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Lesley

Grey Matter

4.8.8

Fame and Fortune

Famous: 1) Widely Known 2) Honored for achievement 3) Excellent , First-Rate sny renowned, celebrated, noted, notorious, distinguished, eminent, illustrious.

Fortune: 1) Prosperity attained partly through luck 2) What happens to a person: good or bad 3) Fate, Destiny 4) Riches, wealth

For those of you who don't follow such things there has been an ongoing debate at UFO Mystic of whether Ufologists are rich and famous. I know, it is a silly debate. Everyone seems to agree that the majority of Ufologists are neither rich nor famous, except for a certain person calling herself (or himself) Sage.

Are Ufologists famous? Well, yes and no. They are famous within a small group of people, likely far less than 1% of the population. Then again, some guy who rolls a perfect 300 at the local bowling alley is famous among a small group of people. In fact, if we judge fame in that manner probably everyone on earth is famous within some group, maybe where they work, the local tavern where they hang out, on the golf course, an internet message board and so on. If you judge fame in that way then Ufologists are famous, but so is just about everyone else.

Sage also insisted that there are Ufologists who have small fortunes. Well, I can't necessarily argue that, but I can say that none of the Ufologists that I know seem to have small fortunes. However, I suppose there could be some who do. Are their small fortunes a direct result of Ufology, something they did before Ufology or aside from it (like Dr. Jacques Vallee) or maybe just an inheritance? I do not feel that is any of my business, nor would I care if they did make a small fortune (or even a large one) from Ufology as long as they did it in an ethical manner.

Yes, we have been down this road before. I find nothing wrong with people being paid for their work - books, lectures and so on.

I will add a new twist this time. I will go so far as to say that people who believe that Ufologists should work for free, or limit the amount of money they are allowed to make are thinking of Ufology in what seems to be religious terms. It is that kind of thought that if you are a TRUE BELIEVER then you would give up all your worldly goods and preach to the masses at the beach and pass out your books for free. Would that somehow make Ufology more acceptable? I doubt it.

I am not stupid enough to think that Ufology is not a business of sorts. I doubt there is anything on planet earth that doesn't have some sort of business aspect to it. However, to paint most Ufologists as people who are only interested in Ufology for monetary reasons is wrong. Everyone on earth (pretty much) tries to get into something they actually like doing that they can hopefully also make a living from. Most people like to have a place to live, food to eat and hopefully not have to stand in line at the welfare office. This seems to be a universally understood concept except when it comes to Ufology. Most people's integrity is not questioned simply because they make money from their chosen profession.

Back to the religious aspect, there seems lately to be many zealots within and around the Ufology community. These are the people who think Ufologists shouldn't make money and even more so than that they should not socialize or have a good time because UFOLOGY is too damn SERIOUS for that kind of behavior. Nick Redfern, Paul Kimball and Greg Bishop are just plain wicked for knocking back a few beers after a conference, let alone the fact that they are also socializing and enjoying themselves. Again, holding Ufology to a standard that nothing other than religion would be held to.

UFOLOGY IS NOT A RELIGION! It has no different set of moral codes than any other profession or hobby. NOT A RELIGION! NOT A RELIGION! Go back to reading your bible and leave Ufology alone.

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