Apologies
People apologize for only two reasons; firstly because they were wrong and are truly sorry or secondly because they are under pressure to do so. I don’t care much for the latter and I won’t include those timid souls who are forever apologizing about everything to save the peace; whether they are right or wrong. That’s not apologizing; it is grovelling.
Now don't take offense as I'm not saying anything. This is all hypothetical. Besides, if you do it will only reveal what you think of yourself.
Let’s imagine a hypothetical situation during a small altercation on the blogs where I called another blogger the biggest arsehole I have ever come across. Allegations like that don’t just slip out; such an opinion of him was build from previous thoughts and it takes a lot of frustration to force it into the open.
If he then runs to management and I’m given the options to apologize or face suspension – a
fairytale in itself – I’d apologize but it will not mean a thing. Nothing has changed. I’d still think that he’s an arsehole and I’ll probably apologize by conceding that he’s not the biggest arsehole that I have stumbled across and that I’m sorry for calling him that. Regardless, he will just become an even bigger arsehole in my opinion. Apparently we are allowed to have opinions… as long as we keep them to ourselves. 
On the other hand, if later I should discover that my opinion of the guy was wrong and that he’s not such a big arsehole at all, then I have done him wrong and I should and would apologize in a most sincere way. I was wrong about him and I will tell him so.
Maybe we can look at another hypothetical scenario; let’s assume that I’m told to apologize or face suspension – more wishful thinking
– after expressing the opinion that half the members at CS are arseholes, I believe that I’ll gladly (and honestly) concede that half the members at CS are not arseholes. 
I wish you all a great day.
Comments (48)
we can ask for a private jet too.
Too much ego in it. My sister and I have not spoken to each other for a month and neither will apologize. We're both waiting for the other to apologize first.
I think that is more or less universal. I found that I became more grumpy with the years but yet more patient and definitely intolerant to BS.
Good grief no! We have too many factions as it is.
Let's rather hi-jack an existing one and make it ours. If we pick the right one we even get a city-state with it.
I think the best with apologies is to conduct yourself in a way that requires you to express very few of them.
Quite! In a perfect world it will never be necessary to apologize.
But then we live in a very imperfect world.