
The Sense of Shame - pepys
https://literaryreview.co.uk/the-sense-of-shame
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bsanr2
I think shame is an important, unspoken driver of much of American politics,
and in particular our shame with regards to our history of oppression of,
apathy toward, or membership in our society's lower class. It extends past
open remorse and attempts at rectification to policy that is clearly driven by
a desire to deny shame or guilt. When looking at historical responses to
slavery, discrimination, poverty, violence, loss, and so forth, the failure to
act against (or even the will to support or encourage) suffering is a sort of
positive feedback loop, a doubling down as people become more and more
uncomfortable with facing their culpability in worsening circumstances. One
pretends that they are agreeable or normal, despite all evidence, to guard
against the flood of shame that would emerge should the truth be admitted.
Eventually, it becomes possible to tell who is carrying the most shame over a
situation by their willful ignorance of, or moral ambivalence towards, an
event that is well-known and morally unambiguous.

I think you see this same sort of dynamic with Japan and their treatment of
China and Korea during WWII, Turkey with regard to the Armenian Genocide, and
Belgium with regard to the Congolese Genocide. It's something we can see well-
enough in others, but the very nature of it makes it hard to see within
ourselves.

