When I was a little girl, I distinctly remember my wonderful loving mother consoling me if I was upset about something that someone did to me. I remember her saying, "I'm sorry." And I was confused and would say to her, "Why are you sorry. You didn't do it?"
I grew to learn what she meant. She was sorry for me out of love, but not offering an apology for the act. These days the apology has turned into a brow-beaten confessional by people who capitulate to public bullying without hesitation only for their own self-preservation?
But what are they really preserving? Certainly nothing of themselves. They have sacrificed themselves. So why are people afraid of their own beliefs? Why are they abandoning what they know to be the right thing?
Why are they unsure and wavering? What has knocked their foundation out from under them? Is it because they have turned away from church and faith and forgotten that with God we are all loved unconditionally?
Is it because our family units are splintered and kids are not given the love and security they need? Is it because these lost souls seek and think they can find what they need on social media? Social media acceptance can be a very powerful, albeit at times misguided, social support network?
But, social media embodies mob mentality. It is this very mob mentality on social media that can bring powerful people to their knees. Forcing people to apologize for statements they have made that represent the core values of their very being.
Drew Brees apologizes for saying he supports the flag. Nike pulls a line of sneakers that revere Betsy Ross and our flag because Colin Kaepernick is upset? Kevin Plank, CEO of Under Armour, backtracks his comments that Trump will be good for the economy? What? By the way, he is.
An apology is defined as an admission of a discourtesy done to others. It is designed to assuage hurt feelings, but today it is for those that are "triggered." An apology is not intended for someone to abdicate their core values. But sadly, this is what it has become.
These very public apologies are demanded by the "woke" social media mobs. How does demanding an apology from someone give sincerity and credence to said statement? The apology is then more of an obligation than a sincere reconciliation.
These masses that demand the apologies are the same people that demand tolerance. So, where is the tolerance? The hypocrisy is suffocating. And why are we only tolerating our fellow human beings? How about we consider just respecting each other?
These coerced apologies are a way to make people conform to one ideal. Why can't people accept various points of view? The apology has now become a tool to force people to yield to predominantly progressive agendas.
Forced tolerance, which when taken to its ultimate conclusion, finds us tolerating that which is intolerable. Think about it. So, to all of you that have caved under the pressure and sacrificed your very being by apologizing needlessly, I am sorry for your apology.
Allyn Barth is a resident of Lower Makefield.
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