Adam Serwer and Megan McArdle disagree over the benefits of shame in society. Serwer believes that shame is detrimental and McArdle argues that it has the positive effect of producing social cohesion. Adam Serwer, who blogs for The American Prospect writes that the benefits of shame in society have been overestimated by conservatives. “Shame,” writes Serwer, “provokes response in the form of impulse, not long term planning. A person who is ashamed isn't going to think, “I'd better get a degree” or “I'd better get married,” they're going to think in the short term about what they can do to rectify their sense of self worth.” Megan McArdle, who writes a blog for The Atlantic responds by asking, “Without shame, what are you left with?” she argues that without shame there is no way to “regulate behavior within the social network short of brute force or bribery.” For both McArdle and Serwer, shame is seen in pragmatic terms, whether negatively, in the case of Serwer, or posi...