However, over the last half century, the Western world has pretty much abandoned any sense of shame in public or private behavior. Thus, the current slogan of all malefactors caught in shameful behavior is "to tough it out" and brazenly ignore one's own shameful deeds. There is very little sense of shame left in public or political life, in academia and the arts or even in the religious leadership sectors of our society.
Shame has fled from the scene in the entertainment industries. There is no longer shameful speech or attire, attitude or even behavior. We have no longer any higher expectations of our leaders so therefore they have no sense of shame when they actually meet our very low expectations of them and their personal and public behavior. The sense of honor and pride so necessary for effective and inspired public leadership has disappeared from our world to be replaced by a crassness and insensitivity to moral standards and to a traditional sense of selfless purpose.
And Peggy Noonan in THIS article on being a lady in the moder world of American values is speaking to the same loss.
In a post-Christian therapeutic culture that has been thoroughly Oprahized and has been desensitized by the likes of Jerry Springer and is lectured about the importance of healthy self-image, the concept that SHAME could be a good thing is a hard sell. But, it is, nonetheless, true.
Shame, far from being a negative thing, can be a reminder of two ennobling thoughts about ourselves. 1) We are more than animals and have a God-given dignity that means some behaviors should give us, at least, serious pause. 2) We do not live and act in an isolated vacuum, but instead have an impact on others with all our actions and attitudes. Both things remind us, we are not alone! God is with us and calls us to holy things. Others depend upon us.
Of course, for those who think anything that limits their own desires is a negative thing, none of that is good news.
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