hi, i'm doing a research paper for my english class, and i need a little info on what kinda societal impact Extraterrestrial life/ UFO's have on humans. i don't know if there is much, but anything will help. i need the info ASAP! please, if u could help me, that'll help me a bunch.

Well, if you're doing a paper for an English Lit class, you may want to look into interpretations of the Wheels of Fire from the Biblical book of Ezekiel. Or possibly how reports of the 1947 Roswell case have appeared in modern literature -- books based on TV series like Roswell, The X-Files, Doctor Who, etc.
If it's for an English class, you may well want to re-think your topic, though, and look for something more explicitly literary.

--Jaylemurph

well, it's too late, now. i have everything ready, except one little paragraph about societal impact. so, anyone?

I hope this will help you out.

man, thanks so much. it's funny that u gave me info on the War of the Worlds broadcast, because that was the first thing i looked up when researching societal impact. thanks, again skyeagle.

I was thinking that extermination\collapse might be a likely societal impact out of an encounter with aliens.

After all, that was our societal impact on the native americans when we encountered them.

^true, i didn't really think of the aliens as a malevolent force, strangely enough (i would think from all the alien invasion movies, the majority of peolple would think of extraterrestrial life as evil). i guess i should add that to my list of possibilities.

I don't know why we have to worry. Afterall, according to some reports thats on the internet contact has already been made and they are amoung us . The only ones that will worry are the bible thumpers and believeing them to be devils. Can't please everyone you know.

You're welcome!

I wondered what the public reaction would have been had Major Donald Keyhoe been allowed to finish his UFO statement as Air Force officers watched from the sidelines on the CBS Circle Star Threater on January 22, 1958 before the CBS censors finally cut him off. As one CBS official later noted; "it was done in the interest of national security."

I think as you do. They are among us and watching us all the time. I don't feel threatened.

the social effects and impact that ET's, whether they exist as 'visitors" or not, can be very easily seen in the obliquely religious cults, the growing number of people claiming to be "walk-ins", or in psychic contact with aliens, or 'channeling" the words of alien entities, not to mention the almost unfathomable number of abductees as well as some of the more bizzare and conflicting "facts" regarding vast fleets of invisible space craft orbiting the earth, the details of not only "who" they are but where they come from. Even seriously made claims of infiltration and control of the worlds governments by reptilian aliens.
The societal impact has touched almost every area of modern culture. The image of the stereotypical bug eyed ET is as common a merchandising logo as mickey mouse. Just the fact that by putting together the letters E & T, that it's so readily recognizable as to it's meaning, shows how well ingrained into modern culture the idea of alien "visitors" really is.

The UFO enigma actually dates back for centuries. In some cases, UFO reports of centuries ago, are identical to what commercial and military pilots are reporting today.

Not just Bible thumpers. Many people in the sciences seem to feel threatened by the idea as well, since it could imply overturning much of what they think they know.

I agree, and it is plausible to believe that many scientist would do some serious rethinking on their part. That reminds me of a group of Cardinals who refused to look in Galileo's telescope.

Me ? i tried to tell other people about ufo's just to know their reactions.
No impact ! they look at you with a smiley face.
They are too busy minding their own business.
They only know everything was made in China. (even ufo)

bible thumpers..scientists..and politicians all want to deny the truth to simplify things....

What I find amazing is, that despite what has happened over the decades as far as UFOs are concerned, there are still scientist who think that there is nothing to investigate despite the fact that aircraft were scrambled to intercept the UFOs and visual contact made by the aircrews in many cases, of metallic saucer-shaped, cigar-shaped, triangular-shaped flying objects and other shapes, which were also tracked on the screens of airborne and ground-based radars.

The characteristics of their performance, as recorded via a number of electronic and optical means, exclude conventional aircraft. UFOs have interfered with our nuclear assets and continue to present a safety-of-flight hazard to military and commercial air traffic around the globe and still, they say there is nothing to investigate.

In the world-view of many science types, if the data doesn't come from the scientific method, then it doesn't exist. Of course the problem there is the scientific method assumes that the experimenter either has control over the subject, or the subject will reoccur at a predictable time & place. Worse, instead of trying to explain these things, many scientists work instead to explain them away. Venus, Swamp Gas, Car headlights, sleep paralysis, temporal lobe epilepsy, drugs, hallucinations, fantasy-proneness, etc. Then they'll believe that because UFOs might be explained by one or more of the above, there's nothing to investigate. Problem is, those psycological & neurological explanations could theoritically mimic virtually any kind of human experience. IE If someone was hallucinating that burglers were breaking into his house, does that mean burglers don't exist? Of course not.