There is no more universally revered sentiment among American's in the south as "shame". Shame is a way of taking emotional responsibility for something rather than simply feeling awkward or uncomfortable about something. When one feels shame, one is taking the most Christian virtue of repentance and applying it to a system of "honor" - hence, the "honor system" or "honorable aristocrats" etc.
So to take shame seriously, we immediately find ourselves talking about Morality. Morality, as properly defined, is a code or ethics derived from first principles So, what really constitutes the Morality of America?
The basic dichotomy of master and slave.
Everyone, it has been said, is master or slave over someone or something. Every man is master. Every man is slave. What is of principle concern however, is what I alluded to previously; that is, repentance. In repentance, one is slave to Morality. In pride, one is Master.
And that is why, I openly admit : I am mere chattel. The most slavishly enraptured serf, in deep debt to my lord and under the thumb of an estate. My shame compels me to repentance. To be so is not the shame of shame, but rather the shame of Honor.
Brendan O'Connell
Domestic Democracy United
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