From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dignity
in humans involves the earning or the expectation of personal
respect
or
esteem
.
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood".
Article 1 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
It is easy to show that many
societies
do not agree with this in practice. The civilised
Greeks
and
Romans
regarded other races as
barbarians
. A shocking example was
Aristotle
's advice to
Alexander
to be 'a leader to the Greeks and a
despot
to the
barbarians
, to look after the former as after friends and relatives, and to deal with the latter as with beasts or plants'.
[1]
p58
Many societies based on religion have treated persons of other religions harshly, with little dignity. And sometimes political movements have deliberately and openly talked about and treated some groups as not having human dignity.
Nazi
treatment of the
Jews
came after a long period of
propaganda
against their humanity and dignity.
- ↑
Green P. 1991.
Alexander of Macedon
, University of California Press.
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Dignity