The truth behind the 'Apology'

Reading this very erudite and insightful article http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/qed/2011/04/the-shadow-state about the 'Shadow State', i.e. the reality that lies behind modern Western (mostly 'labor' but increasingly infiltrating the 'liberal' mindset as well) government's 'spin', I felt compelled to recount the final paragraphs in the hope that you  might be inspired to read the entire article.

For their part, progressives claim insight into the mind, and judge behaviour accordingly. Mass opinion is a socially constructed artefact, fashioned by the imperatives of an economic system, more particularly “late capitalism”. The contents of mass culture are broadly predictable in line with ruling class interests. The unreconstructed masses are not autonomous beings, but pawns of cultural determinism. Taken as a given, the economic order will generate racism, misogyny and homophobia for the benefit of a privileged few. Lapses from “correctness” fuel the machinery of oppression. This becomes a social issue, an opportunity to “educate” society in the cause of “cultural change”. Whether a person actually feels sorry, or deserves to be made a spectacle, is of no consequence. The apology is a show for public consumption. 

Formed over time by biblical and liberal influences, English common law never countenanced apologies, except in mitigation of sentence. The law had no business peering into men’s souls; in any event, forced apologies are a sham. Common law penalties were exacted on an offender’s person or property, but not their mind. “Thought crime” was unknown. Only in the case of political crimes, or open dissent from a regime’s legitimacy, do forced apologies figure, and typically in authoritarian societies. They are less about contrition or genuine feeling than conformity with the ruling power.