Kathleen Sebelius is apologizing. Obama is apologizing. "60 Minutes" is apologizing. Home Depot is apologizing. And celebrities apologize so often it's hard to keep track.
It's a virtual orgy of apologies, although there are exceptions: Lululemon is not apologizing (so far) for its CEO's "blaming the customer," and no Republican has been heard to apologize for bringing the country to the brink of worldwide economic disaster (not yet - maybe closer to election time next year?).
It seems that no matter what happens, whether anyone is offended or not, if it's something that could have been prevented or not, if it's something for which the "offended" party really should take blame himself -- the public apology is the order of the day.
It's not clear, though, if anyone really feels they get closure from such apologies. Usually, they come only after public pressure (often, the media applying such pressure "on behalf" of someone and conveniently creating a story at the same time), so it's difficult to judge if they're genuine. And sometimes, there is clear evidence that they aren't, as for example, when apologizes and then commits the same problematic behavior again, a la Anthony Weiner or Chris Brown.
As for me, I'll take the days when an apology was a personal matter, and may have meant something.
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