The Death of Shame Is Tearing Us Apart

The decline of shame as a social enforcer has contributed to widespread norm violations in modern society, as exemplified by NBA teams openly tanking games without facing social penalties. Without shame to maintain cultural guardrails, communities risk fragmenting into chaos unless there is strong moral consensus to replace it. The author explores how "optimization culture" has systematically removed the social consequences that once prevented people from blatantly violating shared norms.