#shame and guilt are primarily ways to make yourself feel good in the moment to stroke that sense of superiority | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

anarchonist · 7 months ago

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That post about guilt and shame only being effective as deterrents but not in inspiring anyone to change their behavior in any meaningful way got me thinking about those other posts about progressive circles consisting way too much of people not with a desire to do something right but instead with a fear of doing something wrong, and...

Yeah. Those two are related. Guilt and shame are the weapons of the status quo, designed to instill in everyone with a conscience a fear of failure, of hurting others, of being a bad person. And it's pretty fucked up when people are being shamed for that, since, well, shame doesn't inspire any meaningful change. So the problem persists, deepens, even. Since by shaming someone for not getting over that shame, you've now discouraged them from thinking about that instilled shame and maybe finding a solution.

It's shame and guilt all the way down. Perhaps shame and guilt could be used against people who tend to shame and guilt others in order to shame and guilt them out of shaming and guilting others? I don't know. And that's a true shame.

#random thought of the day #shame #guilt #toxic guilt #yeah it's a pickle #i kinda feel this way of thinking is deeply ingrained in the modern hyperindividualistic worldview #which ignores everything we know about humans as a social species shaped by our social circumstances #in favor of this very catholic guilt inspired 'stop being naughty' mindset that whips people into obedience never into self-actualization #as i wrote in the tags of the other post frustration is one of the most dangerous feelings since shaming and guilting starts there #if you look at the world around you and think you see the problem and the solution but others won't listen to you #it's natural to feel frustrated #the desire to shame and guilt others in a twisted way try to make them spring into action seems like a natural response #but it's stupid and wrong #shame and guilt are primarily ways to make yourself feel good in the moment to stroke that sense of superiority #i look back at how i was raised and i understand that a lot of the hesitancy and self-doubt and other paralyzing feelings are guilt #if you were raised to always doubt yourself always assume that you're in the wrong always take others at their word #you were raised to be a perfect victim #it's really hard to push through that and the metacognitive capabilities one must have to monitor all of that are staggering #meanwhile people who were raised through inspiration and motivation can be immune to guilt and shame #so what are we even doing here why is it so easy to fall back on a method that at best has little effect at worst increases the problems #there is a lot to say about this and i wish i had an answer but alas

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