Copyright 2012, InterAmerica, Inc.
Going through a bevy of UFO magazines and reconnoitering the
internet, any UFO buff can see how UFO researchers have come to be conflicted
about their hobby.
There have been so many odd reports and people joining in
the UFO fray that the topic has evolved into a mishmash of insane detritus.
For instance, in the October 1976 issue of Official UFO
magazine, one finds articles by respectable persons (at the time): Jim Oberg,
Raymond Fowler, Kevin Randle, Don Berliner, Robert Sheaffer, George Earley and
Richard Hall – all providing sensible writings about various UFO topics, Paul
Willis Offering a splendid listing of works and bizarre incidents by Charles
Fort.
A little over a year later, December 1977, that same
magazine had descended into an Enquirer-like pastiche of sensationalized
stories – How to Tap the Force;Cosmic Power of the Space Gods; Alien
Possession: Frightened Witnesses Reveal Horrors of Mind Control; UFO
Investigators Attacked by Monstrous Alien Creature; UFO Abductions by
Spirit-Snatching Aliens – all by unknown writers..
Letters to Editors of various magazines I perused had a
gaggle of ufological wannabes who either started a “research organization” or
UFO data gathering outfit -- all of them no longer extant.
Today, within the internet, there are a gazillion more
bizarre UFO accounts and a plethora of UFO hobbyists, all vying for attention
from the UFO community.
The UFO topic became overwhelmed with nonsense early on, and
that nonsense is exacerbated by easy internet access today.
It is virtually impossible for real UFO researchers to get a
handle on what is a true UFO event or photo/video amongst the bounty of
fraudulent accounts, photos/videos, and “research enterprises.”
This is why many – us included – hark back to a purer UFO
time, with somewhat purer UFO sightings.
Roswell is, as Nick Redfern, Paul Kimball, and other
moderate UFO mavens think, is a bedrock for UFO researchers, especially the UFO
old-guard, who understand how crazy their topic has become and, thusly, settle
on trying to explain the UFO enigma with reports and sightings that predate the
incoherent accounts all over the place nowadays.
Famous UFO stories and experiences – Roswell, Socorro, the
Hill “abduction,” Travis Walton’s kidnapping, the Washington D.C. sightings of
the early 50s, and other classic cases – are devoid, pretty much, of the
insensate and vapid UFO details that permeate UFO reports in 2012.
This harking back to old UFO cases, Roswell in particular,
became necessary because of all the UFO effluvia that sprouted up in the 1960s
and mushroomed thereafter.
No one could or can get a handle on the UFO mystery in the
midst of the welter of UFO sightings and intrusions of UFO newbies who’ve made
UFOs even more confusing than the things themselves.
No other enterprise – none – could survive with such a
surfeit of incomprehensible data and self-aggrandizing promotion.
And the reason that UFO aficionados cling to those UFO
geezers I continue to excoriate?
The geezers provide a kind of stability or anchoring that is
comforting, even though the geezers remind me of the questioning druids
metaphorically represented in Charles Ive’s musical snippet, The Unanswered
Question who ask the gods for answers to their questions but are rebuffed by
the omnipresent silence.
RR
