Nietzsche’s flaw and “ufology”

Nietzsche thought that the world (humanity) would proliferate richly if ruled by a small class of superior beings (which comes to mind from a Times Literary Supplement review of two books on religion in the April 17^th issue, Page 28).

Marcus Aurelius’ and Plato’s (Socrates actually) “philosopher king” ideal presupposes Nietzsche’s formulation.

That is, philosophers and thinkers (Voltaire’s “enlightened monarch”) like to think that an elite would be the best rulers of men (and women).

The ideal is flawed by the “fact” that elites are often tainted by indiscretions and immoralities just as non-elites are. (See Paul Johnson’s “Intellectuals” for examples.)

And now we come to the UFO community or the practitioners of “ufology.”

What eventually sunk UFO UpDates was its caste system: UpDates created an “elite class” that ruled the discussions there to the point where nothing obtuse or creative was allowed to flourish; the elites wouldn’t allow “outsiders” to harbor thoughts and ideas that differed from the establishment’s mind-set, typically outlined by Jerry Clark, the one-time UFO darling who now is quiet to the point of extinction.

Yet, with UpDates gone and almost forgotten, we still have a few in the UFO community who think their views on UFOs sparkle and provide insight of a theological kind. (Need I name them?)

One can find their offerings all over the place, in commentaries, blogs, and web-sites, this one included, of course.

But these “elites” are as flawed as those wished for by Nietzsche and his progenitors.

No one is without “sin” as Kevin Randle’s blog is currently proving.

The UFO debate and “ufology” is a ramshackle debacle, still controlled or attempted to be by those who think they have the keys to the UFO kingdom.

Skeptics (UFO atheists of a kind) hold the “elite” feet to the fire, as it were, but even the skeptics, themselves, are not pure as driven snow. They, like all of us, are flawed and replete with “sin” – the sins of hubris and anti-intellectualism (often).

But as French skeptic Gilles Fernandez notes (without delineating exactly), “That’s ufology.”

And so it is.

RR