Much interesting feedback on Friday's UFO column, as you can imagine.
The UFO enthusiasts seemed abrupt, as if tired of defending themselves. They basically said, "Investigate the topic," as if that will be sufficient to engender belief. None of them addressed my basic question: "Sure, you're seeing strange stuff—but what makes you leap from smudge (or light, or spinning cigar, or whatever) to interplanetary visitors? Why dismiss the dozen more ordinary explanations?"
Some added plausible explanations of their own:
"I think the UFO reason is that we are social creatures," writes Mike R. "We don't even like the idea of being alone in the universe! I love the. Moody Blues' 'Eternity Road' song, but it makes me a bit nervous when I hear the lyrics describing the subject being alone, traveling through the cosmos .. and that first Twilight Zone episode, as well..."
One reader did point out a 20-year-old error on my part. I wrote about the person who set off the modern era mania, private pilot Kenneth Arnold claiming to spot nine mysterious objects in Washington State in June, 1947, and originally said that he had penned an article for FATE the year before. But that impossible, one reader pointed out; FATE didn't debut until the spring of 1948, with Arnold's article in it.
I took that from "U is for UFO," my study of the subject that appeared in my 1996 rumination on the irksome The Alphabet of Modern Annoyances. So either I got the magazine name wrong, or made some other kind error; it's been so long I can't figure out what the trouble was.
Not that it undercuts my case. If one mistake were enough to indict a point of view, we wouldn't have to tolerate the endless bleat of credulity that reigns supreme on this topic.
I'd have let the matter drop, but there was one email I want to share, almost beautiful in its simplicity, from reader Charles Yates. It struck me because it conveys a thought I've never seen expressed before.
Here it is, in its entirety:
I'm very skeptical when I heard about Roswell years ago. This ufo traveled from distant galaxies, and then when it gets to Earth it......crashes??
It is shot down by the zionists, the enemies of all intelligent life everywhere, or else the armed forces of the U.S., the evil empire.
ReplyDeleteI recognize your snark, anon. I was looking for a "like" button.
DeleteAmazing how those Zionists knew right where the aliens would be.
DeleteAnon, are you kidding? Or just another bigot?
ReplyDelete"Poe's law, named after its author Nathan Poe, is a literary adage which stipulates that without a clear indicator of an author's intended sarcasm it becomes impossible to tell the difference between an expression of sincere extremism and a parody of extremism."
DeleteThe automatic assignment of "anonymous" to one's message confuses the issue even further.
DeleteJohn
And another thing! [pounds fist on keyboard] why have UFO sightings not multiplied by millions now that damn near every human has a camera on his or her person 24//7/52? Answer me that, UFO boys.
ReplyDeleteAliens don't take selfies.
DeleteI guess the damned things have learned how to dodge photons.
ReplyDeleteJohn from 78th street