Which is more important happiness or self-respect? That's a tough one to answer.
Although it may seem like happiness is a better selection, I think having self-respect would ultimately lead to more happiness over a person's life time. Basically, the more confidence you have in yourself, the easier it is to enjoy the things in life and have the bad things hurt less. The more someone believes in themselves the more likely, when insulted or maybe faced with the breaking of a relationship, they can bounce back or brush off the bad and go on with their lives. I think the decision between happiness and self-respect is harder than usual because the two are related so closely. To be happy means to genuinely like what you are doing or the people your with etc. but how can you like the things and people around you if you don't like or respect yourself? I guess I feel that people with low self-esteem tend to be less happy than most people overall. Happiness is the quality or state of being happy; pleasure, contentment, or joy how can someone truly enjoy these things if they can't stand or be happy about themselves?
This may be an unrelated and meaningless tangent, but I feel neither happiness or self-respect is truly possible without other people, friends and family, to be there with us. I haven't read any of Jane Austen's works, but I think the main theme that occurs throughout is love, right? Being in love supposed to be an ultimate form of happiness, which is simply impossible without someone else for one to love and to be loved back. Love is complicated though so a more common form of happiness is simply enjoying the company of our friends and family. I guess what I am trying to say is that without other people one cannot be happy; sure they may say they are, but it's lonely without anyone else, how can you be truly happy with loneliness? (Although from time to time we do like having a moment to ourselves, but just ignore that for now.)
Now self-respect is just that, one respecting themselves, so how do other people enter into how we can have better self-esteem? It's quite easy to think about it for a moment. Don't we all have at least one person in our lives that we just respect or adore? When that one person, or people, compliments us just once, doesn't it just immediately boost the confidence in yourself? I think I'm trying to say that we need someone, anyone, to confirm our existence, just once, to reach the highest level of true self-respect. Because once that person who we admire tells you you're perfect, it'll always be in your mind, no one can bring you down now.
So, again, I think self-respect can bring more happiness over a lifetime, but we cannot have true happiness or self-respect without having someone by our sides. Isn't it better to enjoy life with someone else anyways?
I agree that self respect is more important. I also feel that if I have self confidence I am happy. No one likes to be shy and alone, but many people don't have any confidence or respect for themselves. People are a huge part of gaining both happiness and self respect. I think that strong relationships is the one true happiness, and self respect is needed to build relationships.
ReplyDeleteI do like what you said about self esteem, that one person can boost your confidence so much. And since relationships are a source of happiness, there is yet another point in support of self-respect. I know that I am happier with my attitude when I am around people that I care about, even if they're not in the best mood. Why? Because I know that they love me and care about me, even if they like to use me as an arm rest. And knowing that I have a lot of big scary guy friends watching out for me gives me a lot of confidence.
When it comes down to it though, it seems that happiness can be reached through self respect, and self respect can be reached through happiness. It seems sort of fitting that it's that way.
I also chose self-respect over happiness. You’re right, this was a really tough to say that one was more important than the other. They truly are so closely related that it seems for the most part impossible to attain one without the other. Like Alley said, through self-respect comes happiness and through happiness you may find self-respect. I also agree with you that being surrounded by people helps with both of these things, but I think the key is being surrounded by people that are actually good for you, not just people you like. If they’re just using you and bringing you down, they’re ultimately diminishing both your happiness and your self-respect. Also, I do think that you can attain self-respect by yourself, but I don’t think that it is as good as when you have someone there to re-enforce that you deserve the respect that you give yourself. If you respect yourself but you don’t have anyone else around you, that’s when you start to become egotistical and cold. On the otherside, if you happy but there is no one to share your happiness with chances are it won’t last long. By nature, humans are social creatures and the interaction of others is definitely key to our happiness and self-respect.
ReplyDeleteI agree I think that at moments happiness would be the correct answer. We could be like no happiness would satisfy us for the time being. I think that that is a major problem of our generation. We do not look at the bigger picture. We think about now and now only and do not think about how it will affect us tomorrow. I agree that life is way better when we can enjoy it with someone else. I think that it is nice when someone else respects me or I respect someone else. But I ask myself two questions. For me to find that happiness with another person: How can someone respect me if I do not respect myself? I cannot expect anyone to respect me if I do not respect myself. My second question is if I want to bring that happiness for someone else: How can I respect others if I do not respect myself? If I cannot truly respect myself first then I cannot truly respect someone else. This goes hand in hand with love. If I do not love myself, how dare I try to love someone else? Ultimately yes life is so much better to enjoy when you can enjoy it with someone else.
ReplyDeleteI can fully understand your view on self-respect. I too think that self-respect is required in order to achieve and maintain relationships. Without confidence most people would end up just being shut-ins for their entire lives, unfortunately there are many which this happens too. Having respect for one’s self can give one confidence, then that confidence leads to relationships, and from relationships one is able to attain happiness. The human species are sociable creatures, we need to be able to socialize in this life to be able to survive and grow to be healthy.
ReplyDeleteIn all honesty it was hard for me to choose happiness over self-respect mainly for the fact that both almost go hand in hand with each other. An example of this ideal would be the similarities between prosperity and liberty, both ideals are very similar and both lead into the other. Happiness means normally having self-respect and self-respect can lead to happiness. I had to choose one or the other so I chose happiness, but if there were an option to choose both happiness and self-respect I would pick that option right off the bat.
As a person I would like to believe that I carry both of these great qualities, but I know that I honestly don’t have them fully. I believe self-respect and happiness is something that humans have a challenge in and must always try to achieve in their life, a never ending goal in other words. Happiness and self-respect are two qualities that help us grow and improve ourselves into better human beings in the end.