Look, up in the sky!

I don't know what to think about those UFO sightings.

I don't either but I think folks tend to stretch credibility when they discuss UFOs.  Any talk of aliens is nonsense, in my opinion, but it would be cool if it was aliens as it would give us human beings a chance to get our shit together and rethink our priorities.  An entity that can travel light-years across space should not be taken lightly, but I think that human beings and the planet Earth would be of minor consequence to such travelers.

The key word in UFO, I think, is unidentified, meaning that there is something flying around that we don't recognize.  We know a lot about aerodynamics and power sources but we don't know everything and there is more than an even chance that some fringe scientist, somewhere, has cracked some of the mysteries of gravity and magnetism and has created something new.  I think the government confiscated the papers of Nikola Tesla upon his death and maybe someone has finally made some sense of them and is out on some joyrides to rattle the yokels.

But why not make it public?  Easy answer: it would be too disruptive to the economy and society.  You can't tax free energy and the Buck Rogers style of personal transportation would make international borders pointless.  This is all science fiction nonsense, of course, but I sometimes wonder if some of the early authors like Verne, Wells, Orwell, and Huxley weren't on to something.

-----

Governments thrive on panic.

I'm sorry but I don't buy that, Mr. Beagles.  Panic is the last thing a government wants because they will then lose control; panic situations can lead to mob behavior, general strikes, and who knows what else.  A stable society requires a balance between the government and the consent of the governed; I think that's the way it's supposed to be.

A more effective strategy for government is FUD, fear, uncertainty, and doubt.  Political statements these days seem to focus on the negative which keeps the citizenry in a constant state of insecurity.  I'm probably wrong in my assessment but it's almost impossible to find the grains of truth hidden in all of the rhetoric, the fake news media notwithstanding.

And now it looks like the trade wars are escalating, with tariffs being imposed on our allies.  I don't see how this will work to our advantage; maybe it's part of Trump's secret plan to get more trademarks for Ivanka.