Scandals are useful because they focus our attention on problems in ways that no speaker or reformer ever could. Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position,

Scandals comprise of accusations, gossips or allegations which although are undesirable and unfortunate, receive wide exposure. Instances of scandals are pervasive in practically every sphere of our lives today. It might be in the form of some political scam disgracing a country’s ideals, or fraud corporate policies looting off investors, or some Hollywood extra-marital affair or it can be present even in the defense systems of a nation. Whatever be the form, scandals invoke interests among all age groups, are a daily part of the gossip in most parts of the world, and receive tremendous broadcast by the plethora of media channels. The question to whether these sensational bits of information are ‘useful’ to the society or to the world at large though, requires a good analysis by critically examining the types of scandals and by comparing the consequences some of them had, on the public consciousness .

Mostly, scandals benefit the public. The media proves to be an asset in this case as they help broadcast and transmit the scandals up to the minutest detail. Just as Socrates said, “ The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance”, through exposure of certain scandals we are at the receiving end of the actual knowledge behind the shroud of purity and goodness otherwise exhibited by the people or organisation responsible for the scandals. They help us be aware and concerned. Many a times, scandals reform the way a system works. The events throughout history are a testimony to the above claim. India has been a land tainted by corruptions, year after year. Scams and scandals are quotidian issues and have penetrated to the grass root levels of administrations in all the spheres. In 2011 India topped the charts for being the country with the most corrupted politicians and bureaucrats. Scandals worth billions and crores of rupees made headlines. 2G scam, The Commonwealth Games scam, Adarsh housing society scam are a few which shook the nation and brought international condemnation to the country. The common Indians, tired and disgusted, broke out in a widespread agitation against the Government in the form of a revolt, called the India Against Corruption Movement, led by Anna Hazare, in 2011. The citizens demanded a corruption free administration through the passage of the Jan Lokpal bill. Concerned by the vehemence of the movement, the government was forced to pass the resolution for the Jan Lokpal Bill. This proves how being aware of the scandals can make the public move a whole country’s administration.

Scandals sometimes can transform people’s minds and make them wary of the systems they live under. When Edward Snowden revealed the NSA’s secret activities of spying down average Americans, the general American public was aghast at their privacy being violated by the most responsible agency in the country. Even with the rejections of these revealations, the people would forever be leery of the agencies they once placed their wholehearted trust on. They would not be comfortable with the fact that the Big Brother is a lot closer than they thought. Also, on a similar note, the Watergate scam unvieled a substantial lot on the character of their Presidents. With such a severe scandal, would the American public ever percieve their leaders with the same eye they perhaps did before? Scandals can have the type of impact on the public eye, which even the most distinguished of the reformers might not. They have the might to shake us up from a halcyon torpor and unmask the truth, making us awared citizens. They help caution us against ills and hence are useful.

Of course, not all scandals are worth knowing. There is a saying that goes, “The public has an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing.” The media is the best platform that caters to this curiosity and it delivers the much desired controversies surrounding the lives of celebrities and politicians. For instance, the Bill Clinton- Lewinsky story gained huge follow-ups across continents, but it did little to serve the poverty issues in say Bangladesh, or the widespread malnutrition problems in South Africa. Months later, the issue simply subsided and Clinton continued in office. Life went on around the globe, without any of the most pressing problems being solved anywhere. So, not always do the scandals focus our attention on the things that are important for the greater welfare of a society. Sometimes, they only reveal things which might be shocking, but are insignificant. However, we can always draw positive connections through the fact that these issues are likely to spice up the average lives of the people and attract even the most ignorant of the citizens to follow the news. While they are on it, they are likely to be exposed to other news around the world and if that happens, they would benefit.

Finally, in this era of rapid and exorbitant information dissemination, the public is constantly aquainted of the scandals around the world. While most of the scandals would impact the public consciousness and move them to take up steps against whatever they feel is not correct, a few other scandals would only act as a source of entertainment. So the takeaway here is, we the public would have to distill the ones that reveal the egregious problems that concern us. Although a little entertainment is fine, public would need to absorb the ones worth worrying for. The ones of such kind are vital for the public as they help bolster the resolve to fight against and redress the injustices inflicted upon them. In that sense, scandals prove advantageous.