Society wants you to feel ashamed of yourself

I like Cathy O'Neil's work. I wish I'd read more of her before finishing some of the chapters in Digital Vegan because she sees clearly and uses good examples. Maybe The Invisible Committee hit the mark a little ahead of her in 2014. Looking back I see that period roughly from 2012 to 2016 as a "waking up" time for lots of people.

"It's math — you won't understand it." speaks loudly on the abuse of digital technology by power that cannot account for itself through reason and whose agendas are obviously deceitful.

Society (especially urban society) controlling individuals through shaming is the thesis of Diogenes... So nothing new under the sun...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes

One of the big revelations in my life happened in my early twenties. A person was chiding me, extensively, over something, and I realized that I should never feel any guilt over something that I didn't do wrong.

Sure, that's simple and obvious, but I hadn't realized before that how often I did accept guilt for other people's actions... or guilt for something that wasn't wrong in the first place. It happens often. People use it as a tool, a hammer, sometimes to displace their own guilt, and it's freeing once you learn to shrug it off.

As a corollary, just as obvious, you need to accept guilt that you've earned.