Common folk and UFOs

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A Travel Channel show, in its series Aliens in Alaska on 4/19/21, presented accounts by people, in their own words and images, of UFO sightings.

The people are credible, insofar, as what they are reporting: “what they saw with their own eyes” is how it generally goes with them.

But I also noted that almost every sighting was of two lights or “objects” that made no noise and “all of a sudden” disappeared.

“All of a sudden” is remarkably present in every account; the “no noise” aspect also.

José Caravaca, along with Jacques Vallee, and a few others, think that witnesses may be the important ingredient in UFO accounts; that is, the persons experiencing the UFO sighting or encounter may be the important aspect of the experience.

How that is has not been worked out by either man or their conjectural cohorts.

And I am hesitant to agree, although with trepidation.

However, what is noteworthy – and don’t let me be thought of condescending or hoity-toity about this – is that the persons, in the show, and among almost all UFO accounts over the years, reporting or having the visuals/experience  are from the lower economic class or lower stratum of society.

They are not unintelligent, but almost always lack any kind of sophistication, as their surroundings and conversations indicate.

What does this mean? I’m not sure, but a recent piece in the 4/19/21 issue of The New Yorker – The Politics of Feelingby Merve Emre [Page 64 ff.] give a clue or two.

The article is mostly about the often errant but significance of “Emotional Intelligence” and the popular 1950s book with that title by Daniel Goleman.

I won’t get into the innards of the book or concept, except to say, it does impart some idea about how most UFO witnesses come to express their sighting or experience.

And I see it as a matter of economic and societal influence, and the vicissitudes of being among that class of people known, curtly and with consideration, as the masses or the “great unwashed.”

[Sorry, but there it is, and let me note that I’ve had three UFO sighting over the years, and the newspapers report that I’m hardly in the lower-economic class.]

So, what would it be about common people seeing UFOs? Do they stand out because upper class persons are loath to report UFO sightings? Or because the upper crust do not see UFOs as an integral part of their existence, even when the appearance or inter-action of the phenomenon is pronounced or traumatizing?

Or are the citizens of Alaska just a subset of society: non-dependent, individualistic, and ornery by nature (because of their environment)?

What about non-Alaskans who report UFO sightings much like their Alaskan counterparts? And how is it that many ufologists or UFO enthusiasts have the appearance of rough-necks and people-of-the-woods demeanors: scruffy, ill-kempt, and not highly educated or classy, certainly not cultured?

Are UFOs a kind of phenomenon that afflicts the lower classes, mostly? Or do the intellectually indigent create a mental or neurological mind-set that opens the door to their experience?

The matter should be researched by someone inclined to get down and dirty with the lower rung of society, which leaves me out. But I know plenty of UFO enthusiasts who fit the bill.

RR

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