I think you MISSED the basic premise of my message...

Greg McManus


On  Thu, 22 Feb 1996,  David Haberstich wrote:

> You can call me culturally arrogant if you wish, but I find that
>visitors who do not know how to behave in museums are just part of a
>larger problem. A lot of Americans don't seem to know how to behave
>according to the standards of the culture into which they were born. And
>hey don't WANT to know how to behave in an "alien" environment like a
>museum. They don't really care. They want to be able to do their own
>thing and trash other people's environments as readily as they trash
>their own. What SHOULD happen when ANYONE enters a place of business,
>someone else's home, or a "cultural" center like a museum with which
>they are not familiar is that they should take the trouble to learn the
>prevailing customs and rules and treat people and objects with respect.
>Whether we're talking about mishandling museum objects or dumping toxic
>wastes, the name of that game is DISRESPECT. So I guess I must disagree
>with the basic premise of Greg McManus's post. Whether the cause is
>stupidity or cupidity, I think it's the loud, disrespectful,
>"touchy-feely" visiting vandals in museums who are the culturally
>arrogant! We seem to be moving into an era in which disrespect for
>people and the environment is the prevailing culture: that's a culture I
>personally cannot understand and cannot respect. Call it corny, but
>REVERENCE for people and the history of the creative products of their
>minds and hands is what got me into the museum business in the first
>place. It's painful that so few people share that reverence. --David
>Haberstich