Jan 22 2008
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Anarchy In The UFO
In a reply I left a few weeks ago at Mac Tonnies’ Posthuman Blues, I lamented the lack of cohesion in the UFO community and how, historically, organizations like MUFON and CUFOS have made little impact in the greater society. I also suggested that the best ideas often come from mavericks and others working on problems by themselves.
Most people are very interested and indeed open minded about the UFO subject. Unfortunately, the gatekeepers of our collective/ created reality (media, science, academia) are generally dismissive. No matter what “experts” quoted in cable documentaries say, unless someone like Stephen Hawking or Tom Brokaw unequivocally declare that UFOs (and perhaps other paranormal phenomena) are legitimate subjects for serious inquiry, and do so repeatedly, they will remain on the fringe.
A couple of commentators on the UFO scene are coming up with a plan to revitalize UFO research with an as-yet unnamed organization which will look at data without preconceived notions about what the outcome should be. One of them has told me that their idea is not to create a new elite of Ufology, but to bring valuable research and ideas to the forefront, determine if there is any merit to them, and present these findings to the media. This would be an ongoing process, with no one answer (unless there was one that seemed to fit all the phenomena.)
Many UFO researchers and writers are not members of any organization, as far as I know. Some of the best books on UFOs and anomalies are written by people who put everything they have into just one or two titles: Keith Thompson, William Bramley, Paul Hill, Jim Brandon and Greg Little come to mind.
It’s not the only way to get to the bottom of things, but it is an efficient method, since no one tells these people what is right or wrong. The forum of the larger interest group, as well as public opinion (at least from people who are interested in such things) is a loose sort of peer review. Those who can turn out quality titles on a consistent basis are rare. Vallee and Keel are the standout examples, with Nick not far behind.
Perhaps a loose sort of anarchy is a good way to go about things as we move away from the 20th century. The internet has facilitated this, and will continue to affect (and effect) the way we look at mysteries. A new UFO group like the one that is proposed may benefit from very little control, except in the way that their information is presented to the greater public. If some of the ideas presented at sites such as Posthuman Blues, Daniel Brenton’s site, Kevin Randle’s site, The Other Side Of Truth, Orange Orb, and Binnall Of America and this one can be presented in a way that captures the public imagination with simple, sound-bite-type information, there could be hope for the future of the public face of ufology.
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January 22nd, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I guess anyone who gets an interest in UFOs has an inherent rebellious nature in the first place. People like that don’t get along well with beaurocratic processes
PS: that would be a GREAT title for a song BTW!
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Aw Greg, Nick’s gonna kick your butt for using that title before he got a chance…
Kind regards,
Gre
January 22nd, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Greg(s):
LOL, yes why didn’t I ever think of that title before?!
I suppose I could always come up with a post along the lines of “Sheena is a Cattle Mutilator” or “Should I stay or should I crash my UFO”?
January 23rd, 2008 at 7:18 am
How about “The Grays Grays Grays took my baby away”?
January 23rd, 2008 at 8:24 am
Ben:
LOL, very good! I like that!
January 23rd, 2008 at 9:06 am
I don’t know if insitutions within ufology (or ghosthunting, etc.) inevitably fail because of the subject matter itself, and the personalitites within, or if it’s because there has never been an organization modeled after ‘regular’ ones. The lack of an academic base is huge. Even building an organization based on the same principles found in other academic/scholarly/professional models would probably fail without the univ. backing.
There has to be a sense of healthy competition, encouraging innovation, but tempered by the idea of status. MUFON and any other ufo organization has little in common with other models that seem to work.
Perhaps it’s for the best, I don’t know.
I wish I could think of a good song pun to join in the fun…
January 23rd, 2008 at 1:02 pm
I’ve been an anarchist for years. And I’ve been interested in UFOs for years too. Actually I don’t remember what came first
I know anarchy may work (well, most times). See Wikipedia, it is not perfect but I love it. It is done in an anarchistic way.
BTW I have a theory why ETs (or whatever they are) haven’t landed in front of the White House - the question so many people ask. What if these beings are anarchists too
? Then they won’t want to contact any government on earth (especially the US government). They will prefer to contact ordinary people - the people we used to call contactees or just crazy. Think about it…
January 23rd, 2008 at 3:25 pm
and now I’m mad about
Space junk
walk and talk about
space junk
it smashed my Sally’s head
and now my baby’s dead.
Ms. hawks has the right of it, I think. Until the field has something repeatable, soemthing you can take out
of a box, than you won’t get much traction outside the field of Sociology-
which isn’t a bad place to start,IMHO.
January 23rd, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Shouldn’t we be quoting the Sex Pistols?
“I wanna destroy and pacify!”
Yeah anarchy as a new grouping of blogs, books, thinkers, etc. haha.
Sex Pistols — anarchy in a can! Mass marketing for mainstream access.
Or as I call it: tantric technology.
Good luck Greg — your book Project Beta is the best single text on the subject in my opinion. My book “When the Mothership Lands” has finally been completed just by such a “jury by peers” process. I relied on breakingopenthehead.com, webofmimicry.com, taobums.com, rigint.blogspot.com, gnn.tv, and this blog - (not mention the half a dozen blogs and forums I’ve been banned from).
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:40 pm
rpj,
Yeah, they have a rebellious nature until they get older and become the establishment. Sometimes.
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:47 pm
richelle,
I think that’s because UFO organizations are so unsure of their status that the leaders are constantly trying to justify their relevancy and legitimacy to more traditional disciplines. Wrong tack I think.
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Joe,
Good points. Sometimes I think that we can’t even guess at what “aliens” (whatever they are) are trying to do with us, if anything. The interaction is so wrapped up with our expectations and preconceptions that it may be hopeless to guess at what’s really going on.
January 23rd, 2008 at 11:03 pm
craig,
DEVO rules.
Maybe ufology has to stop looking for respectability and just work on it’s own issues in it’s own way.
January 23rd, 2008 at 11:04 pm
drew,
Thanks for the compliment, and good luck with your book.
January 23rd, 2008 at 11:10 pm
joe, greg–What if ETs *ARE* the white house lawn? (I’m waging a viral campaign to promote my maybe-soon-to-be-published theory…)
January 24th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Well John Gray’s new book “BLACK MASS” has a very similar argument. He’s a Taoist political analyst writing on apocalyptic culture.
January 24th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
well, as a Suburbanite, I can certainly
see St. Augustine grass as a sinister
alien presence…
Why, yes, I do have a job, and I wear
a hat, and I bring home the bacon…
Why are y’all looking at me like that?
I like Anarchism as a concept, but I don’t think humanity is sufficiently
evolved socially for it to work in practice for the mass of humanity.
(For some more interesting speculation in this line, you might look at the
most recent posting at the “Damned Intersting” website