I saw the article today about Roald Dahl’s family apologising for his anti-Semitic views. For some reason it doesn’t sit right with me.
I’ve never really like his writing, I’m not sure why, so I am not trying to say he was a nice guy. But he was what he was. He apparently admitted to being anti-Semitic in a newspaper interview. By all accounts he never changed his mind.
What value is their apology? Can my third cousin twice removed make an apology for me? By all means they should say he was wrong, but an apology suggests something I don’t think they have the right to do. It is a bit like the Mormon church suggesting you can be baptised for your ancestors.
I think my disquiet is the same as that of the Campaign against anti-Semitism. Surely it is more important to change what we do today than to apologise for something somebody else did yesterday?