Scandals are useful because they focus our attention on problems in ways that no speaker or reformer ever could.

With great power comes great responsibility, is something that is widely applicable to many positions. Unfortunately, not every individual is dedicated and principled, some may try to exploit their powers to their personal benefit or even to harm others. The claim states that scandals might actually be helpful in exposing the deleterious motions of such self-interested individuals more profoundly than other means. In my opinion, this is not as applicable in reality because of three reasons. To begin with, scandals tend to garner attention towards specific individuals, the perpetrators. The media tends to focus more on the persons who has swayed from their duties rather than the disastrous effects of their actions. Sensationalizing the issue and blaming the person in charge funnels the attention towards the self-interest of that person, it does not take into account the situations surrounding them or the lack of regulations that lead to issue taking place. For example, Harshal Mehta, an infamous trader created dubious metrics and took advantage of several loop holes in the indian financial regulations to con investors. Many other individuals also followed his methods, but only he was punished and ultimately new regulations were put in place. If there were more stringent rules in the first place, this would have never happened. Secondly, a scandal only comes to light after the exploitation happens, rather than a useful indicator that preempt damage, which won’t help in stopping in the crime. Taking the issue of the many sexual harassment claims by women in recent time, these primarily occurred due to the empowerment of people in power to take advantage of fickle women that find themselves in situations that are out of their control. Even today, they continue to take place just because there are no ramifications unless the victim has the social power and support available to fight them. These horrendous crimes that might even include human trafficking only come to light years after the victims have suffered serious damage, both physically and psychologically. Scandals do not serve any purpose other than to confirm what we already know, for instance, that people can be taken advantage of if they can be silenced. Finally, most scandals do not benefit the victims, in contrast, the victims may not even exist or would have been vexed, compromised and moved on with their lives. There are many instances, especially in third world countries, of corporates exploiting the powerlessness of the poor. For example, many farmers continue to lose fertile, crop bearing, naturally irrigated lands to companies and factories that need such rich lands. It is unfortunate but many of these victims are illiterate, poor and hence do not have the necessary means to fight back against such devious establishments. Matters become worse for the farmers if the companies have the support of the governments, and they are inevitably forced to find other occupations or are displaced to other regions just to survive. Even if in the future the scandals are exposed, the affected individuals generally do not receive any benefits from it. In conclusion, scandals do bring light to various kinds of crimes in financial, social and environmental sector and one could even argue that they may bring about awareness that can curb deviants. In reality though, scandals are largely isolated in their application, the same scandal will certainly not place twice and people that have a tendency to do them will always find other means or even port themselves to new avenues in order to take advantage of gullible and innocent individuals.