The Politics of the Apology

Liz Lawley recently posted an interesting piece on the art of the apology, highlighting how apologizing can be a simple and effective strategy for maintaining good relations among people and organizations.  She showed great restraint by not going into the politics of the apology, or mentioning U.S. President George W. Bush, whose unwillingness to even acknowledge mistakes — aside from vague allusions to unspecified appointments — much less apologizing for them, is legendary.  I recently read that some appear quite willing to apologize for Bush’s re-election, although his supporters are, unsurprisingly, unapologetic.  Some of those who opposed Bush’s re-election have gone quite a bit further, expressing some, er, resentment about those who voted for Bush.  I don’t expect to see an increase in the political apology rate over the next four years, but I sure hope we see better relations among people, organizations and countries.