Dan Smith
How well has the government responded to the popular belief that it is concealing evidence of UFOs? Here is what seems to be the standard conservative view: Since there is no basis for the popular belief, to begin with, any attempted response on the part of the government is only likely to stir that pot and thus be counter-productive. The opposing view is that by inadequately responding, the government is contributing to the perception of a cover-up. In most situations, the conservative position naturally tends to dominate and that has been the case in this context. However, I happen to support the ‘liberal’ view that there is at least some justification for the perception of a cover-up and that something ought to be done about it. Furthermore, I believe that I am in a position to do so, but any effective action will require the cooperation of people both inside and outside the government.
Much effort has already been expended to expose a cover-up, generating some significant results. Clearly there have been numerous instances of concealment of ufo-type data, and there have been documented recommendations to withhold such data from the public. What has not been demonstrated is that there is an ongoing concerted cover-up. If there were such a thing, it would require a concerted effort to expose it, and that is what I suggest.
I recommend a significant departure form the past efforts, and that is to use a more structural approach for the inquiry. By this I mean that we should give primary consideration to the infrastructure that would be necessary to maintain a cover-up. This would entail taking a more deductive, and therefore speculative, approach to the problem. The alternative is to keep looking for very small needles in a very big haystack. What then can we reasonably deduce about the alleged cover-up just at the outset?
The first thing to consider is its unreasonable effectiveness. It is this unreasonableness that is the basis of most skepticism. Conspiracy believers have generally concluded that the cover-up is being maintained by a sinister group of humans in alliance with an equally sinister group of aliens bent on human conquest. This might be true, and if so there is precious little we could do about it at this late date, short of praying for divine intervention.
The alternative theory is that there is something less sinister afoot. However, in order to rationalize the secrecy there must be a disturbing element that has to be concealed. The preferred scenario here is that we are coming into contact with a vastly superior civilization which is orchestrating our gradual acculturation. But frankly, it is difficult to see how such a scenario avoids the previous sinister interpretation. Which is worse, the subversive or the conquistador, and is there a difference?
There is another problem with the idea of cultural contact. This is the problem of timing. Why now? Most ufologists who have considered this problem have come to the following conclusion. Given the enormous age of the universe, it is very unlikely that this contact would have been the first for the planet. At the very least there would have been a long term monitoring process. Much more likely is it that there would have been timely interventions in the otherwise random process of evolution, culminating finally, now, in an open contact. This is about as far as ordinary speculation can go. Beyond this point one quickly becomes ensnared in controversy of a distinctly religious nature, as should be obvious.
However, I am suggesting that if we are to truly grapple with the problem of ufo’s, then we must be prepared to go beyond the ordinary. You cannot employ ordinary means in dealing with the extraordinary. If we are to deal with what is usually alleged to be a ‘superior culture’ we will, at the very least, have to be willing to suspend many of our current beliefs. And this is much more easily said than done.
In my estimation it is the failure of the imagination that has been the signal failure of ufology. Let me elaborate. The immediate response to the extraordinary is fright. Beyond fright there is curiosity. One can poke at the phenomenon from the outside, or one can jump right into it. This is the distinction between ufologists and contactees. Both of these approaches lack imagination.
Effective imagination comes in the proper mixing of the known with the unknown. I am suggesting a more anthropological approach to the problem, as opposed to the purely scientific approach or to the act of just going native.
We have the known and the unknown, and somehow they are going to intersect. The only question is when, where and how. To facilitate the process, one must anticipate the answer, and ultimately that means being the answer. To attempt to prophesy about the unknown is the most direct way to come to understand and explain it. The mystic and scientist will have an equally difficult time accepting this, but they are not even trying to understand it, are they?
In our prophetic tradition, we have come to consider the prophet to be either a quack or a divine. I would suggest rather that it means being in approximately the right place at the right time with a mild propensity to stick one’s neck out. All the rest is just history.
That brings us back to the immediate problem of confronting the cover-up. The only sword at our disposal is the truth, and in the prophetic tradition one is obliged to use a capital ‘T’. If you are going to play the game you have to place your bet on the table of those who are already playing. Let me explain or at least summarize the situation.
There is a disturbing Truth that is justifiably being withheld from us. The only way to pry it out is to reasonably guess what it is and then demonstrate that others can be convinced of it, and so it is no longer being kept secret. In the natural course of events, the former keepers of the Truth will then join in its dissemination. This is both the most direct and most rational way for us to proceed, especially where all other approaches have proven inadequate.
If the cover-up is effective, as it obviously has been, investigation alone will not penetrate it. The investigation must be accompanied by the successful networking of the suspected Truth. This is the only way to bring about its gradual revelation. This is the natural, built-in protocol that must be followed. To find the truth, you must become the truth, you must be its prophet. This is my best estimate of the situation.