George Entwistle accounted himself ‘honourable’ as he resigned his position as head of the BBC, and Lord Patten joined in the applause. It was as if Entwistle thought he deserved it. Ancient Greeks would have been baffled. You cannot honour yourself. Only others can do that. The man had failed. Did he have no shame?
Aristotle analysed shame much as we do: it is a feeling ‘connected with disrepute in the eyes of those whom a person holds in high regard’. Such a person ‘takes account of those who admire him and whom he admires and by whom he wishes to be admired; he feels more shame at things done in the open before such people’s eyes, especially if those people are with him and watch him, or are inclined to tell others, or are themselves not liable to the same accusations…’.
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