Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Allow me to apologize ...

... for someone else's misdeeds: False Apology Syndrome. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The False Apology Syndrome flourishes wherever there has been a shift in the traditional locus of moral concern. At one time, a man probably felt most morally responsible for his own actions. He was adjudged (and judged himself) good or bad by how he conducted himself toward those in his immediate circle. From its center rippled circles of ever-decreasing moral concern, of which he was also increasingly ignorant. Now, however, it is the other way round. Under the influence of the media of mass communication and the spread of sociological ways of thinking, a man is most likely to judge himself and others by the opinions he and they hold on political, social, and economic questions that are far distant from his immediate circle. A man may be an irresponsible father, but that is more than compensated for by his deep concern about global warming, or foreign policy, or the food situation in Africa.

Presumably, while he apologized "to the Aborigines for the dispossession of their continent," the Australian prime minister did not undertake to return said continent to them.
This tendency to apologize for the sins of our ancestors seems somehow related to another contemporary tendency: to justify one's own misbehavior by reference to something done to you by a parent years before. Either way, one's own responsibility is not the primary concern.

2 comments:

  1. Couldn't agree more, however along with the apology, the Australian parliament also reconsidered its vote against adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. Only the US, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia voted no. Since then, the Canadian Parliament also voted to adopt the Declaration. The US Congress attached a faint-hearted apology to an American Indian specific bill, and left it at that.

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  2. You're right, Nannette, about Canada (which impresses me greatly since most people think we're good friends with Alaska because Sarah Palin can see our country from her state if she stands on a mountain :)). In fact, our Crime Minister, Mr. ReformaCon Harpunk . . . er, Harpoo, er, TIP-a-ZIP . . .

    [*off-the-cough doff*] . . .

    AGREEMENT TAKE TWO:

    How right you are, Nannette! In fact, our Greeder B'Leader actually made an official apology in an attempt to redress what I consider to be an incredibly egregious wrong committed against our indigenous (a.k.a. autochthonous) population; and, he did so this past June. Good call (and, again, comme the situation in Australia, talk is cheap [although the apology did go some way towards correcting the wrong, a little green would have been more helpful to our Aboriginal population which STILL suffers terribly in terms of both segregation and prejudice]). Pukifying, really, when you think we're one of the G-8 nations and allegedly oh-so-enlightened. I cannot comment on the American sitch because I don't know as much about that as you seem to do; but, it sounds like MOTS (More Of The Same) to me.

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