"I'm of the old-fashioned opinion that shame can be used for all sorts of good in society. An example of this is smoking: When someone lights up around a crowd, people now usually say something. So I don't understand why it's not OK to apply the same logic to other behaviors."

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Self-reinvention is an essential trope of the American project, closely linked to another such trope: going on the lam. Both are regularly featured in movies and novels and suchlike. Criminals and persons loitering with and without intent hold a crucial place in the culture. For obvious reasons, the culture cannot endorse this behavior, even as it is in thrall to it.

— Luc Sante