far more effective than shame during this pandemic is, i think, guilt: generating a feeling of failed responsibility to someone else more at-risk, more vulnerable than yourself. shame goes nowhere - and it risks inculcating denial, avoidance, and so on. guilt is relational.

(i say this with firsthand experience. i have been able to help friends behave more prudently by reminding them of what is at stake for my vulnerable partner. guilt gives the pandemic a face.)

i should add: this is not the same thing as generating dichotomies between guilt/innocence. i am not talking about guilt in terms of justice. instead i am talking about appealing to the affective flows between all of us, that guide and drive our responsibility to one another.

guilt is, like it or not, the felt precursor to accountability. it is what we might call “a sensitising apparatus.”

perhaps, also, we might understand the difference as follows: shame is exogenously generated while guilt is endogenous. shame unproductively characterises behaviours as callous that have a variety of explanations. guilt is an account of one’s behaviour generated from within.

(these are just ideas i am floating for now. agree or disagree if you find them helpful or unhelpful. i am puzzling through my own anger and fear still.)