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Charismatic leaders and ultra-popular figures in society undoubtedly have the ability to redirect our attention towards some specific problems. But there is no doubt that a scandal in any aspect of a society may be a useful and powerful attention-getter that can motivate people to sit up and take notice of a previously unknown or little-discussed problem.

To begin with, a scandal cannot actually exist if no one knows about it. Normally when one hears of a scandal, it is caused by someone’s truly outrageous behavior. It is quite often someone of a least some celebrity status that is the offender; thereby making the scandal an even bigger news story than the conduct itself would have been in the first place. Just looking at the news worldwide, one can see that, many times, the news covers a particular political or societal scandal. The very fact that a scandal mesmerizes and titillates a society makes it an ideal motivator for focusing public attention on a particular problem within that society.

As one example, the recent scandal involving sexual abuse by Catholic priests and officials focused the world’s attention on the problem of pedophiles in high-ranking positions of authority. Although there had been such allegations and even lawsuit settlements in the past, it took a large-scale scandal to really focus the public’s attention on the problem. When only a few people had previously spoken out, very little attention was directed towards the potential problems. Then a massive scandal broke out involving hundreds of priests and victims, internal cover-ups and the Church’s admission of the moving around of accused priests from parish to parish. The public was outraged, causing the problems to be addressed at the highest levels of the Catholic Church, including an announcement by the Pope, the leader of the Catholic faith.

In an example from academia, a scandal over world famous author Stephen Ambrose focused the academic world’s attention on the previously little-discussed problem of plagiarism. Although allegations of plagiarism had arisen in the past, there had been no scandal created because those accused were not well known and had mostly written little work of any consequence. On the contrary, Mr. Ambrose had been cited as an expert authority on history and had sold millions of best-selling books worldwide. The ensuing scandal that erupted over his admitted (and supposedly inadvertent) plagiarism probably focused attention on the problem of misappropriating the writings of others in a way that no individual could have done.

A further example of the impact of scandal on society can be found in the history of the public’s reaction to the AIDS virus. In the early 1980’s, the general population was not concerned about the disease as it was seen mainly as a homosexual problem with little risk to so-called “normal” people. But when famous movie star Rock Hudson died of AIDS, followed by the resulting scandal over his previously little-known sex life, the public’s attention became more focused on the plight of people with the deadly disease. Many individuals had spoken out on the potential problems caused by AIDS before his death. But it was the scandal caused by revelations over Mr. Hudson’s life and death, followed by the similarly scandalous deaths of other celebrities that tragically brought home the reality of the disease – everyone could be at risk.

In summary, there are potentially many very charismatic and influential people that can be truly motivational leaders and focus a society’s attention on a particular problem. But quite often it takes a scandal and the accompanying publicity to make the public truly take notice and actually contemplate a specific issue.

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