The Benefits of Shame

Without the virtue of self-restraint, shame is necessary in a free society.

I’m several hours into writing a veritable treatise on immigration law and politics, but since I’ve bitten off more than I can chew quickly there, I decided to write in the meantime about shame. I’ve been thinking about our culture’s twin rejection of virtue and shame for a while now, and over time, I changed my mind about the value of shame, but I hadn’t yet committed any of my thoughts to writing.

Shame is a net good.

To be clear, I do not think shame is always good. I use “net” advisedly, to mean that after weighing the profit and loss, on the net, the profits (pros) outweigh the losses (cons). However, it’s become clear to me that shame (the verb) is a necessary influence in a society that eschews virtue. I wish it weren’t this way! Unfortunately, I’ve concluded that shame is only avoidable in a society that practices self-restraint, incentivizing people to choose for themselves to avoid generally destructive ends, and where grace (forgiveness) is extended because a person has acknowledged their transgression and been forgiven.