Jason Colavito has a short post on the relationship of these three areas of study that’s a good interest-piquing piece if such connections are new to you. I can recommend it since it links ancient astronaut myths to utopian thinking on both sides of the political spectrum.
Last January one of my lectures at Future Congress was about alien mythology and utopianism. In simplest terms, the alien myth is a useful substitute for both religious and political rationalizations of fascism. Fascism, correctly understood, is about coercion, control over people’s lives. That wish is in no way isolated to the political right. The political left is in love with it as well, and it isn’t hard to demonstrate that, especially in academic source material.
Mike, this is tangentially related to your post since it mentions left wing politics. A friend of mine and I have been looking a long time for the “mothership” of the liberal civil religion. I came across the work of Chris White who pegs the origin in Theosophy, which makes good sense. However to pin down the leading minds that are driving the political movement in America towards the left and developing the “liberal civil religion” both secularly and through various New Age-esque beliefs (UFOs included) is exceedingly difficult. The dangers from the extreme right are much easier to identify. The left seems much more complex and convoluted and wears a mask of tolerance, good will and beneficence.
I believe that America was set up specifically by our wise Founding Fathers to be anti-utopian, since nobody’s idea of Utopia ever agrees with anyone else’s. If your Utopia conflicts with mine, than one of us has to go. History bears that out. Therefore, our FFs established a nation iof independent states where people with differing views on life could still cooperate on a national level.
Academia is a favorite dwelling place of intolerant liberalism (i.e. zero tolerance policies in schools). You have mentioned academic sources. What are your thoughts on this movement and would you be willing to Take Names and Kick A** as someone who has been on the inside of academia? Steven Greer certainly stands out as a megalomaniac and charlatan, but he doesn’t really seem to be in a position to drive a global or national movement. He would be more of a lackey, or perhaps a wannabe.
agreed, but I think you hit on the real origin of left wing politics: the myth of utopia which, in biblical parlance, is the desire to “be as gods” when it comes to absolute autonomy of the ruling elite and ruling over others. Sure, there are right-wing utopians, but myths of a master race and perfect society are the centerpieces of the left. The right tends to be guided by other trajectories. Theosophy of course is part of this – the claim of the elite to have discovered secret knowledge, making them superior due to their enlightened minds – giving them in turn the authority to rule everyone else, propelled by the notion that they alone know how to construct the perfect society (utopia).
I wouldn’t connect this with utopia. Utopia doesn’t have to be connected with any religion, or fascism, it doesn’t have to have any of these characteristics. Utopia is simply an unrealistic plan. Say, I am going change my life tomorrow by walking to the Jupiter and back, in one day. This is utopia. But, it had nothing to do with society at all. Conversely, I may declare that I will remove 99.9999% of world population in next month and actually achieve that, – so while insanely murderous and not fair, this would not be an utopia. What both left and right is trying to do is to find a justification to the right to enforce their own principles on others. Such can not be found internally, because we can not prove that we are not equal. Therefore the search for such justification is always directed to the outside, – either examining kingships or gods or extraterrestials. Once established (even falsely), the argument can be then made “I’ve been told by your creator what is good for you, thus you must not resist”. So, there is a connection from any aggression based social order to the external authority search. But, not backwards! Just because I am asking a question whether or not the Aliens may have already visited us, or if we in fact a product of their creation, doesn’t mean that I am looking for a justification of violence.
This is great. I came across something this when I was reading up on the Ashkenazi Hypothesis, and it was just too thick to bother with. Is this somehow connected to Futurism / Hyper Preterism?