On Dignity

Remember “dignity”?

The traditional, cliché, college-paper thing to do here is cite a dictionary.  So in the interest of clarity, I shall do so:

dig·ni·ty
/ˈdiɡnədē/

1. the state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect.
   “a man of dignity and unbending principle”
2. a composed or serious manner or style.
   “he bowed with great dignity”
3. a sense of pride in oneself; self-respect.
   “it was beneath his dignity to shout”

National dignity used to be a big deal in America.

Diplomacy, the arts, science, literature, essentially every field of human interest, depends on a degree of dignity at its most basic level.  It assumes a substantial amount of, as the definition states, honor and respect for a nation, its tenets and its relative place in the world hierarchy.

Not to resurrect old tropes, but national dignity starts at the top and trickles down to the voting masses.  Can any of the three definitions above remotely describe the behavior of our current president and his administration?

Dignified countries engage in civilized, vastly-public discussions, and if such discussions involve a level of classification or security, the security becomes the paramount concern until such summits are disseminated to the public…if ever.  The players do not generally hurl baseless accusations at each other or foment assorted states of conflict globally, and they do not attempt to extort allies financially .  They ideally do not traffic in anything but fact-based, clear analysis, and do not proffer solutions or machinations that do not do the same.

A brief list:

• Dignity doesn’t wear a mask, yet hide behind a badge anyway.
• Dignity doesn’t promise cessation of hostilities, only to add more via miscommunication and blatant misrepresentation of facts.
• Dignity doesn’t traffic in blanket, faulty assumptions of “waste, fraud and abuse” where none exist.
• Dignity doesn’t continually peddle lies, cheap wares and crypto schemes to supporters while overtly punishing peaceful dissenters.
• Dignity doesn’t deny human beings the inherent right to express a defense in a court of law.
• Dignity does not tolerate obvious, repeated public incompetence.
• Dignity does not foster ill-founded grievance, especially with visitors and people of differing races and beliefs.
• Dignity is intellectually curious and seeks evidence.
• Dignity allows for democratic solutions without demeaning the opposition.
• Dignity does not celebrate violence towards – and death of – political opponents.
• Dignity accepts the laws of the land and doesn’t continually seek ways to subvert them for personal ends.
• Above all, dignity accepts and uses provable facts.

This last may be the biggest issue we currently face in the absence of our national dignity. Collective, shared truth is the biggest casualty of the current era, because so many would rather subscribe to comforting lies than accept unpleasant truths.

Our current administration exploits this mindset every day by repeating right wing fever dreams and conspiracy theories, essentially daring us normies to contradict them.  Right wing media outlets often do this via supposition, a la “I’m just asking (brainless conspiracy-driven) questions”, as if “asking questions” somehow adds to the legitimacy of a given lie. When effectively challenged, the challengers are often shouted down or belittled – but rarely are they outright disproven, because the fantasies aren’t generally armed with supporting data.

How undignified.

As laughable a notion as it’s become, the federal government should be an icon of national dignity, not the bumbling daily attention grovelfest it currently is and will continue to be.

Indeed, our lack of national dignity is adversely affecting our international dignity. The G7 meetings this week witnessed six countries eagerly engaged in talks regarding their respective economies and populus. The United States represented its own undignified interests only, as witnessed by this exchange:

“After telling reporters that he and Mr. Starmer had signed an executive order implementing the British-American deal, which was first announced in May, Mr. Trump said, ‘So we have our trade agreement with the European Union.’” – New York Times

Face it, folks.  If this is what the world witnesses – and it does, routinely – we’ve not just lost our national dignity, we’ve destroyed it for generations.  It’s simply not possible to take the United States at face value anymore, as every utterance must be vigorously fact-checked, and nothing can be assumed to be true.  Blatant falsehoods still permeate the media landscape disguised as legitimate positions, such as the overwhelmingly-disproved “stolen election” theory of 2020.  There’s rarely any reliable evidence to any conspiracy theory, which in turn feeds it – a never-ending cycle of delusion half the country happily engages in several times a day. And that half of the country seemingly couldn’t care less.

The undignified half, to be sure.

I don’t have any solutions.  Fact-checked media is ignored en masse these days, replaced by favored social media or podcasting characters that align to a given point of view (and are often just as fact-free and undignified as their larger forebearers).  If you want something to validate your misguided opinion, there’s undoubtedly a shitposter on TikTok who can easily provide it for you.

Little pierces these bubbles except adherence to the truth and tempered reactions to the lies.  If the last nine years have taught me anything, it’s a degree of restraint in responses. It’s not that a soft answer doesn’t turneth away wrath, but it sure helps to make a point seem reasonable and cogent.

Anything less would be undignified.