strathspey@strathspey.org:1147

David Ll. Hills

Re: Jean Milligan

March 2, 1995, 6:30 p.m. (Message 1147, in reply to message 1145)

Etienne Ozorak writes:

> As author Jacques Barzun notes, successive generations 
> usually regard those just past "with hostility when close in time, 
> but with increasing fondness as great issues lose their power to
> threaten established ideas and become the "truth" in their turn.  It
> is the situation of the children toward the revered grandfathers."
> 

Maybe I need to parse this ten more times, or read the passage in context,
because I do not understand this. 

> 
> I see the Milligan-bashing that Andrew Smith refers to as a blip on  
> the screen of a larger prevailing attitude in society -- that of a  
> society still trying to overthrow the legacy of a rigid social  
> structure.  

One person's "Milligan-bashing" is another's "Milligan-appraisal" or
"Milligan-reappraisal", or perhaps an attempt to achieve some 
"perspective (long overdue?)". 

If this is an unworthy thing to do, why is it?
If it is a worthy thing, why use a term like "bashing"?

[ I think we should be told :-) ]

If someone is sychophantic about Jean Milligan, then it will be "bashing"
perhaps. If they are moderate or inquisitive about Jean Milligan then it
is more likely to be honest and appropriate enquiry. If someone feels
personally affronted and threatened by such enquiry, I think they might
review their own connection to the icon and ask themselves why it is so
important to them and why, if this icon is somehow "diminished", they will 
feel diminished too. Why do they prefer the "faith" to the "knowledge"?

I am curious about this.

All best
*D


*David Hills                   [Opinions mine own; facts are everybody's]
=========================================================================
"Doctrine is the guidance to be followed in the absence of other 
intelligence, including human" -  or the usual corollary:
"No written procedure grants permission to do something dumb".

Blind faith in your leaders, or in anything, will get you killed.
						  --- Bruce Springsteen
=========================================================================