Another Metal Detectorist Does Not Get It

Mower, wikipedia

Clicking on Paul Mower's profile (see post above) produces the information that "The Portable Antiquities Scheme Have him in their circles" and also brings this text up right at the top of the page: paul mower commented on a video on YouTube. Shared publicly - 15:31. He writes:

I have always believed that everyone is entitled to an opinion no matter how outrageous or biased it may be. What Paul seems to do is to throw a net over everyone who uses a detector. Those who judge in this manner will also be judged in the same way. [...] Such a view does seem to be unbalanced and unfair! I wonder if one day he will unearth his own head, as it appears "to be buried in the sand!"

The 'LOL' seems to have gone missing. Mr Mower, under his shared video repeats the blinkered arguments which he read Baz Thugwit and his sidekicks Don Beergut and Flick Texburger-monster using over on the Goldseekers R Us forum. Baz said, and Mr Mower's profile repeats:

1) Oj, I is not a nighthawk, so there!
2) the British Museum is, like, our frend, so we is guud fer the country, eh?
3) I don't sell me finds stash, only intrestid in th' 'istry, so there.
4) we, like, edukate peeple,
5) stuff's better hoiked out than lost in th' ground, obveously
6) Wossat, conservation? [Spits] the stuff'd get buryed unda roads and construshon sites or be all like corrodin' and being smashed in th' fields.
7) Not all arkies our lillewhite pure. They, like, steal stuff to.
8) Barfy's off his rocker - on a personal crusade, so we shuld all attack 'im to make 'im shut up.
9) Anyway, Barfy don't reprisent the majority of archiologists, I know one,

Whether or not, Mr Mower, other archaeologists think, or write, the same as myself is of zero significance to me. I'm not a metal detectorist, and so am free of the desire to conform to and say what my fellows do. They have their concerns about the future of archaeology, I have mine.

(Ad 1) I think if you were to actually read what I say (and there is no shortage of material), it will become clear that you are mistaken in thinking that my concern is merely a result of my muddling illegal artefact hunting with the 'other kind'. The 'we-are-not-all-nighthawks' argument is a totally irrelevant one when you look at what I am convinced are the fundamental aspects of this, the effects of current policies on the archaeological record. You will, if you look (even superficially), observe that this blog is not about metal detecting but more general portable antiquity collecting issues, into which context metal detecting fits. If you want to address my arguments about metal detecting, then at least have the courtesy to do so within the wider context of the discussions of portable antiquities collecting issues, or not at all. Those are the parameters of this blog (If you want to discuss the subject superficially among guffawing mates, there are forums and blogs for that, John Winter's for example).

(Ad 2) The PAS is a symptom of the malaise, not a cure.

(Ad 3) It's not the commercial aspects of artefact hunting which are the root of the problem, but (as with the ancient coin mob) the collection driven exploitation of the archaeological record as a phenomenon, let's discuss that.

(Ad 5-6) I'm simply not going to waste time discussing why conservation is not worthwhile. I'm fed up with hearing the same old crap about this. Wait for the book or look at some older posts here for that one.

(Ad 7) two wrongs do not make a right. Shop the thieving archaeologists, I would, without a second thought.

Now, Mr Mower, you may think sharing fellow detectorist Steve Taylor's (really) puerile little song is making some kind of clever public statement which supports collectors' rights. You and your guffawing low-IQ mates down the tekking club, and the Telford And Wrekin Cub Scouts, no doubt find it 'reely funny'. You seem unaware that there are many people in the UK who, quite independent of the target of your attack 9which they might find out is conservation), do not exactly share your lowbrow tastes in entertainment.  Personally, I'd say that really all it does is make you look pathetically silly. To ally yourselves with the likes of Taylor, Stout, Winter and Howland does neither you, not the hobby you represent any favours at all. Let's see.

Look people. Look what lowbrow insulting material metal detectorist Paul Mower wants to share with you. This is what PAS-partner metal detectorists like him consider to be of great public interest:
 

"Those who judge in this manner will also be judged in the same way".