The Collaborative International Dictionary
Neglect \Neg*lect"\, n. [L. neglectus. See Neglect, v.]
-
Omission of proper attention; avoidance or disregard of duty, from heedlessness, indifference, or willfulness; failure to do, use, or heed anything; culpable disregard; as, neglect of business, of health, of economy.
To tell thee sadly, shepherd, without blame, Or our neglect, we lost her as we came.
--Milton. Omission of attention or civilities; slight; as, neglect of strangers.
-
Habitual carelessness; negligence.
Age breeds neglect in all.
--Denham. -
The state of being disregarded, slighted, or neglected.
Rescue my poor remains from vile neglect.
--Prior.Syn: Negligence; inattention; disregard; disesteem; remissness; indifference. See Negligence.
benign neglect A deliberate policy of minimizing public discussion of a controversial issue [e.g. by the president] on the theory that excessive discussion in itself is harmful or counterproductive.
Wikipedia
Benign neglect was a policy proposed in 1969 by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who was at the time on President Richard Nixon's staff as an urban affairs adviser. While serving in this capacity, he sent the President a memo suggesting, "The time may have come when the issue of race could benefit from a period of 'benign neglect.' The subject has been too much talked about. The forum has been too much taken over to hysterics, paranoids, and boodlers on all sides. We need a period in which Negro progress continues and racial rhetoric fades."
The policy was designed to ease tensions after the American Civil Rights Movement of the late 1960s. Moynihan was particularly troubled by the speeches of Vice-President Spiro Agnew. However, the policy was widely seen as an abandonment of urban neighborhoods, particularly ones with a majority black population, as Moynihan's statements and writings appeared to encourage, for instance, fire departments engaging in triage to avoid a supposedly futile war against arson.
A Rand Institute report suggested that many of the fires in the South Bronx and Harlem were arson, but subsequent analysis of the data did not back this up. Of the fires in buildings, only very few were arson, and that portion was not higher than the rate of proven arson found in wealthier neighborhoods. However, influenced by the report, Moynihan went on to make recommendations for urban policy based on the assumption that there was "widespread arson" in poverty stricken neighborhoods like the South Bronx and Harlem. To Moynihan, arson was one of many social pathologies caused by large cities that would benefit from benign neglect.
Usage examples of "benign neglect".
As long as the precision goods and the microbeams came back from space, the same sort of benign neglect applied.
I should also mention that my editor, Dave Hartwell, practiced a policy of benign neglect under circumstances where less trusting people would have worried more publicly about when they would see the book.
His mother oscillates between benign neglect and raptures of maternal love that are as genuine as they are overdone.
Dragons and the Oromise welcomed them through benign neglect and did not dispute their making our world fertile.
If the Designers went the Organian route, they presumably would practice a similar benign neglect.
Her species' at-best benign neglect for their less accomplished fellow sapients was awful enough.
Three hundred and four guardsmen had been on the company's books when it had last served in the Escorial Palace outside Madrid, but the imprisonment of Spain's king and benign neglect by the occupying French had reduced its ranks, and the journey by sea around Spain to join the British army had thinned the files even more, so that by the time the Real Companï.
Now, Miranda thought with a little twist of guilt, it was surviving benign neglect.