Sorry may well be the hardest word.
But coming from a man whose leadership, acts and omissions led directly or indirectly to his own enrichment but led to the company he ran impoverishing many thousands around him and destabilising the society he lives in, it isn’t enough.
If I say “sorry” to you it is about feelings. Yours of hurt and anger, and mine of conscience and culpability. Saying sorry is good, and our society would be a good deal better if there were more of it. But it addresses feelings. It doesn’t change facts. And it isn’t a get out of jail free card.
To have integrity an apology must not just come from the mouth of a man, it must come from the whole of him, with a genuine sense of contrition and a willingness to offer whatever restitution he can. However much that will not undo the consequences of his failings.
A legal, rather than moral, obligation to make restitution can be triggered by two different types of causative event:
1. Wrongs
2. Unjust Enrichment
We have yet to see integrity from the bankers who keep offering apologies.
Until we do, we may feel justified in declining to accept their apologies and reserving our rights.
Ouch! Integrity has to be painful to be meaningful and your blog goes to the very heart of acceptance of this behaviour.
ReplyDeleteA bankerrs sorry is no more than an expression of self pity at having been caught .
ReplyDeleteHow could GoodwinS contrition be genuine given that he had effectively doubled his pension with the complicity of others AFTER knowing that his failed stewardship had ruined the bank that employed him.