> A couple of years ago I found that much of
> my conclusions about technology and politics
> had been summed up in the book, "The
> Future and Its Enemies" by Virginia
> Postrel. Postrel divided people or attitudes
> into two classes, and coined words for them:
> stasist and dynamist.

Glad to see someone here besides me reads stuff besides old Loco & Car Builder Cyclopedias!

I have read this book and heartily recommend it to all here on this board. And yes, the arguments in the book apply very well across a wide spectrum. If you want to know where the hands-off curator is coming from or how someone could argue FOR cutting up some coaches or steam locomotives, this book might guide you.

Yes, as with everything else I have been discussing, it has an agenda, but at least it's not a "conventional" left-versus-right argument of most political discussion.

lner4472@bcpl.net

> Similarly, I could expect some red flags to
> be raised if, for example, I attempted to
> tell the Pullman porter story exclusively as
> one of corporate oppression of
> African-American men, tearing them from
> their families to make them travel as they
> worked.

And well you should expect red flags, because this happened to whites, Hispanics and others, as well, though most of them worked out doors in all kinds of weather. Those who do so much hand wringing over the "plight" of the Pullman porters (and waiters and chefs and chair car attendants) would do well to get into some of the oral histories by these very people. The jobs were far from perfect, but they usually made far better money than they could on other jobs avaiable to them at the time, and benefits, too and most admit that.

It might be a flaw in the definition of oppression.

....... or the story of agricultural
> development hamstrung by the big bad
> railroad trusts and monopoly, which forced
> the arising of the Grange......... or the
> railroad industry as the major contributor
> to pollution, greenhouse gases and global
> warming in the 19th century, consuming vast
> amounts of irreplacable coal and oil in the
> process.........

> I'm only citing these as examples. I would
> be equally wary of a museum display saying
> that the UP and/or PRR were the major
> driving force in the American economy at the
> time or today, or that without steam
> locomotives we'd still be cavemen.

> Also not reality are todays relatively
> clean, well-lit, handicapped-accessible
> museum roundhouses and shops, crewed by
> wholly diverse staff.

Earl, I have been to almost every preserved roundhouse in the US and England and never have I seen one as well executed as what you describe here.

I don't think we are in danger of distorting history this way!

Yes, they are cleaner and safer (for the most part) than the original exprience, but apart from Durango, where is the original experience anything like itself? I compare that to, say Spencer Shops where the roundhouse is so sterile you could perform surgery in it, and wish they had spent the extra money to soot it up again after the politically correct Lead Paint Abatement which cost all surfaces their patinas.

Dave

> IMO, nothing at all is wrong with it, and
> that is what is missing from a lot of
> museums. I think it isn't done because a lot
> of sacred cows will be gored and a lot of
> "conventional wisdom" will turn
> out to be just fantasy.

Maybe it's a bit more practical and less intentional than you state. It's easier to find a car's production and service information than it is anecdotes about what occured in the car between it's occupants. The human side IS documented in many cases, but you have to dig a lot harder to find it (i.e. personal glimpses, diaries, letters etc.) When you do, confirming the accuracy of what you discover is also a more subjective task than reviewing a loco shop's production records.

wyld@sbcglobal.net

> Earl, I have been to almost every preserved
> roundhouse in the US and England and never
> have I seen one as well executed as what you
> describe here.

> I don't think we are in danger of distorting
> history this way!

> Yes, they are cleaner and safer (for the
> most part) than the original exprience, but
> apart from Durango, where is the original
> experience anything like itself? I compare
> that to, say Spencer Shops where the
> roundhouse is so sterile you could perform
> surgery in it, and wish they had spent the
> extra money to soot it up again after the
> politically correct Lead Paint Abatement
> which cost all surfaces their patinas.

> Dave

Been to Steamtown?

> Aarne, at one time I used to subscribe to Reason Magazine and always found Virginia Postrel to be a thoughtful and provocative writer.

That having been said, I grew weary of the libertarian obsession with drug legalization and let the sub lapse.

One final thought-if she compared opposition to Wal-Mart with genetic engineering, its not the same thing.The dangers of genetic engineering can be based on sound moral, religious or scientific reasons-especially once you consider that genes produce dual manifestations. A defect in one environment (sickle-cell anemia) is a great benefit in another (malaria resistanceI).

In some ways, you (n general, not you personally) provide your "statist" pedigree-just by being here!

Superheater@rrmail.com