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Climbing on Standing Stones
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GLADMAN
948 posts

Re: Deliberately conciliatory remarks
Mar 04, 2012, 13:11
drewbhoy wrote:
Nah, you should stay, the more the merrier. In my opinion everybody should be able to have their point of view and be free to post it. People like you keep clueless idiots like me informed. Anyway I wished this bickering would stop as to me it seems a waste of time. Onywhy you should stay. Fitba time for me.


We also need to accept that the 'Cope message' - however you might coherently define it - would appear deliberately antagonistic.... specifically to cause heated debate about subjects which previously were limited to trained academics. Some TMA members clearly possess high grade expertise .... we have professional photographers, authors, archaeologists.... others, like myself, rely on a bog standard schooling and enthusiasm for the subject matter to try and make a difference. I believe we need both types - and every possible variation in between. To my mind Cope is a visionary, but thankfully his 'vision' isn't utopian. There is no end of the rainbow where we all live happily ever after, just a desire that those who are up for it make an attempt to revisit and challenge how we relate to the metaphysical aspects of being human and living on this planet. That's all!!! Really fundamental stuff. I've been trying to do that, building upon extreme experiences as a young man climbing the mountains of Wales, trying to explain 'why I feel this way' when in such locations and noting that people in prehistory had consistently chosen the same spots to apparently perform their rituals... I think I read once that Aldous Huxley said his father viewed walking in the mountains as the equivalent of going to church... if so, I know what he meant. However there is no sacred text if you choose the former, just what can be determined from your own senses. In short I, and I suspect many others, are making this up as we go along. Consequently arguments will not be clearly defined, often incoherent fragments of observation, experience or whatever to throw into the collective 'pot', perhaps for the more academic members to collate and add structure, so we all can deliberate upon.

So since there is such a cross-section of the community posting here misconceptions, misunderstandings... OK and the odd deliberately provocative statement - will always lead to conflict. But, hey, contented people merely maintain the status quo, will never change anything. This is fine if 'it ain't broke', but I think there's general consensus here that the state of our prehistoric heritage is currently 'broke' and needs fixing. I'm not naive enough to think the world in general will ever view not only the protection, but the evaluation of our prehistoric heritage as of any major priority.... obviously there are many, many people dying from a myriad of causes, extreme poverty, exploitation, religious subjection etc which makes that a no-brainer. But assuming such heritage can be of benefit to humankind and the planet in the long term - which I think it most definately can - what we are doing here IS important, much more important that fraternal bickering. There is - literally - too much to lose.

Spike Milligan once reckoned that a sure cure for seasickness was to sit under a tree. Obvious, but spot on. I reckon we all need to 'get out on the water'... whether we do that by donning boots, or by searching the net, or by simply sitting to think... arguably the hardest bit. Put something into the pot that best reflects who you are. It may be great, it may be bollocks.... you may have a combination of the ridiculous and sublime in the same post? Yeah, the above may well be trite rubbish for all I know. But, if so, at least it's my trite rubbish for others to debate.
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