10.26.20

Avoidant relations that create hierarchy is based on shame—taboo—division. The power to silence.

Jocular relations that create community is based on guilt—confession—sharing. The power to speak.

The internal and external perspective of conscious being our understanding of justice.

Is there a paradoxical relationship between shame and guilt? Shame causes an internalization or sublimation, to determine the modes of guilt, while guilt causes an externalization or performance, to destabilize the modes of shame. If this is the case, then shame casts things into the unconscious while guilt brings things into the conscious, and there is a constant flow between the two states.

Whereas shame suspends behavior, guilt propels behavior. In this way, honor gives agency and pride allows moderation.

Justice then persists within the fashioning of identity, aesthetically, as identity is the container between shame and guilt.