This is a strawman argument. I think what we're talking about is shame for having a reckless disregard for others. The way I think of it is we are increasingly living in a world where people are viewing other humans as "NPCs".
I get it — let’s have shame for the things that “we” want there to be shame about. I just don’t think there is good consensus on what that is.
So what function did shame serve in that society?
Shame in third-world societies (like the one I have lived in for the last 15 years) serves many important functions.
In my case, it is a matriarchal culture. The worst thing that can happen to a person is that your mother would feel ashamed. So people go out of their way to not do shameful things like stealing, lying, being disorderly intoxicated, and other socially hostile activities. I find that it is effective at keeping social order, and one of the worst insults is to imply that someone was ill - raised.
It is also the peak of naïveté to assume any mechanism of social control will remain restricted to our pet favorite cause. Isn’t that what every discussion here about encryption backdooors ends up concluding?
Being ashamed of being an addict could lead to avoidance of treatment, so that might be a better example of a negative outcome of shame.
That was fear, not shame.
