Grasping the Power and Value of Dignity

Grasping the Power and Value of Dignity

We are at a time of great change and a time where human dignity is being championed and from this positive change happens.

So, one may ask well, what is this thing dignity anyway?

Before I address this, I am reminded that Father’s Day is here, for many a time of great appreciation for loving fathers. I on the other hand have no bright story of my father but rather a set of dark postcard memories of abuse and a general lack of respect for my rights or human dignity. The vulnerable are always at risk for dignity violations.

I wish to not be the thing abuse made as I value not just my own dignity but that of others. Because if the only rights one fights for are their own then they have a lot to learn about the value of rights.

Here are some thoughts from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

“The concept of human dignity features in ethical, legal, and political discourse as a foundational commitment to human value or human status. A focal concept of human dignity can be reconstructed even if its use or varied understanding or even if there are many competing conceptions of human dignity and this concept provides the most illuminating perspective from which to view human dignity’s range of conceptions and uses. Human dignity can denote the special elevation of the human species, the special potentiality associated with rational humanity, or the basic entitlements of each individual. There are, by extension, dramatically different normative uses to which the concept can be put. It is connected, variously, to ideas of sanctity, autonomy, personhood, flourishing, and self-respect, and human dignity produces, at different times, strict prohibitions and empowerment of the individual. It can also, potentially, be used to express the core commitments of liberal political philosophy as well as precisely those duty-based obligations to self and others that communitarian philosophers consider to be systematically neglected by liberal political philosophy. A characteristic expression is found in the Preamble of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) whose rights “derive from the inherent dignity of the human person” and whose animating principle is “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family [as] the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world.” Importantly, this ‘inherent dignity’ represents a potential bridge between a number of different ideas and ideals, namely freedom, justice, and peace. In fact, it is this potential to bridge different fields of regulation—human rights, bioethics, humanitarian law, equality law, and others—that we might take to be the most important function of human dignity in international law.” ref

From Wikipedia:

“Dignity is the right of a person to be valued and respected for their own sake, and to be treated ethically. It is of significance in morality, ethics, law, and politics as an extension of the Enlightenment-era concepts of inherent, inalienable rights. The term may also be used to describe personal conduct, as in “behaving with dignity.” ref

When dignity is a friend, respect has become one’s path.

Dignity = respect?

To me, dignity may be summarized as acknowledging as well as honoring that others own themselves and thus possess value as fellow dignity beings. In the end, all we really have is each other and life is too damn short to not be kind.

An “Axiological (value judgment) assessment of human beings” shows with an axiological awareness a logic of values is clear which takes as its basic premise that “all persons always deserve positive regard.” – Progressive Logic by William J. Kelleher, Ph.D. And the reason why we should be is because we are Dignity Beings.

“Dignity is an internal state of peace that comes with the recognition and acceptance of the value and vulnerability of all living things.” – Donna Hicks (2011). Dignity: The Essential Role It Plays in Resolving Conflict

Why care? Because we are “Dignity Beings” and others are just another fellow being of Dignity.

I once thought no one is friendly, so, I decided to start trying to be a friend to others. No one even seemed to care, so, I realized, I needed to care. No one really made “you” feel as if you mattered, so, I started valuing others, I see the world I wish to live in starts with me. After all other people are just fellow beings of dignity like me…

You can be kind and never love but you cannot love and never be kind. Therefore, it is this generosity of humanity, we need the most of. So, if you can be kind, as in the end some of the best we can be to others is to exchange kindness. For too long now we have allowed the dark shadow of hate to cloud our minds, while we wait in silence as if pondering if there is a need to commiserate. For too long little has been done and we too often have been part of this dark clouded shame of hate violating the dignity of our fellows keeps occurring. Simply, so many humans now but sadly one is still left asking, where is the humanity?

Why Ought We Care?

Because kindness is like chicken soup to the essence of who we are, by validating the safety needs of our dignity. When the valuing of dignity is followed, a deep respect for one’s self and others as dignity beings will become more common. When we can see with the eyes of love and kindness, how well we finally see and understand what a demonstrates of a mature being of dignity when we value the human rights of others, as we now see others in the world as fellow beings of dignity.

We need to understand what should be honored in others as fellow dignity beings and the realization of the value involved in that. As well as strive to understand how an attack to a person’s “human rights” is an attack to the value and worth of a dignity being. Yes, I want to see “you” that previous being of dignity worthy of high value and an honored moral weight to any violation of their self-ownership. And this dignity being with self-ownership rights is here before you are seeking connection.

What will you do? Here you are in the question, ever-present, even if never said aloud, do you see me now or are you stuck in trying to evaluate others value and assessing their worth as a fellow being of dignity?

A violation of one’s dignity (Which it the emotional, awareness, or the emotional detection of the world) as a dignity being can be quite harmful, simply we must see how it can create some physiological disturbance in the dignity being it’s done to. I am a mutualistic thinker and to me, we all are in this life together as fellow dignity beings. Therefore, I want my life to be of a benefit to others in the world so a good start is in fully grasping the power and value of dignity.

We are natural evolutionary derived dignity beings, not supernatural magic derived soul/spirit beings. What equals a dignity worth being, it is the being whose species has cognitive awareness and the expense of pain. To make another dignity-being feel unethical pain is to do an attack to their dignity as well as your own.

When I was younger and had little value of dignity, I felt proud when I harmed those I did not like. Now I find the value of dignity deserving even if doing it was seen as the only choice if I wish to value myself as I now see us for who we are, valuable beings of dignity.

As I see it now, how harmful and odd I find it for others who violate their own dignity by prejudice or bigotry against other humans, who are in fact, previous fellow beings of dignity, we too often get blinded by the external packaging that holds a being of dignity internally.

What I am saying don’t judge by the outside and rather see the worth they contain and human value they have as a fellow human dignity-being. Why is it easier to see what is wrong then, people to decide to act on what is right?

Why do I struggle in speaking what my heart loves as thorough and as passionate as what I dislike or hate? When you say “an act of mercy” the thing that is being appealed to or for is the proposal of or for the human quality of dignity. May my lips be sweetened with words of encouragement and compassion. May my Heart stay warm in the arms kindness and may my life be an expression of love to the world. Dignity awareness arises in our emotional awareness always depending on cognition, but it doesn’t take much to understand we all deserve dignity acknowledgment, promotion, and protection.