Question that im sure nobody will have any problem having their answer recorded for television. Show of hands, how many believe alien life exists. Pretty decent number of people. Im going to throw in there as well. I think so, steving hawking thinks so. In a giant universe, there is distinctly a probability that somewhere alien life has evolved and probably looks different from us. But they might be out there opinion slightly different question. How many of us believe that aliens have visited earth . Sergeo, the only man with the strength of his convictions, i appreciate that. Heres a question. Is the idea that aliens have visited earth in and of itself a Conspiracy Theory . I dont believe so. No . Why not . If you take into consideration the fact that were trying to go to mars, we would be alien life there. The fact that another life form has become inning tell gent enough to do space travel. It takes another species to land themselves on another planet. Is an entire race working together a conspiracy . It seems reasonable. Its odd to the indict the entire planet of wherever for wanting to come and visit. Even if we are going to arguably, maybe we could consider it a Conspiracy Theory. Its a conspiracy of aliens in and of themselves, right . Which is not what we tend to talk about, when we talk about ufo Conspiracy Theorys. Alien Conspiracy Theorys. Those are theorys that include an element of human complicity, usually of government complicity. And these ideas that there are not only aliens visiting earth but that the state is in some way voefled with those visits is a really prominent Conspiracy Theory. Its a multitude of conspiracy theo theorys. And like the kennedy conspiracy that we were talking about last week. To just stand here and name every ufo Conspiracy Theory would take much longer than we have in this class. So tragically, we will not be talking about the fact that nasa is hiding the existence of the planet nabir. Tragically, we will not be talking about the fact that we are in secret contact with andromeda and part of a vast intergalactic war. And we will not be talking about the fact that the earth is hollow and filled with interstellar beingings who may or may not have been allied with the nazis in world war ii, depending on who you ask about i see a couple smiles at those ideas. Which is understandable. But these are real ideas, that real people fiercely and fully believe in. We should make clear, not everybody who believes in ufos, believes in ufo conspiracy theories. Even those who do believe, there is a wide variation. We keep coming back to this idea of a fringe conspiracy. Thats evident within these ufo Conspiracy Theorys. But its worthying about, right . That these ufo Conspiracy Theorys are widely treated as something laughable. In fact, serious discussion of them is really an effective cultural taboo. We talked about the labelling of something as conspiracy, as a distancing measure. Alien Conspiracy Theorys are possibly one of the most evident examples of the distancing of conspiracy sifts belief from acceptable discourse. And yet at the same time, even as theyre treated as laughable, as risible, theyre some of the most widely believed Conspiracy Theorys. We go back to the 60s. Gallop polls find 96 of americans had heard of ufos, 46 believed that they were real. 1973. 57 believe that ufos are real. By the 90s, 71 believe the government is at least hiding information about ufos. They may or may not be real, but theres definitely more going on there, than the government is letting us flow. Those numbers remain relatively stable. 2015 poll showed that 56 believed that ufos are real. 45 believe that aliens have actually landed and visited earth on top of that. To put that in context, 56 believe ufos are real. In that same survey. 47 said that the Big Bang Theory was real. This is very much a widely held belief, that is very mainstream. At least the idea that something is going on with ufos, even if we narrow it in to a specific example, like roswell, a majority of americans will repeatedly say they are at the very least unsure whether or not a flying saucer crashed in roswell, new mexico. So we have this odd disconnect between this very mainstream idea, this majority idea, and yet the way that its treated within our political and cultural discourse. Its also not an idea thats new at all. The idea that weird lights or objects in the sky is something to be concerned about is nothing new. But then if you are a serf if 13th century europe. What are you going to think that floating lights in the sky might be . Is it going to be aliens . Witches . Omens of doom . Any other guesses . God. God, right. Devils, witches. Omens, overwhelmingly a super natural explanation. And its not really until we start to see that kind of enlightenment rationalism is a plant these ideas of Divine Providence, that we move from super natural to scientific explanations for these unexplained phenomena. Although even then, we need to be careful about drawing too wide of a divide between those two, as were going to see, the two ideas, the super natural and scientific are going to remain pretty thoroughly intertwined. We have 11 of people here, that think ufos are real, but dont think aliens have visited earth, i was stwonderring, are ufos just an unidentified flying object. Wheres the boundary there. Unidentified according to who. There are a lot of things i cant identify in the sky, but i assume somebody can. Thats true. The polls, the wording isnt great. The way that the poll explains that is not that theres an 11 difference between those who believe ufos are an extraterrestrial phenomenon, right . What gets commonly referred the extraterrestrial hypothesis that ufos are real and alien related. 56 believe ufos are real. 11 fewer believe that some of those ufos have landed and that we have had contact with the aliens. Thats the differential thats playing out there. The differential between Something Else going on is that 56 going up to 71 from the 90s. The idea that there is something going on with this question. And that idea that there is something going on has a long history. This concern over extraterrestrial contact has a long history. If we go back to 1835, the new york newspaper the sun garners major attention in reporting that an astronomer has found life on the moon. Life in the shape of a series of humanoid bat people. Turns out unsurprisingly that its a hoax. Im sorry to disappoint anybody who is hoping that bat people really are living on the moon. But it points us to the ideas that are already percolating around in the 19th century. That gets really evident in the late 19th century. In 1891, when thomas blot alleges that a man from mars appeared in the kitchen of his rural home and fully endorsed late 19th century democratic socialist utopianism, which was nice for thomas block to hear since he was already a believer in such things. Or in 1896, 1897, where you see a series of unexplained airships seen in the skies over the west coast. Theres a really interesting variety of stories that come out of this. Some of them claim that they see humanoid beings inside peddling to make it go, which if that is a spaceship, thats a lot of pedaling. Some allegedly call out to the airship as it goes over and the airship calls back down to say that they are from mars. Even in the 19th century, people are very fixated on the idea of life from mars. There is this long history, this long concern about contact with extraterrestrial life and extraterrestrial life visiting us here on earth. But when we talk about modern ufo conspiracism, what were really talking about is the post world war ii era. And these conspiracies paint an alternative history of america from the cold war to the present. What we might call ethno sociologists of extraterrestrial conspiracism that reflect very terrestrial concerns about agency, about state power, about dissempowerment and depersonalization. About ideas of expertise and authority and especially of ideas of skepticism about expertise and authority and about narratives of progress whether social or scientific. That modern ufo phenomenon gets kickstarted after world war ii in 1947 by this gentleman, Kenneth Arnold. People had seen, pilots had seen unidentified phenomena during world war ii. They get commonly referred to as foo fighters which is where the bands name comes from. But its not until Kenneth Arnolds sighting in late june of 1947 of what he described to newspapers as flying disks, what gets widely reported as flying saucers, that the modern ufo phenomenon begins. And it spreads very, very quickly. Over the july 4th holiday that year, thousands of men and women contact authorities to report more than 850 sightings of ufos. Thats never been paralleled since. Theres never been such a frenzy of ufo sightings as there was over independence holiday in 1947. Although sightings remain fairly common through to the early 1950s. And you get pictures like this from new jersey from 1952, alleging a sighting of an unidentified flying object. And unsurprisingly, you see a variety of effort to try to explain this phenomenon. Two of the most influential voices in that process are frank scully and donald kehoe. Scully was a writer for variety magazine who publishes behind the flying saucers in 1950, where he really focuses in on the story of flying saucers that crash in the american southwest. Where did that crash take place . Not roswell, but thank you for falling into my easy trap. In fact, scully says that they crash in as tech, new mexico. They never mentioned roswell. Were going to talk later about why that is. Scully says sources crash in azte krerx, and not only do sources crash, scully says, but bodies are found, three to fourfoottall alien beings, really cementing the modern idea of the little green man comes out of scullys books. He also claims that the sources come not from mars but from venus. And the 1950s are really kind of a key time in a mars venus battle over where these flying saucers come from. Scully loses popularity after 1952 because true magazine publishes an extensive article debunking his entire book, pointing out the fact that most of or really all of scullys sources are professional conmen and really spending page after page making fun of scully for believing the con men, and even making fun of how terrible frank scullys writing is. Its a really mean article. And it destroys scullys credibility. But scullys ideas are going to have a really long shelf life. And actually, just in recent years, theres been an uptick in people trying to attract some of the roswell tourism away over to aztec and publishing new books saying scully was right and sources really did crash in aztec, new mexico. A little bit more kind of credible, at least at the time, than scully, is donald kehoe, a retired officer from the marine corps who writes three very popular books. The flying saucers are real, which is released in 1950. Flying saucers from outer space, which comes out in 1953. And the flying saucer conspiracy, in 1955. And kehoe reports conversations and interviews that hes had purportedly with air force officers and specifically air force intelligence officers, to try and substantiate his warnings that first of all, ufos are real and military pilots are encountering them on a semiregular basis. Second of all, he thinks theres a very good chance that the aliens have set up a mother ship in orbit of earth and that the ufos are coming from that mother ship rather than all the way from another planet. And thirdly, that these ufos are most likely from mars. Hes not a venus fan. Hes back on the mars train. Whats interesting about kehoe is that he does see a conspiracy. He does see a conspiracy by the military to cover up the reality that earth is being visited by these flying saucers. But he doesnt blame them for doing so. For kehoe, what he calls the silence group, is acting out of a desire to protect National Security. And a desire to prevent public hysteria. While he disagrees with that decision, he sees it as a matter of reasonable disagreement. He doesnt see nefarious motives at work. And that is an idea that is going to change significantly over the 60s and especially coming out of the 70s into the 80s. Its really easy at the time to see the impact of writers like kehoe who see a conspiracy of silence but not necessarily a nefarious conspiracy of silence. 1952, that same year that true magazine is debunking scully, life magazine leads with a big front cover splash of Marilyn Monroe and the headline there is a case for interplanetary sources and life comes down hard in that issue to say that they think something probably is going on with ufos. Less concerned with credibility, but no ness influential in putting these ideas into the american consciousness is the glut of alien invasion films in the 1950s. Of course, the classic the invasion of the body snatchers. But also invaders from mars, killers from space and more. And theres a couple interesting elements to be brought out from these films. Not the least of which is a lot of them deal with aliens either taking control of humans minds or of replacing them entirely with lookalikes. And given these are coming out mid to late 50s, what other fears have we been talking about that that kind of coincides with . Marissa . The u. S. Government. Communist infiltration. Yeah. Brain washing of korean pows. Brain washing, good. This is very much playing on two simultaneous fears bubbling up in the 1950s. Not just that the communists are infiltrating but theyre infiltrating through these kind of mind control ideas. And pairing that with this fear of extraterrestrial threat as well. And it really is an extraterrestrial threat. These films overwhelmingly buy in to a donald kehoe style view of whats happening. The threat is purely extraterrestrial. It is is not human. And in fact, most of these films rather than the state being complicit or suspect, government agents, particularly military agents, are the heroes. Theyre the ones saving us from this extraterrestrial threat. So you have yeah. What is the story behind the motives of the aliens to be a threat, to attack us . Is there a thought of why theyre doing that . Yeah, kind of the why of the conspiracy attack. There isnt really a single unifying idea in the 50s. Other than domination. The plan is always to conquer the world. Why they want to conquer the world is open for interpretation. Is it because their own planet is dying . Is it because they want to kind of make us into slaves . Theres a pretty wide latitude there, but yeah, good question. We see this kind of kehoe style opposite of paranoia at work to some extent. Anybody remember our word for opposite of paranoia . Security. Yeah, but not quite. Security is kind of the middle line. Hope. Indifference . Yeah, not quite. What do you call it when a conspiracy is acting feel good, but not against you . Anybody remember that . No. Not paranoia, but pronoia. This is an example of pronoid conspiracy thinking. Thats evident in another threat of extraterrestrial phenomena that emerges in the 50s which is an increasing number of people who claim that not only have they seen ufos but they have been contacted by aliens. And this is really kicked off by a man called george adamski. Hes the first contactee to publish a book length account of his experience in 1953. And adamski contradicts virtually everything that has come before him. He says that theyre not from mars. Theyre from venus. And if scully is right about him being from venus, hes wrong about him being short. He said theyre about 56. Theyre humanoid, and theyre very beautiful. Adamski also says they are not a threat. He says the coming was friendly. Now, adamski is going to lose kind of Popular Support in the 60s after he claims that he would be leaving any day now for an interplanetary conference on saturn and somehow never quite makes his appointment for that. But, his ideas, his narrative that there are these friendly visitors has very much caught on. And throughout the 1950s, you see this series of encounters with extraterrestrial beings who have seemingly come to warn humanity about our warlike nature, to warn us that Nuclear Weapons will destroy us all. A very pure distillation of common cold war fears at the time. Cold war fears also bear no small resemblance to the 1951 film the day the earth stood still. Which is basically the exact same plot adamski recounts two years later, but nobody really picked him off on this at the time. So theres still this pronoia at work in the early 50s, yes, the government might be lying to us, but theyre doing it for our own good. Or yes, aliens are visiting, but theyre doing it for our own good. That increasingly is going to take a darker turn as we move out of the 50s into the 60s. You start to see at least the governments motives and its methods become much darker in hiding the truth. Thats especially going to become symbolized by the idea of the men in black. The men in black is an idea that is really kind of more or less put into play by an author called gray barker. And gray barker is an interesting guy. Barker makes a pretty good Living Publishing books about supposedly true ufo encounters, but to friends, privately calls flying saucers a bucket of shit. So, very much capitalizing on this trend. But hes going to more or less launch this idea of the men in black in his 1956 book, they knew too much about flying saucers, a book thats based on the experiences of a factory clerk from connecticut. A man called albert bender. Who claimed that three men in black suits had approached him and intimidated him into not telling the truth about his alien encounter. Obviously, bender had not been that silent given that he, a, was able to tell gray barker about it, and b, publish his own book about it in 1962 in which he explains that its not the martians of the venitians. In actual fact, he had been taken for a ride in a flying saucer to the south pole by grizzly monster light aliens from the planet kazic, whether that might be. Despite the lets be generous and say skepticism which with we might greet albert benders story, the idea that government agents and these sinister men in black are working to hide true information really gains popularity. And it really takes off going through the 60s and 70s. As an interesting phenomenon going on with just the men in black themselves, in the quite often, theyre characterized as altogether human agents of the state, but at the same time, theyre often given many inhuman or unearthly characteristics. Characteristics that very often allied the differences between these scientific and supernatural