Antw: Don't Apologise

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

I am not sure it is possible to know of all the bad (or good) things that all of one's ancestors might (or might not) have done (or have permitted to be done).  That much is probably true of everyone on the planet, regardless of their (present) ethnicity.  But, equally, probably everyone should "do what we can to improve things to the best of our understanding and ability" -- also regardless of their (present) ethnicity.

Cheers,
Carl


On 06 May 2011, at 06:08 , Dave Sayers wrote:
> I think that one of the contrasts aimed for in the linked lecture, although not particularly well advanced in it, was between apology on the one hand, and constructive acknowledgement of past wrongs on the other hand. So, the former would look like "We're sorry for what we did" (the criticism being that the second we simply no longer exists), while the latter would look more like "We acknowledge what our ancestors did, and we (now) will work to right those wrongs in any way we can". The latter can include a kind of apology, in the same way that you might apologise for someone associated with you and who has caused some offence (apology by proxy); but it also draws a clearer line around the meaning of 'apology' in the purest sense.

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
carl.anderson at unisabana.edu.co
O cea.unisabana at gmail.com
http://unisabana.academia.edu/CarlAnderson
http://www.mendeley.com/profiles/carl-edlund-anderson/
Departamento de Lenguas y Culturas Extranjeras
UNIVERSIDAD DE LA SABANA
Chía Campus Universitario, Puente del Común
Bogotá, Colombia

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