Re: Shaming Redux (was Re: [Fwd: Culture and Technology (was Re: Abortion, Killing etc)]

[Katha Pollitt <kpollitt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

But andy -- if YOU came to my house, maybe with some of your comrades,
and told me you disapproved of my behavior -- say, that I'm divorced and
not married to the man I live with (1960s libertarianism) or that I
drink wine with meals and let my daughter have the odd sip of beer, and
correct her drug-ed-induced belief that she'll become a drug addict if
she smokes one joint in her lifetime, I WOULDN'T CARE! I'm sure you do
lots of thinks I disapprove of, and I would take the opportunity to tell
you all about them. then I would throw you out of the house, call up all
our mutual acquaintances, and tell them what a jerk I thought you were.
  You seem to assume people are just waiting to hear your opinion of
their behavior, and that, at bottom, they share your ideas about how to
live. Neither of these things are necessarily true.

Katha