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* New Book Project * Naked and Active * Photo Request *
Shame, Guilt and other Negative Attitudes
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Modern shame is an historical concept, based mostly on judeo-christian ideas of so-called "original sin". Something for which the entire population of the earth are apparently going to be accounting for, for ever! Even if there was a point to this idea then, (when people were telling each other scary stories across desert fires), unless you're a desert dwelling bedouin, with a hairy camel for a wife, (and I can understand why you would rather not see all the details of that), what possible relevance can this silly old children's story have to us now, two thousand years later? Why is shame such a big stick which we use to beat ourselves with? Surely our society can grow away from such childish concepts which are basically designed to keep people in check. If you think about where these directives come from, they're usually from people who like to point the big finger and say: "shame on YOU" and usually silently: "not on me though" until they get caught with their fingers in the till... One could cite the example of one of the World War II code breaker's at Bletchley Park Alan Turing who was shamed, hounded and embarrassed, so far by the UK government(!) and the police in 1954, that he committed suicide. In 2010 the UK prime minister Gordon Brown apologised posthumously for the inappropriate response (a bit late really...) Surely it's time we moved on. When you are naked, are you shamed? If not, why not, and if so, also why? Just think about it, before reacting with a knee-jerk. |