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+--- Thread: A democratically viable future? (/showthread.php?tid=1370)
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A democratically viable future? - YellowPete - 31st January 2009
I would aloso add that although, i myself am a naive bystander to the days gone by i would like to remind you, that through all that work and time you laboured on the emergence of a industry and potential career that has opened my eyes to my own potential beyond what i had been enducated into imagining as my only possible future.
Democracy has 5 ideal precursors:
1). an informed enlightenment (different quality of degree's, different educational standards BSc, BA, MSc, MA, MPhil, PhD.....yada yada yada)
2). representationalism (different university, college, workplace, curatoral institutions neglecting amateur and home grown YAS)
3). equality in vote made (your right there is no vote beyond the standard of archaeology we are willing to accept and the level of professionalism we adhere to, for ultimately we vote with our feet if we so feel passionately about something that strongly)
4). an opportunity of access for everyone (black, white, asian, disabled, poorly educated, young, old, skilled, experienced, inexperienced, graduates, the general public, amateurs, old guard, new guard, post graduates, lecturers, teachers, educators, parents, children andthe future interested parties of an archaeological data base, whom as yet have not yet gotten beyond kindergarden)
And finally the most important and most base principle for any chance of a voice on a topic of any significance
5). The ability to set the agenda of discussion necessary for a future beyond the present (where many of us are redundant, even some who will never get a chance because they were born too late and those of us now could not bring ourselves to think about the future, for the past present and future of archaeology as a paradigm, or body of thought).
i fear it is time that maybe we should resolve ourselves, that in the next few years we will find ourselves at the beckon call of the next despotic figure of a newer archaeology.
which social clique of archaeology will over throw intellectual freedom
which economic hegamony will set the standards by which all must attempt to match purely to survive, with the hope of change the next time an opportunity arises.
For if you ask me this is the moment we most dreaded as much as hoped for, this is the day when the future of archaeology can be handed over in the relay race.
Do we hand over the diploma, the trowel, the friends, the community, the future
I ask again the FUTURE
I am naive, i dare not imagine the decisions that ravage the minds of those in positions whom the bells toll, nor those whom must make the decision and mean it, for we sit here on the side lines imagining if we had the vote, if we had the responsibility we could serve a better end.
The situation and circumstance is here, we have walked our own path of choices to this time and place and now we are forced to accept we have no voice.
Sufferage is a hope and a dream, but i fear we have forgotten the gravity and guilt which will plague whomever gets to make choices.
decisions bearing down in a way none of us can appreciate as a whole, for ultimately we have no voice, but still we have individuals whom must do and try their best, with what they have, and what they must think about.
so i ask the question beyond my time and place for the future, whom as yet are not here.
I appologise for this serious and maybe callous broaching of a sensitive subject at a time when we await our own futures but i mearly wish to voice a voice, without as yet a voice they know.
yours
with kind regards
txt
Mike
A democratically viable future? - BAJR Host - 31st January 2009
I am not saying much here, as I don't want to stick too much BAJRnish into this superb thread... It covers so much of what I hope and dream the BAJR Federation will and can stand for... equality of voice and representation and a final realisation that public matters... that archaeology is not an abstract but a tangible benefit.. a teaching tool, and learning tool, a subject that returns insight and thought, self awareness and responsibility... that can create much more than a dry academic report on freshwater moluscs in the late bronze age of Diddlescote - It has more to offer... and people who care passionately
Maggie said to me today... the thing she notices about BAJR - the people actually care about the archaeology.. and the passion is evidence.. we may not agree about many things... but we do care about what is missing.. all to often... the passion and opportunity to share that passion... to get muddy... to stand in the rain and still work on... to work as a team... to think... to debate.. to use imagination as a tool rather than a form of escape... brilliant...
er.. I may have said too much already...
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