Can the UFO issue unite the world?

[This is a core post in my project to contribute to a "sociology of UFO disclosure". The post is an example of how sociological theories and concepts can apply to the UFO issue and the implications of UFO disclosure. - J. T]

In large parts of the world, there is conflict and polarisation. In the West, more people seem to experience an existential crisis. Could working together to understand UFOs and what they mean for us help countries trust each other more and give people a greater sense of purpose?

Photo by ANIRUDH on Unsplash

Our current world order is travelling a precarious path. Many variables fuel the current global tensions and divisions. In this article, however, my claim is that the most relevant variable to address is the lack of trust within and between societies. 

I think the most pertinent reason is that many people do not feel like things make sense, as Aaron Antonovsky, a sociologist, put it. The first half of this article describes Antonovsky’s concept of a sense of coherence (SOC) and the second half outlines how SOC relates to the UFO issue.

Sense of coherence (SOC) comprises three elements: comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness. Antonovsky defined the three elements as:

… a global orientation that expresses the extent to which one has a pervasive, enduring though dynamic feeling of confidence that (1) the stimuli from one’s internal and external environments in the course of living are structured, predictable, and explicable; (2) the resources are available to one to meet the demands posed by these stimuli; and (3) these demands are challenges, worthy of investment and engagement. (Antonovsky A. Unraveling the mystery of health. How people manage stress and stay well. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1987, p. 19)

Historical congressional hearing on UFOs point to less transparency in the future

The headline is referring to the open session of the congressional hearings on unidentified aerial phenomena, or UFOs, held on May 17, 2022. Hopefully, the open hearing was the first of many to come. Otherwise, greater official transparency on the UFO issue may remain a dream.

"Open C3 Subcommittee Hearing on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena." Duration: approx. 90 min.

Introduction

The above link takes you to the “Open C3 Subcommittee Hearing on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” that took place on May 17, 2022, at 9:00 a.m. ET (credit for the video to the House Intelligence). The purpose of this article is to make some comments on selected parts from the public hearing on the UFO issue. The selected parts mainly relate to the question of more or less official transparency in the future. For a full understanding of what the congressional representatives asked, and the witnesses answered in the public hearing, you should carefully listen to the open hearing in its entirety (the link above).

For readers unfamiliar with the events of the last three to four years that have led up to the public hearing on May 17, 2022, I refer you to my previous Medium-articles (from 2018 and onward). However, the historical background goes back to at least 1947. You can understand the open hearing without the historical knowledge of the UFO phenomenon (or phenomena), but probably not understand all the implications of the witnesses' answers. One reason I bring up the crucial historical aspect of UFOs is because the Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community (IC) do not seem to think the historical aspect is crucial for further our understanding of the UFO phenomenon. I will come back to the DoD’s and IC’s perspective on the historical aspect further down.

What were the themes of the public hearing?

The witnesses referred to above were the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security (USD(I&S)), Mr Ronald Moultrie, and Deputy Director of Navy Intelligence (ONI), Mr Scott W. Bray. Mr André Carson, Counterproliferation Subcommittee, chaired the open hearing, which was a bipartisan effort by representatives from The House Intelligence Counterterrorism, and Counterintelligence.

Unknown flying objects over Swedish nuclear plants

On January 14, 2022, three nuclear facilities in Sweden had simultaneous incursions of unknown flying objects. Swedish mainstream media reports obscure if it was drones or something else.

Five days after my article about the need for the European Union to address the UFO and nuclear-weapons connection, incursions of unknown flying objects over three civilian nuclear facilities in Sweden (see map below) were major news in Swedish mainstream media (obviously, there is no connection between the incursions in question and my previous article).

In what follows, I will first summarise the story as reported by some Swedish news outlets, and then make some comments about the reported story. Here you can find coverage of the story by The Drive/The Warzone.

The European Union needs to adress the UFO issue

Night lights of Europe. Credit: NASA (CC BY 2.0).

Since December 2017, Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) have gone from ridicule to a matter of national security in the USA. In Europe, the silence in mainstream media and politics is universal. 

The magnitude of attention given to the UFO issue in the USA is remarkable compared to Europe. The difference in attention is especially stark in the political domain: no official representative of the European Union has made any comment on the UFO issue. 

So, why the absence of attention on the UFO issue in Europe, and why does it matter?

Before we can explore the questions raised above, we first have to give a crude overview of what has happened with the UFO issue in the USA since 2017. The overview only shows four major events that helped transition the status of UFOs from a fringe topic to a national security issue in the U.S. Congress.

The five nuclear-weapon nations make a joint statement: a UFO connection?

"Nuclear Explosion Made in a Blender" (CC0 1. 0).

On January 3 2022, the leaders of the five nuclear-weapons nations made a joint statement on preventing nuclear war and avoiding arms races. You can read the joint statement here:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/01/03/p5-statement-on-preventing-nuclear-war-and-avoiding-arms-races/

Do the joint statement on preventing nuclear war have anything to do with the recent political attention on the UAP issue? I am mainly referring to the political awareness in the US, and specifically to — as of December 2021, passed as law — the amendment of a UAP office within the Department of Defence by U.S Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.