So You've Been Publicly Shamed

Jon Ronson

Penguin, 2015 - Computers - 290 pages

Now a New York Times bestseller and from the author of The Psychopath Test, a captivating and brilliant exploration of one of our world's most underappreciated forces: shame.

'It's about the terror, isn't it?'

'The terror of what?' I said.

'The terror of being found out.'

For the past three years, Jon Ronson has travelled the world meeting recipients of high-profile public shamings. The shamed are people like us - people who, say, made a joke on social media that came out badly, or made a mistake at work. Once their transgression is revealed, collective outrage circles with the force of a hurricane and the next thing they know they're being torn apart by an angry mob, jeered at, demonized, sometimes even fired from their job.

A great renaissance of public shaming is sweeping our land. Justice has been democratized. The silent majority are getting a voice. But what are we doing with our voice? We are mercilessly finding people's faults. We are defining the boundaries of normality by ruining the lives of those outside it. We are using shame as a form of social control.

Simultaneously powerful and hilarious in the way only Jon Ronson can be, So You've Been Publicly Shamed is a deeply honest book about modern life, full of eye-opening truths about the escalating war on human flaws - and the very scary part we all play in it.

Contents

• One Braveheart: 1
• Three The Wilderness: 33
• Four God That Was Awesome: 67
• Five Man Descends Several Rungs in: 91
• Six Doing Something Good: 111
• Seven Journey to a ShameFree Paradise: 137
• Eight The ShameEradication Workshop: 157
• Nine A Town Abuzz over Prostitution: 177
• Ten The Near Drowning of Mike Daisey: 191
• Eleven The Man Who Can Change: 205
• Twelve The Terror: 231
• Fourteen Cats and Ice Cream and Music: 263
• Bibliography and Acknowledgments: 283

About the author

Jon Ronson is a writer and documentary film maker. His books include Them: Adventures with Extremists, Out of the Ordinary: True Tales of Everyday Craziness, What I Do: More True Tales, The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry, and So You've Been Publicly Shamed. The Men Who Stare at Goats was made into a motion picture starring George Clooney in 2009. He will be delivering the opening address at the Brisbane Writers Festival in September 2015.

Bibliographic information

• Title: So You've Been Publicly Shamed
• Author: Jon Ronson
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Penguin, 2015
• ISBN: 1594487138, 9781594487132
• Length: 290 pages
• Subjects: Computers / Internet / Social Media; Psychology / Emotions; Psychology / History; Psychology / Interpersonal Relations; Psychology / Social Psychology; Social Science / Popular Culture; Social Science / Social Classes & Economic Disparity; Social Science / Sociology / General