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RELATED: Maybe "Kumbayah" just ain't enough
I doubt that public ridicule can ever be more than an intermittently effective weapon. Putting someone in the stocks was punishment in the Middle Ages, where you had to give a damn about what the local baker and the butcher thought of you.Hmmm.
But today, being above reproach, having a "good reputation," is a liability, or simply neutral. Look at Paris Hilton, Eliot Spitzer, Tiger Woods -- the list is almost endless.
I meet people constantly who think we can rely heavily on satire and funny t-shirts and so on to win. As someone who's been at this a while, let me tell you: we're gonna need bricks and baseball bats, too.