So You've Been Publicly Shamed (Ronson)

So You've Been Publicly Shamed 
Jon Ronson, 2015
Penguin Books
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781594634017


Summary
"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. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—May 10, 1967
• Where—Cardiff, Wales, UK
• Education—University of Westminster (London)
• Currently—lives in London, England, and New York City, New York


Jon Ronson is a Welsh journalist, author, documentary filmmaker, and radio presenter, whose works include the best-selling The Men Who Stare at Goats (2004), The Psychopath Test (2011), and So You've Been Publicly Shamed (2015).

He has been described as a "gonzo journalist" (a first-person style of journalism in which the reporter is part of the story) and is known for his informal, but skeptical, investigations of controversial fringe politics and science.

As the author of nine books, Jonson's work has appeared in British publications such as The Guardian, City Life and Time Out. He has made several BBC Television documentary films and two documentary series for Channel 4. He is also a regular contributor to public radio's This American Life.

Personal life
Ronson was born in Cardiff, Wales, and studied for a degree in Media Studies at the University of Westminster. Ronson is a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association. He is married to Elaine Patterson, and the couple has a son, Joel.

Writing career
Ronson's first book, Clubbed Class, was published in 1994. The book is a travelogue in which Ronson bluffs his way into a jet set lifestyle, in search of the world's finest holiday.[8]

His second book, Them: Adventures with Extremists, was published in 2001 and chronicles his experiences with people labelled as extremists. Subjects in the book include David Icke, Randy Weaver, Omar Bakri Muhammad, Ian Paisley, Alex Jones, and Thom Robb. Ronson also follows independent investigators of secretive groups such as the Bilderberg Group. The narrative tells of Ronson's attempts to infiltrate the "shadowy cabal" fabled, by these conspiracy theorists, to rule the world. The book, a bestseller, was described by Louis Theroux as "funny and compulsively readable picaresque adventure through a paranoid shadow world."

Ronson's 2004 book, The Men Who Stare at Goats, deals with the secret New Age unit within the United States Army called the First Earth Battalion. Ronson investigated people who believed that, with the right mental preparation, people can walk through walls and goats can be killed simply by staring at them. A film adaptation was released in 2009, in which Ronson's investigations were fictionalised and structured around a journey to Iraq. Ronson is played by the actor Ewan McGregor in the film.

Ronson's fourth book, Out of the Ordinary: True Tales of Everyday Craziness, was published in 2006. It is a collection of Ronson's Guardian articles, mostly those concerning his domestic life. A companion volume, What I Do: More True Tales of Everyday Craziness, was published in 2007.

The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry is Ronson's fifth book, published in 2011. In it, he explores the nature of psychopathic behaviour, investigating the  reliability of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist and learning how to apply it. He interviews people in facilities for the criminally insane as well as potential psychopaths in corporate boardrooms. The book has been criticized by Robert D. Hare, creator of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, who called it "frivolous, shallow, and professionally disconcerting."

Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries is Ronson's sixth book, published in 2012. So You've Been Publicly Shamed, a book about public shaming, came out in 2015. It considers social media's role in escalating high-profile public scandals. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 4/15/2015.)

Book Reviews
The choice of subject for So You've Been Publicly Shamed turns out to be gutsy and smart. Without losing any of the clever agility that makes his books so winning, [Ronson] has taken on truly consequential material and risen to the challenge. His overall point is something we already understand: Public shaming in the age of social media has the kind of power that no form of shaming ever had before.
Janet Maslin - New York Times


An irresistibly gossipy cocktail with a chaser of guilt.
Newsday


A diligent investigator and a wry, funny writer, Ronson manages to be at once academic and entertaining.
Boston Globe


A work of original, inspired journalism.
Financial Times


A sharp-eyed and often hilarious book…Jon Ronson has written a fresh, big-hearted take on an important and timely topic. He has nothing to be ashamed of.
NPR.org
 

This book really needed to be written.
Salon.com
 

It’s sharply observed, amusingly told, and, while its conclusions may stop just short of profound, the true pleasure of the book lies in arriving at those conclusions.”
Onion, AV Club


[A] simultaneously lightweight and necessary book.
Esquire


Ronson is an entertaining and provocative writer, with a broad reach …[So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed] is a well-reported, entertainingly written account of an important subject.
Oregonian


I was mesmerized. And I was also disturbed.
Forbes


[H]igh-profile shaming in the social-media age in this witty work.... Ronson is self-reflective and honest about his own complicity in the cultural piling-on.... Clever and thought-provoking, this book has the potential to open an important dialogue about faux moral posturing online and its potentially disastrous consequences.
Publishers Weekly


In 2012, Ronson's online identity was stolen by three academics.... [H]e chastised them publicly, but...began considering how much public shaming as social control is still with us, even if those scarlet letters have been pitched in the wastebasket.
Library Journal


With confidence, verve, and empathy, Ronson skillfully informs and engages the reader without excusing those caught up in the shame game. As he stresses, we are the ones wielding this incredible power over others' lives, often with no regard for the lasting consequences of our actions.
Booklist


[A] hard look at the dark side of shaming on social media.... Ronson believes that via social media, we are creating a contemporary version of...awarding scarlet letters with gleeful viciousness to people who often are more guilty of silliness and indiscretion than they are of any...felony.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for So You've Been Publicly Shamed:

1. One of the overriding questions posed by Ronson's book is whether or not anyone of us might become the butt of a public shaming scandal. Are any of us immune? Are you?

2. Can you come up with your own examples of someone who received a highly public shaming through social media? Did that individual deserve the attention and attendant disgrace?

3. How easy is it for someone to put his or her life back together after being publicly shamed?

4. To what degree does someone, who is object of social media frenzy, deserve the disapprobation he or she receives?

5. What role does—and ideally should—blame and shame play in maintaining society's moral standards? How do we hold people accountable for their transgressions—and what kind of transgressions deserve public shaming?

6. Which, if any, of Ronson's subjects do you have sympathy for? Was there anyone you felt who deserved the high-profile blame?

7. Is there anything positive, any societal good, that results from social media's blame-and shame potential?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution.)

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