Fascinating developments are happening when it comes to outer space! Thank goodness I am totally prepared for these developments so I can report on them to all 10 of my fans. My preparation comes from years of watching tv shows and movies on the subject of aliens. I will just elaborate on 2 examples.
#1 - The X-Files
How could I not be obsessed with a red head FBI/doctor/tortured Catholic faith truth seeker? I am practically her except for everything, but the red hair. I love this series (and the movies) and continue to watch it whenever episodes come on “live” tv.
Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) were such a great pair for many reasons. They were “yin and yang”. They brought a great balance to the unexplained. Mulder would try to solve the unexplained through an inductive reasoning approach - throw out what is known because anything is possible. Scully approached the problem using more deductive reasoning believing that there were rational explanations through science for what was happening. Both methods helped to learn more information without solving anything.
What did I learn from The X-Files? The government is hiding something. ;) Release the JFK files already!!
#2 - Independence Day
So many directions I could go with this one. Will Smith in the 90s. Need I say more! I have three things to say about Jeff Goldblum - Hilarious, Geena Davis, and The Lost World: Jurassic Park was terrible!
Anyway… in this movie, many large cities around the world wake up to large unidentified flying objects (UFOs) hovering over their cities. People and governments are perplexed on what to do or how to respond to this scene. At this time in 1996, the US economy was the largest in the world and, thus, Hollywood’s consumer were Americans. As a result, we had movies about American - patriotism, grit, determination and being eager to use nukes.
Once the aliens attacked the cities with their amazing lasers that were no match for our nuclear weapons, then comes the grit and ingenuity of Americans. We can get knocked down, but the aliens do not realize they should never count us out. That is when Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum go to the secret, not so secret, Area 51 to discover secret government scientists who have refurbished one of the alien spaceships.
Now, this will only make sense once you understand that Will Smith is an Air Force captain and thus knows how to fly objects in the air. Jeff Goldblum is a cable man, but a really smart cable man who is not as ambitious for his soon to be ex-wife (who is the President’s WH Communications director, how progressive!). Luckily, Goldblum realizes the aliens are using cable/computer technology. Again, this is 1996 when Al Gore is Vice President and has not yet been able to invent the internet yet because he is busy.
Goldblum’s brilliant plan is to give the mothership a computer “virus”, like a cold, in order to knock out their communications and protective shields. That “cold idea” sounds very similar to the War of the Worlds, but I guess it is different here because we infected the aliens on purpose.
What did I learn from Independence Day?
Dallas is safe from aliens.
We gain natural immunity from viruses that turn into the common cold.
Congress and Black Holes
Now to the current events.
May 10th - Congress announces the House will have a hearing about UFOs.
Why now? Why in the middle of …
COVID restrictions still in place and talk of new variants, and
a proxy war with Ukraine against Russia, and
8.3% inflation, and
Home mortgage rates rising, and
Stock market volatility, and
Gas prices surging, and
Energy production in crisis, and
Is it possible to have hearings on one of these other events especially when the videos of UFOs we have been given looks like an episode of the Brady Bunch?
My inner Scully and Mulder would say - they are hiding something. But, before I can even begin to investigate, I wake up this morning to exciting news about black holes.
May 12th - First image of Milky Way’s supermassive black hole
So, I still think this looks a little Brady Bunch-ish, but in fairness to the international science community this image is from about 27,000 light-years away. I am not sure what the government’s excuse is for their UFO pictures of thousands of feet in the sky? Is it me or does it seem like we are using 1960s technology? Maybe Hollywood ruined my expectations of aliens?
“Telescopic Philanthropy”
I do think these are interesting discoveries and discussions to have. I just think the timing seems odd. It reminds me of one of my favorite Charles Dickens’ observations of human behavior in his novels. In his novel, Bleak House there is woman, Mrs. Jellby, who is known for her great philanthropy to the children in a far away African village. Upon meeting Mrs. Jellby, the two main characters are surprised to find that she really is the mother of many children and the children look unkempt and neglected. While staying there, they find themselves giving their time and attention to the children and wondering - “It must be very good of Mrs. Jellby to take such pains about a scheme for the benefits of natives - and yet - [her children] and the housekeeping!”1
Dickens phrased this natural human tendency to care more for those in distant places than to the people around us as “telescopic philanthropy”. What a fantastic analogy and description!
I know I have this tendency to give more of my time and energy to causes across the world or even in other states. Those are good things, but it should not be at the expense of those right in front of me. To me, the UFO/alien discussion is akin to looking through telescopes at the sky while ignoring the people suffering around us. It is not malicious, but it is still neglectful.
If we are going to look at the sky, can we at least clean the lens of our telescope or invest in a really high pixel resolution telescope so we can get better pictures? Because “I want to believe”!
Sincerely,
Me
Charles Dickens, Bleak House, p. 55.
I am breaking my rule to stay off technology until after lunch but for you I make an exception. I wasn’t going to, but a few sentences in I knew this was a good way to start my day. So hilarious. So so funny, and then you make a beautiful point about human nature using great literature. So I had fun and now am thinking thoughtfully about how I interact with the world. Love it.