Scandals are useful because they focus our attention on problems in ways that no speaker or reformer ever could.
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We hear speeches from speakers and reformers every day. A political speaker addresses the country's economic growth; a political reformer talks about his plan of building reciprocal relations with other countries. An academic speaker reflects on seeking effective means to increase students' well-being; an academic reformer envisions future education that is more inclusive, and offers equal opportunities for every student. A business speaker shares experience of how to be a successful entrepreneur; a business reformer ponders new forms of businesses that would likely increase employment rates. Communications like these are useful in creating rich and thought-provoking dialogues that propel the development of every aspect of a society.
Unlike speakers and reformers, scandals draw the public's attention because their breakouts indicate a breach of moral standards or legal regulations, and the public demands immediate solutions. Since Richard Nixon and many officials involved in the infamous Watergate scandal were lawyers, the public questioned the integrity of the entire lawyer community in the United States. As a response, the American Bar Association established a stricter code for conduct and required all future law students to take courses in professional responsibility. Examples like this suggest that the breakout of a scandal reveals the loopholes in a presumably well-structured system undergirded by both laws and moral conscience. The effect, thus, is tremendous since scandals are an assault on widely accepted and cherished ethics that everyone is expected to abide by.
Sexual scandals, especially the ones that involve sexual harassment and assault, are useful because they empower many victims to stand up so that society becomes aware of the severity of the problem. For example, the popular "Me Too" movement stems from a horrendous sexual scandal in the film industry- in October 2017 more than a dozen women accused Harvey Weinstein of sexually abusing them. What's astonishing about the outbreak is that the subsequent investigation revealed his 30-year history of sexually abusing over 80 women. This case shows the difficulty in confronting one's sexual abusers because their social status and power, and because of the tremendous amount of shame the victims feel that prevents them from reporting their abusers. The "Me Too" movement then is a timely response that encourages victims to speak up about their traumatic experiences of being abused so the community can be formed, and justice can be served.
However, ever-developing technology and media have made it seem like scandals are everywhere. Unlike years ago when the circulation of scandals were relying on gossiping, telegrams, or newspapers, contemporary scandals can be spread worldwide on social media with seconds. Consequently, scandals routinely appear and become a component of everyday life, which inevitably minimizes their effect of drawing the public's attention. This is not because scandals cease to be problematic, nor because they no longer represent a matter of crisis or a sense of urgency; instead, it shows how the public has become numbed by the multiplication of political and social problems. In this sense, it's sad to see that scandals are getting more frequent and getting worse, but less and less likely to draw the public's attention.
Adding to the problem of scandals' ubiquity, people fabricate scandals in order to defame their competitors, which is conspicuously true in contemporary politics, When it comes to presidential elections, for example, media tirelessly offer coverage not of candidates' plans for economic development, adequate social welfare, health care, or education reform, but the opponents' alleged "scandals". They abuse scandals to mean anything negative that might harm the reputation of a person to the extent that we can argue that elections often resemble a staged farce. We need to reclaim the word "scandal" to retain its meaning, and its function of reiterating a society's fundamental ethical and moral values. We do not want to see scandals happen, but when they happen, we want to give them full attention so that we can adequately address problems that these scandals reveal.
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大綱
speaker 和reformer是幹嘛的？=speeches作用 創造激勵人心的話語 促進社會進步=Communications like these are useful in creating rich and thought-provoking dialogues that propel the development of every aspect of a society.
不像speaker or reformer， scandal 顯示了社會弊端，引發大眾關注討論 。/Richard Nixon水門醜聞 Watergate scandal ：公眾質疑法律integrity，American Bar Association 建立 strict code /揭露專業人士建立的本以為完好的體系中 難以發現的漏洞 scandal是對公德 大眾道德的打擊。
性醜聞激勵被害者發聲，形成影響力讓社會注意到問題。/me too運動從醜聞中引發= Harvey Weinstein sexually abusing ，film industry ，2017 10月，很多女受害者/ 這個例子顯示出 揭露社會地位高的人犯罪很困難 又恨羞恥，讓受害者跳出說出他們traumatic exp sothat community reformed
但是現在技術好了醜聞發生頻率增加/不像以前的媒體，現在傳播很快 變成日常 人們缺少關心 麻木/醜聞不是問題 而是人們變得麻木在眾多出現的問題中。
醜聞被政治選舉利用， 用作攻擊對手品德 政治選舉變成鬧劇staged farce
醜聞的作用是重述大眾基本的社會道德價值觀念，我們不希望它發生，但它出現的時候我們更希望它得到全面的關注
