I am not referring here to the harder and richer form of apology and forgiveness required, say, in post-genocide Rwanda or post-apartheid South Africa. It is, as political theorist Hannah Arendt argued, “the only reaction which does not merely re-act but acts anew and unexpectedly.”No, my concern is public apology in a normal, everyday political setting. Clinton launches her sentence with “I may have short-circuited it and for that. The ritual of apology and forgiveness has an unavoidably moral root. When an official makes a sincere apology, it can paradoxically improve his or her public standing.

Source: Washington Post August 08, 2016 23:26 UTC