The Jerry Springer Show. Dr. Phil. Maury Povich and "who;'s your daddy." Do we have the Puritans of the 17th Century to thank for these 21st Century type of shows?
Along these lines, author Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter described punishment in the stocks as:
" an "instrument of discipline so fashioned as to confine the human head in its tight grasp, and thus hold it up to public gaze. The very ideal of ignominy was embodied and made manifest in this contrivance of wood and iron. There can be no outrage, methinks . . . more flagrant than to forbid the culprit to hide his face for shame."
Discuss!