The UFO files
PETER BROOKESMITH surveys the latest fads and flaps from the world of ufological research
Some people will believe anything – not exactly an original thought, I know. It’s usually more interesting to poke a sharp stick at the people who generate the stuff that some people believe, and see what comes out from under the stone.
On 13 April 2017, the US Air Force had the pleasure of using its GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb in earnest for the first time, against Daesh militants lurking in caves and tunnels in Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan. A bit lighter than Barnes Wallace’s 22,000lb (10-tonne) Grand Slam bomb deployed late in World War II, but carrying more explosive, the ‘Mother of All Bombs’ disposed of 96 Daesh terrorists. How much of the cave/ tunnel complex was destroyed isn’t known at the time of writing. Not that it matters, because that’s all just a cover story according to Michael Sallas, PhD, a star of the UFO Disclosure movement.
On the Exopolitics.org website Dr Sallas reported that: “Insider testimony suggests another reason for the use of the MOAB bomb. The undisclosed goal is to flush out, capture or destroy giants hiding in Afghanistan’s ancient cavern system who possess technological secrets going back to the origins of human civilization.” No, really. “Secret space program whistleblower, Corey Goode, was among the first to publicly disclose the existence of ‘stasis chambers’ that have been holding perfectly preserved giants for millennia,” we learn. Goode is also, by the way, insistent that the Nazis have been on the Moon since the 1930s. Other ‘whistleblowers’ have reported that an “elite US Special Forces” team was almost wiped out by a 12ft-tall giant in Afghanistan. Poor old SF, they always get it in the neck in these legendary events, don’t they – remember the Dulce Wars? Dr Sallas reminds us that according to Deuteronomy, “the descendants of Moab destroyed the giants in the land that the Moabites wanted to settle. Now, the Pentagon just used a bomb called MOAB, allegedly to destroy giants hiding in Afghanistan’s cavern system,” and adds: “This does not appear to be a mere coincidence.” Well, who’d ever have thought otherwise?
Having got over the giggles, I tend to file this kind of stuff (and there is more where it came from) under the general heading of ‘Ufology as Quasi-Religion’. Sallas & Company may be seen as prophets, mingling and mangling current sources of global nervousness with obscurities from the Hebrew Bible and a bit of someone else’s ancient religion (no coincidence either that Daesh is called ISIS, of course) to produce new conspiratorial Revelations. If it all seems a little mad, and more than a little comical, to most of us, it presumably soothes the souls of its creators and adherents. WATCH THE SKIES, EVIL CAPITALISTS! There’s nothing quite like a spot of postmodern discourse to add to the gaiety of nations. Self-described philosopher MJ Banias has published the first of a threepart series titled UFOs, Power Systems and
Modern Capitalism on his TerraObscura blog. Apparently, “the mainstream public’s opinion on UFOs, and the subculture that explores the subject, is a negative one because it hinges upon the philosophical questions UFOs raise concerning hegemonic power structures and ideological Capitalism.” There’s a thought for you. And, “much of UFO discourse contains deep seeded anti-establishment and anti-capitalist ideologies.”
According to Banias: “The UFO narrative is full of examples that directly counter ideological Capitalism. Whether it concerns the theoretical free zero point energy, contactees returning with warnings concerning climate change or global conflict from their abductors, or conspiracy theories concerning secret cabals of elitists, the discourse is in a constant state of dissent towards the current power system. On a more basic level, the supposed existence of intelligently controlled UFOs from another world is a direct challenge to current government and economic control. While humans may have succumbed to the Capitalist model, there is no guarantee that otherworldly beings have done so. UFOs themselves provide a possible future free of the constraints of modern Capitalist ideology, and… Capitalism is unwilling to accept that future, and die quietly in the night.” And: “The UFO subculture, and the entire discourse itself… does not seek to alter modern Capital, but to end it. Whether the UFO community fancies government Disclosure, Light Beings, Channelling, CE5, or some other similar belief system, it attempts to create a worldview free of Capitalism itself.”
I was about to say you learn something new every day. Except that something rather like anti-capitalism was being preached six-plus decades ago by the contactees. Those unjustly maligned entertainers were, as far as possible, written out of ufological history and significance by nearly all ‘serious researchers’. Not much sympathy for peace, love, vegetarianism and lack of capitalism there. And one does wonder where all those fee-collecting speakers on the UFO lecture circuit and entrepreneurs like Stephen Greer and Jaime Maussan might stand on being told they were anticapitalists. No doubt they and MJ Banias will find a way round it all. An eye will be kept open for the remainder of his series. And there’ll be more post-modernity next time, too.
The undisclosed goal is to flush out giants hiding in Afghanistan’s ancient cavern system