Dignity and pride: do they go hand in hand?

Dignity is not a matter of pride, but a precious asset that we cannot put in other people’s pockets or lose lightly. Dignity is self-esteem, self-respect and health. It is also the force that lifts us from the ground when our wings are broken in the hope of reaching a distant point where nothing hurts, where we can look at the world again with our heads held high.

We could say almost without mistake that few words are as important today as the one that heads our article on this occasion. It was Ernesto Sábato who said not long ago that apparently, the dignity of the human being was not foreseen in this globalized world. We all see it daily, our society is increasingly articulated in a structure where we are gradually losing more rights, more opportunities and even freedoms.

However, and it is interesting to keep this in mind, there are many philosophers, sociologists, psychologists and writers who try to offer us strategies to shape what they call “the era of dignity.” They consider that It is time to define ourselves, to have a voice and work on our personal strengths to find greater satisfaction in our closest environments, and thus generate a relevant change in this increasingly unequal society.

Personalities like Robert W. Fuller, physicist, diplomat and educator, has put on the table a term which we are undoubtedly going to start listening to more frequently. Is aboutl “rankism”. This term includes all those behaviors that day by day eat away at our dignity: being intimidated by third parties (partners, bosses, co-workers), suffering harassment, sexism and even being a victim of the social hierarchy.

All of us, at some point in our lives, have felt that sensation of losing our dignity in some way. Whether due to an abusive relationship or performing a poorly paid job, these are situations with a high personal cost. Demanding change, taking a stand in our favor and fighting for our own rights will never be an act of pride, but rather an act of daring to be brave.

Dignity in the work of Kazuo Ishiguro

Very recently we woke up to the news that The British writer of Japanese origin Kazuo Ishiguro was going to be this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature. The general public knows him above all for one of his novels, “What Remains of the Day”, a work that in turn was made into an exceptional film. The most curious thing about all this is that not everyone can see what the central theme of this meticulous book is, sometimes exasperating but always magnificent.

We could think that “What remains of the day” It tells us about a love story. Of a cowardly love and of walls, of those where the lovers never touch each other’s skin and the pupils are lost anywhere else, except in the person one loves. Perhaps we deduce that the book is the story of a house and its inhabitants, masters and servants, and how a nobleman, Lord Darlington, sought the friendship of the Nazis in the face of the passivity of his butler who saw how his master betrayed the country. .

We could say this and much more, because that is undoubtedly the magic of books. However, “What remains of the day” speaks of dignity. Of the dignity of the character who acts as narrator and who, in turn, is the protagonist of the story, Mr. Stevens, butler of Darlington Hall.

The entire novel is a pure defense mechanism, an attempt at continuous justification. We are faced with a person who feels worthy and honored for the work he does, but such work is nothing more than the reflection of servitude. most bloody and absolute, where there is no room for reflection, doubt, recognition of one’s own emotions and even less for love.

However, there comes a time when the image of the “great butler” falls apart. During a dinner one of Lord Darlington’s guests asks Mr. Stevens a series of questions to demonstrate the total ignorance of the lower classes. A direct attack on his “self” where the butler is left aside to make way for the man wounded man who never had dignity and who lived under a shell. The man who denied himself true love to serve others.

Recover and strengthen our dignity

It is undoubtedly curious how the external observer and even the reader who navigates page by page in books like “The Remains of the Day”, immediately knows how a certain person is being manipulated or how he or she weaves a laborious self-deception to justify each act in our eyes. inexplicable. However, We may also be carrying out certain tasks very similar to those of the butler at Darlington Hall.

We may be giving everything for that love, for that harmful, toxic and even exhausting relationship. Sometimes we love with blind eyes and an open heart, without realizing that in that bond the entire fabric of self-esteem is being torn thread by thread. We may also have been in that poorly paid job for a long time, where we are not valued, our life and dignity are gone… but, what could we dotimes are what they are and known bad things will always be better than an empty checking account.

We must wake up, we said at the beginning, this must be the era of dignity, the one where we must all remember our worth, our strength, our right to have a better life, to be deserving of what we want and need. Saying it out loud, setting limits, closing doors to open others and defining ourselves before others is not an act of pride or selfishness.

Let us avoid losing our individuality, let us stop justifying what is unjustifiable and let us avoid being part of that mechanism that extinguishes our virtues and wonderful personalities day after day. Let us therefore learn to stop being subjects of unhappiness to create it with our own hands and wills.

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