Bad Behavior

 

It’s A Shame

It's a shame, the way you mess around with your man
It's a shame the way you hurt me
It's a shame, the way you mess around with your man
I'm sitting all alone, by the telephone
Waiting for your call, when you don't call at all

Have you no shame!

At the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954, lawyer Joseph Welch replied with a question to Sen. Joseph McCarthy , “Have you no sense of decency, sir?”.  This was largely a rhetorical question directed at the audience of those hearings, the American people.  In his heart, I am sure that Mr. Welch knew the answer to his question, that Senator McCarthy had no sense of decency.  But the comment was directed to the American people, not to Senator McCarthy.

When we shame someone, it is not necessarily to get the behavior of the immediate offender to change.  It would be nice, but it is not expected.  What is expected is that the people have let it be know that they have a sense of decency and that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated by others in the future.  Shame is the expression by the group of what they will not reward, even if the recipient of the shame has no shame.  It is like the trial and punishment for murder.  The trial and punishment will NOT bring the dead  back.  The possibility of trial and punishment did not prevent this murder.  But that there is a trial and punishment might deter the next murder.  Sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine won't necessarily get Russia out of Ukraine.  But they might keep Russia from invading Finland, India from invading Kashmir,  China from invading Taiwan, etc.  The punishment didn't prevent the current crime, but it hopefully changes the calculus for future crimes.  Shame is not about the past. It is about the future.