What It All Comes Down To

On page 78, Williams notes that what shame is all about is really being inappropriately seen, by the wrong people, in the wrong context (at the wrong place at the wrong time). He later states in his book how there are ways of feeling shame without being caught by just anyone. These two ways in which one can feel shame without necessarily being caught by anyone are that you can imagine being in a situation where you were caught by someone, or you have to be caught by someone that actually has adds some sort of stimulation to create your feelings of shame.

I would agree on his point in that one can simply imagine being put in a shame-inducing situation and actually feel real shame. This is mainly because we all live in our minds. What we interpret from the outside world is all secondary and only can add to what is already being done in your mind. Additionally, shame works only in the mind and you can only really understand your own interpretation of feeling ashamed, so naturally, if you use your mind to think about a shameful displaying of yourself in any way imaginable, then what you are experiencing is shame.

I would also agree on Williams' point in that the mere act of being caught by another human being during the shame-inducing situation does not necessarily imply that you will feel shame. It is always about the wrong action, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, by the wrong person. I'd like to think of it as having a pseudo-judgment of your act in which you believe is shame-worthy. Of course, before you have the ability to feel shame, you must believe that what you are doing/did was worthy of being ashamed of. If someone interacts with you at this time, you must also believe that they will judge you accordingly, yet you do not have the ability to know that they will judge you a certain way. But, all it takes is your assumption.

Finally, I would like to add that one may not even need the experience of directly thinking about or being physically involved with another person in order to feel shame. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that what it all comes down to is that your judging of your act of whether or not it is shame-worthy determines solely on if the conditions you judge your act on came from the ideals and social rules of the culture/society in which you have learned and experienced them. For example; you can be the last standing survivor of the zombie apocalypse, while driving your car crash into another car, not be in direct contact with any people or be thinking about what people may think, and deem your act as shame-worthy because of what you have learned about hitting other people's cars.

I like how Williams delve into the idea of shame as a heteronomous idea in that it takes more than one person's opinion, roughly, to deem something as shame-worthy or not. I hope that my explanation added to his argument and made clear of where shame comes from.