The ultimate sin today, [Andy] Crouch argues, is to criticize a group, especially on moral grounds. Talk of good and bad has to defer to talk about respect and recognition. Crouch writes, \u201cTalk of right and wrong is troubling when it is accompanied by seeming indifference to the experience of shame that accompanies judgments of \u201d\u02dcimmorality.\u2019\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
He notes that this shame culture is different from the traditional shame cultures, the ones in Asia, for example. In traditional shame cultures the opposite of shame was honor or \u201cface\u201d\u009d \u201d\u201d being known as a dignified and upstanding citizen. In the new shame culture, the opposite of shame is celebrity \u201d\u201d to be attention-grabbing and aggressively unique on some media platform.<\/p>\n
On the positive side, this new shame culture might rebind the social and communal fabric. It might reverse, a bit, the individualistic, atomizing thrust of the past 50 years.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, everybody is perpetually insecure in a moral system based on inclusion and exclusion. There are no permanent standards, just the shifting judgment of the crowd. It is a culture of oversensitivity, overreaction and frequent moral panics, during which everybody feels compelled to go along.<\/p>\n