Nov 1 – Cultures of Shame II (re-edited)

In cultures of shame, in which individual self-aware consciousness and its attendant responsibilities have not been adequately internalized by the bulk of its disparate members, catharsis is principally (if not exclusively) achieved through collective, externalized societal expressions of justice which might be witnessed through public execution of traitors, the drawing and quartering of enemies of the crown, the scourging of criminals, the beheading of tyrannical despots by the mindless frenzied masses, the exploitation of the captured, the hanging of prisoners and torture of enemies, the sending and receiving of tribute, as well as through the grand spectacle of ritualized blood offerings and peace offerings either slayed, eviscerated or burned in elaborate temples, in symbolic feasts and yearly festivals, as well as every other manifestation of what could be loosely deemed “religious”; religion which is the symbolic vehicle man has culturally and socially developed to externally accomplish the necessary catharsis that the vast majority of individuals – from ancient times unto the present – have and will continue to be unable to carry out in themselves and for themselves, let alone to have that catharsis extend to the greater community to which they are associated.