The UFO Curse

[KorMan]

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF PHILIP J. KLASS

To ufologists who publicly criticize me, ... or who even think unkind thoughts about me in private, I do hereby leave and bequeath:

THE UFO CURSE:

No matter how long you live, you will never know any more about UFOs than you know today. You will never know any more about what UFOs really are, or where they come from. You will never know any more about what the U.S. Government really knows about UFOs that you know today. As you lie on your own death-bed you will be as mystified about UFOs as you are today. And you will remember this curse.

Originally published in Saucer Smear, October 10, 1983

It's working.

 

[CapnG]

Well at least we know who to blame for the state of UFOlogy... DAMN YOU, KLASS!!!

 

[Farside]

whatever, i really never read any thing by him or about him.

 

[Aaron LeClair]

It's working.

Hardly. I know more and talked bad about Klass. For those who don't know more, he made a easy guess.

I can do it too. I place a curse on Sylvia Brown, Ed Dames and Sean Morten that they will never be a better psychic.

 

[KorMan]

It's working.

Hardly. I know more and talked bad about Klass.

Do you really? You may have amassed mountains of books and terabytes of data and the details of a million sightings, but what do you actually KNOW about UFOs in an absolute sense, which was Klass' point. In fact, UFOlogy does not KNOW one more thing about UFOs on February 8, 2007 than it knew on June 24, 1947, 21,779 days ago. And on the 100th anniversary of Arnold's sighting, UFOLOGY will STILL know no more.

Phil's point: "You will never know any more about what UFOs really are, or where they come from. You will never know any more about what the U.S. Government really knows about UFOs that you know today."

Unless they choose to reveal themselves, that knowledge will remain hidden. And the fact that the Paracast broadcasts entertain many divergent viewpoints on those issues is irrefutable evidence that nothing is KNOWN in an empirical sense.

If we KNEW what they are, there would be no arguments about extraterrestrial vehicles vs time machines vs spiritual beings vs secret military crafts.

If we KNEW where they originate, there would be no arguments about other planets vs our future vs underground civilizations vs Groom Lake.

If we KNEW what the governments of the world actually know, there would be no debates about Area 51, MJ-12, or Roswell, and no need for a Disclosure Project.

Klass stated a truism that our objective, scientifically-testable knowledge about UFOs is nil. All we have is masses of sighting reports, blurry photos, claims of CE2K and CE3K, tantalizing bits and pieces of evidence that prove nothing, etcetera. UFOs, like ghosts, remain in the realm of theories, speculations, wishes and wild-ass guesses.

Until a UFO lands on the 50-yard line of the Superbowl or in Times Square on New Year's Eve, the "U" in UFO will continue to be "unidentified".

 

[The Hawk]

"I have to give Phil credit..
I mean you gotta give the devil his due. Phil almost single handedly was probably the greatest propagandist of the past hundred years..at least the past fifty years. Because of his efforts he got two generations of media people and scientists ..all too lazy and too busy to look at the UFO data, to ignore it because Phil had explained everything. 'There are no sightings that don't have a prosaic explanation'."
-Stanton Friedman

 

[TerraX]

Ah yes, 'charming' Phil. He should have been a standup-comedian, if he would have addressed his comments with a large dose of humor he would have been a huge success.