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
they 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