McDonald’s courage in opposing the US government’s official dismissal of the UFO phenomenon as scientifically significant should act as a template for everyone who calls themselves a scientist and/or who claims to be a (sound) sceptic.
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| James E. McDonald (1920 - 1971), circa 1950. |
His dedication and courage in pursuing the truth of the stigmatised UFO subject is inspiring. At the same time, tragic, since all the opposition he met from fellow scientists and politicians took a toll on him. James Edward McDonald took his own life in 1971; whether it was suicide is still an open question, according to some researchers.
I will not compose a biography of the life of James E. McDonald and his resolution transforming the UFO phenomenon into a valid matter for science and public conversation. Because there already exists an excellent biography, The Firestorm: Dr McDonald's Fight for UFO Science (2003) by Ann Druffell.
Instead, this post is a way for me to express appreciation for a human being who followed his instincts, his inquisitiveness, and who thoroughly employed the scientific method of uncovering the truth about reality no matter how that truth may be.
In a previous blog post, you can read about two current scientists' proposal to use McDonald's paper “Science in Default” as a template for a scientific approach to study UFOs.
However, I do not want to romanticise McDonald’s search for the truth and struggle to make the UFO phenomenon a legitimate scientific topic. His intense dedication — bordering on obsession or mania (?) — had devastating consequences for himself and his loved ones.
Besides being an homage to one of the greatest UFO investigators up till the present day, this post also has the purpose of showing people with no or little previous knowledge of the UFO phenomenon that brilliant minds since at least the 1940s have taken the UFO issue seriously.
During the short time (5 years) that McDonald investigated the UFO "problem", as he called it, he interviewed hundreds of UFO witnesses, held briefings at the United Nations and the U.S. Congress, and gave presentations in scientific contexts about the importance of the UFO phenomena.
He likely accomplished more in UFO-research than many of the current “ufologists” will ever hope to do (or me, but I am not claiming to be an UFO-researcher).
In my first post about McDonald, you can explore material on his UFO-research - and I highly recommend that you do.
McDonald's most famous presentation on the inadequate investigations of UFOs made by the U.S. Air Force from the late 1940s to the late 1960s (“Project Sign”, “Project Grudge”, “Project Blue Book,” and “The Condon Report”), is titled “Science in Default”. He held the presentation at the symposium for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in December 1969. McDonald said the following at the end of page 3 in “Science in Default”:
The Condon Report and its Academy endorsement have exerted a highly negative influence on clarification of the long-standing UFO problem; so much, in fact, that it seems almost pointless to now call for new and more extensive UFO investigations. Yet the latter are precisely what are needed to bring out into full light of scientific inquiry a phenomenon that could well constitute one of the greatest scientific problems of our times.
You can listen to McDonald's presentation "Science in Default" (AAAS, 1969) on this YouTube channel (duration: 40 min.).
McDonald, and his contemporary proponents and debunkers of the UFO problem:
[P]layed a critical role in shaping, not only the current mythology of UFOs, alien contact, and secret government conspiracies in the public’s imagination, but also two sides of an ongoing conversation about what is and is not worth the application of scientific study, military resources, and the attention of everyday citizens so barraged with information (and so frequently lacking information literacy) that we already scarcely know who or what to believe, or why. (Source)
In other words, "nothing new under the Sun", or that UFO-history matters for understanding what is going on with the UFO problem today.
This was an homage to atmospheric physicist, meteorologist, and UFO-researcher/activist, James E. McDonald. But his life and death are also a warning to everyone entering the realm of the UFO issue.
Take care!