A PUBLIC APOLOGY FOR HAVING TO READ PUBLIC APOLOGIES
As you might have noticed, I very rarely get bogged down with the issues of the day on this here newsletter. I figure most of you just come here to read my constant whining and smart-aleck remarks in order to feel better about yourselves. But sometimes things floating around the ether of social media stick in my craw enough that I can’t help but grit my teeth and eventually speak up; no matter how stupid or unlearned I might come off.
The recent need for self-flagellating in a public forum is lost on me. When someone comes out to deliver an apology no one asked for, I can’t help but jump to a few conclusions in my head. Firstly, I assume they are getting ahead of something truly dark from their past they suspect will come to the surface via some source or another. It is either that or a sad cry for attention from someone who feels the need to stay relevant in the circles where they earn their living and receive adulation. Or, worst of all, it’s an assumption that they’ve made such a deep impact in the cultural milieu that they feel the need to bring their self-taught lessons out into a public forum to show others how much they’ve ‘grown’.
All the above scenarios can go shave their asses and sit on a bag of walnuts.
We’ve all said and done things in our past we deeply regret. The lack of hindsight in youth is not something that can be washed away with a post on social media. Apologies delivered decades after the fact only come off as pandering and insincere. To quietly donate your time to a cause or work out issues by yourself in your own time seems more endearing than feeling the need to fire off a tweetstorm for all the world to see. But if you don’t take to the interwebs with your newfound maturity at 50, who’ll know? How will you benefit from it?
It all reeks of the self-importance and self-promotion I thought was left at the door once we all signed up for this whole underground punk rock what have you.
Like I stated above, I am nothing more than an undereducated chooch from the swamps of New Jersey who struggles sometimes to even see the surface of most situations. I am not innocent of past indiscretions towards others and deal with it on my own terms. But why should you care? Why should I feel the need to address it to those I’ll never meet face to face? Does any of this make any sense? Hello? Is this thing….on?!?
So, in conclusion, get over yourself.