QOTD: Jim Bob Duggar
by digby
One of the reasons more young women are giving birth out of wedlock and more young men are walking away from their paternal obligations is that there is no longer a stigma attached to this behavior, no reason to feel shame. Many of these young women and young men look around and see their friends engaged in the same irresponsible conduct. Their parents and neighbors have become ineffective at attaching some sense of ridicule to this behavior. There was a time when neighbors and communities would frown on out of wedlock births and when public condemnation was enough of a stimulus for one to be careful…
Oh wait, sorry. That was Jeb Bush in his book “Profiles in Character.” The chapter is called “The restoration of shame.”
Also too, this:
For many, it is more shameful to work than to take public assistance — that is how backward shame has become!
In the context of present-day society we need to make kids feel shame before their friends rather than their family. The Miami Herald columnist Robert Steinback has a good idea. He suggests dressing these juveniles in frilly pink jumpsuits and making them sweep the streets of their own neighborhoods! Would these kids be so cavalier then?
He’ll be running as a compassionate conservative, no doubt.
.