Antiquities' Fellow and the Dregs of Debate

John Hooker FSA says his blog "Past Times and Present Tensions" welcomes "content-rich comments with information about the subject matter". But it seems to me that the material he publishes seems more intent on fanning the flames, rather than discussing those 'tensions' in any mature and useful way. A post on the effects of metal fragments accidentally incorporated into compost on geophysical techniques is accompanied by a comment of pre-teen drollness:

"Green Waste, eh? In Poland I'm told, it is referred to as 'Barford'. 

An attempt to draw attention to the hypocrisy of the use of such remarks in the context of the wider discussion only met with some Hookerian mumbo-jumbo about Eugenics and the UN, tekkie taunts and exhortations to "keep the Red Flag flying high. Ha ha ha ha hah!". Hooker adds this gem:

Sooner or later, archaeological wrongdoing and lack of ethics will be exposed by some journalist with a lot of clout and will make governments really wake up and take a look at what has been happening in the world for a long time. Until that day, we can only chip away at it, bit by bit, until it gets the attention it warrants.

The question is, if this chip-on-the-shoulder ad-hominem junk is the calibre of the 'arguments' that these buffoons have to offer, why anyone at all should pay any attention whatsoever to anything they have to say. I guess they will be left dreaming in cliquey isolation of their own self-righteousness for a long time yet.

Metal Detectorist Insults my Mother

The UK metal detectorist caught saying on a metal detecting forum near you that he was going searching on  field without the permission of the landowner and who was advised if he found something to report it from a different findspot, now has an explanation why he is being criticised here (Re: Unusual situation - What do you think.....):

But here's a thought - and I've done more research than he did before publishing........ Looking at this...... [picture  pbarford_887.jpg (81.19 KiB) Viewed 41 times].... And reading this...... http://childhoodtraumarecovery.com/2013 ... rnal-bond/ Looks like a classic case to me [Obraz usunięty przez nadawcę. / UP1111Obraz usunięty przez nadawcę. 8--p] But with some darker interludes perhaps.....

The metal detectorist follows the regrettably constant trend in the milieu in trying to drag any discussion of any aspect of artefact hunting and collecting down to a personal level and frame it in terms of abuser/victim. In line with this, bodkins surmises I had an "abusive mother" which is his explanation of why I discussed his case. Like all the others, he simply cannot accept that he is in the wrong, and like the majority of his fellows attempts to fix the blame on another. This is why PAS outreach is doomed to fail"as a technique for curbing malpractice.

TAKE A GOOD LOOK at this behaviour, for these are precisely the sort of people the PAS wants to grab more and more millions of public quid to make into the "partners" of the British Museum, archaeological heritage professionals and to whom they want us all to entrust the exploitation of the archaeological record. Take a good look and decide what you think about that as a "policy".  

Reap What You Sow

 

Texas veteran metal detectorist Dick Stout has a post on his "Stout Standards" blog (Oct 14th 2015) called "How to Attract Readers… [to a metal detecting blog]"  

[It is] Amazing what attracts people to my blog… Share a post about knocking on doors, updates from the UK, views on a detector, or an interesting news article, and nada. Throw one out about someone slandering you, and bam, hundreds of views.

or post something slanderous about archaeologists and conservationists too, which is what the cantankerous old has-been has been doing alongside moaning about his septuagenarian aches and pains which prevent him from actually doing any metal detecting.  Now he's complainiung that a fellow metal detectorist called him a "fake, phony and fail[ing] to do anything positive for the hobby". Yet the "Stout Standards" blog is indeed one of the worst advertisement that the hobby has to offer.