Week Eleven...I think

               Throughout my long and illustrious career in the food and retail industry, I have always adhered to one basic axiom: the customer is always right. As most of you know, in reality, the customer is full shit ninety nine percent of the time, but that does not matter; what matters is that customers leave the store happy. While this philosophy has saved me from the wrath of obese soccer moms and senile old men, it does work well for museums. Unfortunately, the almighty dollar triumphs over everything else in most aspects of our daily lives, even in those areas we consider sacred, such as museums. While Colonial Williamsburg attempts to overcome these limitations by embracing the new social history, they continue to be limited by their allegiance to the cult of the customer. Of course, I am not saying that Williamsburg should not be concerned about making history accessible to the public; Dr. Criblez would have to bitch slap me if I believed that. However, Williamsburg’s concern over imparting “good vibes” severely hampers their mission, transforming frontline interpreters into glorified Wal-Mart door greeters. With this obsession over good vibes, history devolves into a simple narrative of progress (Things just keep getting better and better!) that Williamsburg’s social historians originally intended to avoid. While there will always be limitations to what public historians can do at museums and other historical sites, they should never become so timid that they lose sight of their original mission.