About 300 years ago, the philosopher Immanuel Kant asserted that lies are bad because they occur when someone creates a exception to the rule 'Deception is wrong' – a rule that the deceiver himself would expect to be followed by everyone around him in any other situation. The one exception to this rule, when a "[transgressor places] himself above others and [assumes] a position of superiority by breaking a rule that others obey," is what makes this deception scandalous (Halmburger, Rothmund, Schulte & Baumert 2012 8). ).Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get the original essay We live in a world in which we expect others to tell the truth – basing our “actions [and] judgments” on this expectation (Schultz). And yet, in our societies so dependent on honesty, the fine line between truth and lies is daily manipulated, the truth is bent to serve our selfish needs, transgression and misconduct are masked by the deliberate deception of others and, when all else fails, discovered corruption is always denied in a desperate attempt to maintain an impeccable image. Schultz rightly states that “liars take advantage of trust.” So it makes perfect sense that people are naturally attracted to integrity just as much as they are repelled by its opposite. This is especially true in politics, an area in which deception and lying result from an abuse of power that makes politicians' deception even greater. more tangible and shocking. But isn't deception in politics limited to the simple generalized shock that follows its discovery and unveiling? In this article, I would like to examine the impact of political scandal on American culture, using as a model probably the most important political scandal in the United States: "Watergate." I will begin by providing a brief definition of what constitutes a political scandal, then move on to a more in-depth examination of “Watergate” and its consequences for American culture. My goal will be to show that the consequences of a political scandal, as evidenced by “Watergate,” can have serious and long-term effects on a culture. Why study scandals? “Scandals are as old as the republic itself” (Williams 1). They surround our lives, our relationships with others, the way we perceive others, and especially our relationship with government and politics. As Thompson puts it, “scandal matters because, in our modern mediatized world, it touches on real sources of power…[and it] has become closely linked to the transformations that have shaped the modern world” (Thompson's Preface) . But isn’t the study of scandal – even political – too trivial a subject of study? , someone might ask. Should we entrust the study of scandals to the tabloids? Thompson disagrees, noting that "scandals should not be understood simply as evidence of moral decline (Ibid?) or as the product of profit-seeking journalism, [but are] an important social phenomenon that can have serious consequences on the culture in the country. which they occur” (Preface by Williams?). These consequences are due, in part, to the fact that "individuals acting in politics depend crucially on the use of symbolic power to persuade and influence others and shape the course of events" (Williams?). According to Thompson, scandal, and political scandal in particular,).