Today you are getting a shorter blog post since I ran out of writing time yesterday when my scheduled eye doctor appointment ran ridiculously far behind schedule, and I spent three hours there only to be told that my prescription hadn’t changed. It was my first time seeing this doctor, and I was surprised to find that he was a believer in the ancient astronaut theory and that he was delighted to learn that I was familiar with Mu and had appeared in a documentary with Erich von Däniken. Speaking of him: In a recent interview with Inverse magazines, ancient astronaut theorist Erich von Däniken (henceforth EVD) discussed his strong religious faith and criticized the Ancient Aliens mothership, while offering a disturbing justification for his long-term propaganda effort to spread what he admits to be a faith-based belief in space aliens. For being a brief interview, it packed a lot in.
The lion’s share of the interview was given over to EVD’s well-worn personal mythology of turning from questioning Catholic to alien acolyte due to his adolescent dissection of passages of the Bible that on their surface cast God in a less than omnipotent and beneficent light. “I am a deep believer in God,” he told Inverse. “I’m one of these figures who prays every evening.” This squares with EVD’s public statements from the past half century. He has written a book on the reality of Catholic miracles, and he famously exempted Jesus Christ from the ancient astronaut theory as the only deity or demigod who was not a spaceman in disguise. In what was perhaps the most disturbing part of the interview, EVD hinted that his efforts were not merely the opportunistic folly of a convicted embezzler who hit upon a profitable line of easy money. He told Inverse that he intended to use his work to slowly alter attitudes and values, shaping the zeitgeist, which he references in English translation as the “spirit of the times”: “I want to change the spirit of time,” he said. “What was unreasonable slowly becomes reasonable.” That final line is a little chilling, particularly when contrasting this thrusting of unreason into the public discourse with the gradual process of normalization that has seen a wide range of scams, hoaxes, propaganda, false claims, and outright lies raised to equality with facts, evidence, and reason among elites around the world. If it is true that we live in an age of unreason, much of the blame must rest ultimately on the failure of those charged with gatekeeping mainstream discourse to prioritize facts, evidence, and reason over sensation. In the 1960s, publishers, newspaper, and TV networks had the power to include or exclude points of view and to set the agenda for what ideas should be taken seriously. They could have chosen any number of paths. They chose to let the fox into the henhouse and to give the weight of their midcentury institutional authority to anti-scientific ideas. Viewpoints that they chose not to give the same widespread treatment—Afrocentrism, open white supremacy, flat earth beliefs, demonic interference, etc.—remained on the fringes for years or decades, until the burgeoning age of unreason made them contenders for dollars in the attention economy, often driven by the media. But the headline from the interview is probably EVD’s admission that Ancient Aliens is sometimes a little too bonkers even for him. “I’m not happy with all the conclusions Ancient Aliens makes,” he said. “Always it ends with a question mark or mostly a question mark.” So there you have it: Ancient Aliens has outgrown its father (it was originally based on Chariots of the Gods) and even its cast of ancient astronaut theorists—many of whom, including Giorgio Tsoukalos and David Wilcock have said they disagree with some of its claims—to become a metastasizing cancer that has developed a malevolent sentience independent of its hosts. Ancient Aliens is now an ancient astronaut theorist itself, not just a platform for them; indeed, it is now bigger than all of them, and a more recognizable brand than they are.
21 Comments
Joe Scales
11/20/2018 10:26:18 am
"In the 1960s, publishers, newspaper, and TV networks had the power to include or exclude points of view and to set the agenda for what ideas should be taken seriously. They could have chosen any number of paths. They chose to let the fox into the henhouse and to give the weight of their midcentury institutional authority to anti-scientific ideas."
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American Cool "Disco" Dan
11/20/2018 10:48:16 am
I blame further back, I blame the Beats.
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Frank
11/20/2018 10:50:20 am
"It was my first time seeing this doctor, and I was surprised to find that he was a believer in the ancient astronaut theory and that he was delighted to learn that I was familiar with Mu and had appeared in a documentary with Erich von Däniken."
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Jockobadger
11/20/2018 12:24:19 pm
I don't blame the hippies or the beats, though I see where you both are coming from. But, Jason kind of hit with:
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American Cool "Disco" Dan
11/20/2018 04:04:20 pm
It's clear you don't know when the Beats started. You can have your own opinion, you can't have your own history.
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Jockobadger
11/20/2018 04:21:06 pm
Late 1940's if I'm not mistaken. That was poorly written - apologies. Not attempting to hijack history.
American Cool "Disco" Dan
11/20/2018 10:06:47 pm
1944, but it's not the end of the world and you're not a fake Injun.
Bezalel
11/21/2018 12:11:28 pm
"The only real change in the zeitgeist (per EVD) is in who's peddling the woo and how they're peddling it"
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Joe Scales
11/21/2018 01:05:42 pm
Reactionary politics at its finest. You need to just sit back and realize the world is entirely corrupt. Every group. Every venue. Even on your watch. And there's not a damned thing you can do about it. It's who we are. It's who you are.
Bezalel
11/22/2018 02:03:03 am
Puerile and presumptuously underinformed
Joe Scales
11/22/2018 08:46:20 am
My, aren't we being myopic today. Pardon me for the rubber/glue chestnut, but it would appear to be you that wasn't fully formed until after 2016.
Jockobadger
11/22/2018 11:11:21 pm
I am with you Bez. Can’t respond in depth right now. I’ll will. Good work. J
Doc Rock
11/20/2018 03:12:58 pm
There have been a number of periods in American history when news media (broadly defined) really went of the rails. Some of the media discourse associated with presidential elections in the early 19th century was very rough even by contemporary standards. In the late 19th century you had folks like Hearst who personified "fake news" and National Enquirer style sensationalism.
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Machala
11/20/2018 03:22:52 pm
A three hour wait for an eye doctor who's an ancient astronaut theorist? I think you may want to think about getting a different doctor.
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Shane Sullivan
11/20/2018 06:03:20 pm
"It was my first time seeing this doctor, and I was surprised to find that he was a believer in the ancient astronaut theory ... "
Reply
11/20/2018 06:13:11 pm
He asked me about my work to judge how much time I spend with computer screens and how soon I will need progressive lenses. I told him I write history books, which prompted the conversation.
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American Cool "disco" dan`
11/20/2018 10:38:58 pm
How did the date end?
American Cool "Disco" dan
11/21/2018 12:03:48 pm
That right there is pseudoscience. Using your eyes doesn't make them wear out. Was he an opthalmologist or an optometrist? One of those is an actual doctor, the other is an Al Bundy shoe salesman. That is hyperbole, exaggeration for effect.
Dr. Eye Doctor
11/21/2018 01:06:45 pm
Of course heavy use of the computer does not cause one's eyes to "wear out." However, heavy computer use can result in a variety of conditions such as eye strain. Discussing what type progressive lenses a patient who uses a computer regularly may require in the future and when they may need them is in no way embracing the "wear out" myth.
american Cool "Disco" dan
11/21/2018 02:41:11 pm
You sound ig'nant. Can you supply proof for anything you said? NO.
IWentBlindFromTouchingMyself
11/21/2018 07:29:30 pm
CVS (Computer Vision Syndrome) is viewed by many professionals as a real thing. Progressive Lenses are widely viewed as one means of addressing the problem especially if it is complicated by other co-existing conditions. However, there are differing perspectives on the utility of progressive lenses for CVS depending, to some extent, on whether one is an optometrist or an opthalmologist. Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
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AuthorI am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab. Newsletters
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