샘리처드가 본 스타벅스를 용서하는 데 걸리는 시간 (민주주의, 사과의 사회학)

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:07]I've been watching this the unfolding of the events regarding Starbucks and Starbucks Korea and how Starbucks managed to offend the entire nation of Korea. It's the the Republic of Korea that has been offended. It's an entire nation. So this is really really big and it's no wonder that it continues on in this way. What was the nerve that got touched here that's so big and so significant that there is a large group of people that are saying look we don't care what you do we're not going to go to an apology Sam Richards here um I want to talk about apologizing I've been watching this the unfolding of the events regarding Starbucks and Starbucks Korea and how Starbucks managed to offend the entire nation of Korea in launching its new product called the tank. I watch the news out of Korea every day and I track many different things, but one thing that I track or that I see is a lot of apologizing by people, various celebrities and various folks who have one reason or another to apologize.

[00:01:28]Something I don't see that often in my own society. And so I've been thinking a lot about the sociology of apologizing and what what that is and why it is and why it happens so often in in a nation like Korea. And I'm thinking, well, an apology is really an attempt to bring order and harmony back into a social system of some sort that somebody has done something to break trust and to break a moral code or some way of a moral code, a rule about right and wrong and good and bad. someone's or some group has done something and other people say wait a minute hang on that's a problem we need to address this problem and in a communitarian oriented or communal society like Korea we would expect to see a lot of apologizing because there's so many layers of connectivity between people that the lives of the individuals in a in a communalist society are really intertwined much more than the lives of of say here in the United States or in the west. So the actions or the the livelihoods of individuals depend on the livelihoods and the actions of other people around them in a place like Korea. So when you do something to break trust with other people basically people are saying look this risks my livelihood because we all depend on one another and we need to feel connected and we need to be connected and so therefore you we need to do something about this and I need to hear from you that you understand that you've broken the trust here because my livelihood depends on the actions of all of us and you know in the the sociology ology of apologizing. By the way, it's usually the less powerful actors have to apologize to people with more power. But in this particular case, it's the the Republic of Korea that has been offended. It's an entire nation. So, it's going to take more than one, two, or maybe three CEOs or high ranking people to rebalance things. This is really, really big. And it's no wonder that it continues on in this way, right?

[00:03:47]There are kind of five different elements to apologizing that we think about sociologically, right? One is expressing regret. You have to express regret. You have to say, look, I've done something wrong and I'm really sorry for hurting you. Okay, that's the first one.

[00:04:03]The second is accepting responsibility like I did something and I am responsible for what I did. So the third component is restitution. You know how can I make this right? What do I have to do? The fourth is genuine repent. Like I am dedicated.

[00:04:23]I am committed to changing in a way that makes this better, makes it right. And the fifth is requesting forgiveness.

[00:04:33]Like do you have it in your heart to forgive me? Okay. So now when you have all five things come together and still there's people saying like look it doesn't matter you do all five of those things and we're still not going to accept your apology. Then it makes me wonder as a sociologist, okay, whoa, what happened? Like what was the nerve that got touched here that's so big and so significant that there's a large group of people that are saying, "Look, we don't care what you do. We're not going to go to an apology." In this particular case, I think it's because Starbucks really called into question democracy.

[00:05:15]And democracy is really powerful in Korea. a relatively new democratic nation. Democracy is strong. It's a democracy built around communitarianism or communalism. Meaning that so many people are seeing the same thing and are are committed to and willing to do whatever they have to do, you have to do to continue to support and promote and strengthen democracy. And you've come so far given with the democratic political system that you have in 60 years. You've become a dominant world power. Man, when someone comes along and in some way makes light of that or doesn't hold that up high enough and doesn't recognize that, that's a really major piece here.

[00:06:04]And so I think that's part of this reaction that we're seeing that's so strong. So the criticism, right? wait at what point does it go too far or is it not enough or whatever the case is there's always that question it's like why does it happen in one place and not another right and you know I I can't answer those questions really but I do wonder about this the people who are saying like okay we've done enough right like this is enough like Starbucks has done enough let's move on from this right what are they seeing that other people aren't seeing because there are those people you may not seen them in social media and be reading about them, but there are plenty of them. Or the people who are saying, you know, this really isn't a very big deal. What are they seeing? Or the people who are saying, look, man, I don't care what happens or how many apologies we get.

[00:06:57]Like, it's never going to be enough, right? I'm never going to shop at Starbucks again or I'm going to buy the coffee or whatever the case is. Like, what are they seeing? I guess for me I leave end this video with those questions. What are what are different people saying about this? What are they thinking? And many of us, you know, like I'm reading various comments by people and I'm in with each comment I'm kind of shifting how I see it and huh how how would this be and what's it mean? And so I guess I'm going to just do what I do which is kind of put it out there to say what are you seeing? Like if you listen to these different perspectives on this, what are you what are you imagining? And and you know like with Starbucks like what what something can bring back social order? Is it just time? Like harmony, right? Is it just time? With time people generally forget lots and lots of things or we don't feel the sting of it as much as we did in the moment. Um, is that it? Is that is that what will happen or will this be really long lasting and much more significant?

[00:08:01]So anyway, I will leave I will leave off with those questions. All right, comes Omnita. Thank you very much.