There’s been a higher volume of UFO news over the past few months, ranging from the U.S. Navy changing their approach to members reporting sightings to the increased numbers of purported sightings.
Often times, the usual suspects — International Business Times and the Independent — are publishing odd-ball claims of UFO moon bases and satellites orbiting our planet.
Scott Waring comes to mind, and not to discredit the foundation of his work, but the glut and far-reaching claims of an alien base on the dark side of the moon, tend to have me march out the old line, “The laddie doth protest too much, methinks.”
Iambic pentameter aside, given the increase in militaries around the world using drones, and the constant air traffic abroad, it hardly means we’re being visited by extraterrestrials.
What it signifies, to me, is our governments are constantly keeping tabs on both allies and adversaries.
A bunch of old white guys watching is scary enough. Still, the acronym UFO is often associated with little grey men. Conspiracy theorists also like to float around asinine theories about reptilian humanoids that have infiltrated all levels of government.
For the love of sanity, this needs to stop. (I find it necessary to have Snopes bookmarked as a quick reference).
UFO means unidentified flying object. This can be anything from a weather balloon to the ubiquitous, yet illegal in some places, drones.
It occurred to me, as I stood and waited for the Raptors to make their way through the Toronto streets in celebration of the NBA title, that drones are frequent flyers in the city.
One buzzed above the crowd gathered along University Avenue.
Of course, many governments have access to this technology, so what could be reported as a UFO is basically something a little more terrestrial in nature.
Now, these are just off-the-cuff theories, but given the rise of tensions among nations like the United States, Russia, China, Canada and so on, it’s not so absent-minded to think our cities are under the watchful eye.
Espionage is a thing.
Perhaps a little too overwrought by Hollywood, but intelligence gathering is done both domestically and abroad. It’s also done by nosy next-door neighbours that have the disposable income to buy a drone for their teenagers.
I’m not keen on conspiracy theories. I practice a great deal amount of Occam’s razor when it comes to the uncanny. Usually, the explanation involving the least amount of fancy, or in less offensive terms, speculation, is the best answer.
With so much hullabaloo going about it’s best to remain grounded and avoid any panic. I mean the 1980s were rife with Satanic panic, so let’s not travel down that rabbit hole.
As the Ents said in Tolkien’s famous books, “Evil makes haste”.
It’s time to sit back, watch the stories unfold, use a little wry humour and avoid letting our heads float into the clouds.
We’ll call it the Scully approach.