Joseph Capp's Certainty Principle

"The UFO enigma should bring our community together . . ." says Joseph Capp of UFO Media Matters in The Certainty Principle. Sadly, instead, the UFO community is more about in-fighting, attacks, sneering, etc. -- well, we all know the drill. Capp calls this phenomena -- all this ugly at times nasty lying, insulting, fighting, pompous buffoonery and so on that divides, not unites, "The Certainty Principle":

The Great Separator is a belief system of rigid ideals practiced by “certain people” that seems to have no logical use in the real world -- except to keep the community ridiculously divided. I call this great separator “The Certainty Principle”.

You can read more here at Capp's UFO Media Matters blog.

We all have our opinions -- certainly I have mine about things like disclosure, the Trickster element, etc. but that doesn't mean I'm right. It means it's what I think, at least for now, and it makes sense to me, for now. I like my little theories, but I also know they can change, they could be wrong, (or here's something: not so much wrong, as, incomplete. . .) so much of our ideas about things are framed by our experiences, beliefs and cultural contexts. That's so obvious it should be a given but we lose sight of that a lot.

There's nothing wrong with speculating, or having ideas that aren't in alignment with someone else's --- what's "wrong" is believing you're RIGHT and therefore, superior, and everyone else is a (insert slur here___________)

MUFON's Reaction to Ian Brockwell's UFO Article

Ian Brockwell recently wrote this piece for American Chronicle, UFO Photographed in Thunderstorm Reveals Alien Life!, about entities inside a UFO that was photographed during a thunderstorm.

On UFO Digest, Brockwell writes about MUFON's response to the above article MUFON's Reaction To My UFO Article

All very interesting. I like what Brockwell says about MUFON in the article:

It is somewhat disappointing that the MUFON site states:

"..one reason people join MUFON is because they want to be trained and have the opportunity to investigate cases. They want the hands-on, personal experience of interviewing witnesses, collecting information and analysing it themselves, instead of just reading about what others have done." Elaine Douglass, Co-State Director, Utah MUFON.

And when a member does just that, he is told that he "does not represent MUFON as a whole" and Carrion says "We have a standard process for investigation that is outlined in our field investigator manual, a certification process for field investigators and a mentoring program to hone their investigative skills. We have a body of consultants that assist in research. People join MUFON because they want to be part of this process."

You are wrong James, people join MUFON (and organizations like yours) in the hope that this will improve their chances of obtaining the truth, not to be told that they can´t try new methods (valid or not) just because you don´t personally approve.

MUFON also attacks American Chronicle, stating that American Chroncile ""has no standards for who writes for them." As Brockwell points out, American Chronicle publishes UFO stories. We need all the UFO info we can get. Mainstream media isn't doing it for us.

The point seems to be that MUFON attacks Brockwell for not being upfront, though Brockwell says he is, and from what I can see, he is. Agreeing with him or not, that's another issue. But as long as one is honest, that's all we can expect in this field.

Why MUFON seems to have a big buzzing bee in their bonnet lately is something I don't understand.

It's always good to do self checking and see what needs improvement; this is obvious and true in any field, including UFOs. But no one gets to tell anyone else what to do or say in UFOlogy, no matter how hard some might try bully others.

Instead of fighting each other, we should really acknowledge the diverse work being done by often equally diverse individuals.