Jun 25, 2009 12:15:05 PM cite

I answer your question on pages 196-198 of my free bilingual philosophy book which I am distributing. Una Tapicería De Pensamientos on Scribd" href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/16715330/A-Tapestry-of-ThoughtsUna-Tapiceria-De-Pensamientos-" style="margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block; text-decoration: underline;">A Tapestry of Thoughts/Una Tapicería De Pensamientos

by Gonarthouse

Jan 16, 2007 7:50:12 AM cite

Dignity arises from a sense of right relation to the world, and hope in the future.____ I was at a meeting two years ago when a woman stood up to denounce me. She was standing in front of the microphone preparing herself, when I opened my heart to her. She stopped, and said: "I was going to say something, but now I remember why I am here. I suffered a fatal accident. It was ten years ago, and I had forgotten. I mean, I was driving down the road at high speed, and a car came out of nowhere. We crashed. I was floating through the air, and then something made me feel that I had to come back. I floated back into my car, and there was the big crack in the windshield where my head had been broken. And I was OK. I went to the hospital, but I was OK. So I am here to tell you - why I am here - There is nothing to be afraid of."____We are trying to assemble ourselves, like pieces of a puzzle, into something that is larger than us. Some of us fit, some of us don't. We keep on trying. Unless we give up, reality will harbor us until we make it right...___We deny each other the same grace because we are afraid this is our only chance to make it.

by Trichronos

Sep 30, 2006 12:06:59 AM cite

Human dignity is defined in many different ways by many different people, there then comes the issue of perception. We do not let people go without them, they, perhaps are happy with what they have or choose not to need whatever we want to give, or more often impose on them. It remains an issue of perception.

by RedSevenOne

Sep 10, 2006 12:34:24 AM cite

Addressing the second part of your question. There is a severe imbalance in the realm of spiritual dignity; one of it's main components being that as the dominate species on the Earth we have a responsibility to the care-taking of the Earth and to the Human Race. The more one has the greater is their responsibilty. "Nobless Oblige". Unfortunately we see the negative elements of spirituality being expressed; such as greed and lust for power, etc. It is a selfish world we live in.

by notcriswell

Sep 9, 2006 5:15:43 PM cite

See the 1948/49 Universal Declaration on Human Rights as the floor for the list of dignities. However, I don't believe that these rights are unconditional. No one else can abrogate these rights but we can forfeit these rights if we are not prepared to accept and act on the associated responsibilities to the best of our ability.

by everydayaction

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Abbas Beydoun: There were permanently people, religions and groups that considered themselves to be the most progressive and they thought that they have the right to kill the others and to show them without any respect the right way they should follow. There were also people who thought that the others are from the second class and their life is not valuable. I come from Lebanon, so some days ago the planes launched barbarically rockets on the houses and tens of civilians and families were annihilated. I think that the pilots were thinking that what they are doing is right so they did not care about the sequences and they did not think of the 400 children who were killed within 30 days. The pilots thought that they are serving their issue which is more important than lives of people as they thought, because they surely believed that their life is more valuable than the people they killed.

by Abbas Beydoun

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Alvaro Restrepo: My work in Colombia has to do fundamentally with dignity. In my opinion dignity is one of the most important words or concepts that we have to fight for. When we talk about dignity we talk about this other concept of quality that we human beings have to find. When we work in educational processes with children and adolescents, poor people and marginalized people, it is an important fact in this educational process that those persons can discover their human dignity as their biggest treasure. I think that dignity concerns the most important quality or concept which is selfrespect. In the moment in which a person knows himself/herself and respects himself/herself then he/her can also start to know and to respect others. This is why education plays an important role in the process of finding other qualities that make people have the feeling of dignity. For me the worst privation or agression that one person can commit against other human beings is depriving it from the right of education or the right of getting to know that... through the access of knowledge it is possible to get the most elemental form of human dignity.

by Alvaro Restrepo

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Ana Lucy Bengochea:

by Ana Lucy Bengochea

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Andries Botha: Well, dignities are always relative. It is difficult to know that there is a universal set of dignities. We are always very -- we're in a rush to believe my dignities, at the same provide necessities. But I think it is fair to say that one’s sense of integrity and dignity, and sense of security, food security, love, it's the right to sustain in himself, the right to shelter. Why do we let so many people go without them? Well, it’s because our humanity, our personal individual humanity is sacrosynct, and we are unable to see that we been divisible part of something much larger to [share] humanity, to [share] the living organisms.

by Andries Botha

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Angaangaq Lyberth: Claire, it’s so interesting what is the basic dignities. Where I come from on top of the world the basic dignity is recognizing each one another. When we don’t then we begin to remove those dignities. Each person on Earth, 6-1/2 billion of us, have the right to be recognized. But we don’t. Look at your people in Australia. They don’t recognize the Aborigines. They were there before anyone else. As in Greenland, where I come from, the Danes don’t recognize the rights of my people. So the dignities are removed by the rightful ownership of the land, when nobody owns anything but themselves. So when you realize that, you begin to see how we treat each other degradingly to a large, large degree everywhere. To answer your question, Claire, everyone has rights and deserves the dignity but that comes from you. If it does not come from you it cannot be delivered. You are responsible for recognizing everyone as I do. So let’s help each other to achieve that.

by Angaangaq Lyberth

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Anthony Arnove: Every human deserves basic human rights that involve not just meeting of their material needs, although those are absolutely a must and should be met, the right to clothing, the right to housing, the right to be free of disease, which can be easily prevented. Those are basic material rights. But, beyond that, I think we have to assert the right of people to have control over their lives, the right of people to have individual personal freedom of expression, but also freedom to control the circumstances in which they find themselves. And that means not only the right to have work, but the right to have leisure. That means not only the right to work, but the right to control the circumstances and the nature of one’s work. And it means the right to be able to express oneself creatively, to be able to have the circumstances that really call out for the maximization of freedom, the maximization of creativity and expression. We can’t even begin to imagine the kind of human culture, the kind of human possibilities, the kinds of artistic possibilities that would be unleashed in the society, which meets basic human needs universally, minimizes drudgery, minimizes the amount of work, which is necessary in order to meet the basic needs of the society and seeks to maximize, creatively maximize freedom. We’ve never lived in such a society. We can’t even begin to imagine what a society might produce, but we certainly can begin from looking at history to understand that and the circumstances where people have gained those freedoms and control over their lives even in limited ways. They have been able to produce remarkable things.

by Anthony Arnove

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Anuradha Koirala: The basic dignities that each human being deserves are respect and love. So many people go without it because we are self centered and selfish.

by Anuradha Koirala

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Anuradha Mittal: I think the basic dignities that each one of us as a human being deserves or actually has have been ensured by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They go from political freedoms and the political aspirations that we have. For example, the right to association, right of gathering, or freedom of speech, but at the same time our economic social cultural rights, for example the right to an adequate standard of living which would include our right to food, right to be free of hunger, right to have shelter, right to healthcare. And the reason that so many people go without them are these inherent inequities in the economic system that we live in, that today’s world instead of being guided by the conventions such as the covenant on economic social cultural rights, the covenant on civil and political rights which come from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have been put in the backseat whereas the new treaties such as our trade agreements, they take -- they come first. So, as long as we have that, we find these power structures that some people -- their greed and the corporate greed -- is based on the violation of the human rights of so many people. Human rights are basically guarantees of a human dignity, a life of dignity, free of hunger, free of exploitation, free of endangered servitude.

by Anuradha Mittal

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Ashok Gangadean: If we look at the human being, the whole human being in terms of global wisdom, global consciousness and the collective wisdom of our planet, we recognize that all human beings and all creatures are deeply interconnected in this sacred space of this infinite force, whatever name we call it, we can call it power, Aum, Allah, Yahweh, Christ, energy, nature, spirit, whatever name we use for the infinite force that surrounds us and in every cell, in every moment and every human being. A human being is part of that sacred fabric of life and of existence with nature. And, if we really see that global wisdom, we recognize that the human rights are the rights to flourish to become whole, to self-awareness, to self-empowerment, to self-love and the love of others, and the deep dignity that comes with our inherent sacredness. That is the source, the global source of human rights and human values. And, if we see a culture that can live in this global consciousness and global spirituality of the sacredness of life, we will then see that it's intolerable to have cultures that are ego-based and that are in violence to ourselves. And not just the human rights of others, but the self, when we are an ego-self, we are in deep violence to ourselves and undermining our own deep dignity and sacredness. So, I bring it right home and ask “Are we in an ego-based culture and a way being a self?” In that ego-based culture, we will always degrade and violate a sacredness of other human beings, of ourselves and of nature. But, if we can move into an integral global culture, we will then move into one that recognizes this deep dignity and sacredness. That’s universal human rights.

by Ashok Gangadean