Time Magazine (December 3,2007) article "What Makes Us Good/Evil" talks of social shunning as one of the most powerful tools for enforcing group morals. Social shunning can occur spontaneously when a society of millions recoil at a member's act as what happened when, outraged by the 1995 acquittal of O.J. Simpson, the people turned its back on him, denying him work, expelling him from his country club, refusing him service in a restaurant.
"What Makes Us Good/Evil?" cites forms of shunning practiced by religious believers such as the Roman Catholics, Mennonites and Jehovah's Witnesses when they resort to excommunication or disfellowshipping.
The National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) with 13 Million members belonging mainly to Protestant Churces and the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines of the predominantly Catholic nation, both decry the leadership of the Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as morally bankrupt. Catholic Archbishop Oscar Cruz was more specific when he said the President should resign because more than moral bankruptcy, the right term is amorality and that the President is so mired in corruption she can't get out of it anymore. According to Archbishop Cruz, moral regeneration under her is impossible, short of a miracle.
Can social shunning help forge the miracle that these concerned Filipinos are hoping for?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
True, shunning can force most persons to re-evaluate their position.
It's a slightly different matter with like GMA. I wonder how shunning would affect callous individuals who live a lie and perceive themselves to be always right. They may even consider themselves victims of injustice. As 'victims', they'll dig deeper and fight tooth and nail for their misbegotten cause.
sigh
Post a Comment