Apology Politics

Jeff Frank at The New Yorker tells of the trials and tribulations of being offered apologies, accepting them (or not) and the necessity of giving apologies of one’s own: “I was glad to be offered the apology—and about time, too—but I was far from ready to accept it. Not that it was a bad apology, but it never quite rose to the level I’d expected, and so I declined. Then, a day or two later, the apology was resubmitted and I was asked again if I would accept. Perhaps, I said, but not in that form. As a matter of principle, I find it hard to accept an apology that is tendered too quickly. What is the apologist saying by acting with such haste, and what am I, by accepting the apology, saying about myself?”