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Must we live in perpetual fear of being named and shamed?

Current wars, Brexit and Trumpism have sucked us into a vortex of outrage and disgrace, says David Keen – while advertisers make us feel guilty for being too fat or just poor

6 January 2024

9:00 AM

6 January 2024

9:00 AM

Shame: The Politics and Power of an Emotion David Keen

Princeton University Press, pp.348, 30

You should feel thoroughly ashamed of reading this infamous rag. Or else you might decide to revel, shamelessly, in its critics’ prim disapproval. From political squalls to global wars, David Keen argues that a ‘spiral of shame’ and shamelessness now traps individuals and societies in arid cycles of pain, rage and revenge.

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