The Banality of Aliens

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The apocrypha goes that prior to 9/11, America was much different from the ever surveilling, TSA pat down focused police state it has now become.

I often read comments and posts by people lamenting that their kids today will never get to see the America they grew up in.

It is in this context that the following paragraph from the WaPo op-ed [link] on unidentified aerial vehicles and UFOs stood out to me.

...reports from different services and agencies remain largely ignored and unevaluated inside their respective bureaucratic stovepipes. There is no Pentagon process for synthesizing all the observations the military is making. The current approach is equivalent to having the Army conduct a submarine search without the Navy. It is also reminiscent of the counterterrorism efforts of the CIA and the FBI before Sept. 11, 2001, when each had information on the hijackers that they kept to themselves.

Imagine, for a minute, a epochal event as a confirmed alien encounter. For people alive today, it will be the coolest, scariest, darnedest, What-The-F*ck-est, So Help me God moment of our lives. Everything we thought true, false, doubtful, ridiculous, improbable, obvious, maddening, guilt inducing, fait accompli, and open to discussion and interpretation will have to be reevaluated.

And that reevaluation could possibly have to happen under alien (metaphorical) jackboots.

Now consider the fate of people born after that date. To them, aliens are just another fact of life. They will be as aware and inured to their presence as we are today to the TSA grabbing our junk and telling us not to carry more than 3 ounces of fluid.

Imagine a state of perennial bliss or warfare, of mass hysteria or metta world peace brought about by the presence of aliens. And slowly that state becomes banal, everyday, commonplace, run of the mill because we know no other way of or have forgotten every other way of life.

Audio version [Soundcloud Link]