Shame

April 9/2014

What is shame? Why do we feel it? When is it that we feel shame? These are some questions that may fascinate some of us. 

Well shame is a feeling that is not comfortable to feel. It is directly or indirectly connected with what we think people are thinking of us. So it is a thing of the ego. Some kinds of shame are so powerful that some choose to die rather than go through them. It is usually on human beings that this feeling is noticed on. But according to some observations some animals show some kind of sign that they somehow feel it too. The level of shame in animals depends on their level of consciousness. As the level of consciousness rises so does the level of shame. It is also noticeable that shame is usually felt when around others. Feeling ashamed of ourselves is psychological pain and feeling let down by ourselves rather than feeling shame. The level of shame on humans again differs on the level of the ego. The bigger the ego the bigger the shame.

There are different kinds of shame that arise due to different situations. Shame usually arises in us when we don't meet the level of expectation of others or ourselves around others, when we feel we are lower than others, when we get brought down from a high level of egoistic state to a lower one in a short span due to circumstances and generally when we think that others are thinking low of us beyond our expectations.

Nature didn't give us shame without a reason. It has its uses and flaws. It is very useful for giving a drive for competition and thus our inbetterment. Without the ego we as humans living in a situated and stable environment wouldn't feel the need to compete. That in turn would let us down in the competition we have with nature and also would stagnate our inbetterment. We wouldn't be motivated to do better as much as we would with our ego. That being the main purpose from the aspect of our way of life it tells us that there is something to be done in the area to better improve our way of life.

It also has flaws. For example feeling ashamed where we don't need to, sacrificing life in order to run away from it, and others. It is embedded in us deeply throughout our course of history/evolution that we may feel sometimes feel shame on areas that we shouldn't. That happens because it was given to us by nature to improve on our flaws and to excel in survival. But it not being specified on the right reasons only, it may be felt on wrong reasons and on things that if reasoned out we should not feel about.

The good thing about its flaws is that we as humans can reason out and prevent it or at least lesson it  by reasoning and logic.

                                                                                                 By Alazar Desta