What price dignity?

I was originally not going to post this after having written it out longhand. But the topic came up again today, and, though I avoided the rancor of the previous discussion, it was clear that opinions had not changed. The originally conceived post after the jump.

I was talking with a co-worker today who is usually fairly sensible about things. We were eating lunch in the break area and there's a television there that's always on the same channel. (It's not possible to change it; I've tried.) A commercial came on that was narrated by Tommy Lee Jones and I mentioned the funny commercial he's in where he's singing in Japanese about Suntory whiskey (20 seconds in; it's hilarious).

This is where it gets weird. I noted that Mr Jones was not a very good singer and probably shouldn't have made a commercial that required him to sing. I was careful to note that there's nothing wrong with not being a good singer, but I thought it foolish to submit oneself to public ridicule for such venal consideration.

My co-worker then expressed surprise and asked if I would not do the same for a large sum of money. I said I would not and that I valued my dignity enough to avoid deliberately exposing myself to shame solely for money. Next my co-worker asserted that statement was tantamount to saying someone with a physical handicap ought to be ashamed of who they are.

I pointed out that I had said nothing of the sort, merely that one should not expose oneself to the mockery of others simply for financial gain. Then, my co-worker asserted, I was saying that no one with a physical handicap ought to go out in public ever. No, I said, I was saying one shouldn't put one's frailties on display expressly for money, but one could still lead a dignified public life.

It was the difference, I said, between making one's living as a sideshow freak and having a normal job where one occasionally had to put up with stares or comments. But it was too late. My co-worker's brain had already shut down and the statement about avoiding all public places was repeated with the inference that I held a demeaning view of the handicapped.

My co-worker had bought the lie that not being ashamed means one must be proud and celebrate. Apparently it was too hard to see that I was the one equating working in a freak show with normal jobs. Like so many others, it was now impossible to see the difference between not being ashamed of  one's self and not being ashamed of one's actions. Dignity was solely located in the self, not in anything we do or say.