I find it easy to dismiss guilt as a useless emotion- untempered and unconsidered (or overly dwelt upon) it drags us down and deadens our lives. We cannot live in perpetual guilt, though it's occasionally tempting to do so, and remain healthy people. On the other hand, if we ignore guilt (or refuse it) we're letting go of our own responsibility and culpability.
Where is the line between guilt as a a catalyst for action and guilt as a useless wad of despair? Sometimes that seems to be a distinction easily drawn and sometimes not. It is easy to say that we must take responsibility without blaming ourselves- actually doing that is a far trickier matter. And sometimes it seems we should blame ourselves- when our inaction leads to violence, when our privilege destroys the lives of others, when our lack of forethought depletes resources. We can't change the past- does feeling guilty actually help anything, even if it means we won't repeat what happened? It seems that we do some of our cruelest things when we're stepping away from guilt, yet I also find it hard to see such a negative emotion as a positive force for good. We're capable of immensely stupid acts while trying to make ourselves feel not-guilty anymore. Wouldn't compassion be a better motivator? Even though that also reeks of condescension?
Perhaps I see guilt as having potential for good because it is a sharing of pain. When you feel guilty about someone else's troubles, you are in a sense saying "your pain is mine, though I cannot take it from you". It's a sense of relation, an acknowledgment of suffering. It takes, I believe, some level of empathy to feel guilt. Empathy and compassion. We would all be pretty horrible people if we couldn't feel some level of guilt, I think.
I have a feeling I'm going to need a lot more discussions of this to reach anything like a definite statement.
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