Valentine’s Day was last month and I thought about a coupla few things to write about love. None of those things was written because the sheer magnitude of the angles that I could have taken was overwhelming. I could have written about personal hopes, personal disappointments, universal hopes and disappointments, random observations (like the skywriter who wrote love messages in the New Orleans sky) – basically, any random assortment of things ran swiftly through my mind.
However, one thing did catch my attention and that was the One Billion Rising campaign where women (and men) participated in events around the world to bring awareness to violence against women by taking to public spaces to dance. This is probably an overly simplified definition but for more accurate information from the organization’s “mouth” click here.
Still, I chose not to write about that either (except for the previous paragraph). What I would like to take time to write about is the case for human dignity and the ways in which society, whether it is a single individual; groups of people; or institutions, deny human dignity. Misogyny, racism, homophobia, religious persecution and all manner of other societal ills center on a common willingness to deny the innate human dignity with which each person is born.
Cobbled together definition
One of the simplest and best definitions that I saw for dignity was some unlinkable answer for the definition from Google: “The state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect.” There were other definitions as well but those seemed to be based on societal qualifiers such as achievements or heritages that elevate the amount of dignity a person can expect. Yet, I will stick with this definition as a baseline and go forth from here. However, I will expand my concept of dignity to say that it should be accorded starting from birth and carried forward throughout life. Dignity should not be something for which you become eligible at a prescribed point in time like driving or voting.
Accorded dignity
Accorded dignity. Dignity in action. Dignity in action is similar to the act of breathing; it is a background function that happens. It is the behavior of people towards themselves or another when their actions presume honor and respect is deserved. Dignity in action can be as simple as someone acknowledging your smile with a smile in return or it can be the ability for one to hold his or her head up after a personal setback. It can be as complex as creating an atmosphere in which someone can feel comfortable without fear of judgment or retribution. Because it is such a background function, dignity is not really highlighted until there is a problem – dignity denied.
Denied dignity
Denied dignity is the area mostly in which discussions surrounding dignity take place. Those moments where, as a witness, you feel some degree of discomfort with the displayed behavior towards another. That “gut feeling” that the social dynamic is wrong. At times, it can be perceived as injustice, other times simply mean behavior. It is what transpires when someone acts without the presumption that honor and respect is deserved. Denied dignity, often perpetrated by others, can be self-perpetuated as well. A person who repeatedly accepts bad treatment from others without attempting to change the situation or who, by their own actions, abuses themselves deny themselves honor and respect. I have countless experiences that I can recount where I feel that my dignity had been denied. However, more telling are the experiences that I am honest enough to acknowledge where I have denied dignity to myself or someone else.
Dehumanization
The reason that people’s willingness to deny the dignity of others concerns me is the ultimate denial of another – dehumanization. The myriad (and sometimes innocuous) ways in which dignity is denied to others, if repeated in a concerted manner, can lead to dehumanization. If someone or a group of people is consistently viewed as not deserving honor or respect, over time they may not be viewed as deserving the more humanizing emotions such as understanding, compassion, sympathy or empathy.
There is a diversity of people in the world who differ by all types of social constructs – religion, race, gender, sexuality, nationality, education, income and the list goes on and on. Yet, at the core of each individual’s existence is his or her universal, innate humanity. In dealing with others, I try to focus more on the commonalities more so than the differences. Dignity and humanity are where I strive to focus, because, after that, the myriad differences are just that – differences.
Bridge differences with dignity and humanity. Try love. The world needs it.