The Unidentified by Colin Dickey is an eye-opening history of pseudoscience and fringe beliefs. Dickey traces the origins and development of beliefs in things like Nessie, lost continents, and flying saucers, and exposes the frauds, cranks, and racism underpinning the same. It’s thought-provoking and almost guaranteed to make someone like me (intrigued by the stories, doesn’t believe) equal parts fascinated and disturbed. With perhaps a bit of existential crisis on the side, because I appear to not be immune to everything after all, and how much belief is harmful, when it comes to stuff like this?
I loved the way Dickey drew connections between wider social and political changes (the Industrial Revolution, the Civil Rights era, the Cold War) and the rise of pseudoscience, and the way that he discussed believers with compassion and understanding when that was warranted. (For instance, one alien encounter comes from someone who likely had paranoid schizophrenia, he points out links between PTSD symptoms and UFO sightings, and he’s honest about how social structures like class play into everything.) Yes, it’s understandable how a working class person might find alien lore appealing, or how someone who’s constantly on high alert might see UFOs more readily. No, proposing that aliens built the pyramids or starting alien-based cults is not okay.
What I found most illuminating (and disturbing), though, is the connections Dickey draws between the distrust of government inherent in, say, the beliefs surrounding the Roswell incident and Area 51, and the current American political climate and anti-government conspiracies of a higher order. That’s not something I’d ever seen the links between, but how Dickey describes it, it makes perfect sense.
In short, there was a lot in this book I didn’t know and am glad to have learned. Dickey handles the nuance and complexities of the story very well, and I found it readable and compelling. I’ve come away from it changed and with a renewed skepticism—and with a new and unexpected five-star read to boot.
