Cher: the social philosopher

On a certain Facebook page, there is a debate underway over the ethics of shunning, that is, social ostracism independent of legal sanctions.

The debate reminded me of a Cher song title, "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves."

Shunning, after all, has at least three sorts of target: ethnic/racial minorities, those people who make despised lifestyle choices, and those who engage in genuinely anti-social behavior.

Any society will have to find some means of deterrence of the third, called by our philosopher "thieves" for short. Shunning seems the most fittingly anarchistic way of dealing with such anti-social behavior.

Applied to "gypsies" or "tramps," and the sort of target I take each term to represent, the practice is morally dubious at best.

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