Eric Scheie at Classical Values takes on the issue of “shame” and discounts it.
I don’t.
I think shame is a vastly under-rated human virtue.
For some reason, Eric focuses on sex as the primary actuator of shame. That is only partially true, and a very small partially. Because shame encompasses acts and thoughts that are a great deal more universal than what we do with our sex partners.
Take the Clintons, please. (A version of an old Hennie Youngman joke).
The primary reason that people like the Clintons are able to tell the most outrageous lies about themselves, their opponents and their motives is because they have lost the ability to feel shame. Shame is the characteristic that separates the sociopath from the normal, mentally healthy person.
Shame is what we feel when we tell a lie, when we cheat, when we violate out commitments. If we fail to feel shame when we do these things, we become a danger to others in society because we have lost the warning buzzer of our moral compass.
The ability to feel shame is the critical difference between the moral person and the moral monster.
2 comments:
Feeling shame is one sure fire way of knowing your doing something wrong. Kill shame and an unobstructed path has been open for the wrong to become right.
I understand Pfizer is coming out with a minty gel that blocks your ability to feel shame. They're gonna call it Pseudaclinton.
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