Self-respect (or self-esteem) is an important element of psychology. It is a person’s individual attitude towards himself or herself. By definition, self-respect “includes a person's subjective appraisal of himself or herself as intrinsically positive or negative to some degree” (Wiki, 2005). Self-respect has been thought of since very early ages of human civilization. And certainly the concept of self-respect has been changing just like the entire humanity has changed. The more civilized societies became, the more tolerant members of this society became. Therefore, the more tolerant members of societies, the less self-respect they have. However, in psychology nothing is certain, and one can easily argue about my perception of self-respect, but I believe today self-respect is much a less important issue than it was say a thousand years ago.
In the times when murders and slavery were casual things, when laws were not good enough to protect citizens, people had much greater self-respect than today. When a man understands that he can be killed for his home, and that there is nobody accept himself to protect his family and the home (no police, no guard) then he had to be much more rigid, tough, harsh, and demandable than men of today. He then would possess much stronger self-esteem and self-respect because without these, he simply would not be able to protect his family and home. If he did not possess self-respect, anybody could come and take his possessions, occupy his home, or anything else of the same kind.
Nowadays, the concept of self-respect is completely different. In developed countries like the United States people are much more socially protected than in the ancient world described above. Although there are criminals even now, and they can kill and steal, nevertheless people can ask help from the police and other government agencies. Thus, people now feel more protected, and they do not have to bother that much about they property and family as they had to many years ago. Therefore, in developed countries with good social protection people do not care much about their self-respect from the point of view of manhood and courage.
In addition, with the development of civilization and the growing population of minorities, people devote less time to their dignity, self-respect, and honor. Males homosexuals, punks, and some other lifestyle groups demonstrate that their members have traded self-respect for some fake values. Is a man with a colored hair dancing in women’s lingerie in public considered a man with self-respect? Do people forming same-sex parenting couples, which doom the baby to mental sufferings, have self-respect? Do fathers who leave their women and children and never come back or remember them have self-respect? Surely not, even if they claim they have. And in the diverse world we now live in, self-respect has become a very rare thing, although there I not a single person who would say he or she did not respect him/herself.
What is even more bad, mass media to a certain degree promotes the wide extinction of self-respect. Legalization of gay marriages, prostitution, divorces, domination of a woman in a family, - all of these are widely demonstrated via mass media. Currently the classic role of man as a hunter has been lost in data batches and financial reports, and classic role of woman has also been lost in management doctrines and advertisements. Ethics and morality has been exchanged for money, power, and pleasure. And all of that happened because people’s too weak self-respect. The mass media promotes these things, and makes us forget about our genuine honor, integrity, dignity, and self-respect.
Ultimately, people – especially men – of today should pay more attention to their self-respect. If they respect themselves, then they would make things around them better. But nowadays, people are greatly influenced by many external factors, and thus their self-respect disappears. But self-respect and self-esteem are much more important that those things many people value now.
In the times when murders and slavery were casual things, when laws were not good enough to protect citizens, people had much greater self-respect than today. When a man understands that he can be killed for his home, and that there is nobody accept himself to protect his family and the home (no police, no guard) then he had to be much more rigid, tough, harsh, and demandable than men of today. He then would possess much stronger self-esteem and self-respect because without these, he simply would not be able to protect his family and home. If he did not possess self-respect, anybody could come and take his possessions, occupy his home, or anything else of the same kind.
Nowadays, the concept of self-respect is completely different. In developed countries like the United States people are much more socially protected than in the ancient world described above. Although there are criminals even now, and they can kill and steal, nevertheless people can ask help from the police and other government agencies. Thus, people now feel more protected, and they do not have to bother that much about they property and family as they had to many years ago. Therefore, in developed countries with good social protection people do not care much about their self-respect from the point of view of manhood and courage.
In addition, with the development of civilization and the growing population of minorities, people devote less time to their dignity, self-respect, and honor. Males homosexuals, punks, and some other lifestyle groups demonstrate that their members have traded self-respect for some fake values. Is a man with a colored hair dancing in women’s lingerie in public considered a man with self-respect? Do people forming same-sex parenting couples, which doom the baby to mental sufferings, have self-respect? Do fathers who leave their women and children and never come back or remember them have self-respect? Surely not, even if they claim they have. And in the diverse world we now live in, self-respect has become a very rare thing, although there I not a single person who would say he or she did not respect him/herself.
What is even more bad, mass media to a certain degree promotes the wide extinction of self-respect. Legalization of gay marriages, prostitution, divorces, domination of a woman in a family, - all of these are widely demonstrated via mass media. Currently the classic role of man as a hunter has been lost in data batches and financial reports, and classic role of woman has also been lost in management doctrines and advertisements. Ethics and morality has been exchanged for money, power, and pleasure. And all of that happened because people’s too weak self-respect. The mass media promotes these things, and makes us forget about our genuine honor, integrity, dignity, and self-respect.
Ultimately, people – especially men – of today should pay more attention to their self-respect. If they respect themselves, then they would make things around them better. But nowadays, people are greatly influenced by many external factors, and thus their self-respect disappears. But self-respect and self-esteem are much more important that those things many people value now.
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