Dignity is not a matter of pride, but a valuable asset that we cannot put in the pockets of others or lose lightly. Dignity is self-esteem, self-respect and health. And it is also the force that lifts us off the ground when we have broken wings, hoping to reach a distant point where nothing hurts, allowing us to look again at the world with our heads raised.
It could be said, almost unequivocally, that few words are now as important as the one that gives title to our article this time, it was Ernesto Sabanio who recently declared that human dignity was apparently not foreseen in this globalized world. On a day-to-day life, our society is increasingly articulated in a structure in which we are losing more and more rights, more opportunities and even freedoms.
“In addition to pain and joy, is there dignity to be?-Marguerite Yourcenar-
However, and it is interesting to take this into account, many philosophers, sociologists, psychologists and writers try to propose strategies to shape what they call the “age of dignity”. They feel it is time to define ourselves, to have a voice and to work on our personal heritage to find greater satisfaction in our immediate environment, and thus to generate a significant change in this increasingly unequal society.
Celebrities such as Robert W. Fuller, a physicist, diplomat and educator, have put on the table a term that we will probably start hearing more often: “hierarchy. “This term brings together all these everyday behaviors that undermine our dignity: being intimidated by third parties (partners, bosses, colleagues), being harassed, sexism and even being a victim of the social hierarchy.
We all feel, at some point in our lives, that feeling of losing our dignity in one way or another, whether for abusive relationships or low-paid work, are high-cost situations, demanding change, positioning ourselves in our favor, and Fighting for our own rights will never be an act of pride, but daring to be courageous.
We recently learned that Japanese-born British writer Kazuo Ishiguro will be the Nobel Prize in Literature this year. The general public knows him mainly from one of his novels, “Vestgios do dia”, a work that, in turn, has been brought to cinema in an exceptional way. The funny thing about it is that not everyone realizes that the central theme of this book is so meticulous, sometimes desperate, but still beautiful.
You might think that: the traces of the day tell us a story of love, love and barriers with courage, those where lovers never touch their skin and their pupils are lost elsewhere, except in the person they love, perhaps we can deduce that the book is the story of a house and its inhabitants , lords and servants, and as nobleman, Lord Darlington, sought the friendship of the Nazis in the face of the passivity of his butler who saw his master betray the country.
We could say that and more, because it is undoubtedly the magic of books, yet the traces of the day speak of dignity. The dignity of the character who is the narrator and who, in turn, is the protagonist of the story, Mr. Stevens, butler of Darlington Hall.
The whole novel is a pure defense mechanism, an attempt at continuous justification. We are faced with a person who feels dignified and honored by the work he does, but this work is but a reflection of the bloodiest and most absolute servitude, where there is no place for reflection, for doubt, for the recognition of one’s emotions and less for love.
However, there comes a time when the image of the Excellent Butler collapses. Over dinner, one of Lord Darlington’s guests asks Mr. Stevens a series of questions to show him a complete disrecognise of the lower classes. A direct attack on him, where the butler sets aside to give way to the wounded who has never had dignity and who has lived under armor, the man who refused true love to serve others.
Certainly, he is curious as an external observer and even as a reader who browses books like “Vestiges of the Day” page by page. immediately knows how a certain person is being manipulated or how they weave a laborious deception to justify any act that in our eyes is inexplicable. However, we can also perform some tasks very similar to those of the Darlington Hall butler.
“Dignity is not about our honors, it’s about the recognition of what we have. ” – Aristotle-
We can give everything for this love, for this harmful, toxic and even exhausting relationship, sometimes we like blind eyes and the open heart, without realizing that, in this bond, we gradually cut off all the fabric of self-esteem. We will also spend a lot of time in this underpaid work, where we are not valued, where life and dignity disappear?but what can be done, times are who they are and the poorly known will always be better than a current empty account.
We must awaken, as we said at the beginning, must be the age of dignity, the age of dignity, the age in which we must all remember our courage, our strength, our right to a better life, to be worthy of what we want and need. Saying it out loud, setting boundaries, closing doors to open to others, and defining yourself before others is not an act of pride or selfishness.
Let us avoid losing our individuality, stop justifying the unjustifiable and avoid being part of this machine that every day extinguishes our wonderful virtues and personalities, so let us learn to stop being subjects of misfortune and to create it with our own hands and wills.