5mo ago

How Shame is Used by Norwegians to Force you to Conform

How Shame is Used by Norwegians to Force you to Conform – A Frog in the Fjord

5 comments

Huh, this might be one of the few times I've read something negative about Norway.
- It's a great country, but no place is perfect.
Late to the party, but I have to say if you removed the country name I'd bet my life savings that that this article was talking about Japan. Especially that standing out being bad part, which immediately reminded me of the Japanese proverb "standing nails get hammered down". Kind of depressing, but very interesting.
- I suppose there's no other way to use shame. It's just a question of which cultures do it and to what extent.
Shame has both good and bad sides - for a community as a whole, I think it is mostly positive. Why? It helps us to conform and to think "what would other people think..", and that is necessary when millions of people need to function and live together in a society. Although I do clearly see that it can be quite harsh on the individual.