A Dearth of Dignity

Friday, June 19, 2009

As I told you in my last post, I recently finished the book “Education of a Wandering Man.” Now, I find the best books are the ones that challenge me to think, examine my own life, and make changes. I really enjoy those books which prompt me to evaluate choices, both my own and those of my society. This was one of those books. Interestingly, it was written by Louis L’Amour, most famous for his western novels. He spent a lot of time studying the pioneers who explored and settled our country, both by interviewing those who had lived that life and by reading their journals. I think citizens today could learn a lot from their example, especially their fierce independence and self-government, which lead to a certain dignity of life. In the book, he said the one quality that distinguished the men and women who lived the pioneer life was dignity. “They all had dignity, a certain serenity and pride that was theirs completely. They might be poor, they might be eking out at the last a precarious living, but they had dignity. They knew where they had been and what they had seen and done, and were content. Something was theirs, something within themselves that neither time passing nor man nor hard times could take from them” pg 44. I think it is quite a compliment to be described as a person with dignity. Webster describes dignity as having to do with honor, nobleness, and elevation of mind, a high sense of propriety, justice and truth, and even moral rectitude (a foreign concept in our modern view of moral relativism). I wonder if we were more independent, determined to make our own way and stand on our own two feet, if we would also see more dignity in our country and world today. L’Amour continues to observe “The western pioneers were select people, selected by themselves. They chose to break the mold, to leave all they knew behind and venture into a new country, with new problems, new standards. Each one was expected to stand on his own feet. He was moving of his own volition, on his own support system. Nobody was paying his way or showing him the way; nobody had told him to go, or where to go” (pg. 165). I wonder what these western pioneers would think of the socialistic mindset of their descendants today. Instead of people standing on their own two feet, people want to ride another’s shirttails. Instead of breaking the mold, people are afraid to be different. Instead of being his own support system, people expect others to pay their way and do it for them. After all, we deserve it, right? And if we had to be responsible by governing ourselves and paying our own way, that wouldn’t be fair, wouldn’t you say? L’Amour says of himself “Times were often very rough for me but I can honestly say I never felt abused or put-upon. I never felt, as some have, that I deserved special treatment from life, and I do not recall ever complaining that things were not better. . .I was never helped by anyone, aside from an occasional encouraging word—and those I valued. I never expected it to be easy” (pg 180). And that, it seems to me, is how to earn dignity. It’s not something that can be given. Unlike food, housing, schooling or medical coverage, dignity is still something that must be earned in our increasingly socialistic country. Dignity comes from within, from knowing you stood on your own two feet, never expecting someone to provide something for you because others have it and you deserve it too. Dignity comes from the desire to govern oneself rather than turning the reins over to someone else to do it for you. Dignity is yet another casualty of the war on independence and self-government called socialism.