 These aren't the "X-Files" you're looking for. Image courtesy Flickr's "threedots" and licensed as CC-by-sa.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – President Obama was elected on a campaign of openness. And on his first day in office, he said of Washington, D.C., “For a long time now, there has been too much secrecy in this city.” Most of us thought of better government Web sites, more accessible information and lengthy budgets and reports, but never in our weirdest science fiction fantasies did anyone think we would sooner get everything the government knows about extraterrestrial visits to Earth.
John Podesta, who served as former President Clinton’s Chief of Staff and then as the head of Obama’s transition team, said that, with regard to government investigations of UFOs, “[I]t's time to find out what the truth really is that's out there….because it’s right … [and] because it’s the law.”
He seems pretty serious.
If, theoretically, the government kept files secret concerning unidentified flying objects, thin legal grounds exist for exempting public access to those files under the Freedom of Information Act. Perhaps those backing the Hollywood agenda would have you believe that E.T.’s joyrides constitute a matter of national defense. But if so, that debate has to occur out in the open, which itself threatens no one's security (unless maybe the aliens are shy – good thing they are not citizens). It is not as if someone thought to include “unless it has anything to do with aliens” somewhere among the Freedom of Information provisions.
Thin legal grounds exist for exempting public access to [UFO] files under the Freedom of Information Act.It can be argued that, if such files were kept secret for a reason, it would probably have to be significantly well thought through. After all, if you were involved with something so inherently fascinating, do you think you could keep it to yourself without the unshakable assistance of a damn good reason?
If, on the other hand, there truly are no secret records to be released, how will a fascinated public ever be satisfied? This is the same public, by the way, that believes four-to-one that its government is “hiding knowledge of the existence of extraterrestrial life”, according to a 1997 CNN poll. Similarly, a Roper poll from 2002 found that 56 percent of those polled thought UFOs to be real, and 48 percent thought they had visited Earth.
Perhaps the only way to have a government for the people is to get a glimpse into some actual "X-Files." Assuming they exist, the tone around Washington is certainly that of increased transparency alongside adherence to the public’s general will. So will Obama’s administration trade in “Yes we can” for “I want to believe?”
Maybe the government instituting a real-life "X-Files" program is not such a crazy idea. It wouldn’t be the first time government took its cue from television. Remember when a presidential administration tried to set up a torture protocol inspired by Jack Bauer from “24”?
(We wish we could take credit for inventing that joke, but that counterterrorism show on Fox was actually cited more frequently than the Constitution by White House lawyers defending torture techniques.)
So perhaps the next step in life mimicking art is an airing of the actual "X-Files." At least, if that is the case, no one is going to get hurt…except maybe the die-hard conspiracy theorists.
[Huffington Post, YouTube, CNN, SciFi.com, IMDB, Newsweek, Front page image by Flickr's "threedots" and licensed as CC-by-sa]
Jeff Dubbin is a senior editor for TheSequitur.com.
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