Respect for the human being.
All people need others to fully develop. Precisely the personal development depends in large part on the relationships that each one establishes with their peers and not so much on the material goods that they can accumulate. Therefore, the true values
that we must cultivate are those that improve coexistence, such as love, trust, tolerance, cooperation, solidarity, justice ... etc.
The same but different
If people could not find something equal between us, we could not recognize ourselves as such. This is the possibility of being for another what another is for me, regardless of whether you are young and the other older, male or female, white or black, poor or rich, sick or healthy, intelligent or not.
"I am human and nothing that is human can seem foreign to me" this was said by an old Latin poet.
Yo tú nosotros...
To be aware of your humanity means to realize that, in spite of all the differences that there may be with other individuals of your same species, there will also be a fundamental similarity that will allow you to communicate with how you could not do it with any other living being. In fact, even if we do not share the same language or customs, you will be able to put yourself in their place and yours in order to initiate a communication, even if by gestures and signs. These similarities are what make us equal, that is, similar, and allow us to identify ourselves as humans, recognizing in the other the same rights that you have.
What makes us people?
All people are equal despite our differences, because we have:
- Feelings;
- houghts;
- Reasoning;
- Valuation opinions and judgments;
- Projects and goals;
- Social, cultural, affective needs, and not just food and shelter;
- Rational behaviors;
- Ideals and attitudes, and because we also have moral values
that are expressed in our attitudes and behaviors, either for our own benefit or when we seek the good of those around us.
Agreement and disagreements.
Human beings are social and cultural. To accomplish both, we need to communicate with each other. In this way we get to know different expressions, transmit our points of view, establish agreements and disagreements. In effect every society needs a minimum of agreements between its members to be able to function.
If each one of us learned to put ourselves in the place of the other, to listen and to base their own points of view, life would be less conflictive, more bearable and much more dignified.
What do you think?
To applaud virtue or practice it?
Many times what may be good for some may be bad for others and vice versa. In this way one agrees with what he considers virtues and disagreement with what he considers defects, understanding as a virtue good attitudes and behaviors and as defects what we consider bad because they do not help us to live better. Of course, these assessments are usually quite relative, except in one aspect: the human.
Here I am going to leave you a small story taken from a book that will take us to ask questions and draw conclusions about our virtues and defects as an individual and as a society, pay a little attention.
"In a theater in Athens a representation was held to which the Spartan ambassadors had been invited. When the theater was full, an old man entered and tried in vain to find a free place. Young Athenians who saw the old man's efforts to settle down began to laugh at him, disrespectfully. Seeing this, the ambassadors of Sparta, accustomed to venerating their elders, rose up and offered their places to the old man. All the audience of the theater, when witnessing the scene, applauded the ambassadors.
- It's funny -said the old man- "the Athenians applaud the virtues, while the Spartans exercise them"
This is where it takes us to ask ourselves these questions:
- Do you agree with what the old man says? Why?
- With which of these attitudes do you think that today's society is identified? Why?
- With which do you identify yourself?