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

Sociohistorical context of UFO conspiracism Cold War tensions more than one analyst (e.g. Jung 1991, Peebles 1996) has noted that UFOs, whatever their true age, only actually took off as reports, folklore, and entertainment during the Cold War. They fit into a prevalent pattern of tension and confusion concerning such things as national identity, spheric security, and human survival. Carl Jung, writing when the contactee phenomenon was reaching a crescendo, emphasized the space the Nazarene theme in UFO reports and entertainment. Our more evolved elders were here to save us from ourselves. In the 1970s, abduction reports began to bring home the idea that noncitizen contact may be more for the aliens benefit than anything. And now, from its position at the heart of US ufology and its firm position in contemporary entertainment, alien abduction exerts an influence making an alien and/or organisation collusion plausible to many people.Themes of literary productions and moviesTen sions from the great global political contest of the second half of this ascorbic acid formed the subject of much news and academic output, but were as well as at the core of a great deal of entertainment. We can light upon this in sci-fi movies from this era The Day the Earth Stood Still, in which nuclear weapons examen provokes stern warnings from our galactic 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 automobile trunk Snatchers, interpreted as either a McCarthyite warning of Communist percolation of a denunciation of McCarthyism and even the many monster movies like Them with its gargantuan ants, comments on the destructive effects of heedless technological tampering with nature. perception fiction was not alone in discussing fears about invasions from outside or betrayals within, but it was perhaps the most effective genre in project these fears onto the increas ingly vast and impersonal screen provided by scientific views of the cosmos. developed cover-upsIt also bears repeating that, during this period, public confidence in institutional government activity was repeatedly shaken, not least by several actual government cover-ups. Projects of questionable ethical or pragmatic import undertaken by miscellaneous government agencies under the cloak of national security did not incessantly remain secret. A few, like the notorious MK Ultra and Cointelpro psychological fudge programs, confirmed fears that the government was not above experimenting on its own citizens to get hold of its goals. But there were also such exposed cover-ups as the Watergate break-in, the Iran-Contra exchanges, and the ultimate confirmation that atmospheric nuclear weapons tests in Nevada had deadly effects on uninvolved citizens downwind.