‘The pillory no longer stands in the village square, but it never truly disappeared. It now lives on our screens, in comments, screenshots, and opinions shared without a pause button. Where one mistake once earned tomatoes and laughter, a single wrong sentence at the wrong moment now suffices. The crowd is larger, more anonymous, and always awake.
The difference? No one ties you up anymore—you do it yourself, with a post, a tweet, a video. And while the pillory was once temporary, the internet forgets nothing. The punishment is vague, but the echo is endless.
Perhaps the modern pillory is not a place but a reflex: our quick judgment, our urge to point rather than understand. The question is not whether it exists, but how often we find ourselves standing around it’.
© E n i s ∞ r
song: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – Gil Scott-Heron
