Two words, concepts, and ideas whose definitions have become blurred and intermingled within the past generation or so. Could the misunderstanding and lost meanings in the differences of these words be accountable for much of the miscommunication and interpersonal problems in our society today? I believe so.
Dignity: From the Latin word dignitas, meaning "to be worthy." All people have the right to be recognized for their inherent humanity and treated ethically. Dignity is a given, You just have it.
Respect: From the Latin word respectus, meaning "to look back at." Showing admiration for someone because of their abilities, qualities or achievements. Respect is earned.
So what happened? Like most things (in the English language anyways) People started using the words interchangeably at the very least conceptually, and in do so, almost started binding the definitions of the two into a single concept.
For instance it's become commonplace today to treat those whom we do not respect without dignity (to say humanity) either. And thus has it become commonplace to dehumanize opponents of differing ideas (particularly in the realms of politics and religion). Meanwhile we practically saint those whom we respect to the point of being some sort of "over" man.
Why has this happened? I think it's because we no longer see the "value" in dignity alone or equate it to respect. What is the "value" of or in an individual's humanity? Because we can't easily quantify it, we stopped caring about it. Instead we have become accustomed (even obsessed with) only to looking at the value of a person's "usefulness". And we can tie usefulness into respect can we not? "Showing admiration for someone because of their abilities, qualities or achievements. Respect is earned."
So what of those of us who by societal standards are not useful enough? What of the old, sick, infirm, disabled etc? They have far fewer opportunities to gain respect through abilities or achievements. Is this why we have so much depression among those in said categories (myself included)? If there is only value in usefulness and not in dignity, then I suppose we can make a valid case for nihilism. In fact, many do, and this often leads to suicide.
Personally, I thought the two tied together. That my usefulness (respect by proxy) measured the degree of how human I am. Thus, I saw myself as not having dignity, or not being worthy. To a degree this is so ingrained in my person that even now I scramble for any opportunity to make myself useful, to accrue respect like it were "interest". So that I could show others (or even myself) that I had dignity, that I was "worthy" and not "worthless".
I think a lot of us struggle with this if we're honest. How about you, do you feel as if you have "lost your dignity" or "left it behind"? What steps can we take to regain it, and thus our humanity?
The sentence I hear the most is " I'm not enough " of this or of that, of everything.
You are enough, We are all enough
Agreed, and I think the reason many of us say/feel that is because we compare ourselves to others. But maybe we should just look at who we were yesterday instead, and aim to be better than that?
Your definitions are fine, but the meaning you got from them is mixed up. Historically the idea of dignity implied status. You only had it if you were part of the upper class or whatever -- it meant you were one of the fancy people, one of the moral elites. It's only recently that it came to mean something humanistic and universal because our morals changed to be less shitty.
I would guess that respect for persons means mostly the same thing, though it used to be a sin. Respect isn't the same as admiration, it just means recognizing people on the terms they like and so far as the facts permit. Like, when someone tells you to step off because you're disrespecting them they're not saying "you didn't hold me up as your new sun god", they're saying, "you went below the bare minimum, and now I have to do something about it".