UFO Conjectures

Sunday, August 12, 2018

Ufology’s raison d'être: Escapism

Copyright 2018, InterAmerica, Inc.
Escapism: In psychoanalytic therapy, this term denotes the tendency to escape from reality functioning to the relative security of childhood, a tendency often manifested by an accentuation of neurotic symptoms. It is a form of resistance. [Psychiatric Dictionary, Hinsie/Campell, Oxford University Press, Page 282]

We all know (or should) that the deep dive into UFO accounts (and paranormal activities) is a regression to one’s childhood, and paying attention to the behavior or commentary of those inclined to UFOs (especially the Roswell incident) makes it clear that we're not seeing mature adults indulging in mature intelligence.

I often cite Kevin Randle’s blog [kevinrandle.blogspot.com] because that’s where one will find, in the comments section, the basest of thought about UFOs and reality.

Kevin can write about anything but when he inserts the word “Roswell” in a title or anywhere, the neurotics and crazies will swarm like moths to a flame (to use The Anomalist’s Bill Murphy’s analogy).

Any similitude to common sense or intelligent dialogue is bogus if one is paying rapt attention to the “debates” there.

Blogs, aside from mine, are often founts of judicious thought or speculation, Kevin’s among them and many more (that I often link to here).

But, irritably for some, the appended comments that bloggers solicit as Facebookers do “likes” are woefully inept and ignorant.

But not ignorant as a lapse in intelligence but neurotically ignorant as a slip back into childhood thought and the desire to reclaim what one’s fantasies (memories) of their childhood were.

I once was enamored of the so-called UFO ETH and even a fan of von Däniken’s theory of ancient astronauts, but as St. Paul wrote, "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." [NT, Corinthians 1:13]

Ufologists have to outgrow the ETH and the silly AA theory. Neither can be reconciled with the cosmic reality as we know it.

And those clinging to Roswell as fervently as they do, pro and con advocates, are the most neurotic of UFO buffs, escapism is their life-line it seems, no matter how neurotic that symptom of madness is.

It’s sad, to me, that when I wish to pursue blogger thought or presentations, that I have to slog through the reams of cluttered thought that permeates the blogger venue, mostly because the blogger desires any kind of attention or needs whatever pecuniary reward they are striving for or need.

Ufology has always been rife with infantile thought, but that it remains so, in 2018, goes to the heart of madness that Foucault outlined about the middle ages in his Madness and Civilization and keeps the UFO phenomenon off limits for the intelligentsia.

RR