A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture
A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture
A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture
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will <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> abductee—all speak to an erasure <strong>of</strong> self. Some unknown <strong>in</strong> turn replaces that self.<br />
In <strong>the</strong> previous quotation, <strong>the</strong> human <strong>in</strong>terlocutor imag<strong>in</strong>es that unknown to be “total evil.” Most<br />
abductees respond to <strong>the</strong>ir experience as a violent attack aga<strong>in</strong>st <strong>the</strong>ir most <strong>in</strong>timate self, an alien<br />
<strong>in</strong>vasion at <strong>the</strong> level <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> psyche. Surely, <strong>the</strong> creatures that carry out such practices must be<br />
evil and <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir <strong>in</strong>vasion must render <strong>the</strong>ir victims evil as well. But <strong>the</strong> process via which<br />
abductees accept <strong>the</strong> reality <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir experience <strong>in</strong>volves an alchemical act via which fear, hatred<br />
and evil are transformed <strong>in</strong>to love and acceptance. Many come to understand <strong>the</strong>ir alien<br />
<strong>in</strong>terlocutors not as abductors, but as liberators. The fundamental transformation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> human<br />
called for by <strong>the</strong> utopian vision must by its very nature be violent. To become someth<strong>in</strong>g O<strong>the</strong>r<br />
could not be o<strong>the</strong>r than pa<strong>in</strong>ful. The actions <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> alien <strong>in</strong>terlocutors <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> abduction scenario<br />
constitute a sort <strong>of</strong> sublime wickedness <strong>in</strong> which <strong>the</strong> self is freed by its very destruction.<br />
Just as <strong>the</strong> will to truth that drives <strong>the</strong> philosophical quest to unmask or deconstruct <strong>the</strong><br />
“self” is fundamentally cruel, so to is <strong>the</strong> abduction scenario. Whereas <strong>the</strong> former strived for its<br />
goal via argument and performance, <strong>the</strong> latter does so <strong>in</strong> a dist<strong>in</strong>ctly Nietzschean fashion—via<br />
force. The response to this use <strong>of</strong> force, while <strong>in</strong>itially one <strong>of</strong> abject fear, is ultimately a lay<strong>in</strong>g<br />
down <strong>of</strong> old conceptions <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> self. This sacrifice <strong>of</strong> self <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> face <strong>of</strong> some larger power may<br />
strike some readers as rem<strong>in</strong>iscent <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> fascist impulse. But <strong>the</strong>re are important differences<br />
between <strong>the</strong> fascist impulse and lay<strong>in</strong>g down one’s “humanity” <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> face <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
overwhelm<strong>in</strong>gly strange. The fascist impulse <strong>in</strong>volves replication <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> same <strong>in</strong> terms <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
worst elements <strong>of</strong> humanity: deification <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> will to power, greed and hatred. The movement<br />
<strong>of</strong> fascism is toward “purification” and concrete worldly ends—power, lebensraum, and<br />
eradication <strong>of</strong> difference. While one might justly refer to <strong>the</strong> end results <strong>of</strong> fascist policies as<br />
“<strong>in</strong>humane,” what is duplicated through fascism is fundamentally human. In abduction (<strong>the</strong><br />
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