A Lifeline
The U.S. government and military have devoted decades to debunking UFOs and UFO study, painting reasonable believers not simply as crackpots, but as persons of no consequence. That’s the ultimate, scarily metaphysical insult: because UFOlogists don’t matter, their ideas are non-ideas. Washington, the armed services, and other Beltway players remain ready to dismiss serious UFO study right out of existence.
We do not suggest a conspiracy here. To the contrary, we suggest discrete systems (the political system, the military system, and others) in pursuit of discrete goals. As with any system, the goal of political bodies and the military is self-perpetuation. If Washington guides us toward governance, the governance is incidental. When the military protects us, the protection is ancillary. Contrary to what we’re expected to believe, the systems exist simply . . . to exist. If the activities of one system overlap with the activities of another, the confluence isn’t evidence of concerted cooperation in the service of a master plan. It’s just overlap.
Yes, but why is there no conspiracy? Because a system that allows another system too close to its inner workings begs to be compromised and revealed.
And when that happens, the continued life of the unwary system is jeopardized.
UFOlogy’s real adversary, then, is UFOlogy itself. By tolerating scattershot research and speculation, by indulging the fringe, by seeking legitimacy in crumbs thrown by cable television, and by failing to function as a unified force, UFOlogy exposes its vulnerabilities while forgetting that it, too, is a system.
To ensure meaningful, long-term survival, UFOlogy needn’t adopt the brute survivalist thinking that drives the military and similar systems. UFOlogy can endure and prosper by reclaiming its original focus on unidentified flying objects. Tune out the noise. Ignore the trivial. Forsake the foolish. Insist on civility and scientific integrity. Welcome the thoughtful and the trained. Look to the skies and reflect on the intelligent life that surely is out there. Devote all momentum to the gathering of facts, because only facts lead to the truth.
There are no squirrels on Mars.