Credibility in Ufology: Why it matters

No offense to Steven Bassett, but credibility IS an issue in the disclosure process. Infact, (lack of)credibility is what has doomed Ufology, as far as disclosure goes. It's one thing to have credible researchers, asking the big questions. But it's an entirely different ball game when some questionable characters are added to the mix.

Ufology does not garner the respect it deserves. Not until E.B.E.'s hover over a major city and threaten to annihilate a couple million people...not until then will the government turn to its only line of defense: The people who study the phenomena day in and day out.

Ufologists are a rare breed. Intelligent individuals seeking the truth no matter how uncanny. Some of us are very well educated and some are self-taught but highly motivated. We're a mixed bag of characters. Nothing wrong with that.

Look at the Scientific community. Feynman was a showman. But he was a brilliant physicist. And therein lies the dilemma. How to be a credible Ufologist and still be charismatic enough to draw in the numbers; to get the world at large to sit down and pay attention.

What you don't do is let the loons speak for the majority. I'm not speaking about anyone, specifically. But I am pointing out a 'type'. A certain kind of person that has plagued Ufology since its inception. The kind of person who craves attention. The kind of person who wants everyone to embrace their explanations, no questions asked.

Most of the time, their credibility is questionable. They are the very same individuals who make the layperson cringe. They are the reason you can't go one day without someone asking, "So, you still studying UFO's?" And snickering as you try to find a qualitative answer that will remind them that the universe is greater than the mind can fathom, and nothing is left to chance or human perception.

But that doesn't make it any easier to explain why you choose to fight the good fight. It makes it harder. It makes it harder because credibility is everything when you want nothing more than for the world-at-large to respect your work.

Those of us who want answers...we don't wake up in the morning thinking about how many hits our blogs can get, or how many podcasts we can circulate between before our idea of ZOLOFTA THE HORNED REPTILIAN OF ALPHA ZUMEDIA gets mass attention, as our faux entities send us telepathic messages of peace, love, unity and stupidity. Those of us who want answers, wake up...pat ourselves on the back for even making it on so little sleep, before sitting down to write yet another appeal to the masses, to listen and not judge. To understand with an open mind. To appreciate that we aren't doing this for our health, the wealth or some psuedo-celebrity.

We're doing this for the greater good. And we fight hard to give credible answers, credible explanations and credible information. Credibility. It doesn't come in a Happy Meal, no matter what your Alien liaison from Andromeda tells you.