No, Barack Obama did not just reveal the existence of E.T.
As The Daily Beast’s (self-appointed) UFO beat reporter, I took special notice when the former president declared that “aliens are real” during an interview with podcaster and political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen. During a “lightning round” exchange, Cohen asked “Are aliens real?” to which Obama responded, “They’re real but I haven’t seen them.”
After a predictable kerfuffle—did he just announce the existence of extraterrestrials???—Obama clarified his remarks: “Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there,” he said. “But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”
Bro totally wussed out. But I believe him.
The remarks come on the heel of a cryptic allusion Lara Trump recently made, stating of her father-in-law, President Trump, that she has “just heard kind of around that… there is some speech that he has” ready to go on the topic of aliens. “I guess at the right time… he is going to break out and talk about, and it has to do with maybe some sort of extraterrestrial life,” she continued.
She’s referring to a claim made by Mark Christopher Lee, a British UFO researcher who a couple weeks ago declared that a source he knows is aware of the speech, which has reportedly been prepared for President Trump to deliver on July 8 of this year—the 80th anniversary of the Roswell UFO incident. I have no reason to believe or disbelieve Lee, but an early indication of whether or not he’s onto something will apparently occur on May 1, when Lee has promised his source will go public with the information.
We’ll see.
This UFO reporter suspects the surge of interest in all things alien relates to our current, confusing earthly situation. (I raise the point because culture is awash in the supernatural. Which I, personally, love. I’ve already pre-purchased my tickets to Spielberg’s Disclosure Day.) When the daily news sometimes appears as befuddling as quantum mechanics, it makes perfect sense to cast our eyes to the supernatural for answers.
How wonderful it would be if, as Dr. Astrid Stuckelberger falsely warned in 2022, we’d rendered a portal below the Large Hadron Collider through which all manner of interdimensional creatures have been traipsing. Wouldn’t it be lovely to blame malevolent aliens from the eighth dimension for the havoc currently bedeviling our planet? One could simply unplug the particle accelerator and return to sanity.
But I’m at least a little concerned that our turn towards the ineffable may mark a turn away from the tangible. Because the origins of our current problems seem decidedly human. Pedestrian, even. Tribalism, fears of scarcity, technological disruptions, greed. Tales as old as spacetime. This is a human-born mess and its solutions will come not from alien visitors bequeathing advanced technology and a healthy dose of galactic wisdom. Instead, I’m afraid it’s the responsibility of us boring old meat sacks to escape the mess we’ve made on our own. For which, I have to say, I’m glad.
One need not appeal to gods and monsters for salvation. Earthier solutions remain at hand. Marching, voting, speaking, persuading. Laying out the cases for true representative democracy, diplomacy, the application of soft power, ameliorating the effects of climate change, expanding freedoms for all people, welcoming refugees, etc. etc. etc.
Engaging with the world as we find it remains our mandate as its stewards. As the late Jesse Jackson said, “The challenge of this new world, so connected by technology, is yours to bear and yours to share.” Exactly right.
If we turn our backs on it, or appeal to the heavens for deliverance, we cede the planet to techno-fascists like Peter Thiel, whose own deep dives into the occult have produced a bizarre fascination with both aliens and the antichrist. To Elon Musk, with his race obsession and desire to colonize the solar system. To Jeffrey Epstein, who was, apparently, building some sort of eugenics lab on his New Mexico ranch. To many more. All of them picking our pockets when we turn our eyes to the stars.
Whatever the population of our galactic neighborhood, the mess in our front yard is ours alone to clean. Even if Trump addresses the nation from the Oval Office on July 8th with that startling four-word phrase humanity has been waiting its entire existence to hear—“we are not alone”—the words may arrive too late. The Towers of Babel we’re constructing day by day in our social media and information silos have left us increasingly unable to communicate with each other, let alone our friends from Zeta Reticuli.
An alien visitation may not be arriving anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean we measly humans can’t live long and prosper. The beautiful thing about our fascination with the night sky and all it may contain is that the questions we ask of the stars are really questions about ourselves. Who are we? Where do we belong? What is our purpose? Nobody’s coming to fix us, save us, or answer those questions for us. Not space people or space gods. For the moment, it’s just us. Let’s act like it.
