Sneering over nomenclature ascribed to features associated with UFO phenomena, is très chic among the many obtuse loudmouths who love to display their brilliance by habitually condeming the New Age know-nothings, Jesus Freaks, ETH proponents, end-timers, spiritual frauds, channelers, casual witnesses, contactees, abductees, book-shilling conference monkeys (except themselves) and assorted rank amateurs ostensibly standing between the self-proclaimed paranormal intelligentsia and the silver platter of peer-reviewed, rational explanations to which - by virtue of their mighty brains and highly advanced powers of discernment - they are supremely entitled.
Yeah, you, over there peeking through the drawn blinds and dirty window. Yap-yap-yapping your half-assed Theory of Not-This and Not-That like a scroungy toothless dog, traumatized and wary, chained to a sad old car that hasn't left the driveway since its owner defaulted on the student loan.
Opining on the nature of The Enigma is not unlike walking through a locally renowned minefield laid in a long forgotten war. Stick to the narrow, well-worn path, the one hard and barren like cement, enveloped by a thriving forest, and Nobody Gets Hurt. It gets you from Point A to Point B, unscathed, every time. If that's your objective, you're exactly where you need to be. But you know that already.
If safety is your mission in life, learning isn't. Knowledge is intrinsically dangerous. It upsets apple carts. Your apple cart.
Declaring "No one knows a damn thing," is extremely unlikely to result in any loss of social capital, much less capital capital. The inference - as increasing numbers of people are discovering each day - is that anyone who claims otherwise is lying, delusional, gullible, stupid or any combination thereof. In less polite company - pretty much any public online venue - people will just come right out and say it.
How wonderful it must be to know what every person on the planet knows and doesn't know, even if that knowledge is confined solely to what every person on the planet knows and doesn't know about UFOs and their associated intelligences. Let us bow to the awesomeness of your omniscient powers of perception, oh Great Podcasters, Bloggers, Undergrads, Professors, Bureaucrats and Insightful YouTube Commenters. How do you do it? Factually, no doubt. You wouldn't have it any other way, right?
Relentlessly harping and carping on the pathetic state of ufology - in lieu of actively seeking relevant personal experience - contributes less than nothing. Reductive speculation, in and of itself, does not fill the void. Attempting complex equations using only subtraction eventually collapses the floor beneath one's feet, and when that happens, there will be no one else to blame. There never is.
As in every other aspect of life, there are frauds. Fear mongers. Narcissists. Greed heads. Racists. Militarists. Individuals and institutions eager to exploit whatever biases we cling to like flotsam in a vast, capricious sea. You were expecting an exemption for your areas of interest? Epic fail. Try again.
Is this all there is? Hucksters? Idiots? Crazies? Smart asses like me? Of course not. But don't expect to find The Truth™ in a PDF. It ain't gonna happen.
Do you see what I'm getting at here? No one is "ruining ufology" except the spoiler in the mirror.
Proof is a sucker's game. How can you not understand this? Stop thinking solely with your brain. It is not the Alpha and Omega of understanding. The terror of being wrong keeps you exactly where you are right now. If you aren't willing to stumble and fall and get up and do it all over again, you will depart this life without ever having learned to walk.
But don't listen to me. Why should you? Go build a case. Stack "the facts" like the overpriced, interlocking bricks sold at Home Depot. Make this or that declaration about what they represent. When you make your closing statement that no one else could possibly know more than what you know, the only proof you will have provided is the relationship between hubris and blindness.
Recognizing the distinction between an event and an interpretation is extremely important, but the utility of such awareness vanishes like a stone sinking in muddy water when we fail to appreciate our interpretations are not immutable. Allowing oneself the freedom required for self-cultivation - the freedom to fail, the humility to recognize personal failings and the fortitude to overcome them or, at least, try to overcome them - will bring one's interpretations closer to what they truly represent. Interpretations do not self-correct any more than you or I self-correct; but they do co-evolve with personal development.
The language of UFO phenomena is experiential. This is why Contact, for those who venture into the deep waters of The Enigma, does not come as an option. Are you ready for it? If all you see and imagine are demons and monsters, the answer - until you can begin to question why you cannot see and imagine beyond them - is an unequivocal No.
Yeah, you, over there peeking through the drawn blinds and dirty window. Yap-yap-yapping your half-assed Theory of Not-This and Not-That like a scroungy toothless dog, traumatized and wary, chained to a sad old car that hasn't left the driveway since its owner defaulted on the student loan.
Opining on the nature of The Enigma is not unlike walking through a locally renowned minefield laid in a long forgotten war. Stick to the narrow, well-worn path, the one hard and barren like cement, enveloped by a thriving forest, and Nobody Gets Hurt. It gets you from Point A to Point B, unscathed, every time. If that's your objective, you're exactly where you need to be. But you know that already.
If safety is your mission in life, learning isn't. Knowledge is intrinsically dangerous. It upsets apple carts. Your apple cart.
Declaring "No one knows a damn thing," is extremely unlikely to result in any loss of social capital, much less capital capital. The inference - as increasing numbers of people are discovering each day - is that anyone who claims otherwise is lying, delusional, gullible, stupid or any combination thereof. In less polite company - pretty much any public online venue - people will just come right out and say it.
How wonderful it must be to know what every person on the planet knows and doesn't know, even if that knowledge is confined solely to what every person on the planet knows and doesn't know about UFOs and their associated intelligences. Let us bow to the awesomeness of your omniscient powers of perception, oh Great Podcasters, Bloggers, Undergrads, Professors, Bureaucrats and Insightful YouTube Commenters. How do you do it? Factually, no doubt. You wouldn't have it any other way, right?
Relentlessly harping and carping on the pathetic state of ufology - in lieu of actively seeking relevant personal experience - contributes less than nothing. Reductive speculation, in and of itself, does not fill the void. Attempting complex equations using only subtraction eventually collapses the floor beneath one's feet, and when that happens, there will be no one else to blame. There never is.
As in every other aspect of life, there are frauds. Fear mongers. Narcissists. Greed heads. Racists. Militarists. Individuals and institutions eager to exploit whatever biases we cling to like flotsam in a vast, capricious sea. You were expecting an exemption for your areas of interest? Epic fail. Try again.
Is this all there is? Hucksters? Idiots? Crazies? Smart asses like me? Of course not. But don't expect to find The Truth™ in a PDF. It ain't gonna happen.
Do you see what I'm getting at here? No one is "ruining ufology" except the spoiler in the mirror.
Proof is a sucker's game. How can you not understand this? Stop thinking solely with your brain. It is not the Alpha and Omega of understanding. The terror of being wrong keeps you exactly where you are right now. If you aren't willing to stumble and fall and get up and do it all over again, you will depart this life without ever having learned to walk.
But don't listen to me. Why should you? Go build a case. Stack "the facts" like the overpriced, interlocking bricks sold at Home Depot. Make this or that declaration about what they represent. When you make your closing statement that no one else could possibly know more than what you know, the only proof you will have provided is the relationship between hubris and blindness.
Recognizing the distinction between an event and an interpretation is extremely important, but the utility of such awareness vanishes like a stone sinking in muddy water when we fail to appreciate our interpretations are not immutable. Allowing oneself the freedom required for self-cultivation - the freedom to fail, the humility to recognize personal failings and the fortitude to overcome them or, at least, try to overcome them - will bring one's interpretations closer to what they truly represent. Interpretations do not self-correct any more than you or I self-correct; but they do co-evolve with personal development.
The language of UFO phenomena is experiential. This is why Contact, for those who venture into the deep waters of The Enigma, does not come as an option. Are you ready for it? If all you see and imagine are demons and monsters, the answer - until you can begin to question why you cannot see and imagine beyond them - is an unequivocal No.
2 comments:
Too true--knowledge IS dangerous!
Hi, C.J. Thanks for stopping by.
"Too true--knowledge IS dangerous!
Hell, what isn't, right? We just get to pick our poisons - some of them, anyway. Ignorance is bliss... but only in the same way Disneyland is a park.
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