synivex

Not in all instances. Respect stems from admiration and does not always necessarily correspond with a person's hierarchical niche. Take a figure like Kim Kardashian for example. Is she famous because of respect? Perceivably, she is higher up in this social hierarchy because she is pretty and brings in money, not because of respect. >Respect is by its very nature hierarchical.

As someone who has been surrounded by the Cantonese and Vietnamese language all their life, I can say the whole idea of addressing people according to their age is a common thing amongst Asian culture. It wasn't designed to be a hierarchical thing. Rather, it's just a way of presenting respect.

I never said it wasn't. The op was definitively saying how respect, in its nature, hierarchical. I was simplely providing a different perspective on the relationship between respect and heirarchy.