Roger Williams University Law Review Volume 9 | Issue 2 Article 4 Spring 2004 Rhode Island Interest: Culture of Quiescence Carl T. Bogus Roger Williams University School of Law Follow this and additional works at: http://docs.rwu.edu/rwu_LR Recommended Citation Bogus, Carl T. (2004) "Rhode Island Interest: Culture of Quiescence," Roger Williams University Law Review: Vol. 9: Iss. 2, Article 4. Available at: http://docs.rwu.edu/rwu_LR/vol9/iss2/4 This Contribution is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at DOCS@RWU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Roger Williams University Law Review by an authorized administrator of DOCS@RWU. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Rhode Island Interest Culture of Quiescence Carl T. Bogus* I. "People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise," W. Somerset Maugham wrote.' Anyone who has ever given or re- ceived criticism recognizes the truth of that observation. Yet pain- ful as it may be, criticism is essential. People and their institutions are fallible, missteps are inevitable, and anyone who does well has profited from mistakes. No one learns to ride a bicy- cle without falling. The learner who tumbles off the bicycle does not need to be told that something went wrong; gravity delivered the message. But when we are dealing with complex matters involving social or institutional relationships, it is often difficult to know when one has lost her sense of balance. As Winston S. Chur- chill put it: "Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary; it fulfills the same function as pain in the human body, it calls at- 2 tention to the development of an unhealthy state of things." * Professor of Law, Roger Williams University School of Law.