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UFO UpDates Mailing List

From: "Jerome Clark" <jkclark@frontiernet.net>
Date: Sun, 17 May 98 23:20:01 PDT
Fwd Date: Mon, 18 May 1998 10:40:13 -0400
Subject: Re: Time to retire 'Ufologist', 'Ufology'


> From: ej77@dial.pipex.com (Mike Wootten)
> To: UFO UpDates - Toronto <updates@globalserve.net>
> Subject: Re: UFO UpDate: Time to retire 'UFOlogist', 'UFOlogy'
> Date: Sun, 17 May 1998 19:03:07 GMT

> >From: SGB List 2 <SGBList2@aol.com> [Stephen Bassett]
> >Date: Sun, 17 May 1998 13:09:03 EDT
> >To: updates@globalserve.net
> >Subject: Time to retire 'UFOlogist', 'UFOlogy'

> An interesting point but have I missed something? When was it
> declared that UFOs had an extraterrestrial origin. I know most of
> the UFO community would love it to be so, but there is no proof
> that UFOs are ET vehicles.

> Witness testimony, although compelling, is not enough to prove
> such a staggering claim.

> At least UFOlogist as a term is open ended in its purest sense.
> The term "extraterrestrial phenomena research(ers)" would be
> enough in itself to lead the witness on and the 'researcher'
> wouldn't need to open his or her mouth to get the 'truth' THEY
> want to hear.

> Read your UFO history. The subject has evolved and mutated over
> the years. This mutation is not down to ETs but the belief
> systems of the ufologists themselves. The ET myth is our own
> elusion.

I would modestly ask that "UFOlogist" be retired in favor of
"ufologist." I would also insist that  "elusion" be properly
used; I think our friend above means "illusion," though "elusion"
turns out to be (as I learned via dictionary consultation) an
intriguingly suggestive noun.  (And let's drop "belief system"
from our respective vocabularies; "belief" or "beliefs" will do,
and moreover, they're far less pretentious.)

The principal virtue of "ufology" and "ufologist" is that neither
term is theory-driven, unless one is some sort of debunking
purist who insists, absurdly in my judgment, that nothing passing
through our planet's atmosphere is anomalously (as opposed to
ignorantly) uncatalogued.

Cordially,

Jerry Clark