It's been a while since I read To Kill A Mockingbird, but I have always had a strong admiration for Atticus Finch (for those of you who need a refresher: the dad/lawyer). His open-mindedness and strong senses of morality, equality, and pacifism, really made me enjoy reading the timeless classic. There was one thing in the book, though, that I've been thinking about recently. I remember in the story, Atticus tells his children to call him Atticus - not dad or father, but Atticus. He says it's a sign of equality (I believe, like I said it's been a while since I read it, but I think this is the main idea here) - they're all equals, why not just use their names? In a way, I kind of agree. Now, I realize that calling someone Mrs. or Mr. is polite, or respectful. But, I don't see why that same respect would be any different if we addressed people by their first names - that is the point of them, after all. It's hard to picture it now, addressing your mother by her first name, or your teacher by his. I'm not even really advocating it per say - I know I'd get a nice tongue lashing if I started calling my mom Lisa. But, I do find the idea relatively interesting... and somewhat appealing. I kind of feel like we have it backwards in our society. Thinking about it with a fresh mind, why would we address someone with honorifics when we do not know them, whereas people we do know and have deep respect for, we often times don't. From a technical view, it seems like, in that scenario, we're showing more respect to someone we don't know, than to someone very deserving of that respect. I know that's not what is intended, and I know that social ideas and such are relatively set in this train of thought, at least for now. Never the less, it's fun to consider and think about, regardless of its impracticality. Thoughts? (I guess I should add that you don't actually have to have read To Kill A Mockingbird to respond to this, thinking about that book is just what made me think about this.)
It's interesting that you say that, because I've always considered using someone's first name as a much greater sign of respect than calling them Mr. or Ms. or whatever. In my mind, if I am referring to you by your first name, especially if you are in a position where you should be a "Mister" or whatever, that to me means that I am familiar enough with you and think enough of you to bother with your first name, rather than the very cold and impersonal honorific. But that's just my crazy view on things.
Well in the world today, yeah, I would agree. But going down to technicalities, isn't an "honorific" or a "title" bestowed upon someone who's highly regarded?
