It seems that some famous person is always having to apologize for something they said, didn’t say but should have (according to the left), something they did, or something they didn’t do but should have (again, according to the left). It seems that within the last ten years or so there are more and more calls for apologies.
Have you ever stopped and considered what exactly an apology is? This is a topic I started thinking about a while back, and the answer is interesting to say the least.
I must first state that when it comes to personality theory, I am a Freudian. That is, I believe that the vast majority of us are controlled by our id and an under-disciplined ego which are in cahoots to defend and advance our place in the pecking order by whatever means necessary. They work together so that we can have the highest score possible in the great pissing contest.
Before getting to the apology part of this post, an examination of what it means to be offended, insulted, or degraded is in order. All three of these words mean the same thing: I or the group to which I belong (which by extension means me) were made to feel as if my/our place in the pecking order was diminished because of something someone said, didn’t say, did, or didn’t do; and I/we have lost points in the pissing contest.
An apology, on the other hand, is an attempted undoing of the subjective personal/group pecking order diminishment, however it was that the offender diminished a particular person or group. In other words, it is as if the offender is saying to the offended, “I now realize that I lowered your sense of place in the pecking order and caused you to lose pissing contest points by my words or actions. I do hereby return that which I took from you and restore both your place in the pecking order and the pissing contest points I stole from you. I regret my words and actions and now realize I should have achieved my pecking order position and pissing contest points honestly like we are supposed to.”
When looked at objectively like this, the whole offense/apology dynamic seems a bit comical.
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The Professor Twist Files 