Human Dignity
The intrinsic worth that
inheres in every human being. From the Catholic perspective (among other
Christian perspectives), the source of human dignity is rooted in the concept
of Imago Dei, in Christ’s redemption and in our
ultimate destiny of union with God. Human dignity therefore transcends any
social order as the basis for rights and is neither granted by society nor can
it be legitimately violated by society. In this way, human dignity is the
conceptual basis for human rights.
There is a phrase that is used often in politics and
business, although it is not often repeated openly, that the ends justify the means.
Another way of phrasing it is the way it is often phrased by the mafia,
which is that it is nothing personal,
its just business. The idea is, of
course, that power and wealth are the ends, and the means to those ends are
understood to be whatever is useful, effective, and efficient for the
achievement of those ends. In this
sense, the only limit is what can be done most effectively and with as little
cost as possible to achieve wealth and power.
If it means that certain people have to be sacrificed, then so be
it. After all, life is a game of
survival of the fittest, and evolution is a blind master. Either you evolve or you die.
This concept is embodied in the game of chess, a favorite
game of the powerful for millennia.
There is a reason the game only has one King and Queen and numerous
pawns; because the value of the King and Queen far outweigh the value of the
pawns, making them easier and less costly to sacrifice. Hence we see encoded in the rules of chess
the belief system of the powerful, which has been called Social Darwinism, but
could just as easily be called the Divine Right of Kings. Some people are valuable, but most are not,
and are therefore they represent the pawns and are, therefore, expendable. This is the way the game is played, and has
always been played both on the chess board, and in life. It is not personal, its just
business.
Opposed to this belief is the Judeo-Christian understanding
of the inherent dignity and worth of every human being, which is linked to the
Book of Genesis where all humans are said to be made in the image of God, and
the Christian Gospels, which teach about the Incarnation of God in the person
of Yeshua of Nazareth. From this
perspective, all people are equally important, from the lowliest poor person to
the most powerful rich person, because each contains within them the image of
God, the divine Power of the Spirit. As a result, when the powerful deliberately
sacrifice other, less powerful humans in the pursuit of a selfish grab for
wealth and power, this makes them enemies of God and humanity. This is because they are impeding the purpose
for which all people were created; union
with God. As you can see, the idea
of inherent human dignity is not only diametrically opposed to the philosophy
of the ends justifying the means, it has the potential of radically altering
and reshaping human life in ways we have only begun to scratch the surface
on. But I am getting ahead of myself.
Most of us grow up as pawns, moved around the chess board of
life by forces beyond our control. This
creates a situation called learned
helplessness. According to
Wikipedia, learned helplessness is:
Learned helplessness is the condition of a human or animal that has learned to behave
helplessly, failing to respond even though there are opportunities for it to
help itself by avoiding unpleasant circumstances or by gaining positive
rewards. Learned helplessness theory is the view that clinical depression and related mental illnesses may result from a perceived absence
of control over the outcome of a situation.[1] Organisms which have been ineffective
and less sensitive in determining the consequences of their behavior are
defined as having acquired learned helplessness. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness)
Learned helplessness functions as a powerful force which
encourages the powerless to acquiesce to what appears to be their fate, and to
refuse to change their situation even when they have the tools to do so. It is the concept of being in a prison
without bars or walls, a prison that exists in the mind of each individual
person. It is caused because we are
being controlled and exploited by the powerful, however we refuse to believe
that they are actually doing it. Why do
we refuse to believe it? Because we have
been taught, from a young age, to obey authority and to never question them
because they have our best interests at heart.
So when the powerful say one thing but act in a manner that is opposite
what they say, we excuse it as the “constraints of power” or “human weakness”
or “playing politics.” We are incapable of admitting what is evident: that the
powerful are liars and psychopaths, narcissists and schemers who do not have
anyone’s interest at heart other than their own. As a result, we remain trapped inside a prison
or our own making, because we cannot, or we refuse to, face the truth.
Freedom comes when each one of us can face two fundamental
truths, and attempt to integrate these truths into our lives. First, that we are dependent on a
transcendent spiritual source, and that two, most of us refuse to acknowledge
this truth, thus causing all sorts of problems in our own lives, and the world
in general. Until we do, we will
continue to feel fundamentally helpless, pushed about by forces beyond our
control, and constantly afraid that whatever we have gained in life can be
taken away at any moment. We will exists
as helpless pawns.
Yeshua of Nazareth offers us a way off the chessboard of
life. But how? By refusing to play the game of the
powerful. A game only works when
everyone agrees to play by the rules established for the game. When a participant creates new rules, he
becomes master of the game. If the pawns
refuse to be sacrificed, then the Queen and King become vulnerable.
Yeshua knew well that the ultimate weapon of the powerful
was, and still is, the killing and silencing of anyone who escapes from the
game. Therefore, he knew well that
eventually, he would be violently killed to send a strong message that the
masters of the game will tolerate no one creating their own rules. However, they did not count on the
resurrection, which was confirmed in the lives of Jesus’ earliest followers. They were willing to die in order to create a
life outside of the control grid because they did not fear death.
In this way, they achieved union with God and in the
achievement, emboldened more people to step outside of the game and achieve the
same goal. This was accomplished by
creating a contrast society called the New Testament Church. This new society lived as a decentralized
family unit, with God as their Father, Jesus as their brother, and the Earth as their mother. As a result, everyone, but especially the
most powerless, were invited to join them and be “reborn” into a new way of
living. They challenged the Roman order because they had figured out a way to
be free of it. They stepped outside of
the chess game and created their own game.
And they were persecuted mercilessly for it.
Of course, later, they were conquered by Rome through
bribery and corruption. However, the
promise and genius of the New Testament Church remains and can be revived once
again. Free your mind and the rest will
follow.
