Wednesday, April 25, 2012

acting in ways

Shaming doesn't work very well anymore. Our societies and communities have changed. We live in an anonymous society of single-family dwellings, lonely car commutes to work, and tenuous social connections that we have to work harder and harder to maintain. And we are transient - we move from place to place quickly and easily, shedding identities and pasts, endlessly reinventing ourselves. We cannot be shamed because there is no single inescapable community that knows us, gossips about us, and watches us for signs that we are acting in ways contrary to the accepted standards of society.

-- The Peep Diaries by Hal Niedzviecki

No comments: