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A significant segment of our society seems to have embraced a mantle of victimhood, which seems to have freed them from the previous cultural disfavor of SHAME that used to accompany bad behavior. SHAME served quite effectively to keep people in check, and rightfully so, for centuries worldwide.
Just a few short decades ago here in America, undesirable personal habits such as unwed motherhood, alcoholism, drug addiction, sexual promiscuity, public obscenity, vulgarity, petty crime, and other types of behavior would have generated general public condemnation in the form of SHAME.
Today? Not so much. In fact, American culture seems to look down on shaming a person into doing what's right. Not only we do NOT shame a person, we actually celebrate the very activities that contribute greatly to the fraying of the moral fabric of American society. I don't belive this decline is an accident. I believe moral and cultural decay directly correlates to the lack of SHAME associated with deleterious behavior by our society.
America’s diminished sense of shame bodes ill for our future. Instead of celebrating and even supporting bad decisions through never-ending federal dollars, its time to reintroduce SHAME into the equation.
There should be nothing celebratory about being a societal deviant or a perpetual bad decision maker, especially as it effects the millions of taxpayers that bail out these bad apples.
Oh we'll get ours soon enough. Do you think this can go on indefinitely ?
Absolutely not. I wish that those who support the trajectory that this nation is on would pause for one moment and dig deep and realize what's really happening in America. It's almost as if there's a sense of "it can't happen" here. As if NOTHING going on in this country can tear us down....not our crime...not our entitlements...not our debt and deficits....not illegal immigration.....not our government....NOTHING can bring us to our knees.
The individual has lost all sense of bearing in this country. It's time to bring shame back into the equation to regain some semblance of humility and honor America once had. The cultural and moral decay is happening....and it will be the death of us.
I agree. I think this idea is related to the changes we see happening in the field of psychology. Narcissism is becoming more prevalent in our society and, in fact, the diagnosis of it is set to be excluded from the DSM as a distinct disorder. It is becoming the norm to be self-absorbed with an air of entitlement. Fewer and fewer people demonstrate a healthy dose of guilt in our culture of moral relativity & "anything goes."
I agree. I think this idea is related to the changes we see happening in the field of psychology. Narcissism is becoming more prevalent in our society and, in fact, the diagnosis of it is set to be excluded from the DSM as a distinct disorder. It is becoming the norm to be self-absorbed with an air of entitlement. Fewer and fewer people demonstrate a healthy dose of guilt in our culture of moral relativity & "anything goes."
Very interesting Doc. Can you elaborate on what it mens for narcissism diagnosis to be excluded from the DSM as a distinct disorder? Does that mean that narcissism is close to not being a disorder at all?
You would have to change the fundamental economic structure of the country to make that happen. Shaming and community enforcement of moral norms only really works when you have established, permanent, largely immobile populations where generations of families live alongside one another and know one another from an early age.
In a modern economy in which people move around a lot, you can't really establish the social structures necessary to "enforce" moral norms. Nobody cares if he is being "shunned" by somebody who just moved in a few months ago, or if he expects he might have to move soon anyway, for work or other reasons.
In the "olden days," there were places where the prevailing moral norms of the rural areas did not apply - the big cities and the port cities. That was because of people's transience. Unless you have a way of reducing mobility or restructuring the economy, shaming is a fairly useless tool of social control.
Yes, let's go back to that shameless society where black people were second class citizens, genocide was committed by 'civilized folks' against native Americans, kids got molested in church every weekend, husbands beat their wives, etc. Things were so much better then.
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