Culture > Western Culture

Shame, Religion and the End of Societal Norms

Without shame, belief in God becomes optional, then inconvenient, then irrelevant.

Allan J. Feifer | June 7, 2026

A perfect illustration of our cultural collapse is the growing trend of people not only committing crimes but also proudly filming themselves doing so on social media. In Queensland, police recently charged 90 young offenders under new "posting and boasting" laws after they recorded and uploaded their own car thefts and break‑ins to TikTok, treating criminal behavior as entertainment rather than disgrace. Offenders commit the crime specifically to post it, seeking online validation regardless of moral or social consequences. This is what a society bereft of shame looks like: bad behavior is no longer hidden in the shadows, but broadcast proudly, to garner clicks, the new currency of the realm. 

If I were the devil and wanted to undo the Creator's perfect design, the first thing I'd eliminate is shame. Remove shame, and the rest collapses like so many dominoes. Without shame, belief in God becomes optional, then inconvenient, then irrelevant. And once God is dismissed, a vacuum opens that people rush to fill with either their own self‑importance—making themselves the center of the universe—or with the appetites of the ungodly: desire without duty, impulse without restraint, and a steady erosion of any standard that interferes with the latest craving. The Marxist destroyers understand this perfectly. The removal of shame is a primary tool, and it is dissolving the core of Western Civilization before our eyes.

Millions now treat shame as some archaic, pseudo‑religious relic that restricts their "rights." When man places himself at the center of the universe, he confuses ego for truth.........

© American Thinker