I took an ethics course a few years ago and we had many discussions on what were the pragmatic options for improving ethics around the world. One of the most po

I took an ethics course a few years ago and we had many discussions on what were the pragmatic options for improving ethics around the world. One of the most popular was "public shaming" both for governments and corporations. My problem with this was the fact that governments and corporations are always made by people and a public shaming campaign would always end up as a witch hunt of a particular person. When an individual witch hunt is combined with a relatively misinformed mass of people the outcome is often unjust and can lead to violence, that because it was 'approved' by the masses, is deemed ok. I don't think it is. Now in this case the public shaming seems tame and does not seem to have devolved to individual witch hunts. But look no further then 'dongle gate' where a single twitter post led to two relatively innocent people being fired (neither intended the consequences of their actions IMO) and you can see where public shaming in general gets us.