The title may seem unusual—where does it come from? It comes from traveling through many countries with diverse social cultures. In Lebanon, where the law is absent in aspects of our social life, our behavior in certain situations often depends on the concept of “shame.” For example, if you see a government employee in the public sector who does not accept bribes, it is not because of a law prohibiting bribery, but because of his sense of “shame.” He knows that if he were to take a bribe, no one would hold him accountable in Lebanon. Yet he restrains himself, because within his social value system, bribery represents a violation that his values reject.

If our friend were living in the United States, for instance, he would refrain from bribery because of the strength of the law against it. There, you might find someone who secretly wishes to accept a bribe, or someone else who wants to offer a bribe to gain preferential treatment. Yet both refrain, regardless of their personal values, out of fear of the law punishing both the giver and the taker.

In a country like Lebanon, the concept of “shame” often takes the place of the law, at a time when in many countries—especially in the West—the idea of “shame” is rapidly disappearing, replaced by the law as the ultimate boundary in social matters.

Just forty years ago, publicly identifying as gay in the United States was considered a form of “shame,” and more than half of Americans rejected the idea of homosexuality. Religious leaders openly condemned homosexuality, while still acknowledging, of course, the rights of gay individuals as human beings and citizens. The law did not protect LGBTQ+ people the way it does today. Over time, the notion of “shame” around homosexuality began to fade. That’s when LGBTQ+ people began openly advocating for legal reforms. Before the concept of “shame” fell away, they did not assert what they called “their rights” as strongly. Once shame was removed, they could openly fight for their rights, ultimately achieving milestones that America could not have imagined forty years earlier, such as the legalization of same-sex marriage and the right to adopt children.

In Lebanon, homosexuality is still criminalized. Just thirty years ago, gay people often concealed their orientation more out of a sense of “shame” than fear of the law. In the 1990s, engaging in sodomy was punished just like heterosexual prostitution. Lebanese law has not changed much since then. What has changed is the concept of “shame”—today, you can see openly gay individuals everywhere. The law remains against them, but the sense of shame has disappeared.

In short, the concept of “shame” no longer exists in the West. You are free to do what you want as long as the law does not forbid it. Shame is no longer a guide for the choices you make in your life.

What worries me about the future of Lebanon is the possibility that all notions of “social shame” could fall one by one, while the absence of law continues. What currently protects us from ourselves—when it comes to theft, bribery, marijuana use, complicated relationships, vandalism, tax evasion, traffic violations, and more—is not so much the law as our sense of “shame” and personal values.

What if all these notions of shame disappeared, leaving the law merely a matter of opinion in Lebanon? That would be a disaster.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the writers are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Annahar