The problem with scatter reading news articles throughout the day, you forget where you saw one and cannot give credit where credit is due. So, this is not some unique perspective I came up with, yet one I want to add my two cents. And there have been many discussions or articles that have touched on this topic before.
I read an article today or maybe even yesterday. I have been pretty busy the last few days. The article addressed the political or modern apology, where people will say an apology or feign one or act like they said one and the article mentioned Rep Greene from Georgia supposed apology about what happened in the Republican House meeting and that she has changed or something.
I am barely hitting the main points of this article, but over the years I have noticed that politicians offer some type of apology for a variety of transgressions. Yet we are now at the point where we do not believe them or feel they are insincere. This development comes from not holding people accountable for what they have done over time.
Too many politicians or other public figures still get re-elected, or carry on with their daily lives or move to a new role, yet still remain successful and still pretty much behave the same way just do not get caught anymore.
There is this mindset that if a person says I didn’t mean it or it wasn’t what you think or hides behind an excuse they can move on. And I am not talking about a former president, I am talking in general.
The real virtue of not doing the activity that may need an apology later is gone. We accept less from people. And of course we shouldn’t.
How do we get back to a norm where doing the right thing in the first place is what is expected? There will always be mistakes, we are human, but this lack of any standard, much less a higher standard is why we are having so many problems today. And when our leaders aren’t held accountable, how can the rest of society by held accountable. Sure most people are, but society breaks down when the leaders live a do as I say, but not as I do mentality. And currently our country is actually much further down a new path that started with that attitude and is having a hard time orienting itself nowadays.
It is sad that elected officials have no remorse for their actions, expect people to move on even with what appears as minor mistakes. I finally remember the example from the story that started this thought.
This is from state legislative body and there was a committee meeting being conducted on ZOOM. The Committee chair was a woman and had to take a quick break and apparently another Representative didn’t realize his mic was still on and said something derogatory about the Chairwoman. So when it was brought to his attention he apologized and everyone said that is not the way we conduct business. Yes there is something subtle here. The whole apology or discussion was about the fact he said this outloud where people could hear and that was what he apologized for, not and this is important, for saying it in any circumstance. It only mattered because he was caught in a public setting and it was only wrong because it was heard. The Representative never apologized for the derogatory term as being wrong in any setting. It is subtle but it shows in a small way we have lost touch with respecting each other and showing common courtesy in any setting, not when we are caught or in a particular incident. The derogatory term is wrong at any time and should never have been said about anyone in any circumstance.
Again we make mistakes sometimes, but not to acknowledge the true mistake nor make it a practice to do what is right in the first place are the subtle cracks showing when a society is falling from grace.
And right now I fear we have fallen through and down some crevices.
No comments:
Post a Comment