"I have never seen a U.F.O. or an alien, as much as I'd like to."
By Meeta Agrawal Special Projects Editor, Opinion |
I'm new in these parts — I just moved to Opinion from the Culture department of The Times — and on my first day on the job, my new co-workers couldn't stop talking about aliens. And U.F.O.s. And conspiracy theories. Was I being punked? |
Not exactly. They were anticipating a government report, spurred by some suspicious looking aerial things spotted by Navy pilots, that was expected to land this month. And there had been a flurry of reporting around what it might reveal. |
Were we finally going to get definitive proof, one way or the other? Why was it that aliens seemed to be the only thing that could bring the two political parties together? Could U.F.O. news become the new Shark Week? |
As we talked about the idea of extraterrestrial life, and why people are so obsessed with it, there was one person we all wanted to hear from: Chris Carter, who created the TV series "The X-Files." |
You've probably seen an episode (I've seen them all, plus both movies) but in case it's been a while, the show focused on a pair of F.B.I. agents who investigated cases with a paranormal tinge. But underneath its monster-of-the-week makeup, the show was really about belief — why some believed in the existence of alien life, why some refused, and why some wanted to believe. |
In a guest essay, Carter shares his experiences from years of being believer-adjacent. "I have never seen a U.F.O. or an alien, as much as I'd like to," he writes. "But as a result of 'The X-Files' I've met many people who claim they have. I have seen grainy videos of gray aliens on someone's back patio. I know an award-winning movie director who told me straight-faced he'd seen a U.F.O. when he was in college. … For a decade I became a magnet for this stuff." |
This "stuff" didn't just include aliens — the show was built on the idea that the government was lying (in this case about the existence of extraterrestrial life), and the worst thing you could do was believe them. "The Truth Is Out There," "Trust No One," "Deny Everything" were signature catchphrases on "The X-Files." |
Sound familiar? As Carter writes, "That was in the '90s, when we had a relatively shared reality. The slogans are now a fact of life." |
An interim report came out on Friday and was as inconclusive as Carter suspected it would be. But in his essay Carter ponders whether, in this moment of extreme animosity, anything — even the possibility of alien life — could break through. |
Like Carter, I want to believe. |
Here's what we're focusing on today: |
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