Funny, but not really, how everyone seems to immediately assume that objects unidentifiable in the sky are some sort of sinister invader out to destroy us. Evil aliens to be blamed for all the foils of mankind.
The very subject of my Other Worldly novels. Because what if aliens are visiting for a positive purpose?
How quickly Americans forget that they themselves created a comic book hero known as Superman. Who was, in fact, an alien. As if aliens have nothing better to do than save us from our hapless selves. Rowan Layne discusses this with the actual impetus for Superman in the second novel of the Other Worldly series, Feeling Alienated.
So, which is it? A maniacal overlord or rescuing protector? And what has it been in the skies and the news lately?
I admit I enjoyed the initial speculative snark about Roswell weather balloons, which is addressed just as facetiously in my novels. But then folks on social media started in about those “unidentified objects,” supposed spy balloons, being potential alien spacecraft that our government shot down—and I was disgusted.
Sure, it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt. And then it’s mere online idiocy. And more official coverup.
To begin with, I posit that our government should have a firm inkling of what it’s shooting at if it goes the destructive route. Newsflash: If it’s “unidentifiable,” you’re shooting into a dangerous abyss of cluelessness.
And if the government does, in actuality, know what it’s obliterating from US skies, it should reveal its intel to we the people.
Let me repeat that: Coverups are so 1947. Enough with the cagey weather balloon crap already. Subterfuge and secrecy have no place in today’s reality.
As Rowan Layne says in Altogether Alien, imminently launching sixth novel of the Other Worldly series, the time for secrecy and coverups is over. Of course, she’s also talking about aliens reticent to share certain details about themselves as well. But as she notes, given how ridiculously many folks have reacted to the knowledge of their existence among us, can we really blame aliens for not wanting to out themselves?
Because you know once they do so, we’ll be aiming to shoot them out of the sky before we discover even one iota about why they’re here and what we might learn from them. Human nature at its worst.
My novels address all of this, even as it’s happening in real life. The insidious secrecy and lies. The heinous and all-too-human urge to declare anything unknown or misunderstood an ominous threat. The kneejerk reaction that can and often does lead to violence.
The conspiracy theories that form out of the vacuum of unshared knowledge while a bunch of dudes (and unfortunately now women as well) autocratically decide what the rest of us can’t know or can’t handle knowing.
If it is spying balloons of enemy states floating above, is that worse than how we citizens are spied upon by our own kind? Data mining online and other inherent abuses of power from both the private and public sectors.
Rampant erosion of the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable government search and seizure under the guise of “national security.” Rowan Layne has more than a few things to say about that, beginning in book one, Alienable Rights.
I, like Rowan, have so very many questions. For instance, what’s that light I’ve seen lately in the very same spot in the sky from my living room window each evening? It isn’t a star. So, what is it? More importantly, what is it for, and why is it there, looming and stationary above the Vegas valley? In close proximity to Nellis AFB.
In my novels, I choose to view curiously flying and hovering objects as benevolent aliens, perhaps protecting us from those on Earth—as in humans—who would seek to do us harm.
But I’m not so sure about that nightly potential spy satellite. I don’t suppose it will be shot out of the sky if it belongs to our government. But shouldn’t we know about it? Because our taxpayer dollars surely funded it.
Such insipid secrecy is so George Orwell’s 1984.
And does anyone really think aliens are simply going to let us shoot them out of the sky? One clue might be that if they are here, they’re technology is vastly more advanced than ours. Also, if they didn’t attack first, why assume they’re here to do so and act like insecure bullies?
Human hubris is gobsmacking, to say the least. One can only hope our lust for violence and destruction is not shared with other sentient beings of the universe.