Thursday, February 3, 2011

Mental Illness in the Upper ranks of the ACCG?

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I must admit it never occurred to me that an explanation of the sheer illogicality of the arguments of the US coin dealers lobby was mental illness. Now I have seen two posts made simultaneously by two of them, I am beginning to think it a reasonable explanation of the inability of the officers of the ACCG to engage in meaningful debate. Look at this:
Our observations are as much ourselves as what we observe. It is a dance where we lead and the universe follows. Sometimes, a number of us get together within a temporary, and carefully constructed matrix and we build ourselves a box to contain what we create, together. [...] What is the universe's response to this? It forgets us, because we can no longer dance with it -- we are stuck in a box! Frustrated, by this, the universe then does its best to dance with all of the boxes together. It finds this quite difficult to do and often has to eliminate a few boxes who can't keep step with the rest. But at best, it is a clumsy dance full of trial and error. We call this evolution. Those of us who are vigilant quickly step outside of our box and say "I am here!" and the universe either starts to dance with us or at least marks us down on its dance card for later.
Deep philosophy? Wayne Sayles seems to think so, but put it in the context of the entire self-gratulatory text and try and work out what the author is trying to get at. Beats me. But - like Peter Tompa's conspiracy theories - it apparently appeals to Sayles' sense of reality.

Then we have this from the same stable ('What will it take to get their attention?'):
Indeed it seems that the Constitution of the United States of America, as presently interpreted by unelected bureaucrats whose biased interpretations are validated by left wing activist judges, might mean little these days. That is however an illusion. The Constitution is a supreme and eternally enduring covenant between the US Government and the people. It transcends the transient affairs and management of any Governmental agency, and also the judiciary, and will never become insignificant. Any bureaucrat or judge seeking to manipulatively negate or disregard that covenant might perhaps consider that being strung up on a lamppost along Constitution Avenue is by no means out of the question, when so-called “civil servants” charged with the administration of the affairs of our Government demonstrate that they have other allegiances, and that the desires of the American people are not important to them, or that the courts will not respect those desires. [...] it would [...] be wise for those who administer our nation's affairs to bear that possibility in mind.
If any US readers have any difficulty in seeing what is wrong with that, imagine its author had written instead of "US Constitution" - say - Magna Carta and see how it looks. In other words judges who decide that the law says something other than what coin collectors (for it is they - pars pro toto - constitute here "the American people") should bear in mind that they might fall victtim to the sort of of violence we see currently playing out of the streets of Cairo? think somebody is getting a bit carried away and revealing a bit too much of his true nature. I bet he has a gun at home, too.

I sincerely hope and trust that our present difficulties will not come to such an extreme. The conduct of those responsible for the State Department's notoriously abusive Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs does not, however, engender any feeling of confidence. It seems to me that those in control of this agency are very far out of touch with the concerns and feelings of many of our citizens. It can be affirmed that their actions and decisions completely disregard the legislative intent of Congress, and have provoked an increasing sense of anger, resentment, and a growing public view that the oppressive abuses of this out of control agency must be stopped. It could, and no doubt will, be argued that those offended by the oppressive conduct of this agency are a minority. That is true. But it is not the American way to take unjustifiable oppression of any minority lightly. A terrible Civil War with a huge death roll was fought over such an issue.
The slave owners would apparently not give up their practices any other way.

It seems to me that people who - apparently in all seriousness - come out with such Glennbeckery; warning lynch mobs may round up the lawmakers and judges of their state over a load of old dugup coins, and talking about dancing with the universe in little boxes, really should seek professional help.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

An Odd Type of People's Archaeology Being Promoted Here

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Candice Jarman and his new echo Richard "Sheddy" Lincoln seem to have lost their sense of direction. Candice set up his smear-blog to defend his "friends" the British metal detector doing what they do legally and reporting everything to the PAS. recently though he's been increasingly (and tellingly) coming to the defence of the international no-questions-asked market in dugup antiquities, and now (even further from the original target) the people he calls "underclasses" (sic) protesting and looting museum storerooms in Egypt. And on the way raising the question of the "folly of repatriation". This is the "People's Archaeology" that Britain is spending so much through the PAS fostering - museum raiding? The breaking and taking of artefacts from museums and tombs in Egypt is "is not an attempt to loot but a cry of frustration from the poor and dispossessed!" trying to get back their past - just the same as Candice:
There are too many people today who are telling us what we should do and how we should think - the minority trying to impose their views on the majority. In archaeology, we see this in people like Paul Barford, David Gill and Colin Renfrew. The past belongs to us ALL - not just to archaeologists - this blog is just part of the fight back - to reclaim archaeology for the people!
Candice declares:
I passionately believe that archaeology belongs to the people - to all of us - and not just to archaeologists.

Vignette: Candice on the metal detectorists' crusade to break down the museum store doors, Archaeology for the People !