The problem is that the larger culture equates respecting your elders with being a pushover. People say nobody respects a pushover, but I don't think that's true. The truth is, people respect pushovers if they're the ones doing the pushing or if they like the direction the pushovers are being pushed in. Now when people don't like the direction pushovers are being pushed in, that's when people complain. People also complain when someone is unpushable when they should be pushable, like a kid who won't eat the food put on the plate by his/her parents.
