Sunday, December 27, 2015

"When an Apology Is Anything But"

"we haven’t addressed the deeper meaning of these “sorrys.” To me, they sound like tiny acts of revolt, expressions of frustration or anger at having to ask for what should be automatic. They are employed when a situation is so clearly not our fault that we think the apology will serve as a prompt for the person who should be apologizing.

It’s a Trojan horse for genuine annoyance, a tactic left over from centuries of having to couch basic demands in palatable packages in order to get what we want. All that exhausting maneuvering is the etiquette equivalent of a vestigial tail."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/23/opinion/when-an-apology-is-anything-but.html

I also think it would be an interesting world if we stopped using "sorry" for intentional apologies too, and actually had to fully articulate an apology. Because I think that "I'm Sorry" really just means "now it's the time in the conversation for you to forgive me".

No comments:

Post a Comment