There are others that have opined that all the recent activity in Texas has made Stephenville a laughing stock.
And so on.
The reason I mention this is to get some perspective. To many people, those with an interest in UFOlogy, regardless of how belief driven or reason driven they may be, are all nutters. There is no differential made between those that embrace it as a religion and those that want it taken seriously by science. All are loonies fit for the bin.
With that in mind, quite recently, Rod Brock reactivated his "Aliens Ate My Buick" blog. It can be found here:
http://strangegrub.blogspot.com/
From the perspective of an ETH'er, Rod is a sceptic and has attracted bucket loads of abuse and criticism over the years. While he has his fans, his views are not the sort that many in UFOlogy want to read or listen to, understandably.
I think he talks a lot of sense and writes in a truly objective manner. But objectivism and UFOlogy do not necessarily make good bedfellows.
Labelling is always a dangerous game and one that within UFOlogy, is never really accurate, but for the sake of argument, I would call myself a fringe sceptic in relation to UFOs these days. Nevertheless, I do notice a trait among some of the more died in the wool lot that I call battle weariness. It is a state of mind that comes about from having been in too many philosophical fights, arguments, and exchanging of insults. This in turn induces a siege mentality and a degree of obstinacy on the part of the sceptic, an anticipation of reaction and an aggressive posture pre-assumed. Debates can only go in one direction.
I notice this attitude in Rod Brock. The root cause of it I believe is frustration. Rod knows he talks common sense and his despair comes about from the failure of others to see his point of view. There's no getting away from it but an attitude such as this is arrogant. There's also no getting away from the fact that when you call someone arrogant, it is impossible to do so without causing offence, and I don't intend to cause that offence. It's an observation. I don't know Rod Brock and can only make an assessment based on his writings.
What Rod wants to do is to change the world. He wants people who follow a fanciful, unsustainable path of thinking to snap out of it and see sense and reason.
He is obviously far from being a stupid man and his years of experience should tell him that he will never change people if they don't want to change. He is pissing in the wind.
And he's a long way from being alone. It is endemic.
It has always been so that those who consider they take an intelligent and considered approach to the subject of UFOs want to change the thinking of others. They despise the low life of UFOlogy and want to purge them so that the subject can be taken seriously. Cleansed of people who think ET is already here and there is a government conspiracy, more prestigious institutions will begin to take notice.
What this really is about is them getting to feel better about themselves, separating themselves from the madness and mayhem, and engaging their aspirations to a greater intellectual authority.
No matter how you circumvent this, you always come back to the same word; arrogance.
My argument is, forget it. Leave people be. Let them think what they want and believe what they want. Why shouldn't they?
Either quit the game or accept the status quo and recognise that you are in a field where some of your fellow travellers disturb you.
But trying to change the world, either surreptitiously by showing good practice or by haranguing folk constantly is simply pointless.
Remember; whoever you are, someone, somewhere thinks you're an idiot.
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