He’ll be a hero and a villain. His work will be celebrated, and his personal life derided. He’ll be praised as a lover, and damned as a rake.

Whatever Burns Supper you attend this month and next (and they run into March in some parts!) the life and times of Rabbie Burns will be interpreted in a hundred different ways dependant on the inclination of the speakers involved.

But, especially in the case of those sending up his extra marital adventures or mocking his somewhat erratic commitment to marriage, the national bard – an 18th century man – will be subjected to judgement of folks whose manners and morals were shaped by the 20th and 21st centuries.

However, there is a reverse brand of this imposition of one era’s mores on those of another.

All of the world’s major religions have some adherents who persist in telling the other folks in their communities that the only true path is one trod by their ancestors several centuries ago.

Whether it’s ultra orthodox Jews, or fundamentalist Muslims and Christians, their common trait is an alarming lack of self doubt, and an insistent imposition of laws and customs on those who have the temerity to hold alternative views on how to live their lives.

It’s no more logical to take centuries old strictures from the bible, the Koran, or the Torah as contemporary gospel as it would be to re-introduce stoning for adultery and hand amputation for the illegal removal of sheep.

This is not to argue that basic morality, lawful and tolerant behaviour, should be corrupted by modern times. Just to observe that civilisation itself evolves as does what we consider civilised behaviour.

And the problem with the hardliners of any persuasion is that they bring their own religion into disrepute.

That’s part of the reason hundreds of thousands of women and some heroic men marched in unison all over the world last weekend.

Because the one shared hallmark of all hardliners – whether it be those denying women and girls an education, those justifying the random murder of unbelievers, or those continuing to provoke division between ethnicities – is that they constantly block any progress to a more harmonious world.

The marchers were making a powerful statement that they didn’t want the clock turned back to a time when women’s health and reproductive lives were dictated to by male politicians.

They didn’t want to revert to a time when gay men and women didn’t enjoy civil rights. They didn’t want any part of a new American administration built on thinly veiled racism.

The philosopher Edmund Burke said it best: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

A lot of good men and women put down a marker last weekend. Listening is not Donald Trump’s core virtue, but let’s hope he was at least looking out his new window.