Jeffrey Shaffer: If any historian in the future asks me to suggest a name for the latter half of the 20th century, my choice will be the Era of Anxiety. Along with millions of other Americans, I've grown up hearing constant warnings about dangerous threats to our national security. During my lifetime, many have claimed that mysterious forces are at work all around us, but that the truth about them is being suppressed by the authorities. There's no mystery in pinpointing when this anxiety crept into our collective subconscious. The impact of two events some 60 years ago still resonate today. In 1948, the Soviet Union began to seal off access to West Berlin from the Allied zones. By June 24, all land, rail, and river traffic had been stopped. President Truman quickly ordered an emergency operation to deliver supplies by plane. Planners thought the effort might continue for several weeks, but the Berlin Airlift didn't end until well into 1949. It was blatant intimidation by Stalin, and all notions of postwar harmony between the two powers evaporated. The Soviets were probing for weak spots, and the West had to be on guard. As cold-war tension mounted, it would produce a range of controversial measures such as loyalty oaths, blacklisting, and covert spy operations. Also, something happened on June 24 the year before that changed the way Americans feel about life on this planet and others. A man named Kenneth Arnold was piloting his small plane near Washington's Mt. Rainier and saw what appeared to be a formation of objects. He likened them to saucers skipping across water. Media began using the term "flying saucers." The concept of aliens and spaceships was standard fare in comic books and science-fiction magazines, and strange objects in the sky had been reported for centuries. But Mr. Arnold's close encounter broke down all barriers and embedded the idea in mainstream culture.
View: Full Article | Source: Christian Science Monitor
Bantam put out a boxed set of history/philosophy books called The Age of Faith, The Age of Reason, etc., and for the 20th Century, The Age of Anxiety, even though it was only half century. But I never encountered that Anxiety until I was in grad school, and they announced on the public address system that JFK was thinking about invading Cuba. Well, this is it, I thought. The last day. Fortunately, some back channel negotiation prevented that disaster. What we did not know at the time was that the Cubans had tactical nuclear weapons and would certainly have used them on an invasion fleet. All hell would break loose. Clearly, that was the closest we ever came to WW 3. Otherwise, we cared nothing about politics.
I had a different connection to UFOs. I saw one, in daylight, at close range, silently and slowly gliding over the landscape, no more than 200 feet overhead. So, I knew the textbooks were wrong about that one. Nor did I pay any attention to government pronouncement. It was clear that they were lying and covering up, which is pretty much what I expected from government, then and now.