Aliens have gone from a kooky philosophical subject and tinker toy for conspiracy theorists to becoming a mainstream thing. Videos are becoming declassified, government figures are discussing them, and intelligence officers are whistleblowing. Information wants to be free, sure, but governments are beginning to lend the disclosures credibility.
While people regularly transcend narrow self interest, I find it helpful to look at how self interest is being served, and the authenticity of recent disclosures are irrelevant to this kind of analysis. The facts are: (1) information is being disclosed and (2) the government is lending it credibility.
Here are some potential hidden motivations for the recent disclosures:
- to give an increasingly secular populace a new god, ie something bigger than themselves to believe in
- eg make eating bugs and owning nothing seem quaint
- make governments cool again and inspire people to join governments
- if the gov can't compete on pay or impact, how about gaining access to scarce information?
- make governments appear more organized and sophisticated than they otherwise appear
- intimidate our enemies abroad by implying we're more sophisticated than we appear
- encourage spending more money on the military industrial base by implying there's more value being created than appears
There are also other less paranoid and less interesting explanations for the recent disclosures of course:
- the information was steadily being leaked and the government had no choice but to publicly begin participating in disclosure
- this once classified information no longer needs to be classified so the government is beginning to disclose it
I don't have an opinion on the authenticity of the recent disclosures. But, as an enjoyer of kooky philosophical subjects and conspiracy theory spectating, I find the whole thing odd enough to enjoy thinking about it.
On the topic of odd, one recent theory on the disappearance of MH370 is that it was teleported away. One of the bigger promoters of this theory believes the US government teleported the aircraft to save the scientists on board. He does a great job of constructing the conspiracy especially when compared to his peer group. However, his conspirators, the US military, are (1) incredibly sophisticated and (2) unflinchingly heroic which stands out like a shag carpet or a record player in the interior of contemporary conspiracy theories.