October 28th, 2019

10/28/2019

Feeling guilty is usually associated with feeling responsible for a hurtful or offensive act towards another person. However, not everyone feels the same amount of it given the same situation. This is because of the reason that guilt is mostly based around people feeling bad about something they did that they new was wrong. This means that if a person does something that others see as wrong but they think it isn't, then they will most likely not have a strong feeling of guilt.

While majority of people do not like feeling guilt, it is an extremely useful emotion to our society. It is the reason that people feel a genuine obligation to be good people and not only look out for themselves. It is an emotion that people would say enhance the human ability to feel compassionate. Guilt is a terrific emotion for helping people build strong bonds with each other, but it is also a reason for people feeling horrible about themselves which can lead to other problems. From a technical standpoint, people would have the ability to be happier if guilt was not an emotion that people felt. The world would be much more selfish and there is a high chance it could lead to more suffering throughout the earth, but it would move the thinking of humans to a much more logical mindset.

Would the world become more productive without guilt? I am asking if everyone in the world didn't feel it as much, not only a few people. How would the lack of guilt affect other emotions and their meanings to our society? Why would the world be better without guilt?

36 Comments

Aiden

10/28/2019 03:11:57 pm

Losing guilt would be a detriment to society. Productivity would go down in the workforce, friendships would be ruined, and the world could go into complete disarray. Guilt is what drives us to be good people, as Brax stated. Without this, people would not feel the need to pick up their trash or feel bad after killing an animal on the road and so forth. If guilt was utterly abolished we would not retain friendships nearly as well, we wouldn't feel the need to apologize after making a mistake.This would cause us to hurt people's relationships at work and lower their contact with one another affecting their productivity. Guilt would affect our feeling of sympathy, obviously, but also our empathy towards one another. We couldn't feel bad for one another because we'd be self-centered. The world would only be better because we'd be ignorant. Ignorance is bliss and even though the thought of it makes us feel wrong we technically wouldn't know any better and we'd feel fine. I also argue that we are able to feel joy because we've experienced pain and hurt. So our joy would be lessened slightly if we couldn't feel the sting of guilt.

Kately

10/30/2019 02:06:27 pm

I agree completely, guilt is one of many emotions that we rely on. What is another emotion we could not do without?

Ezra

11/3/2019 12:09:45 pm

I can’t even imagine how the world would be if nobody felt any guilt for what is happening to the Earth. If there were no people out there trying to clean our mess.

Alyssa Farnworth

11/3/2019 06:54:37 pm

I thought your comments about the environment were interesting because even now when people do and always have had the ability to feel guilt many don't care about the environment and what individual and corporate actions are doing to it. It has been fairly recent that anyone wants to take action. I can't even image how much worse it could be without feelings of guilt.

Kately

10/30/2019 01:59:15 pm

If there was no guilt, the world would not progress for the better. Guilt prompts people to reconcile from their mistakes; the desire to be BETTER. If not for guilt, we would be complacent with our mistakes. Some might say that we should not hold onto guilt, because it can destroy us. This is not guilt, this is shame. Shame is the act of putting yourself down, believing you are unworthy of any effort. The negative and positive possibilities depend on you.

A white wolf encounters a black wolf. Which will win?

Whichever you feed.

Tori Weir

11/1/2019 03:23:55 pm

As you said, a person can see guilt as a negative or positive possibility in the end. It is a powerful emotion that can make someone to change their whole life due to it. Guilt forces a person to reflect on their actions and how they act.

Erykah

10/30/2019 10:22:14 pm

It is important to note the difference between guilt and shame. Shame is about ourselves, while guilt is “about things in the real world--acts or failures to act, events for which one bears responsibility” (PositivePsychology.com). Feelings of shame often lead to self-induced isolation and negative behavior, such as aggression, defensiveness, or avoidance, which can worsen conflict. Guilt, on the other hand, encourages people to reflect on themselves, resulting in helping others or fixing situations with an apology or gift. Humans learn from their guilt, making our world a better place than one without guilt.

Psychology Today provides an excellent example to differentiate guilt and shame: Imagine you go to the store to buy a Christmas ornament, and there is one for $10 and one for $60. Because they look similar, you decide to swap their price tags, taking the $60 ornament home for $10. When you start to feel guilty, you tell someone what you did, and they advise you to return it and give $50 to a charity. After you do what they say, you feel better since your actions helped others and cleared your conscience. This is an example of guilt. Shame is when you start to feel guilty that you swapped the items, but you do not act upon it, which causes bad feelings to linger.

As long as feelings do not turn to shame, it’s okay to feel guilty once in a while because there is some good that comes from it.

Dr. Brene Brown’s philosophy on guilt and shame:
https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_listening_to_shame/transcript
Sources:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/love-and-sex-in-the-digital-age/201401/guilt-good-shame-bad
https://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/guilt_shame
https://positivepsychology.com/shame-guilt/

Tori Weir

11/1/2019 03:04:52 pm

It is interesting how shame and guilt play a part in a person's conscious when they know they hurt another one's feelings or did something that goes against their morals like your example. They even effect how the emotions can either make a person change. Do you think it is necessary to feel these emotions?

Erykah

11/3/2019 06:16:46 pm

I think guilt is necessary for people to conduct beneficial acts in society. There are good things that come from guilt, like donations and volunteering. Shame, on the other hand, does not have the same effect. Shame brings us down, making us too embarrassed for positive change.

Faith

11/3/2019 08:47:39 am

I didn’t think about the similarities between guilt and shame. Do you think that with guilt comes empathy? Or is that entirely different?

Erykah

11/3/2019 06:24:13 pm

I think guilt encourages empathy. A world without guilt would look sad because no one would care about anyone else, and there would be no kindness.

Alyssa Farnworth

11/3/2019 07:01:05 pm

I liked that you differentiated between guilt and shame. When someone does something bad do you think it is up to them to make the decision on making amends or do you feel someone else should decide how to right wrongs. Do you think if guilt was removed other human emotions would be too?

Tori Weir

11/1/2019 02:51:54 pm

Guilt is a powerful emotion that it affects how people make choices about everything they do. Even before making an act in a situation there is always a conscious, wondering if the action will hurt anyone physically, emotionally, or mentally. For example, talking about someone behind their back would bring guilt to not do it due to knowing that it will bring another pain. Guilt is not a nice feeling and will never be.
Guilt does not only affect how people act but it also brings confession and a change. In some cases, people who made a bad decision usually feel guilty especially when they know they harmed another. Guilt can really motivate someone to change their ways to be their better self. For example, if a person is found guilty for committing a crime then they would either want to become a better citizen or will not care.
Without the feeling of guilt then there would be less compassion in the world and more greed and selfishness. Overall, everyone would stop caring about how their actions might affect someone else and only fend for themselves. People would become colder to talk to and everyone would be less empathetic.

Faith

11/3/2019 08:46:36 am

I think everyone would be more cold and empathetic as well. The world could be very different without it. What is another emotion society could not live without?

Faith

11/3/2019 08:45:29 am

Guilt is a very powerful and necessary emotion. I believe the majority of the time when someone feels guilt, they also feel empathy. For example, if someone found out you disliked them and they became extremely upset about it, you would begin to feel guilty but also want to be their friend because you feel empathetic. However, there are many cases that make one feel only guilt. It’s such a strong feeling primarily because if you are guilty it is hard to forget why.
If society didn’t have guilt, the world would be very different. People would not feel guilty towards others or themselves, leaving lack of emotions. However, if we didn’t have guilt, we would still have empathy. This means that we would still be able to feel bad for other in complicated situations we caused, and put ourselves in their shoes. But some people don’t obtain the emotion to be empathetic, which would cause that person to not care at all. Overall, without guilt it would cause people to react to situations very differently, whether it is positively or negatively; especially if they choose not to try and fix the situation.

Ezra

11/3/2019 12:05:57 pm

I agree that guilt is a very powerful and that without it we would not be human. I also think that empathy plays into guilt.

Andy Gebhardt

11/3/2019 01:25:39 pm

You mentioned empathy but I feel as though empathy and guilt play into the same idea. I do not believe we could have empathy and not guilt or the other way around. Empathy is feeling bad for someone nexus you have been in a similar situation and know what it is like and without guilt it would be hard to understand another person’s experiences.

Sabrina

11/3/2019 06:20:40 pm

You do not have to feel guilt in order to understand what someone is going through. I can feel empathy for someone that has stubbed their toe and feel no guilt at all. What is your definition of guilt?

madicyn

11/3/2019 05:01:27 pm

It's also interesting to consider the levels of guilt. It can vary from subtle experiences and situations. Such as a child stealing some taffy,the guilt will go away soon enough, to situations like our speaker at the assembly, he lives with the guilt of taking a woman's life every day due to his own actions. The severity of guilt is an important factor to consider in these conversations.

Brax Kauffman

11/3/2019 08:20:49 pm

I agree that they world would be much different without guilt. What do you think are the most prominent things that it would affect?

Ezra

11/3/2019 12:02:43 pm

Without guilt in the world humans would be void of feeling bad for one another, and in a way be robots to human emotion. It could be bad for us because we wouldn’t feel guilty about things we caused or things we could have prevented. We would just move on in our lives. In some cases that is good because there would be no survivors guilt and other post traumatic issues, so people will not have to live in the past and relive bad situations.

Andy Gebhardt

11/3/2019 01:23:04 pm

The survivors guilt you mentioned is a big issue. Many people do not know how to handle it and can end up taking their own life. It would be different without guilt but I agree that there would not be much empathy for other people.

Aiden

11/3/2019 01:50:32 pm

Wow. I like your idea of survivors guilt going away. That would make life so much better for many people. That thought makes up for your short post.

Paige

11/3/2019 02:05:49 pm

It is interesting that you brought up PTSD. I was thinking of only the negatives of lost guilt but now understand it could be beneficial in some areas. Do you think if the world no longer had guilt, society would be better or worse?

Brax Kauffman

11/3/2019 08:18:59 pm

I understand that there are many negatives to this but to go along with the positives do think it would help the world be more efficient?

Andy Gebhardt

11/3/2019 01:21:39 pm

Every person experiences guilt at some point in their lives. It may be for winning something they did not deserve, seeing someone else get their punishment, or many other situations. All of these have different effects on a person and the way the world works would be different without guilt.
One of the biggest issues that no guilt could cause is in violence or war. People would no longer have the guilt of hurting somebody else and so violence would be a much greater issue. In the book “A Long Way Gone”, the main character and author went through a time of war in Sierra Leone. He became dehumanized and didn’t feel guilt until he understood what he had done and got back into normal society. Without guilt, it is hard to know what is right and wrong.

Paige

11/3/2019 02:03:58 pm

"A Long Way Gone" is a great example of lost guilt. As the main character became desensitized, he was completely oblivious to what is good and what is bad. He lost the very attribute that made him human. Do you think that without guilt, hate would rise?

Aiden

11/3/2019 03:56:43 pm

Guilt definitely makes us human and if we take that away we tend to become more evil odd argue. We’d not care about the aftermath of our choices.

madicyn

11/3/2019 04:55:45 pm

Your reference to, " A Long Way Gone", was very intriguing to me. I agree with your statement, and it fits great with the idea of losing the emotion. It also led me to how the main character was basically brain washed, and how the affected the boy soldiers and their actions. Their humanity was stripped away, and they were left with no real emotion or ability to identify differences between good and bad, right and wrong.

Sabrina

11/3/2019 06:51:28 pm

It would be interesting to be able to look at things that we should have felt guilt for. If we couldn't feel guilt, we wouldn't know what we were missing. It may be the same case now.

Paige

11/3/2019 01:57:27 pm

The world would not be better or more productive without guilt. If we no longer had guilt in our society then crime would increase, as well as divorce, murder, terrorism, and general hate. If guilt ceased to exist then individuals would no longer hold back from doing what they know to be wrong. Society would be in complete chaos.
Guilt gives mankind the ability to reflect on wrongdoings and work to be better. Without the feeling of guilt there would be no point on reflecting on what is wrong because it would no longer seem wrong. Being able to contemplate our faults helps us be better. In a world without guilt, faults would go unrecognized. Individuals would see no wrong, which in turn would mean no reason to improve. Society would be at a standstill. No progression, only continual hate.

Erykah

11/3/2019 06:55:20 pm

A world with no guilt sounds like a scary place. This world makes me think of all the animals humans wouldn't protect because we would feel no empathy for them. Do you think more animals would become extinct in this world?

madicyn

11/3/2019 04:51:32 pm

Guilt is a strong emotion, as stated in previous posts. I read an article posted on HuffPost, and the author stated, "The need for guilt exists because people happily do exactly what they wish while avoiding responsibility for their actions. They want pizza without calories, sex without betrayal, war without victims." So, living without guilt may feel nice for each of us for awhile. We'd be able to participate in any action we wanted without feeling bad afterwards for hurting any other person involved. We'd be able to put anything into our bodies and system without feeling guilty for causing mild harm to our bodies. People would no longer feel the emotions that stop them from doing wrongful things. With that being said, this could cause serious harm to our society, and personal lives. People would no longer take responsibility for their actions, harming people's health, friendships would be ruined, rates of bad things would most likely go up, and overall the world would become a much worse place. Emotions are powerful, and if we lost guilt, we'd lose a part of what makes us human.

Erykah

11/3/2019 06:44:37 pm

I agree that losing guilt would be losing a part of our humanity. Looking at poor and rich people, which of the two do you think the loss of guilt would negatively affect first?

Alyssa Farnworth

11/3/2019 06:45:04 pm

Guilt can be both good and bad. There are a few types of guilt such as survivors guilt which are detrimental to people. If someone feels too much guilt it can cause a lot of mental and physical issues. Guilt, however, can be positive as it pushes people to be better and reach higher expectations for themselves. If someone's guilt is sincere it can make them a better person and may help others to heal depending on what they did and how they choose to act on it. As I stated earlier guilt holds some people back. Many people experience invalidated guilt which holds them back. So for some I think they could use less guilt and for others I think they could use a lot more. For the general public guilt is necessary. Without guilt for a short while there may be more productivity but after a while people would not care who or what they hurt to push themselves forward. I don’t believe the world would would be better as relationships would suffer and eventually productivity would go down. Without guilt we would also lose many other human emotions and would not take responsibility for their actions.

Sabrina

11/3/2019 06:46:05 pm

Guilt is attached to so many important emotions. Imagine a mother has run over her son's beloved dog. The mother can feel sympathy for her son, but she wouldn't feel responsible. The son would feel immense pain and sorrow and would more than likely blame the mother. This would cause a rift in their relationship because the mother would not apologize for what she did. If we were to remove guilt and blame, this situation would get better, and worse. If we didn't feel guilt, we wouldn't learn from our mistakes or understand that offending people is mean. Overall, we would have an unhappier population. We could remove all negative emotions, but then we would just be dead. All of our emotions are necessary and good. Without them we would be terrible people. Those who don't feel guilt are generally unliked people.

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