Whatever Happened to Shame?

[marmar]

from Truthdig:



Whatever Happened to Shame?
Posted on Dec 16, 2009

By Ellen Goodman


Things being what they are, I’m delighted when any newspaper is hiring. And when someone lands a job in journalism, I’m ready to pop the cork. But I find it hard to swallow champagne when the New York Post signs on Ashley Dupre.

Ms. Dupre, you may recall, was the prostitute in the scandal that brought down New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and threw another stand-by-her-man wife onto the pyre. At that time, the Post ran a one-word headline: “Hooked.” Now they have hired the hooker to be an advice columnist. This is like hiring Bernie Madoff as a personal finance columnist.

In a girly voiced introductory video, she chirps, “Hi, I’m Ashley Dupre. I used to be on the front page of the New York Post, now I’m writing for it.” You go, girl? “Is your daughter on a dangerous path? Is there a telltale sign that your husband isn’t happy in his marriage? Readers, fire away. Take it from me, someone who could have used a little advice in the past: There’s nothing better than learning from someone else’s experiences.”

I may be a cynic, but somehow I don’t think the Post was motivated by a desire to reform a wayward (call) girl. Dupre’s second act isn’t reformation. It’s confirmation, if we needed it, that there’s no shame in the game.

“Shame on you” is not a phrase that trips off my lips. I am not yet a little old lady in tennis shoes waving my umbrella at the decline and fall of decency. The Post’s employment standards are not a whole lot lower than those of Harvard University, whose ethics center invited Spitzer to speak. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/whatever_happened_to_shame_20091216/

[Altoid_Cyclist]

1. Feeling shame or accepting responsibility for hurtful words or actions

is becoming a thing of the past.

The American way now is to take all of the credit when people like something and point as many fingers at as many people as possible when you screw up.

If only my parents hadn't raised me the old fashioned way......

America; Land of the Vain and Home of the Selfish

[Berry Cool]

2. Oh, and don't forget the primary rule of American life today:

It doesn't matter what you do or have done, so long as you become rich and famous for having done it. That means earning yourself a newspaper column through being a famous hooker is just as legit as helping a celebrity be unfaithful to his wife and selling your story for mucho bucks. And those are just as legit as running a bank into the ground, getting a bailout and repaying the bailout ASAP so you can reward yourself for having run the bank into the ground with an obscene bonus while other people are struggling just to earn a living.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

3. It is depressing watching what is occurring in this country.

We've become a two class society or are at least rapidly heading in that direction. As luck would have it, I'm probably always going to be one of the peasants.

I used to think that it mattered which candidates won elections, now I'm not so sure. The haves and have mores are the real leaders, they just pick and choose who we get to vote for so that no matter who wins the elections, the regular citizens always lose.

Want to strike it rich? Stage a balloon hoax, have an affair with someone famous, cheat and rob from the average American, run a company into the ground and collect your parachute on the way out to your next CEO gig, see to it that your company gets a no bid Defense contract...etc.

Maybe I'm just being overly cynical this week, but coming here every day and seeing how the world really works is a real eye opener. I might have to take a break from here for a while just to re-energize my hope for a better future for America and the world.

I just wish that this place wasn't one of the few places left where you get real news and information. All of the in-fighting is draining my resolve and energy.

[BennyD]

4. Shame disappeared immediately after expectations and

expectations disappeared in an absence of morals being taught.

social algebra --> (life - morals = no expectations = no shame)

my 2-cents.

[classysassy]

5. In other words

without morality,there can be no shame? Benny that is a bulls eye.

[KoKo]

6. How Many of Tiger's "Hookers" will be employed by Ruppert Murdoch as Legitimate Journalists?

:shrug: MONEY ....MONEY....MONEY....MONEY rulse for the "American Idol Generation." :cry: