the.com/shame
the leash society hands you, then pretends you grew it yourself
means a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by awareness of having done something wrong, foolish, or socially unacceptable.
from From Old English 'scamu' (disgrace, modesty), tracing back to Proto-Germanic '*skamo' — kin to German 'Scham' and Dutch 'schaamte'. The deepest root may connect to a Proto-Indo-European sense of 'to cover,' the instinct to hide what's exposed; hence why shame, etymologically as well as bodily, has always been about the impulse to wrap oneself away from being seen.
- face heat
- blushing is shame made visible on your skin
- social glue
- evolved to keep tribes from exiling you
- vs guilt
- guilt says you did bad, shame says you are bad
- hidden fuel
- powers more silence than any threat ever could
- public stocks
- medieval towns weaponized it with wood and crowds
scarlet letter — nathaniel hawthorne's 1850 novel about hester prynne forced to wear a red 'a' for adultery in puritan boston
stock pillory — medieval public punishment device used in european town squares where condemned people were locked in for ridicule and abuse
chinese wall of shame — public shaming billboards displaying photos and names of debtors across china since 2015