guilt

How I Got Evolution | Clarissa's Blog



I can’t deal with the guilt thing at all. I mean I can deal with it only by removing myself from whatever situation is causing me to feel an additional load of guilt that I had not requested to have. Unfortunately, the Western Christian mindset, which is cultural and therefore ubiquitous, tries to use guilt as leverage against perceived nonconformity (and feeling stressed and traumatised can be perceived as nonconformity). If I fall into a situation of allowing the guilt to get the better of me, then I’m not going to behave in a regular, unstressed manner. And people try to solve the problem by — guess what? — imposing more guilt on me. They actually try to use moral leverage by stating that I ought to feel guilty for a job poorly done. But then they push me so much into a primal mode of reckoning with things that I can’t respond socially anymore. I simply have to withdraw. That’s the whole pattern with me and Western Christianity. The Japanese do not employ this “solution” and we get along just fine. I’ve been able to achieve a good level of professional development. But Westerners always try this: “We are going to bring you down a peg or two by making you feel more guilty.” That never works because it doesn’t make me “feel” anything. I stop feeling.