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> From that PoV I would not try to erase their memories. How is choosing to no longer use their name for a building or award erasing their memories?

• mc32 6y ago
  One day you find out your parents were cheats. Or they stole Amazon packages, whatever. Do you think those people should go ahead and change their surnames? A bunch of goodie-two-shoes.
  • mhh__ 6y ago
    If I found out my parents believed in Eugenics I wouldn't talk to them
    • mc32 6y ago
      But you don’t pretend you don’t know them or that they are not your parents. The great majority thought they were doing good. We know different today. We know now the new Soviet man is bullshit. Back then they believed in this.
      • mhh__ 6y ago
        So what? The point is that we don't name awards after them. They aren't erasing Millikan from the history books but rather choosing not to blindly use his name as a honour. My secondary school house was named after a slave trader, they recently changed it - good riddance. Of all the bad things modern reappraisal culture is leading to, this isn't one of them.
        • mc32 6y ago
          Buying and selling people is not the same. There is no science. It’s just brutality. Eugenicists were looking to better society, albeit absurdly. It was bullshit but back then it wasn’t. It’s like condemning shamen and medicine men and women. Sure it was bullshit, but they thought it was real and effective. We’re going to Mars. Maybe Elon will be first. Most everyone would be excited. Maybe some day in the future it’ll be the worst thing we ever did as a species. Do we vomit on them because now we know better?
          • pseudalopex 6y ago
            Caltech's president said Millikan lent his name to views discredited even at the time. Not honoring someone isn't vomiting on them.
      • pseudalopex 6y ago
        The press release calls him Caltech's founding president. They don't pretend they don't know him.
• throwawayboise 6y ago
  Well maybe, having the name "in the public" like that will make it more likely that people will stay aware of the history. If the name is removed from the public and found only in books that are dusty on the shelves of an archive, that's less likely. Maybe the answer is a somber monument, "Horrible People in Our History" somewhere on campus.
  • mhh__ 6y ago
    > Maybe the answer is a somber monument, "Horrible People in Our History" somewhere on campus. I don't mind that. And Millikan's name will probably last for a millennia because of his work in physics.
  • ashtonkem 6y ago
    > Well maybe, having the name "in the public" like that will make it more likely that people will stay aware of the history. If the name is removed from the public and found only in books that are dusty on the shelves of an archive, that's less likely. In my experience, organizations tend to downplay the misdeeds of those whose name and likeness are prominently displayed in or around their buildings. It's just not terribly easy for an organization to talk frankly about such things without it getting really awkward, so they tend to just ... not talk about it. I also supremely doubt that many people learned about Millikan's life from the building, ditto for his more troubled aspects. I also doubt that many people here have, or ever will, visit that building. The move to rename this building probably taught more people about his troubled aspects than the building itself ever did. Instead I think it's more fair to say that naming a building after anyone is a tribute and an attempt to hold someone up as a model to be followed by those who go there. I think there's an interesting and nuanced discussion to be had about whether Millikan's negative aspects justify his removal, but I think arguing that we need his name on a building in order to remember him and his eugenicist past are a bit silly, frankly.