Richard Perry, I think you have an attitude problem. Museums can ALSO be agents of social mobility and change, not just "reproduction." One's response depends on many factors. I personally came from a working class family that had no particular interest in museums--certainly not art museums--but here I am working in a history museum and moonlighting as an art historian. At least my parents had no prejudice or hostility toward museums. I see museums as gateways to knowledge and feel that they serve a democratizing function (if people approach them openly, free of the mind-numbing prejudices which consider them "bastions" of some alien culture). I'm curious--why would someone with a pessimistic, deterministic, bigoted attitude about museums WANT to be on a museum listserv? --David Haberstich