Read the Beforeitsnews.com story here. Advertise at Before It's News here.

By UFO Iconoclast
Contributor profile | More stories

Story Views
Now:
Last hour:
Last 24 hours:
Total:

Ufology: madness, the internet, and hating books

Wednesday, June 15, 2016 10:44

% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.

I (and others) have often stipulated that UFO buffs and practitioners of ufology show indications of madness (insanity).

But I think we have to temper such a harsh criticism of UFO community members.

Michel Foucault, in Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason [Vintage Book/Random House, NY, 1965/1988 Page 13 ff.] writes that “Because it symbolized a great disquiet, suddenly dawning on the horizon of European culture at the end of the Middle Ages. Madness and the madman became minor figures, in their ambiguity: menace and mockery, the dizzying unreason of the world, and the feeble ridicule of men.”

“The denunciation of madness (la folie) becomes the general form of criticism.”

“… the madman is comedy of the second degree: the deception of deception, he utters in his simpleton’s language … the truth of life to the young, the middling reality of things to the proud, to the insolent, and to liars.”

“In learned literature, too Madness or Folly was at work, at the very heart of reason and truth.”

For Foucault, odd behavior and bizarre protestations were a matter of foolishness, not a matter of mental disturbance.

Today we see real madness, as when a person shoots masses or people (as in the Orlando episode recently) or when the Nazi’s exterminated millions of Jews, et cetera.

So, ufology follows in the scheme outlined by Foucault for the beginning of how madness came about: folly not mental illness.

Then there is a rumination about the internet in the latest [6/30/16] New Yorker magazine: What it is like to like: Art and taste in the age of the internet by Louis Menand (Page 73 ff.).

Writer Menand, in a “review” of Tom Vanderbilt’s book, You May Also Like [Knopf], also touches on Virginia Hefferman’s Magic and Loss [Simon & Schuster] , writing that “The Internet is the Truman Show[a 1998 Jim Carrey film]. We’re not seeing reality, or even a simulacrum thereof. We’re seeing what the algorithms want us to see.” [Page 73]

“The Internet is the great masterpiece of civilization,” [Hefferman] says, “As an idea it rivals monotheism” And: “If it’s ever fair to say that anything has ‘changed everything,’ it’s fair to say so about the Internet.” [Page 76]

“A lot of the Internet, and especially popular Web sites like Wikipedia, YouTube, and Twitter, is just ugly.” [ibid]

“Ultimate unreadability is part of the aura of the Internet itself, the ‘postmodern sublime.’” [ibid]

Here we see, by way of Mr. Menand’s [Distinguished Professor of English, essayist and critic, author of The Metaphysical Club] insight(s) that the Internet [sic] is the place where many people go for learning and information, faulty as the internet is.

Most of the readers here, not all, resort to the internet for their discourse, rather than books (which I’ll touch on in a moment), while the UFO community, itself, is awash with information from the web rather than information from erudite books.

The internet (not capitalized nowadays per AP’s usage manual for reporters) has become the main refuge for ufologists (UFO buffs), many taking what they find there as gospel, their sop to the monotheism that Hefferman refers to.

And why is this so?

The Times Literary Supplement [for 6/3/16] has a review of William Marx’s La Haine [hatred] de la Litterature[Minuit] by Ann Jefferson [Page 5 ff.] wherein Ms. Jefferson recounts Mr. Marx’s brilliant accounting of how literature and books have been eschewed by people, famous people too: Plato charged poets with falsity, whereas Thomas Aquinas defended the “unreason of figurative language.” [Page 5]

Plato accused poets of mendacity, mostly for their failure of not applying “their lies on behalf of the state.” [ibid]

(I hope my academic buddy Bryan Sentes, a poet himself, forgives me for bringing this up.)

But Marx’s book is not about poetry, but about how the hostility toward literature has proliferated from the ancient Greeks to today. And the Hefferman arguments (above) substantiate Marx’s argument.

UFO buffs often refuse to step outside UFO lore to enlighten themselves.

I get a few recommendations of literature outside UFO lore, but much of it is related to elements that impact the UFO phenomenon (physics, astronomy, et cetera), very little of a liberal arts nature, which often provides a broader perspective that might open the door to an explanation of the UFO phenomenon.

Ufologists may not be mad, just foolish, but they are not very well-read or intellectual I’m sorry to write.

And the internet has become the milieu for supposed erudition by the UFO hoi polloi, sadly.

When Kevin Randle rightly bemoans the state of UFO research, his argument is underpinned by what the books and reviews above recount.

And I’m with him all the way.

http://ufocon.blogspot.com – The UFO Iconoclast(s)

Source: http://ufocon.blogspot.com/2016/06/ufology-madness-internet-and-hating.html

Before It’s News® is a community of individuals who report on what’s going on around them, from all around the world.

Anyone can join.
Anyone can contribute.
Anyone can become informed about their world.

"United We Stand" Click Here To Create Your Personal Citizen Journalist Account Today, Be Sure To Invite Your Friends.

Please Help Support BeforeitsNews by trying our Natural Health Products below!

Order by Phone at 888-809-8385 or online at https://mitocopper.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST

Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomic.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST

Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomics.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST

Humic & Fulvic Trace Minerals Complex - Nature's most important supplement! Vivid Dreams again!

HNEX HydroNano EXtracellular Water - Improve immune system health and reduce inflammation.

Ultimate Clinical Potency Curcumin - Natural pain relief, reduce inflammation and so much more.

MitoCopper - Bioavailable Copper destroys pathogens and gives you more energy. (See Blood Video)

Oxy Powder - Natural Colon Cleanser! Cleans out toxic buildup with oxygen!

Nascent Iodine - Promotes detoxification, mental focus and thyroid health.

Smart Meter Cover - Reduces Smart Meter radiation by 96%! (See Video).

Comments

Online:
Visits:	1,603,176,834
Stories:	8,149,277