Guilt
For ages, and to some extent today, there has been guilt associated with a number of things. For the bigger picture involving the case study that we will be considering today, see here. However, be aware that, as found here and first reported here, the science of the bigger picture regarding our case study does need a little bit of updating.
Regardless of the science, we do need to be aware of what guilt is. Guilt is when we think we should do/not-do something and we do-not/do it. Guilt is when we don’t do what we think we should, or when we do do what we thing we shouldn’t do.
Guilt resolution often involves either changing what we do, or changing what we think in terms of “should”. When what we think we “should” do/not-do is in conformance with what society thinks, society applauds us for changing what we do. When what we do/not-do is consistent with what society thinks we “should” do/not-do, there is a great tendency to adopt the notion of “should” that society has. So, society often has an effect on our guilt resolution. But not always.
When we choose to go contrary to what society would say in the resolution of our guilt, we acknowledge and intensify a perceived sense of alienation from society through our difference(s) from it. In this respect, guilt helps to separate us into different subgroups within society.
Ultimately, the decision of how to handle any guilt is a judgement call.
Is guilt “good” or “bad”? Depends on the guilt, I’d suspect - and probably also depends on your notion of “good” or “bad”. I won’t say anything as far as that goes - at least not yet.
Don’t feel guilty reading this - I didn’t feel guilty writing this.