Sociohistorical context of UFO conspiracism Cold War tensions :: Essays Papers

Sociohistorical context of UFO conspiracism Cold War emphasissMore than one analyst (e.g. Jung 1991, Peebles 1996) has noned that UFOs, whatever their true age, only really took off as reports, folklore, and entertainment during the Cold War. They fit into a gen seasonl pattern of tension and confusion concerning such things as national identity, global security, and human survival. Carl Jung, piece of writing when the contactee phenomenon was reaching a crescendo, emphasized the space messiah theme in UFO reports and entertainment. Our much evolved elders were here to save us from ourselves. In the 1970s, abduction reports began to contain home the idea that alien contact may be more for the aliens benefit than anything. And now, from its ready at the heart of US ufology and its firm position in contemporary entertainment, alien abduction exerts an influence making an alien and/or governance collusion plausible to many people.Themes of literature and moviesTensions from the great global political contest of the second half of this century formed the display case of much news and academic output, but were also at the event of a great deal of entertainment. We can see this in sci-fi movies from this era The Day the Earth Stood Still, in which nuclear weapons testing provokes stern warnings from our astronomic neighbors This Island Earth, where Earth scientists are forced to help their alien counterparts in a losing battle against an unseen enemy Invasion of the Body Snatchers, interpreted as either a McCarthyite warning of Communist infiltration of a affidavit of McCarthyism and even the many monster movies like Them with its giant ants, comments on the corrosive effects of heedless technological tampering with nature. Science fiction was not alone in discussing fears about invasions from outside or betrayals within, but it was possibly the most effective genre in projecting these fears onto the increasingly extensive and impersonal screen provid ed by scientific views of the cosmos.Actual cover-upsIt also bears restate that, during this period, public confidence in institutional authorities was repeatedly shaken, not least by several actual government cover-ups. Projects of questionable estimable or pragmatic import nethertaken by various government agencies under the cloak of national security did not always remain secret. A few, like the notorious MK Ultra and Cointelpro psychological control programs, confirmed fears that the government was not above experimenting on its own citizens to achieve its goals. But thither were also such exposed cover-ups as the Watergate break-in, the Iran-Contra exchanges, and the eventual confirmation that atmospherical nuclear weapons tests in Nevada had deadly effects on uninvolved citizens downwind.