What does the word scandal mean?

Answer 1

A scandal is an event which causes an offence to the morals of society.

A typical scenario might be a politician who has been voted in to his position by the people because of the politician's views on morality, corruption, and infidelity. However, shortly after the politician was elected, the newspaper headlines reveal that the politician was caught with a prostitute and covered up the discovery by paying a bribe to the chief of police. This would classify as a scandal.

Another scenario may be a church leader, Rabbi, or Imam, who has worked diligently to raise large sums of money for homeless children who have been living in poverty and filth. The public worked together to raise money and gave the money to the religious leaders, pleased that their community efforts had been so successful. Yet a few days later, it's discovered that the fund-raiser has disappeared with the money and flown to South America where no one can catch him.

A scandal of a different type is a public out-cry regarding social disparity. For the past year the public has been told by politicians that current global economics require everyone to pay higher taxes on their income, higher sales tax, and even a freeze on pay-rises despite the fact that the cost of living has sky-rocketed. Yet while the public is clearly suffering under the weight of the current economics, a series of video-clips materialise showing the politicians on a luxury business trip where they've all flown first class, have luxury suites at their five-star hotel, and are caught on film at a night-club where they're consuming rare bottles of champagne and caviar.