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Ufology’s need to seem erudite causes intellectual chaos
Friday, September 27, 2013 17:44
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When I posed, twice, a question about why “contactees” of the 1950s used George Adamski’s iconic, but obviously hoaxed, flying saucer (scout craft) images to supplement their own contrived tales and hoxes, visitors here – some rather notable in the UFO community – went to extraordinary lengths to offer analyses or comments to explain what the etiology of such image-mimicry was:
“They almost certainly knew who their target market was – people already predisposed to buy into Adamski-like tales. I’m sure they had no illusions about expanding upon that market – indeed, they probably knew that they wouldo nly get a fration of it. Therefore, go with something ready-made and recognizable that would resonate with that core market.” [Paul Kimball]
“The contactee movement was linked by a metaphysical component and operated like a proto-religion.” [Lance Moody]
“Further, a great deal of the back story of that time relates to Indian mythology, specifically the Vinoma.( Sp?) which was often cited that I suspect demanded an exotic rather than a contemporary simpler object. More architectural… related to Hindu religious structures than a aerodynamic “design” Then you have the Hidden Monarchical Kingdom in this..Castles In The Sky. In other words an omniscient “place” rather than a “vehicle”. Again, back to architecture style versus an aerodynamic vehicle.” [Bruce Duensing….he means “vimana” not Vinoma.]
“To be a “copycat” is probably less risked than to be too much original and creative, mainly if you have more or less the same desideratae and motivations/consequences to obtain and to reach than Adamski have.” [French psychologist and skeptic Gilles Fernandez]
“It appears to be a simple approach of using a well known visual prop. By using Adamski's then a well known photo/model, one gets similarity and thus believably that it's from the same species of ETs.” [Tim Hebert]
“In 1960, Menger appeared on a TV show with [Long John] Nebel and basically recanted his entire story. He later said that he was involved in some sort of Army test of public reaction to possible alien contact. Fortean writer Ivan Sanderson arrived at the Menger residence in the late 1950s and claimed that Menger got very angry with him when Sanderson discovered some equipment and crates in a storage area with 'U. S. Army' stenciled on them.” [Nick Redfern – nothing to do with the image-mimicry , just an off-topic aside.]
As you can see, explanations all over the place.
But note Tim Hebert’s comment. He’s psychologically astute and comes nearly to the proper interpretation of what was going on the minds of the Adamski copycats.
And Paul Kimball keeps it simple and close to the prosaic interpretation of what it really was.
The contactees were a psycho-neurotic bunch, without question. What they did or tried to do, en masse and separately, was this:
Hysterical imitation – The ability of a hysterical patient to imitate all the symptoms that impress him when they occur in others. The psychological mechanism at work … is identification: the patient (unconsciously) identifies himself with a person who has the same unconscious needs as he, who is “just like” him. As a result, the patient reproduces the symptom shown by the person with whom he identifies. Through this hysterical imitation, patients are enabled to express in their symptoms not merely their own experiences, but the experiences of quite a number of other persons; they can … fill all the parts of a drama with their own personalities.” [The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud, Modern Library, Random House, NY, 1938, as provided by Psychiatric Dictionary, Fourth Edition, Leland E. Hinsie, M.D. and Robert J. Campbell, M.D., Editors, Oxford University Press, London, 1970, Pages 381-382.]
Whats my point here?
That, in an attempt to appear erudite, intellectual, and/or academically well-read, ufologists and fellow travelers will often resort to elaborate “dissertations” fraught with language and hyperbole that, instead of enlightening, confuses and makes something simple into something abstruse and erroneously abstract.
This has been and continues to be the bane of the ufology; it makes a simple thing – UFO rumination – into a dodgy art-form that isn’t credible to intellectual cognoscenti, and it offends those who would like basic ratiocination instead of bombastic self-glorifying attempts at, what turns out to be errant and phony, erudition.
RR
http://ufocon.blogspot.com – The UFO Iconoclast(s)
Source: http://ufocon.blogspot.com/2013/09/ufologys-need-to-seem-erudite-causes.html
