PMTS Instructor wrote: "The Guest (I feel bad for him) is missing the boat, but his low level, miserable, degrading attack on good people won?t do anything to change the minds of intelligent skiers who know the difference in their skiing and skiing knowledge, after working with Harald and his great crew."
I believe the appropriate word here would be "aparatchik". "The Guest", like you, has the right to express dissenting viewpoints on teaching methodologies. The danger occurs when: 1.) Any one means of ski instruction (or anything else, for that matter) becomes so monopolized or sanctified that it is above question, or; 2.) Anyone is punished for expressing his or her beliefs about a given system.
Progress occurs as a function of evolution, and evolution never occurs as a function of "respect". Personally, I find your post disturbing in its "religious fanaticism". Be grateful to HH, certainly, if he has impacted on YOUR skiing experience in a positive manner, but PLEASE allow that no one human being is the messiah or panacea with regard to teaching everyone on the planet to ski. "The enemy" is not PSIA, HH, or even Carrot Top (well, OK, perhaps Carrot Top), but is in fact an entity known as "The Resort".
Resorts are cashing in on youth culture to create a snow-park environment which will, in no small way, impact upon the development of a basic skillset which is core to the sport/art that is skiing. Snowboarding and park culture are winning the hearts and minds of a generation, and these people will, in turn, teach snowboarding and park riding to their children. Skiing will fall into decline and suffer unless skiers like us put aside the squabbling and exert a unified influence to PRESERVE OUR SPORT. Skiing has as much room to evolve and grow as snowboarding, and this is the key to its survival. In order for this to happen, we must realize the importance of preserving a free-thinking and forward-willing approach to its development. Never will it be pragmatic to place the growth or development of an entire sport in the hands of one individual. Rather, progress will come as a function of the synergy of contributions from many sources.
Believe me when I say that there are "points of light" in the skiing universe which are in no way associated with HH. HH is neither Obi-Wan Kenobi, or Darth Vader. Resorts are "The Empire", and skiers are quickly becoming the "rebels".
---Berus