Re: [ARSCLIST] Triage, heroic efforts, and economics

[steven c <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Karl Miller" <lyaa071@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
<long message snipped> 

I have found that our culture...and probably most cultures...sees NO
value in the preservation of the past unless the item(s) preserved
have, or promise to have, significant FISCAL value! If, for example,
you had run across, say, an early audition tape of Elvis Presley,
there would be a great demand to preserve it...and an even greater
demand to purchase the original, for eventual resale at a substantial
profit!

On the other hand, if you ran across a recording which had great
informational value, but only to scholars researching an obscure
aspect of history...the response would more likely be, "Why do we
need to preserve that boring old stuff?"

The house I live in was built around 1870, and speaks of some
interesting aspects of local history...and it currently contains
my shellac archive of some 40,000 78rpm discs. However, should
I drop over stone cold dead on the morrow, the most likely 
response would probably be, "Okeh...let's bulldoze that old shack,
haul all those old records down to the dump, and put up a nice,
new suburban-style home on the empty lot! Guy musta been nuts
to live there and save them old albums..."

Steven C. Barr