Basically, rep is somtimes abused both good (by friend circle repping) and bad (by giving random bad rep), but your rep level really honestly does not matter.
My reason for liking rep is to see the nice comments people leave, not to see how much i have in total.
A person's rep doesn't reflect who they are -your posts do that.
For the people who feel the need to abuse, fine they can go ahead and do that, because people aren't judged on their rep and they're gaining nothing from it. It's just pointless and they themselves know it.
If you are receiving continual bad rep then PM one of the higher staff and we will look into it (to see whether it is given by one member, in which case they will have their ability to give rep disabled).
If rep does bother you to that great an extent, you can just turn it off.