The English are very good at saying, ‘Sorry’. We say ‘Sorry’ for the weather, ‘Sorry’ when we sneeze, or ‘Sorry’ when someone else bumps into us.
In fact I have a friend who is so English that he even apologises for saying ‘Sorry’!
Negative-face politeness
Sociologists have a word for this – apparently we live in a ‘negative-face politeness’ culture – this means we are very aware of not intruding on the freedom or autonomy of those to whom we speak – meaning we use apologies to avoid the appearance of making demands on another. ‘I’m sorry,’ we say as someone sits down in an apparently empty chair, ‘I think someone was sitting there’. We expect them to move – but it would be rude to make that clearer.
‘Power is a powerful drug and the detox process is hard’
One of the most insightful speeches at the Church of England's General Synod in July came from The Revd Lindsay …