Understanding Dignity.

"Dignity is a threshold level of stature required to meet basic human needs. While the “haves” in this world struggle to increase their stature, the “have nots” struggle to attain dignity." What a very interesting statement you have found alok! Dignity to me has always been the maintaining of one's standing in society by being respected and accepted for who they are. It has nothing to do with money or social class at all. But when we look at the context of the statement you have shared, it alludes to dignity actually being unattainable in a sense! The "haves" struggle to increase it, yet the "have nots" struggle to attain it? The question from my perspective is do the "haves" really have it in the first place then? And do the "have nots" ended up in a cycle of not being able to truly understand what it is at all; so therefore they will NEVER attain it. How can they if the "haves" ideal of what dignity is, will always be one step above where they currently sit in their lives as far as they are concerned anyways? I hope my thoughts here are making sense! lol. The measurement of the qualities all relate to an individual's ability to defy the fundamentals of the statement you have shared and seek comfort in who and what they are. Societies acceptance of their self belief and confidence will in turn cement their dignity in my opinion. It's not all about wanting what others have, or never being satisfied with what you've got! It's about being at peace within and others respecting you for it. I have crapped on a bit here and again I hope I have not ended up misunderstood in any way.

Thank you for defining "dignity" for me, alokn. I have always associated it with morals and such and now I'm a bit confused. For a while there, I had this question in my head as to how can one differentiate maintaining one's dignity from holding on to one's negative pride. Just as long as I don't step on other people's feet and base all judgments on my own standards and let people walk all over me, then I think I can maintain or attain that dignity.

A person who never goes back on his word,never stoops down to lick the boot of a person simply because he is rich,who lives by moral and ethics always gets dignified.

Dignity in an integral part of humans, it comes very naturally to us and at the same time we struggle to with hold the true essence of it. Today, it has been hugely profaned and I feel sad at the changing definition of our so called values. The excerpt you shared is very insightful. The affluent class gets a conceited belief that they can buy basic values and they concentrate more on adding on to their material assets in expectation that it would overpower dignity and pride. The expectation in not false in all cases for money certainly talks louder than human values. The underprivileged are likely to succumb to materials! However, it would be wrong to generalise. For most of the middle class survives on their dignity and pride. That’s all they have to capitalise on. And guess what, the middle class stands tall in trying times standing by their values and dignity. Having said this, and sadly, things are changing rapidly. I would love to believe that the have nots struggle to attain dignity but truly that’s nit the case. And I do not blame anyone , its our stark economic differences between the haves and the have-nots.