Alien life has evolved and probably looks pretty different from us, but it might be out there. Slightly different question. How many of us believe that aliens have visited earth . The only man with the strength of his convictions. Appreciate that. So heres a question. Is the idea that aliens visited earth in and of itself a Conspiracy Theory . No . If you take into consideration the fact were trying to go to mar, we would be alien life there, so the fact that another life form say that has become sbel jeintelligent eo do space travel, visit another planet isnt really a Conspiracy Theory. Yeah, seems fair. I guess it depends on how you define the scope of a Conspiracy Theory because it takes a species collaborating together to land themselves on another planet. So is a race working together considered a conspiracy . I wouldnt really think so. Seems reasonable. Seems a little odd to indict the entire planet of where ever for wanting to come and visit. And even if we are going to say arguably maybe we could consider it a Conspiracy Theory, its a conspiracy of aliens and of themselves, which is not what we tend to talk about when we talk about ufo Conspiracy Theory, alien Conspiracy Theorys, those are theorys that include an element of human come plplicity. Usually of government complicity. And these ideas that there are not only aliens visiting earth, but that the state is in some way involved with those visits, is a really prominent Conspiracy Theory. Its not really one conspiracy. Its a multitude of Conspiracy Theorys. And like the kennedy conspiracy we were talking about last week, to just stand here and name every u ufo Conspiracy Theory would take much longer than we have in this class, so tragically, we will not be talking about fact that nasa is hiding the existence of the planet nabir, tragically, we will not be talking about the fact that we are in secret contract with an dromm da and and part of a vast intergalactic war and tragically, we will not be talking about the fact that the earth is hollow and is filled with interstellar beings who may or may not have been allies with the nazis in world war ii. I see a couple smiles at those ideas. Which is underable. But these are real ideas that real people fiercely and fully believe in. And we should be clear. Before we dig into this too much, as Bridgette Brown makes clear in that reading you did for today, not everybody who believes in ufos believes in ufo Conspiracy Theorys. And even amongst those who do, there is a wide variation. We keep coming back to this idea of fringe conspiracy on a center conspiracy. Thats very much evident within these ufo Conspiracy Theorys. But its worth thinking about that these are widely treated add laughable. In fact, serious discussion of them is really an effective cultural taboo. Trz weve talked about the labeling of something as conspiracy. As a distancing measure. Alien Conspiracy Theorys are possibly one of the most evident examples of the distancing of con spear cyst belief from acceptable discourse and yet at the same time, even as theyre treated at laughable, rise bable, theyre some of the most widely believed Conspiracy Theorys. If we go back to the 60s, gallup polls find 96 of americans had heard of ufos. 46 believed that they were real. 1973. 37 believe ufos are real. By the 90s. 71 believe that the government is at least hiding information about ufos. They may or may not be real. But theres definitely more going on there than the government is letting us know. And those numbers remain relatively stable. A to 15 poll showed that 56 believed that ufos are real. 45 believe that aliens have actually landed and visited earth on top of that. To put that in context, 56 believe ufos are real. In that same survey, 57 said that the Big Bang Theory was real. This is a widely held belief that is mainstream, at least the idea that something is going on with ufos. Even if we narrow it in to a specific example like roswell. A a majority of americans will say theyre unsure whether or not a flying saucer crashed in roswell, new mexico. So we have this odd disconnect between this mainstream idea, this majority idea, yet the way it treated. Its not new at all. The idea that weird lights or objects in the sky is something to be concerned about. Is nothing new. But then if you are a surf in 13th century europe, what are you going to think that floating lights in the sky might be . Aliens . Witches. Omens of doom. Any other guesses . God. Devils. Witches. Omens. A supernatural explanation. Its not until we see that rational israel mism survey plant these ideas that we move from kind of supernatural to scientific explanations for these unexplained phenomena. Even then, we need to be careful about drawing too wide of a divide between those two. As were going to seem. The two idea, supernatural a scientific are going to remain thoroughly intertwined. Matthew. 11 of people here think that ufos are real, but dont think aliens have visited earth. I was wondering, are ufos just an unidentified flying object. Wheres the boundary there . Unidentified according to who . There are a lot of things i cant identify in the sky, but i assume somebody can. This is true. Yeah, the polls, the wording isnt great. The way that the poll explains that is not theres an 11 different in those who believe ufos are an extra tres yal phenom nan, the hypothesis, that ufos are real and alien related. The 11 difference is is 56 believe ufos are real, 11 fewer belief that some of those have landed and that we have had contact with the aliens. Trz thats the difference there. The difference is that going up to 71 , there is something on with this question. There is something going on has a long history. This concern over contact has a long history. We go back to 1885. The sun garners major attention in reporting that an astronomer has found life on the moon, life in the series of humaniod bat people. Turns out that its a hoax. Sorry to dispoint you. To the ideas that are already percolating around in the 19th century. In 1891 when thomas blot alleges that a man from mars appeared in the kitchen of his rural home and fully endorsed late 19 sench democratic utopianism, which was nice for thomas to hear since he was already a believer in some things. Or in 1896, 1897, where you see a series of unexplained air ships seen in the skies over the west coast. Theres a really interesting variety of stories that come out of this. Some claim they see beingings inside peddling too make it go. That is a spaceship, a lot of peddling. Some calling out and saying they are from mar, even in the 19th century, people are very fixated on the idea of life from mars. Theres in long history, this long concern about contact with extraterrestrial life and visiting us here on earth. But when we talk about modern ufo con spespiracies, what wer really talking about is the post world war ii era. And these conspiracies paint an alternative history of america from the cold war to the present. What we might call e of conspiracies that reflect concerns about agency, about state power. About disempowerment and depersonalization. About ideas of expertise and authority. Especially of ideas of skepticism. About expertise and authority. And about narratives of progress of social or scientific. That modern ufo phenomenon gets kick started after world war ii in 1947. Kenneth arnold, people had seen, pilots had seen unidentified phenomena during world war ii. They get commonly refer today add foo firgts, which is where the bands name comes from. But its knot until kenneth arnolds sighting in late june of 1947 of what he describes to newspapers as flying disks, what gets wildly reported at flying saucers, that the modern ufo phenomenon begins. And it spreads very, very quickly. Over the july fourth holiday that year, thousands of men and women contact authorities to report more than 850 sightings of ufos. Thats never been pair lelde, such a frenzy of ufo sightings as there was over independence holiday in 1947. All though sightings remain fairly common, through to the early 1950s. And you get pictures like this from new jersey from 1952, alleging a sighting of an unidentified flying object. And unsurprisingly, you see a variety of effort to try to explain this phenomenon. Two of the most influential voices that n that process, Frank Sculley and donald kehoe. Sculley was a writer for variety magazine. Who publishes behind the flying saucers in 1950 where he really focuses in on the story of flying saucers that crash in the american southwest. Where did that take place . Not roswell, but thank you for falling into my easy trap. Sculley says they crashed in as tech, new mexico. They never mentioned roswell. Were going to talk later about why that is. Sculley says sources crash in as tech, not only crash, but bodies are found, three to four foot tall alien beings, reallying the modern idea of the little green man. He claim it is sources come not from mars, but from venus. And the 1950s are are really kind of a key time in in a mars venus battle over where these flying saucers come from. Sculley loses popularity because true magazine publishes an extensive article debunking his book, pointing out the fact that most of or really all of sculleys saucers are professional con men. And really just spending page after page making fun of sculley for believing the con men and even making fun of how terrible Frank Sculleys writing is is. Its a really mean article. And ilt destroys his credibility. But sculleys ideas are going to have a really long shelf life. And actually, just in recent years, theres been an uptick in people trying to attract some of the roswell tourism away over to astec and publishing new books say iing he was write and they really did crash in as the tec, new mexico. A little bit more kind of credible, at least at the time, than sculley, is donald kehoe. A retired officer from the mari marine corps who writes three very popular books. The flying saucers are real. Which is released in 1950. Flying saucers from outer space, which comes out in 1953. And the flying saucer conspiracy, in 1955. And kehoe reports conversations and interviews that hes had with air force officers and air force Intelligence Officers to try and substantiate his warnings that that first of all, ufos are real and pilots are encountering them on a semiregular basis. Second of all, he thinks theres a very good chance that the aliens have set up a mother ship in orbit of earth and ufos are come frg that mother ship rather than all the way from another planet and thirdly, that these ufos are most likely from mars. Not a venus fan, hes back on the mars train. Whats interesting about kehoe is that he does see a conspiracy. He does see a conspiracy by the military to cover up that earth is being visited by these flying saucers, but he doesnt blame them for doing so. For kehoe, what he calls the silence group, is acting out of a desire to protect National Security. And a desire to prevent public hysteria. While he disagrees with that, he sees it as a matter of reasonable disagreement. He doesnt see nefarious motives at work. That is an idea thats going to change significantly. Over the 60s and especially coming out of the 70s into the 80s. Its really easy to see the impact of writers like kehoe who see a conspiracy of silence, but not a nefarious conspiracy of silence. 1952, that same year that true magazine is debunking sculley, life magazine leads with a big front cover splash of Marilyn Monroe and the headline there is a case for interplanetary sources and life comes down hard in that issue to say they think there is probably something going on with uf oz. Less concerned with credibility, but tho less influn nshl putting these ideas into the american consciousness. Is the glut of alien invasion films in the 1950s. Of course, the body snatchers, but also invasion of the saucerman, invaders from mar, killers from space, earth versus the flying saucers and more. Theres a couple of spres elements, not the least of which is a lot of them deal with aliens either taking control of humans minds or of replacing them entirely with sim lack row, with look alikes. What other fears have we been talking about . Marissa . Like. Certainly communist infiltration. Yeah. Brain watching of pows. Playing on two fears in the 19950s. Not just that 2 communists are infiltrating, but that theyre infiltrating through this kind of mind control ideas. And pairing that with this fear of extraterrestrial threat. These films overwhelmingly buy into a donald kehoe style of view of whats happening. The threat is purely extra traes yal, its not human. Most of these films, rather than the state being come police it or suspect, government agents particularly military agents, theyre the ones saving us p from tr threat. Yeah. What is like the thought behind the motives of the aliens to be a threat, to attack us . Like is there a thought of like why theyre doing that . Yeah, kind of the why of the conspiracy attack. There really isnt a single unifying nd of 50s. Other than domination. The plan is always to conquer the world. Why is open for interpretation. Is it because their own planet is dying . Is it because they want to kind of make us into slaves . Theres a pretty wide latitude there, but yeah, good yes. We see this kind of style of opposite of pair noy area. Anybody remember our word of opposite of paranoia . Security. Indifferent. Not quite. What do you call it when a conspiracy is acting feel good, but not against you . Anybody remember that . No. Not paranoia, but pronoia. This is an example of pronoid conspiracy thinking. Thats evident in another threat of phenomena that emerges in the 50s, a number of people who claim that not only have they seen ufos, but they who have been contact ed by aliens and this is really kicked off by a man called gorge. Hes the first contactee to publish a book length account of his experience in 1953. He contradicts everything before him. Theyre not from mars, theyre from venus. Hes right about them being short. He says theyre about 56. Humanoid and very bueeautiful. He says theyre not a threat. He says the coming was friendly. Hes going to lose Popular Support in the 60s after he claims hell be leahing any day for an interplanetary conference on saturn, but his ideas, his narrative that there is these friendly visitors has very much caught on. And throughout the 1950s, you see this series of encounters with beings that have come to warn human thety about our war like nature, to warning that Nuclear Weapons will destroy us all. A very pure distillation of common cold war fears at time. Also bearing no small resemblance to the 1951 film, the day the earth stood still. Which is the same plot he recounts two years later. Nobody really picks him off on this at the time. So theres this pronoi arks at work in the early 50s, the idea that yes, the government might be lying to us, but theyre doing it for our own good or yes, aliens are visiting. But theyre doing it for our own good. That increasingly is going to take darker turn as we move out of the 50s into the 60s. We see the governments motives and methods become much darker in hiding the truth. This comes by the idea of the men in black. The men in black is an idea that is really kind of more or less put into play by an author called gray barker. Hes an interesting guy. Barker makes a pretty good Living Publishing books about supposedly true ufo encounters, but to friends, privately calls flying saucers a bucket of shit. So, very much capitalizing on this trend. But hes going to more or less launch this idea of the men in black in his 1956 book, they knew too much about flying saucers, a book thats based on the experiences of a factory clerk from connecticut. A man called albert bender. Who claimed that three men in black suits had approached him and intimidate d into not tellig the truth. About his alien encounter. Obviously, bender had not been that silent given that he a, was able to tell gray barker about it and b, publish his own book about it in 1962 in which he explains that its not the martians or venn ugs as. He had been taken for a ride in a flying sawyerser to the south pole by grizzly monoster like aliens from the planet kasic, where ever that may be. Despite the lets be generous and say skepticism which with we might greet albert benders story, the idea that government agents and these sinister men in black are working to hide true information really gains popularity. And it really takes off going through the 60s and 70s. As an interesting phenom knop going on with the men in black themselves, in the quite often, theyre characterized as all together human agents of the state, but at the same time theyre often given many inhuman or unearthly characteristics. Characterists that align the difference between these explanations and quite often, almost demonic powers are ascribed to the men in black. Walking as of though they are not of this earth. Not blinking, unnatural powers of persuasion. Even up to and including the idea that when they appear, an odor of sulphur also appears. This very, very literal callback to folklore about demonic appearance. The fact that traditionally, they also appear in numbers of three. Theyre also rooted in supernatural texts. Its not just accounts of super action as we move into the 60s. Increasing increasingly, narratives of alien contact are going to turn waway from friendly barnings about war into abduction and exper menation. That really starts with a couple from new hampshire. Betty and barny hill, who claim to have been abducted in 1961, although their story doesnt really receive whid publicity until 1965. Its going to set the template for everything that comes after and looking at the spread of abduction con spear schism is really interesting, especially if we compare it to kennedy. Because like kennedy con spespi, this is very much a grass roots endeavor. Theres not somebody sitting behind their desk saying this is what you all need to believe is the truth about whats going on. Its all of these people going out and trying to uncover the truth themselves. The difference being that in terms of abduction conspiracies, theyre not detectives. Theyre not going out looking for evidence, right . Theyre not turning themselves into experts on bullet trajectories. They themselves are the evidence, their own abduction experience proves their conspiracy. Do you feel like theyre trying to uncover t