From The New Yorker · Jay Caspian Kang · · 2m
How shame keeps democracy alive
Without shared communities, we've lost the social force that once held the powerful accountable.
In brief
Without shared communities, we've lost the social force that once held the powerful accountable. Shame requires real communities to function. As churches and institutions decline, we lose the infrastructure to enforce shared values and push back against extractive behavior. Originally reported by The New Yorker.
Protest movements need real places
The decline of churches has eroded the social infrastructure that once supported sustained political protest, leaving us with social media posts and flash-point demonstrations instead of effective movements.
Shame needs community to work
We can post about shame online, but we cannot make anyone really feel it or collectively levy its force against the powerful and shameless.
Phones leave us isolated
Life on social media leaves us lonely and alienated, intensely individual yet intensely tribal, finding fellow-travelers for our worst impulses without real community.
Quantitative thinking rules now
Tech and finance have spread a brutal rationalism where all answers are self-evident and shame is dismissed altogether.
Moneyball changed everything
Michael Lewis's 2003 book showed how the Oakland A's used quantitative thinking to succeed in baseball, a model that has since spread to nearly every part of American life.
Smart justifies anything now
When brutal rationalism is challenged, its defenders claim intelligence and math are on their side, dismissing critics as stupid.
Twenty-five dollars to watch kids play
A youth basketball league charges parents twenty-five dollars for parking and twenty dollars per person just to watch their children play, justified as being smart.
We cannot shame the shameless
We feel alienated because we cannot shame the organizers of the basketball league to stop charging for parking just because they can.
Social media shaming is hollow
Online shaming derails unlucky individuals but fails to enforce real social norms. The past decade shows social media has made us more shameless, not less.
Institutions are crumbling
As churches, mainstream media, and universities decline, what will provide the infrastructure to uphold shared values of decency, generosity, and help for the less fortunate?
We need to gather in person
Communities need the social ritual of gathering in the same room, passing around a plate, and hearing lectures on what it means to be a good neighbor.
Confrontation has disappeared
We never know who is reaching in our pocket or denying our health claims. We cannot look anyone in the eye with disgust when they fail our communities.
The bottom line
Shame requires real communities to function. As churches and institutions decline, we lose the infrastructure to enforce shared values and push back against extractive behavior.
