This point is that we have to be adaptable to our different audiences. Know who your audience is when you are trying to be persuasive. Like a ruler for example you are going to want to be very cautious of what you say and only say what will make them happy. With someone who is very young, when persuading them you may be more direct giving them cold facts that they do not want to hear but leaves an impression on them to make them believe in what you are saying.
