HUNTING FOR ANOMALIES: How Conspiracy Theories and UFOs Affect Us
Photo of the alleged UFO spotted near a farm in McMinnville, Oregon, in 1950 / britannica.com
Do you believe in aliens, ghosts, Bigfoot, and that governments are hiding the truth from you? Does the name Charles Fort ring a bell? Regardless of your answers to these questions, it would be helpful first to understand when and why humanity developed a mysterious passion for hunting anomalies.
To help us with this, we turn to cultural historian Joshua Blu Buhs, who has been collaborating with the University of Chicago Press for many years. His new book, «Thinking About New Worlds: The Cultural History of Charles Fort and His Followers», was recently published. We have attempted to summarize the main content of this fascinating narrative.
EXPERTS LIE, AND FACTS PROVE NOTHING
I
n March of this year, a special team from the U.S. Department of Defense analyzed data on the existence of intelligent life beyond Earth. The authors of the study concluded that there is no evidence of alien civilizations. At least, the U.S. government has never been in contact with extraterrestrial life. But can such official statements dissuade the vast number of people who genuinely believe that aliens have visited and continue to visit our planet? Unlikely. Instead, they are more likely to suspect the U.S. Department of Defense of intentional deceit.
Belief in extraterrestrial aliens is indestructible. It is fueled by an ever-growing number of «eyewitness accounts» of encounters with UFOs — unidentified flying objects. The presence of these «facts» in the information space cannot be ignored, even by the military.
In their report, the Department of Defense is forced to reluctantly acknowledge that there is nothing they can do about it — a long list of TV shows, books, movies, and internet content about aliens only strengthens people’s belief in their existence. The lack of real scientific evidence does not concern them much.
ALIENS AS A FACTOR IN REAL POLITICS
When we look at UFOs as a cultural phenomenon, we find that people only sometimes know or suspect their existence. UFOs became a topic of active discussion around the 1940s. Since then, interest in them has waxed and waned, only to be revived with renewed vigor in the early 21st century.
The fertile ground for this revival was a broader cultural context in which various conspiracy theories gained tremendous popularity. Consequently, the elusive subject of aliens grew into a culturally and politically significant issue to the point that even governmental institutions could no longer ignore it.
Last year, a series of hearings took place in the U.S. Congress, during which the issue of aliens and UFOs was discussed as a genuine concern. The fact that aliens are gradually becoming more accurate to the general public than the residents of the neighboring block is greatly aided by modern mass media.
With their influence, scenarios that were once solely the domain of science fiction are turning into empirical facts. For example, the History Channel convinced viewers by compiling all alleged anomalies that scientists supposedly cannot explain into a single documentary film.
The conclusion of the film is simple: the anomalies have only one consistent explanation — aliens!
«PARANORMAL FREUD»
Such «explanations» can be dismissed as pseudoscientific, but that won’t help us understand the nature of this cultural phenomenon. To do so, we must turn to the founder of the «science» of paranormal phenomena. It is along his path, consciously or unconsciously, that all modern authors specializing in various anomalies tread.
Charles Fort (1874–1932) opposed both religion and science because they rejected the magical principle of the world’s structure. The discipline he invented, intermediate, was supposed to rehabilitate magic. Existing in the gap between fact and fantasy, this new «science» did not gain much popularity during the author’s lifetime.
If it weren’t for the involvement of his friend, writer Theodore Dreiser, Fort would likely not have become a cult figure for paranormal researchers — akin to Freud for psychoanalysts. Fort did not possess literary talents, nor could he boast the favor of publishers or significant royalties.
Aside from his wife, his long-time companions were poverty, despair, and alcoholism. Wealth only appeared in Fort’s life when his relatives began to die off one by one, leaving him a substantial inheritance.
HUNTER OF ANOMALIES
Charles Fort was, to put it mildly, an unusual person. As a child, he dreamed of killing his father, a wealthy grocer who was extremely cruel to his sons. During Prohibition, Fort brewed his beer and moonshine at home.
He invented the word «teleportation», created a new board game with 400 pieces, and played it alone because no one else understood its meaning and rules. When he came into money, Fort would go to the cinema almost daily. But his main passion was the library. However, Charles categorically disliked the principles of library cataloging. So, he spent years classifying information his way.
His collection of facts numbered tens of thousands of cards. When his wife burned the fruits of his many years of labor after an argument, he started all over again. Psychologists often interpret a passion for collecting as a mental deviation, though a relatively harmless one. In Fort’s case, this obsession led him to discover a whole class of phenomena that he believed did not fit into either the scientific or religious worldview.
Fortunately, verification and the accuracy of data did not interest Fort. As a result, Charles penned four books: «The Book of the Damned», «New Lands», «Lo!» and «Wild Talents». This quartet of books serves as an archetypal text for all hunters of anomalies.
A WORLD DEVOID OF MAGIC
Fort’s penchant for compiling serious reports on strange events by scanning newspapers, magazines, and scientific journals spawned an army of imitators — Forteans — and even a whole movement — Forteanism. Fort and his followers believed and still believe that the scientific worldview is incomplete. It is deficient because scientists exclude all inexplicable and magical elements from humanity’s past and future.
Thus, Fort’s compilations of anomalies challenged the overly confident «know-it-all» attitude of science. From each expedition to libraries and archives, Fort returned with a set of inexplicable facts — talking dogs, bloody rains, frogs falling from clouds, monsters from the ocean depths, visions in the skies…
He combined all these unrelated facts into books, where they became links in one anomalous chain. This technique was reminiscent of the «Believe It or Not» comics made famous by Fort’s contemporary artist and showman Robert LeRoy Ripley.
Even if Fort lacked literary talent, his cultural intuition was exceptional. His books became an artistic reaction to the challenges of the 19th and 20th centuries with their industrialization and secularization, which many felt had stripped the world of spirituality and magic.
GENIUS OR MADMAN?
However, Fort himself had a sense of humor as strange as the field of study to which he devoted himself. He openly disliked occultism and spiritualism. He viewed the Fortean movement, which he saw as nothing more than a marketing ploy, with suspicion. He considered himself «no more a Fortean than, say, a moose».
It is not surprising that while some, like Theodore Dreiser, saw him as an outstanding intellectual and unrecognized genius, others, like Herbert Wells, considered him a madman. One reviewer of Fort’s book said, «Of the five people who will read this book, four will go insane». How would you react to a man who claimed to have about 17 personalities?
Fort asserted that reality is mutable and unstable. Therefore, a person has the right to any theories they deem appropriate to this reality. Science is just one possible interpretation, and judging by the number of anomalies, it is sometimes only the correct one.
Fort’s popularized skepticism toward science continues to inspire millions of doubters, many of whom may never have heard his name. Forteanism is a dynamic cultural phenomenon. It has evolved over time, but its fundamental premise remains unchanged: never trust science or the statements of officials, who manipulate the real picture of the world on a wide range of issues — from ufology to vaccination.
THE FORT METHOD
However, conspiratorial thinking was not the only byproduct of the movement. Fort invented an astonishing creative principle that involves blending the «false» and the «possible». This method allows for the creation of new visions of reality, which are essential to modern culture.
Forteanism spurred the development of science fiction, avant-gardism, surrealism, and other artistic practices. The Fort method was adopted by writer and actor Tiffany Thayer, who founded the «Fortean Society» in New York in 1931. Its first president was Theodore Dreiser.
The society prepared reports on unexplained anomalies that were perceived as beyond the horizons of contemporary science. However, even without Fort, it was clear to everyone that no theory could once and for all explain everything in the world.
When many anomalies accumulate, a scientific paradigm shift occurs, and a new explanatory model emerges — this is how science progresses. Unexplained phenomena objectively exist. However, the problem lies elsewhere — authors of alternative theories use them as a «back door» to infiltrate collective consciousness and culture.
FORTEANISM: ANOTHER SECT?
Today, popular culture is hard to imagine without Forteanism. At the same time, it carries certain dangers. The writer and science popularizer Martin Gardner first sensed this in 1952. In his book «In the Name of Science», he portrayed Forteans as a typical religious sect with pseudoscientific theories as its ideological foundation.
According to Gardner, the sect has several characteristic features. A Fortean «considers himself unjustly persecuted and discriminated against». He strives to «focus his attacks on the greatest scientists and the most stable theories». He writes «in complex jargon, often using terms and phrases that he himself has invented».
All this led to a situation where, in the mid-20th century, Forteans and scientists represented two irreconcilable communities. Even then, Gardner predicted the emergence of many people whose theories would be very insane: «They will write impressive books, deliver inspiring lectures, and organize captivating cults. They may have one or two million followers. In any case, it will be good for us and society if we stay vigilant».
«ENCHANTED THINKING»
The main problem Fort created for us is «enchanted thinking», which increasingly grips the consciousness of the masses. In this type of thinking, there is no clear boundary between science and pseudoscience, between truth and lies, and between reality and fiction. Its inevitable outcome is the collapse of trust in all institutions — from science and medicine to politics and the media.
Forteanism represents a «conveyor belt» in modern culture for producing various conspiracy theories and implanting them into mass consciousness. By undermining the authority of experts and expert knowledge, they replace it with total nihilism. The place of normative communication, which involves gathering evidence and argumentation, is taken by the captivating hunt for anomalies. Essentially, scientific thinking is being replaced by a playful approach.
As a result, a century after Fort nullified the scientism of his time, we are witnessing the birth of grandiose conspiracy theories. According to Blu Buhs, these can be reduced to just two words — Fake News! Or one — Rigged! Or even a single letter — Q .
Yes, for science to move forward, it needs dissenters who ask uncomfortable questions. But this is only part of the truth. Science also requires standards of evidence, norms of objectivity, responsibility, and professionalism. However, it is precisely this condition that the bearers of Fort’s «enchanted thinking» ignore.
Original research:
When copying materials, please place an active link to www.huxley.media
Select the text and press Ctrl + Enter
