Respect: the coinage the Pattersons are too cheap to pay

[dreadedcandiru2]

You wanna know what's a funny thing? Here's a funny thing: the Pattersons seem to want a whole lotta respect without really doing anything to earn it. It's not just the low, low expectations they have of themselves that cause those around them not to give them the obeisance they crave. It's, as I've stated before, their refusal to respect the people around them. They seem to feel they're good to treat other people the same way they want to be. We, as a matter of fact, are celebrating the sixth anniversary of a particularly nasty example of disrespecting others: the sham wedding. Deanna spelled out as plain as day when she said the first, private ceremony was the real deal and the public one all for show. They didn't respect anyone around them enough to let them know that they shared the same values, no. They were content to let them go on thinking that they were defying a convention. By a series of coincidences, Michael's side of the family learned the truth and decided to 'go along with the gag' (or, as decent human beings call it, 'join his and Deanna's conspiracy') but hers did not. Simple as paper, they felt so little for their fellow man, they engaged in a hateful fraud to extort gifts out of decent people. She justifies it by calling it payback for years of being told what to do, despite her not listening. Him, he wants to defend against loss of his masculine authority. They both want respect but they, like the rest of their family, aren't willing to do anything to earn it.