{"id":1243,"date":"2008-08-14T14:36:04","date_gmt":"2008-08-14T14:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/2008\/08\/14\/exopolitics-med\/"},"modified":"2008-08-14T14:36:04","modified_gmt":"2008-08-14T14:36:04","slug":"exopolitics-med","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/omniversity.us\/exopolitics\/exopolitics-med\/","title":{"rendered":"EXOPOLITICS MEDIA NOTE: Astropolitics vs. Exopolitics"},"content":{"rendered":"

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VANCOUVER, B.C. – The world of academic political science has begun to open its shutters to the Universe.  In a spirit of spiritual materialism, Astropolitics The International Journal of Space Politics & Policy<\/a> "is interested in the serious consideration, treatment, and assessment
\nof major political and policy issues in the development and exploration
\nof outer space."<\/p>\n

Astropolitics – the olde political science of outer space<\/strong><\/p>\n

But "Astropolitics<\/a>" is not "Exopolitics<\/a>".  "Astropolitics" is set firmly within the Matrix of the permanent war economy and its third dimensionality of cause and effect – the Olde Paradigme in a word.  These are the typical subjects of Astropolitics, judging from the first issue of the Journal of Space Politics & Policy<\/a>:  Strategic Choices: Examining the United States Military Response to the Chinese Anti-Satellite Test; Challenges to the Sustainability of Space Exploration’ Viewpoint: The Next Great White Fleet: Extending the Benefits of the International System into Space’ Spacefaring Logistics Infrastructure: The Foundation of a Spacefaring America; Problems of Interplanetary and Interstellar Trade. <\/p>\n

What is missing from Astropolitics’ understanding of the Universe?  You guessed it!  Multi-dimensionality – The Universe as populated, organized, and mutidimensional, filled with evolving intelligent civilizations, operating under Universal laws and some form of governance systems.<\/p>\n

Exopolitics – The new political science of outer space<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is how Exopaedia<\/a> defines "Exopolitics<\/a>":<\/p>\n

Exopolitics<\/strong><\/p>\n

"Exopolitics is a new scientific discipline that focuses on the political aspects of interactions with extraterrestrial life. It studies the key individuals, institutions and political processes that are associated with extraterrestrial life in general, as well as, more specifically, those associated with the extraterrestrial presence here on Earth. It therefore belongs to the political sciences.
Definitions of Exopolitics:<\/p>\n

    * Michael Salla, founder of the Exopolitics Institute, gives two, complimentary, definitions:
          o Exopolitics is the study of the key individuals, institutions and political processes associated with extraterrestrial life.
          o Exopolitics is the study of the political implications of the extraterrestrial presence on Earth.
    * Alfred Webre ‘invented’ the word exopolitics and describes it as "the study of political process and governance in interstellar society."
    * Steve Basset uses the term ‘Exopolitics’ in 4 different meanings:
         1. the art or science of government as concerned with guiding or influencing governmental policy toward extraterrestrial-related phenomena and extraterrestrial beings.
         2. exopolitical actions, practices, or policies.
         3. the exopolitical opinions or sympathies of a person.
         4. the total complex of relations between the human race and non-human, intelligent beings.
    * The Wiktionary defines ‘exopolitics’ as the art or science of government as concerned with creating or influencing policy toward extraterrestrial phenomena and extraterrestrial beings.
    * Wikipedia (before censorship): Exopolitics, a speculative branch of political science, is the study of possible contact and relations between humanity and extraterrestrial civilizations. (*)<\/p>\n

(*) Incomprehensibly, as of April 2008 the wikipedia censors articles on exopolitics. The topic itself has been removed."<\/p>\n

Source: Exopaedia<\/a> http:\/\/exopaedia.org\/display.php?by=topic&val=Exopolitics<\/a><\/p>\n

Mainstream Academics Awakening to Exopolitics<\/strong><\/p>\n

In "Sovereignty and the UFO" (Political Theory Vol.XX No. X 2008), two mainstream academics, Alexander Wendt of Ohio State University and Robert Duvall of the University of Minnesota, have fortunate insight to arrive at the Exopolitical model of Universe reality. In a key sentence in their breakthrough article, they state "Our argument is that UFO ignorance is political rather than scientific. To motivate this argument, however, we first need to critique UFO \u201cskepticism\u201d as science." (p. 8)<\/em><\/p>\n

What you have just read is the further wave of the Exopolitical revolution in political science, for Wendt and Duvall have posited their truth on the essential axioms of Exopolitics – that Exopolitics is the study of relations between human and other intelligent civilizations in the Universe – and that is politics.<\/p>\n

\n
Sovereignty and the UFO (PDF) & Poli Si Fi<\/strong><\/p>\n

EXOPOLITICS.COM<\/a> is happy to bring you a twin treat – a major academic paper on Exopolitics (Sovereignty and the UFO<\/strong>), which you can download here in PDF, and Poli Sci Fi, <\/strong>a hot new academic exo-chic review of the Wendt\/Duvall paper by Scott McLemme of InsideHigherEd.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Who says Exopolitics<\/a> is not ready for academic Prime Time?  <\/p>\n

Alfred Lambremont Webre, JD, MEd
EXOPOLITICS.COM<\/a> <\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Sovereignty and the UFO<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

BY Alexander Wendt
The Ohio State University
Raymond Duvall
University of Minnesota<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

DOWNLOAD Wendt, Duvall \/ Sovereignty and the UFO (pdf)<\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/exopolitics.blogs.com\/exopolitics\/files\/sovereignty_and_the_ufo.pdf<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Download sovereignty_and_the_ufo.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

ARTICLE<\/p>\n

Poli Sci Fi<\/h1>\n

\n

\"Inside\n<\/div>\n

\n  <\/p>\n
\n    <\/p>\n
Aug. 13<\/span>
\n      <\/p>\n

Poli Sci Fi   
\n      <\/h1>\n

By Scott McLemee<\/a><\/p>\n

All the horse-race drama<\/strong> of the primary season is now but a
\nmemory. And there is plenty of time to kill before the spectacle of the
\nparty conventions. (In the fullest Guy Debord-esque sense of \u201cspectacle,\u201d<\/a>
\nno doubt about it.) So lately we have had a chance to contemplate the
\nless heavily vetted aspects of political discourse \u2013 the rattle of
\nwhatever tin can may be tied to the tail of each presidential campaign.
\nIs Barack Obama really the Antichrist<\/a>? Is John McCain really Grandpa Simpson<\/a>? Discuss.<\/p>\n

Lest anyone think this is the silly season, we turn with relief to the August issue of the journal Political Theory<\/em>, where a major article<\/a>
\nfinally addresses an issue too long ignored by candidates and scholars
\nalike. \u201cIf academics\u2019 first responsibility is to tell the truth,\u201d write
\ntwo political scientists, \u201cthen the truth is that after 60 years of
\nmodern UFOs, human beings still have no idea what they are, and are not
\neven trying to find out. That should surprise and disturb us, and case
\ndoubt on the structure of rule that requires and sustains it.\u201d<\/p>\n

How true! Hold a press conference on immigration here in Washington, DC and the reporters will come. Hold one about the other<\/em> aliens, and you\u2019re lucky if a couple of smartasses turn up to ask questions about \u201cThe X Files.\u201d<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if they read much political theory over at the National
\nPress Club. Probably not. But if Alexander Wendt (professor of
\ninternational security at Ohio State University) and Raymond Duvall
\n(chairman of the poli sci department at the University of Minnesota)
\ncan\u2019t get a serious hearing for their paper \u201cSovereignty and the UFO,\u201d
\nthen the cause is truly hopeless, and the incessant rectal probing by
\nour reptilian overlords will never end.<\/p>\n

The paper<\/strong> came to my attention via blog postings by a couple of political scientists. One<\/a> took it as an example of the kind of thing you can get away with once you have tenure. The other<\/a> grappled with the argument itself and found it wanting on its own terms. (The authors of the paper have replied here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

That argument boils down to a claim that UFO research has never
\nachieved legitimacy because the very possibility of visitation by
\nextraterrestrials poses too many problems for the implicit metaphysics
\nof the nation-state.<\/p>\n

Contemporary ideas about national sovereignty are quite thoroughly
\nanthropocentric. That was not always the case. In the age of kings who
\nruled by divine right, the ultimate sovereign authority was embedded in
\nGod Himself. And if you lived in a community where shamans communicate
\nregularly with bears or fish or the spirit of the mountain, then you
\nwould tend to think of nature itself as having, in effect, the
\nfranchise.<\/p>\n

The modern sense of the nation-state rests on the assumption that
\npolitics is a strictly human process. Sovereignty \u2013 the ultimate
\nauthority to make decisions within a territory \u2013 is embodied in human
\nagents.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, a nation-state tends to develop mechanisms for keeping
\ntrack of its own population \u2013 a series of institutions and bodies of
\nknowledge devoted to monitoring the people who live within its borders,
\ncreate its wealth, and obey its laws. (Or don\u2019t, as the case may be.)
\nThe result is a grid of power and expertise sometimes designated by the
\nrather unwieldy expression \u201cgovernmentality,\u201d coined by Michel Foucault.<\/p>\n

Sovereignty and governmentality are related though not identical
\nconcepts. But they converge on one point that Wendt and Duvall consider
\na kind of blindspot: In the modern nation-state, sovereignty and
\ngovernmentality are, by default, completely anthropocentric.<\/p>\n

Even after countless thousands of UFO reports from all over the
\nworld \u2013 often by members of the military \u2013 the nearly 200 nation-states
\n\u201chave been notably uninterested\u201d in the phenomenon. \u201cOne may speak of a
\n\u2018UFO taboo,\u2019\u201d write Wendt and Duvall, \u201ca prohibition in the
\nauthoritative public sphere on taking UFOs seriously, or \u2018thou shalt
\nnot try very hard to find out what UFOs are.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Their argument is, in important respects, the exact opposite of \u2013
\nwell, \u201cThe X Files.\u201d It is not a conspiracy theory. \u201cWe are not saying
\nthe authorities are hiding The Truth about UFOs,\u201d write W&D. Nor
\nare they even suggesting that The Truth would necessarily involve
\nextraterrestrial visitation. \u201cWe are saying that [the authorities]
\ncannot ask the question.\u201d<\/p>\n

This claim<\/strong> places their inquiry within a field of study described in this column a couple of months ago: the discipline of agnotology<\/a>.
\n(Just as epistemology considers the genesis and structure of knowledge,
\nagnotology examines the sources and inner logic of ignorance.) Wendt
\nand Duvall\u2019s endnotes neglect the agnotological literature \u2013 but they
\nhave added to it, even so.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur puzzle,\u201d they explain, \u201cis not the familiar question of
\nufology, \u2018What are UFOs?\u2019 but, \u2018Why are they dismissed by the
\nauthorities?\u2019 Why is human ignorance not only unacknowledged, but so
\nemphatically denied? In short, why a taboo?\u201d<\/p>\n

The pattern of avoidance is, the answer, \u201cakin to denial in
\npsychoanalysis: the sovereign represses the UFO out of fear about what
\nit would reveal about itself. There is therefore nothing for the
\nsovereign to do but turn its gaze away from \u2013 to ignore, and hence be
\nignorant of \u2013 the UFO, making no decision at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

One knows better than to argue with a psychoanalyst, of course.
\nDisagreement only proves that the insight was valid; otherwise, it
\nwould not generate so much anxiety. Likewise, the call for UFO research
\ntriggers the \u201cextraordinarily resilient\u201d forces of modern sovereignty
\nand its metaphysics: \u201cThose who attempt it will have difficulty funding
\nand publishing their work,\u201d write Wendt and Duvall, \u201cand their
\nreputations will suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wendt and Duvall mention a few cases where governments have, in
\nfact, conducted studies of UFO sightings. But clearly they were efforts
\nto dismiss the question. The decades-long Search for Extra-Terrestrial
\nIntelligence (SETI) project does not undermine the point that
\nanthropocentric sovereignty cannot bear contemplating any challenge.
\nIndeed, the authors write, \u201cSETI advocates have been at the forefront
\nof UFO skepticism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Theories are always most beautiful when they cannot be falsified.
\n\u201cSovereignty and the UFO\u201d is a thing of beauty. Anyone who is already a
\nlittle tired of McCain and Obama should check out Wendt and Duvall. And
\nkeep watching the skies….<\/p>\n

\n

Scott McLemee writes Intellectual Affairs<\/a> each week. He also blogs at Quick Study.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

        <\/p>\n

\n            The original story and user comments can be viewed online at http:\/\/insidehighered.com\/views\/2008\/08\/13\/mclemee<\/a>.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

  <\/p>\n

\u00a9 Copyright 2008 Inside Higher Ed<\/em><\/p>\n


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