Do you believe that UFO's include alien space craft?
That's Unidentified Flying Objects by the way - not flying saucers, nor space craft .... many confuse these two different things. I ask, because it seems to me that the belief in aliens visiting earth regularly has diminished over the past decade or so. Now this is purely my personal opinion, with no scientific evidence to back it up - but then the subject has no scientific evidence to support it any case.
However I wonder if this decline in belief (if this has actually happened), may be a result of two things .... firstly the relentless science that we have obtained, as our own real space craft have visited the outer limits of the solar system, and this may have contributed to this decline.
After all the Voyager space craft have been travelling since they were launched in 1977, and still haven't actually broken out of the Solar System (although sometime this year one of them will likely do so) ..... and it will be 40,000 yrs before one of them comes close to another solar system when Voyager 1 will be within 1.6 light years of the star Gliese 445, while Voyager 2, whilst not headed toward any particular star, will if left alone, eventually pass by the star Sirius when their travels intercept in about 296,000 years from now. When you think on that scale, its hard for anyone to see aliens visiting Earth every decade or so since 1948.
But secondly, I suspect that alien landings and the belief in them, is directly connected to Western economic well being .... my theory is that in the 1940's through to the end of the 1960's all western economies were growing, powerful, and peoples wealth was increasing - especially in the USA, which combined with an expansionist 'can do' feel to it, made even the very boundaries of space seem to be just one more scientific breakthrough away. NASA back then, expected to have colonised Mars by the mid 1980's.
So my the theory is that when everything is OK in the general well being of society, the better the economy performed, and the standard of living increased, the more many people look elsewhere for causes for worries or threats, and UFO's as visiting alien space craft, was therefore a widely held public belief, right the way up until the 1970's.
But then the oil depression in the 1970's caused Western growth to falter, and since then the US (and the West generally), has been in budget deficit more than surplus ..... the exception being the second Bill 'its the economy stupid' Clinton term when between 1998 - 2001 saw the US economy in surpluses. Belief in the West in aliens visiting Earth, seems to have largely waned during this economic decline (oddly, it waxed again around the millennium which also coincided with US surpluses again) .... I repeat, this is purely a personal observation and completely non scientific.
I just suspect that the idea that Earth is regularly being buzzed by teen aliens in flying saucers, mutilating cattle, abducting (and probing) men and women, and never once being filmed or caught, is such an unlikely event, that its belief is linked to the well-being of the society of the reporters. i.e. We create fears and scares when there are non visible around us .... depressed economies give us enough to worry about without little green men around every corner.
That's Unidentified Flying Objects by the way - not flying saucers, nor space craft .... many confuse these two different things. I ask, because it seems to me that the belief in aliens visiting earth regularly has diminished over the past decade or so. Now this is purely my personal opinion, with no scientific evidence to back it up - but then the subject has no scientific evidence to support it any case.
However I wonder if this decline in belief (if this has actually happened), may be a result of two things .... firstly the relentless science that we have obtained, as our own real space craft have visited the outer limits of the solar system, and this may have contributed to this decline.
After all the Voyager space craft have been travelling since they were launched in 1977, and still haven't actually broken out of the Solar System (although sometime this year one of them will likely do so) ..... and it will be 40,000 yrs before one of them comes close to another solar system when Voyager 1 will be within 1.6 light years of the star Gliese 445, while Voyager 2, whilst not headed toward any particular star, will if left alone, eventually pass by the star Sirius when their travels intercept in about 296,000 years from now. When you think on that scale, its hard for anyone to see aliens visiting Earth every decade or so since 1948.
But secondly, I suspect that alien landings and the belief in them, is directly connected to Western economic well being .... my theory is that in the 1940's through to the end of the 1960's all western economies were growing, powerful, and peoples wealth was increasing - especially in the USA, which combined with an expansionist 'can do' feel to it, made even the very boundaries of space seem to be just one more scientific breakthrough away. NASA back then, expected to have colonised Mars by the mid 1980's.
So my the theory is that when everything is OK in the general well being of society, the better the economy performed, and the standard of living increased, the more many people look elsewhere for causes for worries or threats, and UFO's as visiting alien space craft, was therefore a widely held public belief, right the way up until the 1970's.
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| UFO's Regularly 'Buzzed' Earth |
But then the oil depression in the 1970's caused Western growth to falter, and since then the US (and the West generally), has been in budget deficit more than surplus ..... the exception being the second Bill 'its the economy stupid' Clinton term when between 1998 - 2001 saw the US economy in surpluses. Belief in the West in aliens visiting Earth, seems to have largely waned during this economic decline (oddly, it waxed again around the millennium which also coincided with US surpluses again) .... I repeat, this is purely a personal observation and completely non scientific.
I just suspect that the idea that Earth is regularly being buzzed by teen aliens in flying saucers, mutilating cattle, abducting (and probing) men and women, and never once being filmed or caught, is such an unlikely event, that its belief is linked to the well-being of the society of the reporters. i.e. We create fears and scares when there are non visible around us .... depressed economies give us enough to worry about without little green men around every corner.
Agreed, UFOs are just what the letters stand for and nothing more. It's a shame that they have become synonymous with extra-terrestrials because if you are asked whether you believe in UFOs or not, everyone's answer should be 'yes', of course unidentified flying objects exist!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that you're right, more or less belief in such things probably have their roots in economics and slow-news days.
Your right of course, UFO's exist. Alien spacecraft don't.
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