Greetings, fellow sentient beings!
Coming in my new entry for the weekly ZapFic challenge by @felt.buzz. This week, the topic was Shame.
ZapFic is about writing extra-short fiction, complete in 240 characters.
The story
“You have no shame!”, Mrs. Johnson hissed at her one-year-old who had just eaten the cookies she had prepared for her guests.
“You’re saying it as if it were something bad”, he replied with dignity. The very first words he had spoken to her.
Shame is a feeling we learn. Children come to this world without it and it is enforced upon them by society. We teach them it's wrong to want too much, to be as you are, to sacrifice your desires, time, and dreams (eventually) for others.
For society. A concept that is there, ideally, for the greater good. Greater than a person, good for everybody? Ideally. But its moral is not natural. Not logical. It is decided upon by people with some ideas. Which might be different than the ideas of others. They are imposed upon the majority.
Practically, society is there for the benefit of those who rule it. Those who make decisions about what is good and what is bad for everybody else. Often breaking their very rules because they/some are rational enough to know when to. The rest are not. Funny that we justify that. Funny that we agree to follow people who are no different than anyone else except in status.
I am going to quote a favorite modern musical of mine, one that you can find and watch online in less than 50 minutes.
It's* not about making money, it's about taking money. Destroying the Status Quo. Because the status...is not Quo.
— Dr. Horrible
*The character's actions.
The piece is called Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and it's by director Joss Whedon who directed the awesome never-more-than-one-season TV show Firefly.
Peace!
Manol
