It's Self-Respect, Stupid
Someone I know posted a video on Facebook. It's not his; he found it on another page, but seemed to have sympathized with it. It is a man on a beach criticizing the intention to remove Franco from his mausoleum to a more humble cemetery in Madrid where his wife is buried. It was uploaded back in November, but its sentiments still echo now.
In the video, the man asks what it will benefit toward our well-being and our bank accounts moving the bones from their current resting place to anywhere else. He asks if it will allow the thousands of us who struggle financially, to pay our bills on time, or give us more general financial well-being. He goes on to ask if protesting over bulls, or LGBTQ rights will put food on our table. He wonders why we don't protest over the 60 million euro loan the banking community received and that it won't pay back.
He misses the point. The protests over rights, or animal cruelty, or the end of hero worship of a dead dictator aren't designed to help put food on the table. They are made to put dignity back in our spirits, both individually and as a nation. The problem is that, in modern life, spirituality is confined to the four walls of a church.
We tend to think that the important things in life are physical; food, clothes, living quarters, a car, money, and trinkets. Yes, it's important to eat, be able to cover up, and live under a strong roof. But those things alone don't confer quality of life or well-being. Holocaust survivors pined for those things that would help them live. But they also pined for the consideration and respect they had been denied. It is an extreme example; no one is treating women or LGBTQ or people searching for their executed ancestors as subhumans. But, what sets us aside from the rest of the animal kingdom, is our realization of ourselves. And part of that realization of ourselves sees ourselves in others. If we stop doing that, we are little more than a raccoon, ethically speaking. Respect for others passes through the acceptance of the others' right to exist with the same privileges and obligations as everyone else.
Franco and his cohorts were the exact opposite of this. Their respect only extended as far as those who thought like them, or that would follow their orders. That is why, if we are to be respected as a nation, we should remove him from where he is still being worshipped. His lack of respect for entire swathes of the population is still coloring our viewpoints, like that man's in the video. I bet that if he were to be asked if he agrees with Franco, that he would say no. But his entire viewpoint says the opposite.
That lack of respect and spirituality is also what is giving rise to the far right. Just like Hitler rose to power with promises of filling bellies and making daily life better, the far right is catching the eyes of those whose spirituality has been trampled by feeling that they are always being knocked off the ladder. It is the culture of the work ethic gone awry. Where it was once a sign of heavenly approval, now it's simply a way of creating more physical well-being. When working hard doesn't improve one's physical lot, and respect and dignity are lacking, we get messages like the one in the video, and people who would vote for anyone to fill their plate.
What they don't realize is that when dignity is denied one collective of people, it becomes easier to deny it to other collectives. Respecting others is the most important form of self-respect. Eventually, there might be more money in the bank, but we will all be told how to live our lives with no thought to what we want or need. Do we really want to reach that point?
In the video, the man asks what it will benefit toward our well-being and our bank accounts moving the bones from their current resting place to anywhere else. He asks if it will allow the thousands of us who struggle financially, to pay our bills on time, or give us more general financial well-being. He goes on to ask if protesting over bulls, or LGBTQ rights will put food on our table. He wonders why we don't protest over the 60 million euro loan the banking community received and that it won't pay back.
He misses the point. The protests over rights, or animal cruelty, or the end of hero worship of a dead dictator aren't designed to help put food on the table. They are made to put dignity back in our spirits, both individually and as a nation. The problem is that, in modern life, spirituality is confined to the four walls of a church.
We tend to think that the important things in life are physical; food, clothes, living quarters, a car, money, and trinkets. Yes, it's important to eat, be able to cover up, and live under a strong roof. But those things alone don't confer quality of life or well-being. Holocaust survivors pined for those things that would help them live. But they also pined for the consideration and respect they had been denied. It is an extreme example; no one is treating women or LGBTQ or people searching for their executed ancestors as subhumans. But, what sets us aside from the rest of the animal kingdom, is our realization of ourselves. And part of that realization of ourselves sees ourselves in others. If we stop doing that, we are little more than a raccoon, ethically speaking. Respect for others passes through the acceptance of the others' right to exist with the same privileges and obligations as everyone else.
Franco and his cohorts were the exact opposite of this. Their respect only extended as far as those who thought like them, or that would follow their orders. That is why, if we are to be respected as a nation, we should remove him from where he is still being worshipped. His lack of respect for entire swathes of the population is still coloring our viewpoints, like that man's in the video. I bet that if he were to be asked if he agrees with Franco, that he would say no. But his entire viewpoint says the opposite.
That lack of respect and spirituality is also what is giving rise to the far right. Just like Hitler rose to power with promises of filling bellies and making daily life better, the far right is catching the eyes of those whose spirituality has been trampled by feeling that they are always being knocked off the ladder. It is the culture of the work ethic gone awry. Where it was once a sign of heavenly approval, now it's simply a way of creating more physical well-being. When working hard doesn't improve one's physical lot, and respect and dignity are lacking, we get messages like the one in the video, and people who would vote for anyone to fill their plate.
What they don't realize is that when dignity is denied one collective of people, it becomes easier to deny it to other collectives. Respecting others is the most important form of self-respect. Eventually, there might be more money in the bank, but we will all be told how to live our lives with no thought to what we want or need. Do we really want to reach that point?
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