Let no one envy us for competing in virtue. Such a person, in fact, uplifts the state by competing themselves and not detracting others through slander.
Plato, Laws
We live in exceptional and challenging times. We cannot label them as good or bad – they are simply what we need to develop a true sense of ourselves as human beings and humanity.
It is evident that there are numerous painful events happening that can evoke a sense of powerlessness in us, as we do not know how to alleviate all the pain caused by these evils. Furthermore, it is difficult to say which evil is the worst, as different things affect different people in different ways depending on their life circumstances. It is unusual that such upheaval is happening in so many places simultaneously.
If we had to single out one of all these evils, excluding natural disasters over which we have no control, one of the most important criteria would be the lack of dignity, although there are always honorable exceptions. It is a sad fact that Exceptions are rarely noticed, and what stands out are the news that the media focuses on. Sometimes the lack of dignity is intentionally malicious, sometimes simply ridiculous, but it gives us a sense of being trapped in invisible webs that are hard to escape. We find a small number of examples worthy of emulating. That’s why we quoted Plato and his extraordinary call to “fight for virtue”. How different everything would be if that were the foundation of our competitive efforts! How wonderful it would be to compete for deserved dignity!
We lack good examples, examples of dignity.
We are lacking that dignity that accompanies a sense of honor. We are not referring to external dignity based on prestige, wealth, or ever-changing fashion. Those who are currently at the pinnacle of such false dignity will fall or be forgotten tomorrow.
Dignity, obviously, requires honor, honesty, purity of thought, intention, and action. Dignity must be based on It is not necessary for everyone to become philosophers, although we all philosophize to some extent about life and our own situations. But what is necessary is for each of us to base our own lives on certain moral values that we prioritize and live accordingly. True values have an unquestionable quality of durability – they cannot change from day to day or be set aside when other seemingly more pragmatic models appear.
A wrong interpretation of freedom as the possibility to do and say anything, anytime, anywhere has given freedom a dangerous deviation towards licentiousness, crime, indecency under the guise of authenticity, shameless lying, various forms of manipulation, all due to a lack of maturity and appropriate education.
We lack good examples, examples of dignity.
No one teaches us how to live with dignity. It’s simply not part of our education. We are thrown into a struggle for life that ultimately becomes a struggle of all against all.
We long for human dignity that has deep foundations, which will prompt us to look within ourselves.
We long for human dignity that has deep foundations that will prompt us to look within ourselves. The famous quote “know thyself” contains a call to discover our inner selves and, especially, to build our inner selves, removing impurities of insecurity, negative emotions and actions, demeaning both to ourselves and to others. Building ourselves means raising strong and stable pillars that will provide us with steadfast support in all aspects of life.
Human rights are evidently constantly violated, and this undermines human integrity. However, if each of us, individually and in groups that share similar ideals, were to strive to be honest despite the difficulties, the whole world would be better. There would be no need for protests, shouting our disagreement, or waging wars. There would be a foundation of dignity and honor.