I have been thinking about the german word "sippenhaft" and the idea that a family can share the moral responsibility for the crime or act committed by one member. The word was told to me by a German journalist, in the context of regretting having helped to write a recent piece of feature journalism used to exonerate an accused rapist. In the court of public opinion, journalists are lawyers and sippenhaft begets media criticism.
@lorax does the same word apply to a family getting some reflected glory for virtuous work?
I can think of cases where sippenhaft is necessary, unfair, damaging, unfair to some people but probably a net benefit for society... once I believe that people have agency but aren’t fully independent of each other, there aren’t any easy answers.
@clew I don't know the full etymology of the word, or if there is a "positive" antonym to the negative word. The word itself seems to have only taken on a negative connotation after the incidents of German history...
