It takes people who deal daily with multitude others, such as politicians, to develop a "thick skin", so to speak, to hide their emotional vulnerability, to perform their jobs, then.
Except when it comes to Mr. Trump, the "alternative politician," who, crass and crude as he seems, is actually a very thin-skinned, normal human being just like you and me.
Our sensitivity to "what would others think" can easily be transformed to feeling of shame if we do something against societal norms that brings embarrassment to ourselves or our family. "Don't be a burden to others," is rule number one Japanese kids are taught first day at school. It's no surprise then theirs is such an orderly and courteous society, and the extraordinarily well behaved soccer fans we saw on TV dutifully cleaning up their seats even after a heart breaking loss of their team at the World Cup games.
Guilt, by some definition, is more intrinsic and individualistic. It's a bad feeling you have when something you do or did not do goes against your personal values... which, again, might very well be culturally nurtured. As the joke goes: "I am a Catholic, I feel guilty about everything."
Is my behavior more guilt driven or shame driven?
In the community I live, they recently set up stop signs and bumps at some erstwhile free flowing intersections. Many--including myself--hate it, and some actually drive around the bump when they come to it. I felt like doing the same thing, and wouldn't feel guilty about it because I thought these bumps were really stupid boondoggle contraptions (that I'd like to protest about too), but the thought of "what if my neighbors saw me doing this and thought less of me, the law abiding, Model Citizen Wong image all collapsing in one day" stopped me from doing it.
Sin is another bad feeling quite in its own category, and very much a religious one. The old school definition of it sounds like a curse God threw upon human beings since their grand old innocent ancestors made an inexcusable mistake of disobeying His benevolent advice, while modern theologians like to focus on the disposition of human mindset and call it as being "off the mark," "going the wrong direction," thus alleviating the moral connotation of the word.
Spiritually, I think sin just means "inadequacy" of humankind: Our lack of power to love, inability to truly embrace others, self-obsession, small-mindedness ... all the plain facts of who we really are.
Admitting that, and being drawn towards its opposite (if we feel something is missing, something probably is out there), with no shame or guilt pushing us behind, what a joyful and wonderful ride to eternity would that be!
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"... whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:8).
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