The greatest threat confronting Canadian politics is not the concentration of power in the Prime Minister’s Office. Nor the suffocating clutch of party discipline around backbench MPs. These are consequences of a deeper rot. A crisis of character. A crisis that should be properly identified as the deliberate and gradual extinction of shame from our politics.
Shame, more than any other attribute, is vital to the proper functioning of the democratic process. Shame, to paraphrase Gordon Gekko, is right. It works. Shame is disciplining and correcting. It charts the boundaries of permissible discourse. It defines the limits of fit public conduct. Shame is the guarantor of honest, if not always polite, debate. And while to some shame may seem a quaint, even anachronistic notion, it remains of critical practical importance to contemporary politics. Because the absence of shame steadily corrodes confidence in our democratic leaders and institutions. In extreme circumstances it even leads to outright paralysis.
There is, of course, no more spectacular illustration of this than the circus that surrounds Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. What distinguishes his example is not merely the tabloid nature of his transgressions — smoking crack, driving drunk and cavorting with criminals. It is the abject unwillingness to accept even a measure of responsibility for his actions.
This is the true crisis in our political system and this is where change is most urgently required. We need to restore shame to its central and valued place in our politics. Because shame works. And without it, not much else can.
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There’s no shame in politics, and that’s the problem
Shame, more than any other attribute, is vital to the proper functioning of the democratic process. Shame, to paraphrase Gordon Gekko, is right. It works. Shame is disciplining and correcting. It charts the boundaries of permissible discourse. It defines the limits of fit public conduct. Shame is the guarantor of honest, if not always polite, debate. And while to some shame may seem a quaint, even anachronistic notion, it remains of critical practical importance to contemporary politics. Because the absence of shame steadily corrodes confidence in our democratic leaders and institutions. In extreme circumstances it even leads to outright paralysis.
There is, of course, no more spectacular illustration of this than the circus that surrounds Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. What distinguishes his example is not merely the tabloid nature of his transgressions — smoking crack, driving drunk and cavorting with criminals. It is the abject unwillingness to accept even a measure of responsibility for his actions.
This is the true crisis in our political system and this is where change is most urgently required. We need to restore shame to its central and valued place in our politics. Because shame works. And without it, not much else can.
more
There’s no shame in politics, and that’s the problem
