I've said it many times but quite a lot of punters seem to get confused between polite and respectful.We, all of us, owe anyone politeness except if and when they demonstrate impoliteness towards us. To get geeky over it, it comes from the word polis, meaning a city. The only way we have a civilised community, a city, a country, a nation, is by being polite to each other so that certain rules of interaction can operate freely.
Respect -- and any Latinists feel free to refine this -- means "to look again". Like when your parents or teacher told you something you didn't agree with but you "respected" because when you looked at it and thought about it again, you probably realised they were right and you were wrong.There is an element of looking up to the value of what a person communicates in "respect".
Now no sane punter aspires to live like a prostitute does, on the edge of society, a career you cannot own up to, to your friends or family, living by charging for what, to other people, is an expression of some sort of intimacy which marks the other person out as at least slightly exceptional in some way. When you are in love or even in a steady relationship or even a one-night stand, you "respect" the other person because they are worthy not only of being treating of an equal but that they enrich your life (otherwise you would
only see them to fuck them).
However you play with words, you do not 'respect' prostitutes, you are
polite to them. You maybe also realise that some will give better service if you make them feel nice (smiling, being fresh and
being polite).
The same can be said for the guy who services your car. It's necessary I feel to maybe say this as there are still too many reviews in my humble opinion that keep mentioning the prostitute's assumed name throughout the review as if she was on some sort of pedestal. It is totally wrong in my view. Politeness applies to the time you spend with the prostitute. It is actually I feel maybe I'd go as far as to say
an insult to carry on like that when speaking to
other purchasers. You probably wouldn't buy a fridge from John Lewis and then go and write a dreamy review about the salesperson. Or get your car serviced and write a eulogy about the mechanic like he'd helped you win the X-Factor, changed your life or revealed God.
Who gives a flying fuck?? It's a salesperson, a mechanic, a prostitute. You don't 'know' them. And you probably shouldn't look up to them.
Some restaurants play the same psychological ploy. They describe a bit of sausage arranged artistically on an enormous plate in the middle of three tiny dots of raspberry sauce and faff away on the menu with several lines of meaningless French superlatives. The waiter acts as if you are in the presence of royalty and gives you the bill as if 'little details' (like money) are mere trivialities. You are in an 'exclusive' restaurant, so of course your bit of sausage is expensive.
"That's the price!"
Fucking right it is, and well over-priced, and there's fuck all you can do about it. The waiter, the restaurant and the prostitute, each in their own way, are rather like con artists. You chose to employ their services and you had better be polite about it.
You owe them politeness on the job.
Not la-de-fucking-dah r-e-s-p-e-c-t.
And when you walk out, you can regain your
self-respect. Not blather on ffs like some teenager with a fucking crush.
