Shame Based Cultures-Part 1

In my 10/15/2005 post, I promised to expand on the dynamics of a shame-based culture, largely because most Americans cannot imagine a group organizing a campaign of hate mongering such as I have outlined. It is simply so far outside their experience that the possibility is dismissed as ridiculous. It is simply easier to impeach my experiences, rather than to acknowledge that it may spring quite readily without bidding from imperatives of a very a different culture.

All cultures rely on a combination of guilt and shame to control individual behavior. Most Western cultures are predominantly guilt based. As for Americans, it is often said, not entirely in jest, that they have lost the capacity to feel shame at all. Many when using the terms guilt or shame do not really make a distinction between the two. However, as control mechanisms they have very different implications for the individual, for group behavior and for the society at large.