Ufology: A life career, really?

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A guy I like, recently wrote on Facebook that he became thrilled by UFOs at age 13 and from there has made the phenomenon his life-work, indicating he has been successful as a researcher of UFOs

But can one really make – or has anyone really made – UFOs a career or life-effort?

I (and you) might cite Stanton Friedman as a career ufologist but he came to the phenomenon after a stint as a nuclear physicist.

Jacques Vallee and J. Allen Hynek crossed over into ufology after careers in computer science et cetera [JV] and academia, astronomy [JAH].

John Keel was a journalist until UFOs grabbed him by the mind, warping it.

 Almost all UFO enthusiasts get into UFOs (or ufology) mid-stream, after a normal job or career, intrigued by the phenomenon, but treating it as secondary to life-activities of various kinds.

The Facebook guy probably doing the same, but lauding his UFO work as the basis of his career.

FOs are pretty much a joke, when it comes to earning a living or producing something worthwhile for society. But a few off-centered individuals tout the phenomenon as a mainstay of their creative life. Why?

Yet, recently, even Psychiatry has been condemned as a total failure, still hanging in there because we, the public, “… are willing to endure psychiatrists’ ignorance because they take on our collective responsibility for not knowing … We are all complicit!” [TLS, Andrew Scull, 5/1/21]

And about Philosophy “Wittgenstein took [it] to be an illness, a source pf suffering, something to be diagnosed and treated rather than refuted.” [TLS, Crispin Sartwell, 2/5/21]

Newton’s Classic Science is under attack by students of Quantum Mechanics and culture itself is being replaced by the non-creative and exploitative efforts of the great unwashed.

And in that context, to tout ufology or an interest in UFOs as a career is sheer madness, a total bout of senselessness.

Like a person consumed by a love for orchids — their growing, hybriding, attention – UFO enthusiasts can admit to some kind of obsession with the phenomenon, but a career or perpetual life-style consumed by the things is, interestingly (as psychiatry would inform), sheer lunacy.

The study of and efforts put into reflection about UFOs does nothing for society or, so far, nothing for the betterment of civilization. The whole concept is ludicrous on the face of it.

But we remain consumed. And some go so far as to, embarrassingly publicize their addiction to the folly.

Now, tell me that’s not madness, insanity actually. Go ahead, make a case for UFOs as a valuable study for the enrichment of humanity.

(And I’m not being skeptical of UFOs as a bona fide phenomenon. I’m questioning the attention by some to the phenomenon.)

RR

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