Irish Examiner view: Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a UFO

The description of objects are being picked up by US radar which cannot be immediately identified as "unidentified flying objects" is technically correct, but culturally loaded.

The US on Friday, February 10, blacklisted six Chinese entities it said were linked to Beijing's aerospace programmes as part of its retaliation over an alleged Chinese spy balloon that traversed the country's airspace. Picture: Anna Griffin/Missourian via AP, File

Noting civilisation’s gradual slide into the abyss has been an entertaining parlour game for centuries. 

The signifiers of decline and fall have always been numerous to those searching for them — so numerous, in fact, that Sports Illustrated ran a regular feature called ‘This Week’s Sign of the Apocalypse’ for years. It was never short of material.

We have a particularly striking entry under this heading this week. 

Balloons and other airborne objects have been shot down recently after entering US and Canadian airspace, with the finger of blame being pointed at China as their point of origin; it is widely assumed that these craft are carrying out surveillance missions.

However, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre felt compelled to issue a rather extraordinary clarification last Monday: “I know there have been questions and concerns about this, but there is no — again no indication — of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns.” 

There may be a case here of the excitable putting two and two together and getting five. 

Objects are being picked up by US radar which cannot be immediately identified as balloons or other aircraft, which leads to the description "unidentified flying objects" — which is technically correct, but culturally loaded.

For a generation raised on Steven Spielberg movies and overheated conspiracy theories, this term is enough in itself to infer extraterrestrial involvement — particularly when the US military was being tightlipped about what exactly it was shooting at, presumably for operational reasons.

In this photo provided by Chad Fish, the remnants of a large balloon drift above the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of South Carolina, with a fighter jet and its contrail seen below it, February 4, 2023. Picture: Chad Fish via AP, File

There has been an undeniable coarsening of political debate in recent years, from the characterisation of the media as ‘fake news’ to the proud celebration of ignorance and the manipulation of the gullible, as seen to lethal effect during the recent pandemic. 

That was a period in which rumour and falsehood were weaponised at a time when people were understandably fearful.

However, that it was necessary for a high-ranking US government representative to officially rule out alien involvement in some recent events marks a new low — one which doesn’t augur well for the rest of 2023.