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Making Sense of Apology
The issue of apology that surrounds one particular historical figure arguably pitches every gamut of politics around the said solitary figure. This, by implication, reduces the discussion on the issue of apology to a mere ritual that engages political leaders in their respective rhetorical efforts to either find a resource in apology to resurrect one’s claim to self-worth, while others seek to define the efficacy of their politics by delinking apology from the historical figure, as it were, as a case of historical–moral embarrassment.
The issue of apology that surrounds one particular historical figure arguably pitches every gamut of politics around the said solitary figure. This, by implication, reduces the discussion on the issue of apology to a mere ritual that engages political leaders in their respective rhetorical efforts to either find a resource in apology to resurrect one’s claim to self-worth, while others seek to define the efficacy of their politics by delinking apology from the historical figure, as it were, as a case of historical–moral embarrassment.
However, both the reference to apology and its refutation tend to reduce the act of apologising to a kind of political ritual, which in effect denies good apologies of their transformative thrust. Because enclosing oneself in the ritual of apology seeks to reify a person, and hence, such reification into rigid positions makes an onward march difficult.
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