Over on Thudfactor, Thud posted recently about Bigfoot. Specifically, he posted an examination of what it says about our attitudes toward inquiry when mentioning that you have sighted Bigfoot automatically discredits you.
Not that there aren’t any witnesses. It’s just none of them are credible. In his Darklore essay, Loren Coleman makes the point that part of the reason these witnesses aren’t credible is they claim to have seen Bigfoot. That’s what you would call something of a Catch-22.
Now, if I were to see something like the creature featured in the Patterson-Gimlin film, my second thought would be that I’d seen a very large ape. (My first thought would be to get the hell out.) It might cross my mind that I’d seen Bigfoot, but then I’d play the “what’s more likely” game and decide I’d seen a large ape. In that (hypothetical) instance, I’m technically a Bigfoot witness. But I don’t even believe myself, so I’m not going to do anyone any good. My skepticism prevents me from reporting a sighting.
Then I came across this little zinger from Kit O’Connell at Words Words Words (where Steven Brust, by the way, has just released his Creative Commons-licensed novel based on Joss Whedon’s Firefly as a free download) who reminds us what, exactly, the term “UFO” means.
Let’s look at that last sentence — ‘what many believe is a UFO.’ What does UFO stand for? Unidentified Flying Object. It was a thing people saw (an object), moving through the sky (flying) and no one knows what it is (unidentified).
All of which reminded me of the moment in the Democratic debates when Dennis Kucinich admitted to having seen a UFO. It doesn’t matter, of course, that Kucinich explained the meaning of “UFO” (Unidentified Flying Object, for those who came in late or are intensely dense), that America had previously elected a President who had seen a UFO, or that 14% of Americans claim to have seen a UFO as pointed out by the moderator. That one clip of him saying that he had seen a UFO – which was not even his complete answer as given – set off a storm of jokes. Cable news turned it into a gag reel on constant loop. Bloggers cracked jokes about Kucinich being picked up by ET, and FOX News’ John Gibson declared it final proof that Kucinich was crazy. In fact, that editorial relates nicely to what Thud has to say about the way we “investigate” phenomena like Bigfoot, because John Gibson specifically states:
If you’ve seen UFOs you probably shouldn’t go around calling other people nuts. If you admit to seeing a UFO, martians, space creatures, big foot and all the rest, you are by definition on the defensive against a charge of craziness.
The congressman doesn’t eat meat. Perhaps that is an explanation.
If not eating meat means you see UFO’s, that only accounts for a fraction of the sightings – 14% of Americans have seen UFO’s, while only 4% of Americans are vegetarians and only 0.2% of Americans consider themselves vegans.
But, of course, we live in a “what’s more likely” world. Expressing curiosity about what’s overhead automatically pegs you as a loon and an X-Files freak. Who needs honest, open discussion with an eye toward true investigation and the civilized exchange of ideas when you can make somebody the butt of a joke by having them utter one simple sentence? Enough about your domestic policy and your beliefs regarding America’s place in the world community, congressman Kucinich – can we get you to say something that we “normal” people can laugh you out of town over?
On a side note, John Gibson is such an out-of-touch dork he doesn’t even know that “bigfoot” is supposed to be typed as one word.
Edited to note: I originally credited the UFO entry and the Firefly novel to the same person, but Kit O’Connell pointed out that while he wrote the entry on Words Words Words, the novel was by fellow Words3 scribe Steven Brust. Thanks, Kit!
