By Leland Pulley
Every human being has dignity. He is worth something. He should have self-respect and be respected by others. This is true for everyone, independent of age, sex, race, citizenship, or position. This is not idealism on my part, nor a politically correct statement that I am making to gain popularity. It is based on my firm conviction, and yes knowledge, that all of us are part of the same great human family. We all report to the same God. We have common purposes for being on this earth and we share common needs. Our dignity is inherited in a common spiritual destiny.
Just because everyone should have dignity, does not mean all of us have equal dignity. Some people are treated better than others. Life is not fair in many ways and certainly this is one such way. Many people have bad conditions they live under or with, and their lot in life is hard. They lack self-respect and are not respected by others. They may not have equal rights or privileges. History is full of examples of one group dominating over another. On a personal basis, individuals are not always respected by others like peers, neighbors, relatives, or fellow employees.
Despite the fact that dignity is not equally given to all, some individuals rise above this obstacle. They may be part of a minority group, or be poor, or handicapped, or not politically free in their country. However, they do not let anyone rob them of their self-respect. This is something they have some control over and can act on, independent of how they are treated by others or what happens in their environment. Thus, they have some human dignity. Unfortunately, not enough individuals are this strong.
If everyone understood what I said in the first paragraph about a common spiritual heritage and literally acted on the statements there, the world would be changed. The strong would not prey upon the weak. There would be less inequalities in society. Self-respect and mutual respect would both increase. You would see the results of this in more incentive by individuals to make something of themselves. They would have more encouragement and opportunity to do so too. There would be less separation and differences between the “haves and have nots”. Crime, abuse, and lawsuits would go down because more people would feel part of society and not left out of it. Nations would work out more compromises and there would be less military and trade wars.
As simple as my words sound, they are true. A simple spiritual truth like human dignity and its basis has great power to help all of us with the challenges facing us in the world today.
Dignity is related to conduct. Just because individuals have dignity, does not mean they can do whatever they like with their lives. Some forms of conduct are not good, no matter who does them. In fact, poor conduct lowers dignity and good conduct raises it. It is important to separate the person and his actions to keep “inherit dignity” separate from good or bad conduct. This allows us to treat others with respect, but help them deal with conduct that is not good or acceptable in specific situations or relationships.
Dignity can be found in a diverse environment of people and circumstances, but it is not diversity. Too many times people try to justify certain beliefs, actions, or decisions based on the weak excuse that diversity allows all forms of opinions, beliefs, and behavior. After all, they reason, we are all different and thus who can say what is right and wrong for anyone. The reality of some forms of diversity, like in nature, does not condone the diversity of thinking and behavior found in the world today. If you examine the contradictory thoughts, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes of people on similar or even identical topics, you would draw this conclusion. Many individuals can be wrong in their viewpoints about various topics, and in some cases, they could all be wrong about a topic. With diversity of views, all individuals will not be right in their viewpoints about most topics. This leads to disagreements and lack of harmony.
To summarize, all of us should gain and maintain our self-respect. We should be respectful of others, independent of their differences from us or their conditions in life. We must utilize our common spiritual inheritance to help us understand and serve one another. However, this does not mean we should be permissive and lenient in tolerating too much wrong behavior, as much as help people with bad behavior to develop good behavior. We must not use diversity as an excuse for not doing anything except think about ourselves and ignore others in the process. If we do this, diversity becomes a great evil. But if we use diversity as a means to gain tolerance and then work together for mutual understanding and reaching common goals, then diversity is a great blessing to us all.
The choice is yours. Do you have dignity? How is your conduct? Do you use diversity in the proper way? Act now to make improvements in your life and help others to do the same. Then dignity, good conduct, and the proper use of diversity will support each other.
Key Words – dignity, God, self-respect, common spiritual heritage, conduct, diversity, tolerance
Return to Articles page to read more articles.
If you have any comments or feedback on this article, use the Contact Us page.