I enjoy certain things that my parents never had a chance to enjoy when they were young adults, back in the 1960s.
Organic corn flakes, for one.
My parents enjoyed corn flakes, but not organic corn flakes.
Then, there are things I don’t enjoy, which my parents didn’t worry too much about.
Shaming.
The shame industry has gotten totally out of hand.
Of course, my parents were careful to make me feel ashamed, when I deserved it. But society in general was pretty shameless back in the 1960s. For example, my parents could tell sexist or racist jokes, and make fun of pretty much any nationality or religious group… and everyone at the office, or at the cocktail party, could laugh heartily without feeling the slightest bit of shame.
At least, that’s how it seemed to me, as a kid observing adult behavior.
No one, in 2022, would dare tell the types of jokes my parents’ generation told. You would face certain ostracism, and be thrust out of your social or professional circles — be it online, on social media, or in person. You could lose your job.
(Which is why I will not be sharing, in this column, any examples of the sexist, racist, irreligious jokes than seemed so terribly funny to my parents, 60 years ago. You will have to use your imagination.)
Would I be willing to trade my organic cornflakes, for a society where I can joke shamelessly about ethnic groups and certain types of human behavior, without fear of getting ostracized?
You can guess the answer.
Shame has become big business, nowadays. Really big business.
There’s a whole range of multi-billion-dollar industries whose primary goal is to make us feel ashamed of our bodies — our weight, our skin texture, our receding hairline. Other massive industries spread shame when we fail to update our consumer items to the latest model — phones, fashions, vehicles.
Giant tech companies purposely encourage social media posts that attack other people’s lifestyles and beliefs, spreading shame and unhappiness.
The whole COVID mess was so much more unpleasant because this group was shaming that group over masks and vaccinations. And vice versa.
Heck, I even feel guilty if I purchase non-organic corn flakes.
Things were not always this way, or so we are told.
Way back at the beginning, Adam and Eve lived in a luxuriant garden, surrounded by friendly beasts and prolific fruit trees of all types. But one type of fruit in particular, God told them not to eat.
Being human, they went ahead and ate what they weren’t supposed to eat. Sound familiar?
Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool[ of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”[
And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
So, as I understand the situation, Adam and Eve were running around the garden, totally naked — in full view of all the animals, apparently — and didn’t know that they were naked.
They had no shame. Ignorance is bliss.
Then they ate the wrong thing, and developed a sudden inclination to start sewing fig leaves. And that was the beginning of the fashion industry.
Even worse, it was the beginning of the shame industry.
Let this be a lesson, to never eat the wrong thing.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.