Respect, Shame and the Death of Humour

It is almost impossible to achieve the kind of respect our parents enjoyed because in the Tribe of One no one has enough of a sense of belonging. A sense of belonging to a group implied observance of a code of conduct and deviation from that code results in shame - god examples of course receive respect for the person.

Shame and Respect are essential conterparts; there can be no respect wothout shame and no shame without respect but more importantly there vcan be nothing of either unless their is a sense of belonging. So where does this sense of belonging come from - there is a misguided belief that belonging is a gift from a group - awarded or witheld by some aggregate will. The reality is a sense of belonging stems from the desire to belong - rejection can only be a consequence of a failed application - the key is the desire to belong.

As I write this the BBC is missing a golden opportunity to sack its most outrageously overpaid comedian and renegotiate his salary to a more palatable level for an entertainer. Why has outrageous behaviour become the new 'funny'? Because we have substituted actual comedy for the giggly titter resulting from witnessing something we might not be caught for - but this time someone has. Ever since Tiswas, we have watched anarchic behaviour portrayed as comedy - but its not its just anarchic behaviour, and as it becomes popular so it escalates to be more and outrageous until some senior gentleman has obscene messages left on his answer machine.

Why have we let this happen? Because in the Tribe of One there is no belonging and therefore no respect and no shame.