VforVictor
Robert ReichRobert Reich: The death of shame https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-death-of-shame?utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=auto_share&r=df9r
Torgeir Fjeld@rbreich @ChrisMayLA6 This goes directly to our previous discussion on guilt and shame in contemporary societies (Williams).
Emeritus Prof Christopher Maythanks; I was particularly struck by these concluding remarks:
'shamelessness has gained a certain elan. Audacity, insolence, and impudence are welcomed. Irreverence is celebrated....
Meanwhile, instead of being directed at behavior that undermines the common good, shame is now often deployed against people who don’t fit in. Social media unleashes torrents of invective on people who do little more than say something silly or look different or are socially inept'!
@ChrisMayLA6 @rbreich Right, and as for the interconnected question of honour (in Bernard Williams's terminology) this seems to undermine the prevailing idea that it is these harbingers of impudent behaviour that are the honourable ones.
f*cking b*tch club@rbreich Shamelessness is the new superpower. If you feel no shame, you don’t need to apologize. Coupled with the fact that our justice system has not meaningfully penalized any of the most shameful. DJT still heads his party, Bannon continues to “flood the zone with sh*t”, Flynn hasn’t been court-martialed, Santos sits in Congress, DeSantis got re-elected, Musk platforms hate…the list grows longer every day.
We’re tolerating ourselves out of existence.
We’re tolerating ourselves out of existence.
Sane Thinker@rbreich The withering of social standards and civility in my lifetime feels profound. But then I think of evil such as George Wallace and Joe McCarthy. I think about slavery and the original robber barons. I think about factory workers with no rights and the anarchist movement. I think about incarceration without charges or rights, and torturing "enemy combatants." I think about the rape of the environment. I believe my thinking that things were getting better was an illusion all along.
logienick@rbreich Thanks for sharing this Robert.
It's a poorer and less safe world we live in when our elected representatives appear immune to shame, and large parts of the electorate lap up their behaviour that would - in past times anyway - have been deemed shameful.
UK political discourse has already travelled a long way down the same road. It's very worrying.
It's a poorer and less safe world we live in when our elected representatives appear immune to shame, and large parts of the electorate lap up their behaviour that would - in past times anyway - have been deemed shameful.
UK political discourse has already travelled a long way down the same road. It's very worrying.
Ton Chrysoprase@rbreich I’m old enough to remember when shaming people for going against established social norms - usually something entirely benign like wearing clothes said people like - was a conservative thing. It’s kind of where they got their name from.
HH@rbreich These behaviors have been normalized after TFG was elected. Shameless is his brand name, yet he was elected.
Dave Nee@rbreich Excellent piece!
@rbreich seems “social norms” have changed for a large swath of the population hence what we once generally accepted as shameful behavior no longer is to many.