12 days ago, in an effort to incentivize Gen Zers to vote on the upcoming (and rather critical) US midterm elections, former president Barack Obama appeared in the following non-partisan political ad:
As always, Barack was witty and charismatic. He even made a quick joke regarding “that huge report about UAPs” (not aliens, as he corrected himself, ha ha) as an example of what happens when voters use the tools of Democracy to let their voices heard and hold their elected leaders accountable.
But as always, Barack was being more than a little disingenuous when delivering his point across, particularly when it comes to unidentified aerial phenomena. You don’t have to be an expert in the field of Ufology —and by the way, isn’t it time the guys who prefer ‘the other’ acronym to come up with an alternative name for their field of study? — to know that, unlike issues like climate change or student debt relief, UFOs have NEVER been officially part of any public election or have even been included into a ballot in some form as part of a local decision or policy.
Look for example at a political ad paid for by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-NY) campaign when she was trying to win the presidential nomination of her party. Senator Gillibrand has become one of American UFOlogy’s new rising heroes due to her efforts to include sections directly related to UAPs in the latest American defense bills, along with Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Congressman Ruben Gallego (D-AZ). And yet in this ad Gillibrand talks a lot about bravery and truth, but never mentions the issue of unidentified objects making flyovers over American military vessels, including the ones which brought notoriety to the formerly classified AAWSAP/AATIP programs which have become the matter of much heated debate and controversy over the last five years —my, time sure does fly when you’re waiting for Disclosure, doesn’t it?
As we have explored in previous articles, it was not too long ago that when a political candidate was asked something about UFOs, it was either to discredit them or to give them a chance to make an easy joke that would lighten up the mood. The New York Times article on December 2017 changed all that —even though more recently the Gray Lady seems to be on a fast-track to discredit much of what they had originally endorsed with that historical article, citing anonymous sources said to have read the last UAP report demanded by Congress, which allegedly claims most sightings can be attributed to foreign (man-made) technology or floating junk… like Batman balloons.
In fact, the only presidential candidate outside of Hillary Clinton who historians would know to have ever bothered to take the UFO question seriously was President Jimmy Carter, and as we explained on another previous article, when he tried to make good on his promise to the American people to exert more transparency on the subject and re-start another official investigation program, he was denied any cooperation by NASA and the Air Force.
And yet there is another candidate whose name will hardly be found in any history books about modern American politics but managed, nevertheless, to carve a name for himself in the annals of UFO history: Gabriel Green, who ran for United States President —twice! — at the behest of the ‘space brothers’ and the Amalgamated Flying Saucer Clubs of America (AFSCA) of which he was the founder and president.
Gabriel Green (1924-2001) was a native of California and a professional photographer, who once claimed to have had over seventy UFO sightings under his belt —incidentally, Green never seemed to have attempted to take a single picture of the flying saucers his otherworldly friends drove to visit our planet, but the upside is that there’s no hoaxed photos tarnishing his record. He was the editor of a newsletter named Thy Kingdom Come, and as the name suggests Green’s philosophical ideology was a mish-mash of spirituality and Christian morals all wrapped up with a space-age veneer to better fit the times of post-war America. A nice little taste of this mindset that was so predominant in the Contactee movement can be given with the song When You See Those Flying Saucers by the Buchanan Brothers —Seriously, if you’ve never heard this song can you even call yourself a student of Ufology?
One of the most interesting aspects of Green’s philosophy —although not necessarily the easiest one to grasp— is the concept of ‘prior choice economics’, a theory developed by one Addison Brown (a.k.a. John Believer) who is said to be inspired by the “universal principles of Nature” which the people in other planets were said to follow in order to maintain themselves in harmony with the Cosmos and the Creator. Applying those principles not only allowed the space brothers to travel effortlessly from planet to travel using ‘free energy’ and non-destructive principles (Steven Greer anyone?) but when applied to economics it allowed for a fair distribution of industry-generated wealth which would cover the needs of all citizens without raising any taxes or engaging in debt, installing on Earth the closest thing to the Kingdom of Heaven in material form; all this, mind you, without resorting to the ‘godless’ ways of Communism which were counter to the universal peace message the spacemen were eager to teach us!
…Sure Gabe, whatever you say.
Another of Green’s personal beliefs, in strong alignment with protestant morals, is that “God only helps those who help themselves.” Yes, the space brothers were eager and willing to come to the aid of humankind, but not as saviors or leaders but simply as guides after we had made the earnest decision to change our negative ways and stop following the path to self-destruction. It was probably because of this that Green —at the behest of the space brothers of course— decided to join the presidential race of 1960 as an independent. Below is a paid newspaper ad that was part of his campaign, and even though Green is promoted as “the Space Age president” and there is a nice Adamski-type flying saucer on the top banner of the ad, the only reference to flying saucers one can find in this ad full of too-good-to-be-true promises — “Inspired leadership!” “Every man a Richman tomorrow!” “A passport to paradise!” “The true stairway to the stars!” — comes from AFSCA’s sponsorship. More subtly, there is also a promise for the public to be “told the truth rather than kept on planned ignorance of the most vital information of all history” (I wonder what could THAT be).
Alas, the dream of “free energy” which could bring about Utopia within our lifetimes was not enough to woo the voters —not to mention that whatever little press coverage Green managed to get in mainstream media was solely focused on his flying saucer beliefs. According to the excellent podcast episode dedicated to Green on The Saucer Life independent or “other” votes only amounted to 0.02% of the total count in the 1960 election in which Kennedy beat Nixon. Yet that didn’t seem to have discouraged Green, who ended up running for president a second time in 1972 with Daniel Fry (another famous Contactee of the saucer golden age) as his vice-president. Ironically he ended up having more votes in Iowa than in his home state of California, where they only got 21 votes.
Green’s fleeting political career fared better when he attempted to win the Democratic nomination for California seat in the Senate in 1962, though. He got much better publicity which barely touched on the topic of flying saucers, and he ended up receiving 171,379 votes which, even though they amounted to only 8% of the total, is still an impressive number for an outsider operating outside of the party structure with possibly less-to-none economic support to finance his campaign.
Gabriel Green died in Sept. 8th, 2001, just when the world wide web was beginning to change all aspects of society, including the way we choose and elect our political leaders. One can’t help but wonder: what would have happened to Green’s aspirations if social media tools like YouTube, Twitter or podcasting would have been available to him? In an age in which presidents are allowed to say the most egregious things —like how we should nuke hurricanes or inject bleach into our bloodstream — you can NO longer say in this day and age there are ideas that are too wacky for the political arena.
Sure, Rogan’s public endorsement didn’t secure Bernie the Democratic ticket, but if there is something that the rise of Q-Anon should have taught us, is that conspiracy thinking has a way to infect the corridors of power if you give them enough time and a big enough platform. Green’s biggest mistake might have been that he was too ambitious; if he had planned his career more methodically and started with, say, Congress instead of the Presidency of the Senate, then who knows? There’s a chance his biography wouldn’t have ended only in books like “A is for Adamski” alongside other forgotten characters of the Contactee movement.
Whatever you may believe or disbelieve about UFOs, one inescapable truth of history is that absurd ideas can change the world, despite their basis on reality. In the XXth century the son of a wealthy land-owner named Francisco Madero launched the Mexican Revolution because he believed in spirit communication and mediumship. 10 years later on the other side of the globe, another charismatic leader changed the fate of the world when he swayed the German people with irrational ideas regarding the superiority of the Aryan race. Here I am finishing this article without any certainty on whether Gabriel Green’s story should be seen as an inspirational or a cautionary tale —there’s a certain inexhaustible optimism in him that I find somewhat endearing, and I would almost always prefer grassroot movements attempting to change the status quo from the ground up instead of “benevolent oligarchs” wishing to shape society to their whims like some fancy toy they can play with.
Because that is the way the UFO phenomenon operates.
There are certain new actors in the modern saucer scene who have made their political aspirations known through social media (the last name of one of them rhymes with “condo”). Will their small notoriety outside of UFO subgroups be enough to land them a job in Washington D.C., especially now that mainstream interest in the subject is waning? Time will tell, but in the meantime here is a piece of advice for our American readers:
Vote… and Amalgamate!
