Structuralism argues that
there must be a structure in every text, and in any narrative. From the
structuralist perspective it is possible to interpret any narrative because
everything that is written seems to be governed by specific rules, or a "grammar
of narrative”.
The whole Ufology is in
fact a narrative with clear structural elements.
In the fifties, while the
world was fighting the so called cold war, UFOs like those visualized by
Kenneth Arnold, the man who claimed to have seen nine unusual objects flying in
a chain near Mount Rainier, Washington on June 24, 1947 brought the basic
element to the story.
Were defined in the
context of the constant threat of a nuclear conflagration, consequently, a
modern mythology was built through the
paradigm of good aliens coming to our Earth with the purpose of stopping the
nuclear threat.
Since there was no
evidence of such development, good aliens become the enemies of the establishment,
so we have now the following narrative structure: the bad government-scientific statu quo against the good extraterrestrials trough denial of ETs existence.
The obvious consequence of
this confrontation brought a new structural element to the ufological
narrative: the conspiracy theory.
This conspiracy theory had
several functions. Kept the story alive and justified the lack of evidence
about the ET presence with the hypothesis of the cover-up.
Since the narrative
structure required some kind of contact between humans and ETs, the contactee
element was added to the previously described structural elements.
So we arrive to the
following model: Good aliens-bad government-cover-up conspiracy-individual contactees.
Of course, the narrative
demanded characters, and men in black were brought to the scenario.
In the contactees
narrative, there was no evidences of a real contact between humans and an advanced
extraterrestrial civilization, consequently the ET=UFO narrative included
personal mythologies and also bad aliens presumably conspiring with the
authorities against the people. The Betty and Barney Hill abduction on September
19, 1961 gave us a new structural element to the ufological narrative: the ET
abductions.
On the positive side we
have Good
Aliens-contactees-self proclaimed experts-researchers and the disclosure
groups.
On the negative, opposite
side we find Bad Aliens-authorities-conspirative science-abductions-men in black.
We must remember also that
books,
lectures, videos and pseudo-science created a market for the ufological narrative
in
other words the industry of Aliens-UFO-Conspiracy.
From a rational
perspective we must be aware that the absolute lack the evidences to prove the
existence and presence of these extraterrestrials, makes all this ufological
narrative a fiction that is the worst enemy of any serious, scientific research.