The Bizarre Case of Bob Lazar.

The above YouTubes are videos of a couple of Bob Lazar interviews. Bob Lazar is the man who claims to have worked as a reverse engineer on an alien flying saucer at Area 51/S4. Two scientific skeptics, David L Morgan and Stanton Friedman, have debunked both Lazar’s grasp of science and his claimed CV (See here on Lazar’s Wiki page). For me another indictment against Lazar is Lazar’s treatment of American Anti-gravity aficionado Tim Ventura .

Be that as it may, I think most people would nevertheless agree that superficially at least Lazar is a good story teller. In the interview he appears to be relaxed and fluent. It looks to me as if Lazar has his story well-rehearsed; he gives the impression of not being fazed by any of the questions and is well prepared for them. If it is a hoax he must have spent hours running over it in his fertile imagination - in fact, built up his own mental virtual world that lies in wait for likely questions. As he answers the interviewers questions he doesn't falter and knows what he is going to say; his story includes interesting touches of observed detail that give it the authenticity of plausibility, as is the wont of all good fiction writers.  However, when it came to some of the technical details it has the touch and feel of a scifi cut-away diagram; a little bit of general annotating scientific patter here and there but no nuts and bolts. Lazar also has the skill of not over embroidering his story; he adroitly uses the device of a limited security clearance to avoid the danger of having to concoct potentially implausible scenarios about things we would love to know, such as how the area 51 people came by this alien vehicle. 

But as in the case of David Ike the Bob Lazar story reveals something about our society and it holds a moral. In fact towards the end of the first video Lazar himself eloquently draws out the lesson: Secrecy, over-security and closed authoritarian politics can stifle scientific research. Science flourishes best when both the debates and the files are open and available to a large community of scientists. An environment of shared information, especially information pertinent to our weltanschauung, gives less of a foothold for the suspicions, antagonisms, and the fanciful imaginings of the disaffected and alienated. Schismogenesis is caused by a regenerative circuit between two sides and is, to my mind, yet again implicated in an example of societal polarisation.  Lazar himself  helps that polarisation along when he says that government is not interested in protecting its citizens but is out for itself. Growing mutual distrust between the governors and the governed is the very reason why a story like Lazar's can take a hold in Western society. This is the chief lesson the bizarre Lazar affair teaches us.

 A diagram of the real deal according to Lazar…. 

 (Diagram from: http://tommytoy.typepad.com/tommy-toy-pbt-consultin/2012/01/bob-lazar-stated-that-the-sport-model-flying-disc-amplified-the-strong-nuclear-force-of-element-115-ununpentium.html) 

 A cutaway of a scifi flying saucer al la George Adamski …. 

 …I’m damned if I can tell the difference!

End Note:
For a studied opinion on Bob Lazar's story have a look at this web page .