Watched something recently that blew my mind. I don’t
always use that phrase but it was really the first thing I thought. The first
thing I though after putting my mind back together, of course. You can get that
feeling too – but hold on, I don’t want to give it away. Let me build it up for
you: Imagine giving two people general guidelines for the creation of a fantasy
world. Then have them fill in the blanks for each of their worlds, make up
histories, trends, etc. In the end the major details of the two people’s
fantasies will be the same. The minor details, however – the ones that they
made up – will be different. Now tell the two people in the experiment to
convince the other that their details are the correct ones.
Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzqDVOjtNhg.
Now I’m just wondering to what degree my thought experiment is actually being
conducted in this video. If you don’t watch it (but I suggest you do) here is
what is going on: two sets of UFO researches are arguing for their particular
views on what UFOs are and to what extent the government is involved. It is
truly far out stuff. Have to say I’ve watched a few videos of fringe provenance
lately. In order to garner ideas for sci-fi stories I might potentially write.
That is what I tell myself, anyway.
I feel like I’ve got to a point in my life when I have
divested myself of illusion, where my world view has been whittled down as well
as enlarged, finding the right balance of skepticism and belief. Something I
think everyone would manage to claim about themselves. We all think that we
know what is going on. What the score is. What our relationship is to the
world. How, for example, we relate to society, to the power structure in
society. “Yeah, this is who I am. And I am who am because that is who I want to
be.”
This is possibly the beginning of a path to conspiracy
theories. People desire to know what is going on. They want to know how they
for sure fit into society. No, people don’t want
to know how they fit in society, they actually (purport to) know how they fit in society.
(For
the sake of argument?) First, let’s consider that the debaters in the video to
be radically out of touch with reality: let’s consider them to be daft (radge).
Unable to succeed in the real world they have found a niche that gives them
control over reality. It is a made-up reality, however, and the only reason
they can continue down this path is because their delusion is shared by a
certain amount of people in a community of like-deluded people. Is that your
response to the video interview?
What got me was the specificity of their arguments.
Contrary to considering them mad, consider them to be informed. Let’s say that
they know what they are talking about. The doctor has talked to informants.
There is some energy source that could alleviate the world’s energy needs. On
the other side of the table, perhaps the doctor is acting some kind of agenda,
mixing truth with delusion. His interlocutors have good reason to be suspicious
of his motives. Their concern is in service to all of humankind. It turns out
not to be arguing all about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.
So, what is it? My first reaction holds strong – reticence
to believe in what they talk about, the specificity of their arguments nails in
the coffins of their madness. My imagination asks, “What if?” What if they are
not operating out of selfish agendas. A drive for mastery over the world so
much that a separate world has been created. What is reality? What little
worlds of fantasy to we all create? Worlds of fantasy writ small. I’ll give an
alien researcher himself the last paraphrased word. Giorgio A. Tsoukalos has
said the only way we will really know if aliens did or did not play a part in
humanity’s past is to ask them once they arrive/return.
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