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Sarah Scoles Asks If UFOs Emerged Spontaneously from America's Zeitgeist

3/5/2020

19 Comments

 
On Tuesday, Sarah Scoles published They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers (Pegasus, 2020), and to promote the book, which I have not yet read, she published an excerpt in Wired magazine. Mostly the excerpt is a fairly standard description of the first two decades of the modern UFO era, from the Kenneth Arnold sighting to the Air Force efforts to investigate and debunk saucer sightings. I am, however, interested in Scoles’s sociological approach to the question of flying saucers. In the excerpt, she asserts that even without Kenneth Arnold, UFO culture would have emerged anyway:
If Arnold hadn’t said a word, history probably would have nevertheless been set on a similar course. Someone else’s sighting would likely have catalyzed a similar flap—a year later, maybe two, or five. All events unfold in a cultural medium, after all. And the medium of Arnold’s time—colored by the fear of outsiders, fear of invasions, and awe of technology, just like today—was fertile ufological ground. Perhaps, in a world without Arnold’s encounter, people would have described “the phenomenon” differently. Perhaps we wouldn’t have the term “flying saucer” at all. Maybe it would have been pancakes or spheres. But Arnold and saucers are what we’ve got. So the flap that followed—and, really, all flaps to follow—bear his imprint, however faint.
If find this an interesting question, but not for the reasons Scoles does. It is perhaps true that someone somewhere might have seen strange lights or objects in the sky. World War II pilots reported seeing “foo fighters” in the sky, after all, and Theosophy had already spoken of Venusians who flew to Earth in shiny, fiery ships. But Arnold’s sighting didn’t become major news simply because he saw something in the sky and reporters thought it was amusing enough to write about. If that were all it took, any number of amusing weird news stories should have yielded similar results.
 
Arnold’s sighting really took off because Amazing Stories editor Ray Palmer jumped on the story in order to use it to help promote his science fiction products, notably the Shaver Mystery titles. Palmer sent a letter to Arnold on June 26, 1947 in which he told Arnold that he had a collection of similar sightings and wanted to publish Arnold’s account, which he did. Within days, the FBI was investigating Richard Shaver’s science fiction as a possible origin point for the flying saucer flap, and by the end of the summer of 1947, they concluded that regardless of whether Arnold actually saw anything, the entire complex of related ideas tying lying saucers to space aliens was the work of Palmer’s promotional machine. There remains no reason to doubt the FBI’s conclusions about the origin of the myth of flying saucers as alien spacecraft.
 
This aspect of the story, missing from Scoles’s account, suggests that we can’t simply assert that broad social forces inevitably created the myth of the UFO. Instead, it was the deliberate work of specific individuals who imposed a story on ambiguous events. That this is the case can be found in early FBI reports of spook lights and flying saucers in the wake of the Arnold sighting. The descriptions are all over the map, including a large number that were supposedly the size of saucers, not just the shape of them. Only after Palmer begins the process of codifying the myth of the UFO as alien space transport do we see that reports of flying saucers begin to coalesce around the idea of alien spaceships. In other words, Arnold’s sighting certainly encouraged imitators, as almost any popular news story does, but the form taken by those imitations and how the media began to understand them wasn’t just a spontaneous product of the zeitgeist—which, at any rate, had 112 years of newspaper claims of aliens to work with—but instead a specific development from the unique and deliberate alchemy of the pulp fiction world and its stew of science fiction and Theosophical speculation.  
19 Comments
Jerome Clark newspaper cuttings
3/5/2020 09:37:44 am

Jerome Clark on a website reproduced news-cuttings of reported sightings from June 1947 that matched Kenneth Arnold's 26 June 1947 sightings, but without reproducing the dates with said articles from the newspapers, very sloppy

Reply
The East Oregonian 1947
3/5/2020 04:46:16 pm

The East Oregonian 1947

PENDLETON, Ore., June 30 (UP) -- Mysterious objects, flying high and fast, were reported today by two Pendleton area residents.

Mrs Morton Elder, McKay Creek farm wife, reported seeing seven "perfectly round, umbrella-like" objects flying in a northwesterly direction about 11 p.m. Sunday.

She said the "planes" made a humming noise that resembled the sound of a musical top.

She said they were flying in a perfect wedge-shaped formation at a "very fast" speed. She described them as "white as snow" and "round like a mushroom or an umbrella."

She said there was no sign of a tail on the objects. They were flying "very high."

At the same time, Bill Schuening, foreman of the Lester King ranch, about 15 miles north of Pendleton, reported he saw objects similar to those reported near Mt. Rainier Wednesday by Kenneth Arnold, Boise, Ida., flying businessman.

Schuening said he saw "planes" the same day Mr. Arnold reported seeing the so-called "flying discs" whizzing along the Cascade mountains at an estimated 1200 miles an hour.

The objects were so high, Schuening related, that he was unable to determine their shape but he said they were "weaving in and out of formation." He said they were traveling at an "unusual rate of speed."

Arnold reported the objects he saw were also traveling "like the tail of a Chinese kite."

Reply
Joe Scales
3/5/2020 04:55:05 pm

Stop posting fake articles

Fake article
3/5/2020 08:48:41 pm

I'd appreciate more information about it being a fake article

Crashss
3/5/2020 09:00:51 pm

Joe Scales no longer answers questions directly. You’ll have to contact him through his attorney who is being paid by Joe’s homeowner’s insurance carrier.

Fake Article
3/5/2020 09:31:49 pm

So the statement that the article was fake wasn't serious
There are other such similar articles

Fake Statement
3/5/2020 10:00:51 pm

There are other such similar statements.

Joe Scales
3/6/2020 09:38:33 am

Fake Joe Scales above. Diluting the brand...

Balloon Boy Meets the Slender man
3/5/2020 10:33:50 am

Broad social forces caused specific individuals to do the deliberate work of imposing a story on ambiguous events. There are no non-specific individuals. Just like the flight attendant who supposedly brought HIV to the U.S. was a specific individual but someone else would have done it if not him. The Los Angeles Blitz? A classic case of broad social forces causing specific individuals to impose a story on ambiguous events.

Reply
Chris Aubeck
3/5/2020 02:40:44 pm

Even while Arnold was flying around that day, news stands were selling an article by Vincent Gaddis talking about “alien” UFOs seen throughout the world. It’s highly likely we'd have been discussing UFOs and the ETH with or without Kenneth Arnold's sighting. They just wouldn’t have been plate-shaped.

https://borderlandsciences.org/project/etheria/article/Gaddis_Visitors_from_the_Void.html

Reply
Maria
3/5/2020 04:30:01 pm

Thanks for the link Chris Aubeck

Reply
Jason Colavito link
3/5/2020 10:42:38 pm

But that's the question: Would random reports of things in the sky have become a national sensation about aliens in the skies if not for Ray Palmer collecting and publicizing them and helping to drive a minor media flap into a sustained story?

Reply
Kent
3/6/2020 12:04:03 am

It's not a question at all. The answer is "yes". Your answer seems to be "no". So we disagree. Oh, well.

Strangely enough, UFOs preceded Palmer. For those of you in Rio Linda, "UFO" means "Unidentified Flying Object" not "spaceship".

I only hope Palmer had a set of protocols in place in case of poison ivy. I've seen that stuff take out a whole crew!

Chris Aubeck
3/6/2020 02:30:02 am

It’s impossible to know whether alien UFOs would have become an international obsession. However, the convergence between plurality of worlds beliefs and possible sightings was picking up speed. Just look at what happened the previous October in San Diego, and that was instant ETH, no dancing around with theories about foreign technology or natural phenomena. https://borderlandsciences.org/project/etheria/press.html

Kent
3/6/2020 11:17:47 am

@Chris Aubeck: Of course you are correct. In a counterfactual there is no true or false. What if The Tyrant Lincoln had not been assassinated? What if Lord Balfour had been told to go screw? What if Churchill and Roosevelt had been recognized as the incompetent alcoholic warmongers that they were? Of course one could go on.

Still, once another has taken a position on a counterfactual it behooves one to take up the opposite position in the interest of fairness and rigor.
</hitchens>

William Fitzgerald
3/8/2020 10:50:23 pm

There was already the infamous 1938 Orson Welles's radio drama adaptation of the War of the Worlds that created a pretty big sensation; and less than 10 years prior. This and other science fiction stories related to aliens was already rooted in the culture, so it's not surprising that the public would seize on this particular zeitgeist.

temple run link
3/6/2020 01:49:57 am

This is a great thing, I think everyone feels this information is very valuable, thank you

Reply
Paul Nichols
3/12/2020 02:19:34 am

I have suspected for some years the the ufo craze was entirely artificial with no hard evidence in support. Your latest book shows one of the political forces behind ufo's and fake religions. Your article is admirable in the same way

Reply
Andrew LB
3/12/2020 04:04:14 am

Plenty of hard evidence, you just gotta look.

Example: https://youtu.be/wxVRg7LLaQA

US NAVY confirmed 5 months ago that the object is a genuine UFO. Multiple NAVY pilots, radar operators, and officers have confirmed that our nuclear air craft carriers are frequently followed and observed by craft of unknown origin both above and below the water and they sometimes will travel at speeds over 20,000mph. There are two other videos also taken from NAVy jets as well.

It's no coinsidence that many Governments have recently opened up about UFO's and even the Catholic Church has come out to be open to the idea.

I just think about it this way.... if something is smart enough to have the technology to travel to our planet from another star, then we Humans are the intellectual equivalent to a cow grazing in a field in respects to the farmer. Does the cow have even the slightest concept of understanding humans? We think ourselves so smart that nothing could exist at a higher level.

What i'd like to know is, how much evidence would it take for you to have that 'oh shit' moment? Or will you claim its fake and continue to think we're the only possible supposedly intelligent life?

Reply

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    • Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean >
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      • Chariots of the Gods at 50
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        • Erich von Däniken
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    • Collection: Ancient History >
      • Prehistoric Nuclear War
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    • Collection: The Lovecraft Legacy >
      • Pauwels, Bergier, and Lovecraft
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      • Alien Abduction at the Outer Limits
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      • Lost Civilizations >
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          • Plato's Atlantis Dialogues >
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          • W. Scott-Elliot >
            • The Story of Atlantis
            • The Lost Lemuria
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          • Termier on Atlantis
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          • Flinders Petrie on Atlantis
          • Amazing New Light (Hoax)
        • Lost Cities >
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      • Giants in the Earth >
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          • Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
          • History of Paleontology
        • Fragments on Giants
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        • Jewish Encyclopedia on Giants
        • Index of Giants
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        • Lanier's A Book of Giants
      • Science and History >
        • Halley on Noah's Comet
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        • Ararat and the Ark
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        • Old Mythology in New Apparel
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        • Devil Worship in France
        • Maspero's Review of Akhbar al-zaman
        • Arabic Names of Egyptian Kings
        • The Holy Grail as Lucifer's Crown Jewel
        • The Mutinous Sea
        • The Rock Wall of Rockwall
        • Fabulous Zoology
        • The Origins of Talos
        • Mexican Mythology
        • Chinese Pyramids
        • Maqrizi's Names of the Pharaohs
      • Extreme History >
        • Roman Empire Hoax
        • America Known to the Ancients
        • American Antiquities
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        • England, the Remnant of Judah
        • Historical Chronology of the Mexicans
        • Maspero on the Predynastic Sphinx
        • Vestiges of the Mayas
        • Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
        • Origins of the Egyptian People
        • The Secret Doctrine >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
          • Volume 2: Anthropogenesis
        • Phoenicians in America
        • The Electric Ark
        • Traces of European Influence
        • Prince Henry Sinclair
        • Pyramid Prophecies
        • Templars of Ancient Mexico
        • Chronology and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
        • The Faith of Ancient Egypt
        • Remarkable Discoveries Within the Sphinx (Hoax)
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • The Shaver Mystery >
          • Lovecraft and the Deros
          • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • Alien Encounters >
      • US Government Ancient Astronaut Files >
        • Fortean Society and Columbus
        • Inquiry into Shaver and Palmer
        • The Skyfort Document
        • Whirling Wheels
        • Denver Ancient Astronaut Lecture
        • Soviet Search for Lemuria
        • Visitors from Outer Space
        • Unidentified Flying Objects (Abstract)
        • "Flying Saucers"? They're a Myth
        • UFO Hypothesis Survival Questions
        • Air Force Academy UFO Textbook
        • The Condon Report on Ancient Astronauts
        • Atlantis Discovery Telegrams
        • Ancient Astronaut Society Telegram
        • Noah's Ark Cables
        • The Von Daniken Letter
        • CIA Psychic Probe of Ancient Mars
        • CIA Search for the Ark of the Covenant
        • Scott Wolter Lawsuit
        • UFOs in Ancient China
        • CIA Report on Noah's Ark
        • CIA Noah's Ark Memos
        • Congressional Ancient Aliens Testimony
        • Ancient Astronaut and Nibiru Email
        • Congressional Ancient Mars Hearing
        • House UFO Hearing
      • Ancient Extraterrestrials >
        • Premodern UFO Sightings
        • The Moon Hoax
        • Inhabitants of Other Planets
        • The Fall of the Sky
        • Blavatsky on Ancient Astronauts
        • The Stanzas of Dzyan (Hoax)
        • Aerolites and Religion
        • What Is Theosophy?
        • Plane of Ether
        • The Adepts from Venus
      • A Message from Mars
      • Saucer Mystery Solved?
      • Orville Wright on UFOs
      • Interdimensional Flying Saucers
      • Poltergeist UFOs
      • Flying Saucers Are Real
      • Report on UFOs
    • The Supernatural >
      • The Devils of Loudun
      • Sublime and Beautiful
      • Voltaire on Vampires
      • Demonology and Witchcraft
      • Thaumaturgia
      • Bulgarian Vampires
      • Religion and Evolution
      • Transylvanian Superstitions
      • Defining a Zombie
      • Dread of the Supernatural
      • Vampires
      • Werewolves and Vampires and Ghouls
      • Science and Fairy Stories
      • The Cursed Car
    • Classic Fiction >
      • Lucian's True History
      • Some Words with a Mummy
      • The Coming Race
      • King Solomon's Mines
      • An Inhabitant of Carcosa
      • The Xipéhuz
      • Lot No. 249
      • The Novel of the Black Seal
      • The Island of Doctor Moreau
      • Pharaoh's Curse
      • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • The Lost Continent
      • Count Magnus
      • The Mysterious Stranger
      • The Wendigo
      • Sredni Vashtar
      • The Lost World
      • The Red One
      • H. P. Lovecraft >
        • Dagon
        • The Call of Cthulhu
        • History of the Necronomicon
        • At the Mountains of Madness
        • Lovecraft's Library in 1932
      • The Skeptical Poltergeist
      • The Corpse on the Grating
      • The Second Satellite
      • Queen of the Black Coast
      • A Martian Odyssey
    • Classic Genre Movies
    • Miscellaneous Documents >
      • The Balloon-Hoax
      • A Problem in Greek Ethics
      • The Migration of Symbols
      • The Gospel of Intensity
      • De Profundis
      • The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolf
      • The Bathtub Hoax
      • Crown Prince Rudolf's Letters
      • Position of Viking Women
      • Employment of Homosexuals
    • Free Classic Pseudohistory eBooks
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