73 lines
4.9 KiB
Plaintext
73 lines
4.9 KiB
Plaintext
UFOLOGY: AFTER 40 YEARS, STILL NO RESPECT
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by Jim Speiser
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___________________________
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On June 24th of this year, we will mark the 40th anniversary of the
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start of the present "flying saucer" era. No subject has captured the
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imagination or sparked so much controversy as the UFO phenomenon. It's been
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characterized as the "silly season that wouldn't go away."
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And why hasn't it gone away? The debunkers tell us that such things run
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in cycles, and UFO flaps, or waves, are merely the effects of the domino
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theory at work. A particularly well-publicized story in one section of the
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country, the theory goes, will cause starry-eyed true believers in other
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areas to suddenly delude themselves into believing that, "yeah, I seen it
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too!" That, they tell us, is what happened in 1973 when over 1200 cases were
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reported in the country, after a few sightings in the southeast were bally-
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hooed.
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Yet, here we are in the Year of the UFO, with three major books on the
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market, Shirley MacLaine preaching the Gospel of Our Lady of the Pleiades,
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and a Japanese airliner serving French wine to gigantic flying walnuts.
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Where's the flap? In the first five months of 1987, the UFO Information Ser-
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vice has recorded only 27 sightings.
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Isn't it possible that the cyclical nature of UFOs is a characteristic
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of the phenomenon itself, and not of our collective "attunement"? Such
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questions as this need to be addressed more honestly by those who tell us
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there's nothing new in our atmosphere.
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And there are other questions. Why are we constantly fed bromides like,
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"Astronomers do not see UFOs"? When you adjust for the explainable
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sightings, they see them in approximately the same proportionate numbers as
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the general populace.
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Explaining UFO sightings is one thing. Excessive, obsessive debunking is
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quite another. The rise of organized skepticism has raised negativism to a
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new art form. I call it "The Discount Muffler Theory of Ufology," because I
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am reminded of the TV commercial where two chimpanzees are banging on a muff-
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ler to get it to fit a car it was obviously not designed for. The debunkers
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constantly try to hammer the facts into place, in order to get them to fit a
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given situation.
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The message of this New Negativism is clear: those of us interested in
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UFO research are nothing but childish, uneducated, anti-intellectual twits,
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who should probably go home and watch reruns of Star Trek. To be truly in-
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tellectually chic, these days, one must NOT let one's mind entertain such
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silly notions.
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While a few skeptics grudgingly acknowledge the scientific competence of
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some ufologists, the majority are characterized as unworthy of their
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letters. And those of us below the doctorate level are made to feel sympathy
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with the witches of Salem. I envision in the near future bumper stickers
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that say, "Kill a Believer for CSICOP."
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Given that Ufology and "Mainstream Science" share a common ancestor,
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namely Curiosity, the question must be asked, Is all this abject negativism
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truly in the best interest of science? Perhaps the debunkers are right, and
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there really is nothing new under the sun. How has it harmed anyone to
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wonder, to look further, to investigate? One gets the impression that the
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skeptics would prefer us all to pack up our geiger counters, our VCRs, and
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our autographed copies of "Communion" and go home, never again to whisper
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the phrase, "UFOs are real". OK, what if we complied? And what if we were
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right in the first place, BUT NEVER FOUND OUT? How great the loss to
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science?
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As I said, questions remain. Questions like: If the Cash/Landrum case
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is a hoax, as Mr. Klass has said, how were Betty Cash and Vicki and Colby
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Landrum able to fake the symptoms of radiation poisoning? Can a bolide
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really remain in the Earth's atmosphere for 45 seconds...and then skip off
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into space? Can a group of ultralight pilots really perform a turn about a
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point in absolutely flawless formation, at night, without navigation lights?
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Are airline pilots with 20 years experience really capable of mistaking a
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planet 800 million miles distant for a gigantic spaceship only 8 miles
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distant?
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I firmly believe that UFOs are worthy of responsible investigation; that
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some responsible investigation has occurred already, and has turned up evi-
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dence worth a closer look. I also firmly believe that as long as a substan-
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tial number of questions such as these remain unanswered, and a substantial
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number of ends remain loose, that the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis, no matter
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how scientifically unlikely, remains too important to dismiss out of hand.
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There, I've said it. Get the stake ready for another witch.
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