Is a Shame-Free Society a Good Thing? Press enter or click to view image in full size Image by Author using Midjourney There is a very modern current running through the zeitgeist, and I’m not sure it leads to a better future. My own internal critique once grew tyrannical, but to resist any external judgment for fear of offending might be going too far. Modernity’s commitment to liberation feels like a wonderful thing: inclusive, accepting, forgiving. Liberation, pursued without limits, can blur into permissiveness. Yet without such blurring, some forms of beauty and truth would never have surfaced. What was once labeled shameless has sometimes proved liberating in hindsight. Discernment is not mere judgment. It is the capacity to tell quality from noise, depth from shallowness, right from wrong, meaningful from meaningless. Discernment is what reduces a society’s potential for chaos. Liberation opens the mountain to everyone, but discernment keeps the path.…