What UFO conspiracy theories reveal about American culture
Last spring, historian Felix Harcourt taught a class at Emory on how conspiracy theories about UFOs have shaped American culture. He began the class with a question: �How many people believe alien life exists?� Most people in the class raised their hand. �I think so, too,� Harcourt said. �Stephen Hawking thinks so. In a giant universe there is a distinct probability that somewhere alien life has evolved. It probably looks pretty different from us, but it might be out there.� But what about the idea that aliens have visited Earth? And stories of human complicity in those visits � usually of government complicity? The multitude of UFO conspiracy theories are considered laughable and serious discussion of them is labeled as a cultural taboo, Harcourt said. �Even as they are treated as laughable, they�re some of the most widely believed conspiracy theories. If we go back to the sixties, Gallup polls find 96 percent of Americans had heard of UFOs, 46 percent believed that they were real. By...