There’s a thread bopping about UFO updates entitled’“What Should Ufology Be Focusing On Today” There has been some interesting commentary. Wendy Conner’s says that UFOlogest should develop a textbook –”
“to teach younger generations of who, what, when, where and how the subject developed. If a person interested in the subject doesn’t know the history, they are wasting their time on anything new. “
Much of the time I don’t agree with Ms Connors, this is an exception. A historical perspective is necessary when approaching most any field. A history of UFology is not only necessary but vital. But, the history needs to be objective. It must focus on people and events, not wild hypothesis-as-fact the way most UFO literature reads.
The question in my mind is not, What Should Ufology Be Focusing On Today? It’s “What should UFOlogests focus on to get UFOlogy out of the silly-circuit and get it established as a more main-stream field of study?” The short answer is for UFologests to start taking the subject seriously themselves. Stop treating it like a carnival. Begin applying the rigors of science to the subject and stop expecting certain results.
UFOlogy is a joke in academia, a circus side-show. It’s the world’s largest pig, the bearded lady and the Montana Iceman all rolled up in one ugly-shrieking package. Like the Iceman In a long power failure, it’s melting even as we speak, a puddle of stale smelling water is congealing inside the tent causing most people to move towards the door and into fresh air.What will be left is an unappetizing latex carcass, smelling to high heaven and the only question will be, who foisted this fake on an otherwise interesting subject?
Is it desirable to take UFOlogy out of it’s present state and formalize it? I think so. Despite the carnival-like atmosphere there is still a core of weirdness driving the whole thing. People do see strange stuff in the sky. It would be nice to be able to explain all of it but we can’t.
In its current state, UFOlogy is rapidly becoming more of a religious movement than a field of study. It’¢s becoming a church, the church of the unscientific, a church of the believers where faith and a loud insult are the only credentials one needs to have influence. Oh, it helps to have a self-published book too.
Instead of the nativity and Bethlehem we have Mount Rainer. For Nazareth we have Roswell, for Gethsemane we have the Internet which is puzzling, one would think a less restrictive media would foster better understanding and a free exchange of information.
Instead, free speech of some people is being shouted down by the free-shrieking of others. The lunatic fringe in UFOlogy is so intent on squashing any ideas that go against cannon that they demonstrably will stop at nothing to silence people.
Does that really further the goals of UFOlogy? Is that really the direction the field wishes go? Every time it happens, UFOlogy gets nudged further into the abyss. Each time someone gets silenced, UFOlogy shrinks just a little bit and becomes more extreme, more silly until one day only the clowns will hold center stage.
UFOlogy requires a more serious attitude, more discipline, a scientific bent and that means allowing the data to drive hypothesis and not the other way around. It means a truly free exchange of information, not condemning people just because they have a different opinion than yours. It means taking a more centrist view than the luminaries of UFOlogy. It means becoming truly open-minded, not pretending to be while chasing off people you don’t like. It means listening once and a while, even if you don’t like the message.
With some people in UFOlogy this will truly be impossible. Too jaded, too bitter and too angry, they will continue to lash out at the things they don’t like. Too tied up in their own situation they will seek out others to blame their problems on. These people are truly the driving force behind UFOlogy.
Driving the good people away.
And in an empty ring of sawdust and trash, the clowns hold counsel on how many flying saucers can dance on the end of a needle.
This is the future of UFology. They can continue to embrace this future, and probably end up as a religious movement in a few years. The ground work for this has already begun. Or, Ufology can begin taking a good, critical look at itself. Compare it with other fields (psychology is a good one, it’s real field of study that returns actual results.)
As with anything, the choice will be with the people who participate. They (as always) are the final arbitrators to their own reputation. No government, media installation or business will do it for them.
Share and enjoy!
Ahoy, Captain,
You remind me of myself, ten years ago, coming in from the wilderness like John The Baptist, shouting “prepare the way…!”
I tried – I really tried, for over a decade to try to make a difference, to make some sense. But the shit just piled up higher and deeper, year after year. Now, in 2006, it’s even worse than ten years ago – now Salla and Webre et al have jumped on this ship of fools. I used the term “degenerate” to describe the state of ufology a decade ago, now the only term which fits, imho, is “fucked up beyond belief.”
Copied below is post of mine EBK pulled off of Project-1947 eight years ago, for posting at UpDates as “for the record.” I was calling for the same sort of “revolution” then as you are now.
Now, I’ve given up. I don’t think it can be “saved.” The only possible solution I see is for an invisible college (a college invisible to “mainstream” ufology) to form, and work quietly, following scientific standards to the best of their ability,probably paying for it all out of their own pockets, and sharing nothing with “mainstream” ufologists, lest our loose-minded friends pollute it with their brain-choad. No website, no newsletters, no convention appearances. At some point down the road, when the time is right, their study could be published all at once, in its totality – not a book of colorful and enthralling musings or sensational proclamations, but a book full of critical papers and charts and graphs and mathematics, not in the least bit “dumbed-down” for the general public.
Mind you, if the conclusions are anything other than what “our friends” wish to hear, they will malign, lambaste, and lampoon it. And then they will turn back to what they were doing before, and await D.I.S.C.L.O.S.U.R.E like others await the return of Christ.
From: Rod Brock
Date: Wed, 4 Nov 1998 20:19:36 PST
Fwd Date: Thu, 05 Nov 1998 08:17:36 -0500
Subject: -[For The Record]- P-47: Seti Signal Hoax
Jan Aldrich wrote:
>No one seems to analysis the actual stories;
>they are too caught up in the sensation to use rational thought.
>Instead of a critical examination of the content and
>context; an immediate furor ensues and God only help the “Nay
>Sayer” as he is brand a “debunker” for life.
This Seti example is not strictly “fringe ufological,” of
course, but the craziness bubbles up from the same wellspring
of misguided humanity.
Sounds about right. I quietly fumed about this sort of thing
for years; more recently I have begun to speak out. And, in
fine form, I have been called a liar, a debunker, a
“small-minded puppet of the educational establisment,” a “killer
of truth,” a “disinformation agent,” a skeptic (uttered with the
tone of a four letter word), and, most recently, the “biggest
ego I have ever seen.” (when you can’t win the argument, call
them an egomaniac or a skeptic, etc..oldest tactic in the book).
The website I have established, http://www.watchtheskies.org is being
developed with a mind to highlighting the sort of thing you
speak of above – identifying and critiquing the irrationality,
while encouraging rational thinking in ufology. However, of
late, it has become abidingly clear to me what a small thing my
attempt is in the context of all this madness – just one more
voice trying to rise above the din, one faint signal in all that
noise. Nevertheless, to quote a song: “Hanging on in quiet
desperation is the English way.” How well I take after my
forefathers…
The kind of thing you speak about, above, Jan. It’s more than
just a “problem.” It’s a disease. And it’s spreading. Typhoid
Mary is out there. This time, however, she can’t be
quarantined. The best one can hope for is to educate people,
and warn them away from her.
Cordially,
Rod
From: Moderator, UFO UpDates, Toronto
Date: Thu, 05 Nov 1998 08:41:33 -0500
Fwd Date: Thu, 05 Nov 1998 08:41:33 -0500
Subject: ‘Watch The Skies’ E-Magazine
For those of you who missed this in a previous post:
http://www.watchtheskies.org/
its Rod Brock’s ‘Watch The Skies’ E-Magazine site and _well_
worth a visit or three.
ebk
And here is a quote from Heinlein’s Stanger in a Strange Land which may in some small way illuminate part of the problem in “modern ufology” —
“A confidence man knows he’s lying; that limits his scope. But a successful shaman believes what he says — and belief is contagious; there is no limit to his scope.” ~ Jubal Harshaw
That brings me around to the issue of what I call recursive self deception (I.E. Lying to oneself.) My parents (Odd Emperor’s in their own right) used to put it thusly;
You can lie to other people and that’s bad. You can lie to your friends and your family and that’s even worse. You should never lie to yourself. Lying to yourself is the single most deadly thing you can do. People who lie to themselves should never be trusted with heavy machinery, sharp objects, medicine or alcohol. They are unemployable, and should never be extended credit. In short, they can never be depended on because they believe their own lies–and they desperately want you to believe them too.
I know of entire communities that have been disrupted by the antics of a single person with this malady. Heck, Jim Jones, David Koresh L. Ron Hubbard are a few successful examples. Hitler, Joe Stalin and GWB even more successful.
That’s why a few people in UFology drive me absolutely bonkers. It’s not just the double standards or the stupid deceptive crap. It’s that they believe the ends justify the means and that their end product is important enough to justify whatever behavior they like. They actually believe that they are doing the right thing while they do evil things. UFology as a field of study is stillborn because of these types.