Guilt

Guilt is a word describing many concepts related to a negative emotion or condition caused by actions which are, or are believed to be, morally wrong.

Causes of guilt

Some thinkers have theorized that guilt is used as a tool of social control. Since guilty people feel they are undeserving, they are less likely to assert their rights and prerogatives. Thus, those in power seek to cultivate a sense of guilt among the populace, in order to make them more tractable. This was a theme in Eric Hoffer's The True Believer. Ayn Rand claimed that Christian sexual morality served a similar purpose.

Related Topics:
Social control - Eric Hoffer's - The True Believer - Ayn Rand - Christian sexual morality

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Evolutionary psychologists tend to think that guilt is a rational human emotion selected by evolution. If a person feels guilty when he harms another or even fails to reciporicate kindness, he is more likely not to harm others or become too selfish; in this way, he reduces the chances of retaliation by members of his tribe and thereby increases his survival prospects. As with any other emotion, guilt can be manipulated to control or influence others, yet it is likely more advantageous than not.

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Another common notion is that guilt is actually assigned by social processes such as a jury trial, i.e. that it is a strictly legal concept. Thus the ruling of a jury that O. J. Simpson or Julius Rosenberg was "guilty" or "not guilty" is taken as an actual judgement by the whole society that they must act as if he were so. By corollary, the ruling that such a person is "not guilty" may not be so taken, due to the asymmetry that assumes one is innocent until proven guilty and prefers to take the risk of freeing a guilty party over convicting innocents.

Related Topics:
Jury trial - O. J. Simpson - Julius Rosenberg - Innocent until proven guilty - Risk

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Collective guilt

Collective guilt is the idea that a collection of humans or a human institution can bear guilt above and beyond the guilt of particular members. Collective guilt is generally regarded as impossible because it seems to presuppose that collections of humans can have traits, such as intentions and knowledge, that strictly speaking are truely possessed only by individuals. Nevertheless, humans seem to have a natural tendency to attribute collective guilt, usually with tragic results. For example, Christians have for centuries blamed "the Jews" collectively for the death of Christ. Moreover, history is filled with examples of a wronged man who tried to avenge himself, not on the person who has wronged him, but on other members of the wrong-doer's family, or ethnic group, or religion, or nation, or tribe, or army. Even today many nations have laws holding corporations, but not the individual decision-makers within them, responsible for certain kinds of acts. For example, in the United States corporations can be fined for violating pollution laws, but the individuals who actually ordered and directed the polluting activity may not themselves be regarded as having broken any laws.

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