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The ability to be deferential is what allows you to see someone or something in all its glory. By bending the knee you allow the light in and it becomes something you desire for your children.

Maturing is learning to whom we bend the knee. If the answer shouldn't be everyone, but it also shouldn't be noone. You can't snobbishly declare yourself the god of all critics and refuse to acknowledge anything higher.

It should however decrease over time. It indicates growth. The number of people you worship should decrease and the number of people you respect should increase.

One form of evil is to worship not out of faith but out of anger at the thought of giving respect. It is to use the humility of faith as a weapon of arrogance.

It indicates stagnancy. The recognition that growth has stopped and is being desperately faked by forcing people to pretend to be respectful by disrespecting them if they do not. This is a cult of fake happiness.

IMO, the greatest part aspect of U.S. its culture is its individuality that prevents these false cults and false leaders from forming. By not creating social mazes that forced faking it, a culture of individuality produced 'true leaders'

It meant that hierarchies of value could be built without dysfunction and bottlenecks because the level of responsibility didn't match the ability to perform.