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J AZ's avatar

Sara - I always said maybe 15% of people were... jerks (or a less civil expletive, depending on the company I was in when I gave my estimation). Obviously I misunderestimated. Badly.

The diminishment of shame as a societal management mechanism hasn't turned out to be the boon we might have imagined in the '60s & '70s

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Sara Smith's avatar

The book The Sociopath Next Door estimates than 4% of the population are sociopaths. (Not all sociopaths are racists, and not all racists are sociopaths, so it isnтАЩt an exact overlap.) 4% doesnтАЩt sound like a lot, but itтАЩs one out of 25. So I say, the next time youтАЩre in a group of 25 or more people - at church, maybe, or in a mall or at a sporting event - look around and try to figure out which one(s) is/are the sociopath.

And yes, the decline of shame as an inhibitor has been a loss to society.

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