I Dignify Monash's Comments with a Post

Does this make any sense?

I don't dignify just any old comment of Monash's.  Some comments do not rise to the level worth dignifying. In such cases we say thing like "I will not dignify your comment with a response," or "Do NOT answer him!  That remark should not be dignified with a response!"

Why do we say such things?  I think it is because we know that responding to some comments (or other actions)  does indeed add dignity to the comments and to the person offering them.  But of course some things that are said by people do not rise to the level worth dignifying, and we are to refrain from doing things which would add dignity to what has been said or to the person saying them.

Other comments on Monash's comments:

Dignity and Honorary Doctorates

I don't know who this guy is.  Hopefully he's not a Communist.

Receiving an honorary doctorate, I maintain, can make one more dignified. It can add dignity.  This is not necessarily the case, of course.  Word has it that at one of my alma maters a board member who had an honorary doctorate insisted that everyone refer to him as Dr._______.  Clearly this honor had gone to his head, and he acted in less than a dignified manner overestimating his own worth.

Another example of when receiving an honorary doctorate does not confer dignity: When someone is given an honorary doctorate who simply deserves punishment and not reward. If Stalin were given an honorary doctorate the honor would be a pure farce.  But thought well-of because of evil by evil people does not add worth.

So one must already have some dignity worthy of receiving an honorary doctorate in order have dignity from that honor--one must already have a good deal of dignity in fact.  But the receiving of an honorary doctorate is not something that one deserves.  The honorary doctorate is a supererogatory good.   And the honoring of someone in this way adds dignity.  One has now been honored by having an honorary doctorate.  One has now been esteemed with this award and one now has the benefits and privileges therein.

Dignity

In response to the previous post, Monash Jonas writes:

Dignity, I take it, is a form of self-worth. And, it seems to me, has for the most nothing to do with what others think...Take Ms. Brittany. Her sense of self-worth is diminished...why? Perhaps because she can no longer function without the aid of someone else. 
Dignity or self-worth concerns my own bearing, in the first instance. It has, again, little to do with anyone else (excepting God, of course). I hold to certain principles, say, and I judge myself on how well I apply those principles to my life - such dignity has nothing to do with anyone else. So I guess I'm unclear as to why you think appealing to anyone else (in terms of their feelings or thoughts or whatever) has any bearing on what I think of myself. 

JS, adds "it also seems to me that dignity has almost nothing to do with what others think. "

I am not sure if I understand what Monash means by self-worth.  It sounds as if Monash means to be saying with his example of "Ms. Brittany" is that dignity=self-worth and self-worth is the worth that someone has in virtue of valuing herself.  Dignity just is valuing oneself; the more one values oneself, the more dignity one has; the less one values oneself, the less dignity one has.