Focus on UK Metal Detecting: LOL-ing Through the Heritage Debate

When I suggested that, in order to understand what I was writing about here, UK metal detectorist Andy Baines really ought to look at the texts which concern topics other than UK metal detecting. He reports back that he has begun to do this, but stresses that he does so mainly for the "comedy value".

This is quite a common theme. If you go over to UK metal detectorists' forums, it's fairly uncommon for any of them to admit that they've been reading anything on this hated blog, but every single one who does writes one of two things immediately after the admission. They will write some insulting comment about the blog's author (his character, intelligence, his 'qualifications', or something concerning his nether regions being the usual ones). Others will write about  "how funny" they found his remarks to be.  You'd be hard pressed to find a single metal detectorist in the UK who will actually go on a forum and tell his guffawing lowbrow mates "you know, you may knock him, but this time he actually does have a point, what Bazza wrote/did/did not do was totally irresponsible".

According to all those "responsible" metal detectorists out there hoiking away in Britain's fields, not a single point made anywhere in this blog, be it about looting in Egypt, a US lobbyist's attitude towards the citizens of foreign countries or what Bazza Thugwit said last night on the forum that he did with his Garret Relichunter Mk 7 and spade has any merit whatsoever. It is all merely "funny" for them, and thus nobody need give a moment's thought to any of it. That is characteristic of the superficiality and intellectual laziness of the group mentality of almost the entire milieu. If you, reader, are here because like me you care about the heritage and what a small group of greedy individuals is doing to it for personal gratification and profit....

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".

Vignette: metal detectorist mentality, use lots of emoticons and txt-talk on discussion lists and forums.