One of the signs of our times today is that in our public discourse many politicians as well as journalists and media corporations appear to be perfectly fine strutting the stage without shame.
A Have-No-Shame virus is also a Have-No-Conscience virus as we learned yesterday. And, per my video of yesterday, a have-no honor, no-integrity, no-decency, no-principle, no-morality, no-character, no-respect, no-esteem, no-regard, no-reverence, no-dignity, no-repute virus.
It is a kind of moral self hatred. And a flaunting of it.
Sad to say, this virus is found in our politics and some media corporations where the largest cable company in America is scheduled to go to trial today. Why? Essentially for lies supporting another Lie that whipped up an insurrection in the nation’s capitol that has sent many hundreds to jail, killed six people and wounded over 140 policemen trying to defend the building.
And clearly the virus has spread to the very top of our judicial system in what we used to call the Supreme Court.
As for the presidency, never in the history of our nation have we had a politician–much less a commander in chief–more totally dedicated to being a person beyond shame as the previous president. And succeeding beyond belief.
Though inconvenienced by six or seven investigations underway in numerous states, he is currently testing just how far a no-shame, no-morality, no-conscience campaign can take one as he runs to be president again.
The same politician has cloned himself in the form of countless other politicians who seem to feel America is Germany in the 30’s and therefore they have the right to tell teachers and professors what they can and cannot teach; and tell citizens what books they can read and librarians what books they can order and display; and tell the FDA what drugs are suitable for women to take.
Is this “small government”—which used to be the cry of a certain political party?
Is telling every woman in America what they can and cannot do with their bodies “small government”? Ask the supreme court. Is expelling two duly elected young black men from the Tennessee state legislature governing rightly?
A “have-no-shame” virus in America can kill even more millions than those who died from coronavirus.
A have-no-shame disease, also known as have-no-conscience, can kill democracy and the whole idea of “the common good.”
See Matthew Fox, The Tao of Thomas Aquinas, pp. 116-119, on having and using one’s conscience.
Also see Matthew Fox, Sheer Joy, pp. 474-480, on conscience.
See also Matthew Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men, pp. 51-57, 285-294.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image: Detail from “Corrupt Legislation.” A girl standing in the ruins of a brick wall shows an empty spindle and distaff to a throned personification of corrupt system, which holds a one-sided balance by gripping the balance beam. To the other side, an elderly figure reading from a book labelled “law” places a (ransom?) bag on the balance’s one pan. Mural by Elihu Vedder. Lobby to Main Reading Room, Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C. Artist’s signature is dated 1896. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
How much of having-no-shame do you think upheld the Nazi movement of the 1930’s?
Recommended Reading
The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
A stunning spiritual handbook drawn from the substantive teachings of Aquinas’ mystical/prophetic genius, offering a sublime roadmap for spirituality and action.
Foreword by Ilia Delio.
“What a wonderful book! Only Matt Fox could bring to life the wisdom and brilliance of Aquinas with so much creativity. The Tao of Thomas Aquinas is a masterpiece.”
–Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox renders Thomas Aquinas accessible by interviewing him and thus descholasticizing him. He also translated many of his works such as Biblical commentaries never before in English (or Italian or German of French). He gives Aquinas a forum so that he can be heard in our own time. He presents Thomas Aquinas entirely in his own words, but in a form designed to allow late 20th-century minds and hearts to hear him in a fresh way.
“The teaching of Aquinas comes through will a fullness and an insight that has never been present in English before and [with] a vital message for the world today.” ~ Fr. Bede Griffiths (Afterword).
Foreword by Rupert Sheldrake
The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine
To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature, to the Spiritual Warrior….These timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to connect to their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
“Every man on this planet should read this book — not to mention every woman who wants to understand the struggles, often unconscious, that shape the men they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God
8 thoughts on “The Have-No-Shame Virus Spreading in America Today”
Opposite sides of the spectrum look to cancel the truth being ‘spouted’ by those in the middle ground? How dare they? Cancel, remove, terminate, censure, incarcerate. Who has no fear other than those of the ‘cancel and woke’ cultures themselves? There is a ‘mob mentality’ at work in our midst’s. Who has a license to tell the truth and have opinions that go against the common pool of ‘accepted normalcy’? But the ‘accepted pool’ of normalcy is shifting based on the ‘power group’ that looks to control the narrative. The same is true in both religion and politics. The ground is always shifting, history is being re-written, laws are being re-written by those who look to control the narrative, those who look to hold ‘the power’ and hold dominion over the masses.
The war is raging and sides look to divide the masses in a very divisive manner. “You are either for us or against us.”
We need to resist getting brough into a ‘fray’ of others making. There is a way of Christ consciousness that provides us with the courage to rise above both fear and folly. Pursue ‘the better way’, the inclusive way and encourage all that you can to join together as we go ‘this Way’, a proven, loving, and truthful way. If we don’t believe that peaceful resistance is possible, then we have already cast ourselves into a senseless war where lives will be lost, and that would be a greater shame. — BB.
Yes! We are not our stories. We are not our narratives. We are not our I’s. We are all intra-connected with everything. Shaming does not help anything. And the shamed will only rebel, dig their heels in deeper, and project it out onto others. Trauma therapy and joy therapy can help us expand our consciousness, our little identity lens, to see that we are larger than just our little I’s. We can become aware of what’s going on, but we don’t have to become it or get hooked by it. We need to recontextualize our experience. Who am I without my story? Observe the reaction to react. We are an enormous non-local being having a finite experience. Pushing a cause to an absurd degree just entrenches the two poles. Compassion is lovingly meeting each of our “others” (people plants animals rocks streams trees vegetation stickers lizards butterflies–everything)–in every moment, where we are, with love and compassion. We are all in this together. A holy war will not solve this. We must talk about this in a different way and experience this in a different way. What is this here to teach us…to teach MWe.
Thank you Matthew for your pointed question today about the element of shame in Hitler’s Nazis. I have often wondered about their unbridled brazen brutality but hadn’t thought about it in the context of their lack of shame. Shame-less men who would be totally neutered without their guns and bombs.
I am interested in how capitalism plays into this feeling of not belonging and not mattering. Does pure neoliberal corporate capitalism secretly hate us while telling us it loves us through commercials and the corporate media? Have the working class been reduced to nothingness by not receiving respect or love? How does this play into the hatred that is so prevalent in our society that results in so much violence in the inner city and in the white working class. Clearly all of it is not economic. Factors like family and spiritual and community institutions like schools, church play a big role as well. But all of these have been deeply negatively influenced by neoliberal capitalism that cares not for the poor. How
Do we call out both sides of power of the culture divide who are complicit in this power dynamic so that they might stand up to corporate power?
Matthew, as a prophet, you are raising very important questions for us as a society in our unhealthy, unbalanced, toxic, destructive American culture, especially men, as part of a long history in Western ‘civilization’ of the destructive toxic racist values of patriarchy, mainly against women, children, minorities, indigenous peoples, and nature, our Mother Earth. Most of us spiritually sensitive in the past and present are aware that most men and societies in human history under the influence of the toxic, unbalanced, destructive patriarchal values, consciously and unconsciously, have been disconnected from their true essence as eternal spiritual beings and children of our Loving Mother~Father Creator Present in their hearts, and interrelated Loving Oneness with one another, all living creatures, nature, Mother Earth, and All of ongoing co-Creation~Incarnation~Evolution in our physical and non-physical multidimensional-multiverse Cosmos… We’re All with our eternal souls, all living creatures/beings, Mother Earth, and our multidimensional-multiverse Cosmos evolving within God’s Divine Creative Love in the Sacred Process of the Eternal Present Moment….
🔥💜🌎🙏
Thank you Matthew for being a model in speaking truth to power.
I appreciate all of your posts but when we reach deep into the
energy of Path 4, our communal, moral outrage energizes me to
act on behalf of seeking justice for our children, our beloved
Mother Earth, and preserving our deeply wounded democracy.
Unconscious shame is more dangerous, as you point out. Hitler and other despots project their shame onto scapegoats and whip people into a frenzy of hatred, which nicely diverts attention from real problems. In many states, like Florida, bill after bill is passed targeting a host of “enemies”, including the LGBQQT+ community, educators, and anyone who disagrees with those in power. Of course, the growing problems of homelessness, inadequate health care, violence, etc. are hidden behind these tactics. Shamelessness promotes and encourages bullying. Civil discourse is outshouted. Only one angry parent can completely disrupt a whole school system.. the consequences of this shamelessness is unlimited horror. We may be called on to choose an appropriate action and to put our bodies on the line for justice.
Shame in the shamanic teachings resides in the second chakra, the place of our center of gravity and the root of our true power. Intention and focus on our spiritual paths are the keys to finding our center of gravity that roots us in awakening to our true power.
When one lacks a spiritual path, or as Mathew has identified this, as a sense of belonging; then one’s sense of centeredness, groundedness, and rootedness is lost. This sense of loss negatively influences the root of our true power, which is our will; meaning the freedom within our choices of intent and what one focuses on. One then gravitates towards the delusions of a false sense of power, dominated by the ego in an attempt to fill this void within oneself of sensing one’s loss of centeredness, groundedness, rootedness and belonging. Power, attained at any cost, henceforth, becomes the egos center of intent and focus, the pathway that one gravitates towards.
Any sense of one’s connection of relationship and communion with Spirit, with one’s soul sense of self, with one’s sacred image of self and the inherent beauty, centeredness, groundedness, rootedness, and belonging that unfolds, evolves, emerges and converges within this spiritual reality and the transforming empowerment of this pathway; is lost, due to the domination of one’s ego… which is a real Shame!