The price of defending a minority view

Should there be a penalty for being wrong — and should it be the biggest penalty of all?

Today I happened to inflict upon myself a few minutes of scrolling through the UFO posts on Xitter. As has always been the case, a small but vocal (very vocal) minority of people are insistent — passionately, ravenously so — that UFOs are alien spacecraft, often even including those that have proven mundane explanations. The inevitable result? Mockery by those who don’t share that view.

I can claim no superior ground here, as I’ve done the same thing myself. Too many times. And it’s never something I feel good about. I know this lesson, though I’ve failed to learn it: It never pays dividends to speak ill about someone. Never. It’s bullying.

All of this reminded me today of 1960s-era UFOlogist Dr. James E. McDonald, who, after suffering years of mockery, failing to be taken seriously, and rejected publications even in areas where he did not hold a controversial view, put a .38 caliber revolver to his head and pulled the trigger. He was 51.

He left a note explaining his reasons, but its contents have never been made public. The prevailing view is that he could no longer cope with what amounted to professional bullying. His views on UFOs and other things were unorthodox, but they were honestly held. Ever since having his own sighting — of the “light in the sky” variety — McDonald was persuaded that alien visitation should not be so quickly dismissed.

This was, of course, a minority view. McDonald was an atmospheric physicist, and this usually lends well-earned credibility to his analyses of visual phenomena in the sky. And rightly so, but only to a degree. Perhaps an atmospheric physicist might be well prepared to identify if a specific phenomena might be an illusion, a celestial object, or an extraordinary craft; but clearly, the origins of such a craft are something that atmospheric physics has nothing to say about. If it was a craft, it’s no more likely to be from outer space than it is from the Atlanteans or the Hollow Earth people. Astrophysicists, however, bring a whole other set of knowledge to the table, including relativity — the biggest enemy of the “alien visitation” conjecture.

Though honest in his beliefs, McDonald chose to pursue them publicly, and outside of the community of relevant experts. This left him in the role of a lone crackpot. But he was honest and well-intentioned — just like the people whose comments I read today on Xitter. More than enough science shows that their perspective is almost certainly not the correct one. And they get mocked as a result.

For McDonald, this spilled over into other areas of his professional research. When the Concorde and other supersonic transports began to be discussed, McDonald was among the few who stepped forward calling attention to a little-addressed problem with supersonic transportation: They fly higher than other jets, actually in the ozone layer, where the chemical reactions from burning their fuel damage the ozone layer, increase penetration of ultraviolet, and cause thousands of incremental cases of fatal skin cancer. Few agreed with McDonald’s edge-case perspective, but many never even gave him a chance because of his UFO advocacy: When he testified in front of Congress about the health risks posed by supersonic transport, congressman Silvio O. Conte quipped that “anyone who believes in little green men” was not “a credible witness.”

McDonald wasn’t murdered by a cabal of government agents intent on silencing him. He died by his own hand, weary of the nonstop bullying.

Did he want to be wrong? Probably not.

Did he want most of the community of his peers to be against him? Probably not.

Did he believe that these battles were worth it if it meant he could get out his message for the benefit of humankind? Yes, apparently — until one day, when it wasn’t.

We can’t know this, of course, but it’s possible that McDonald’s life could have been saved by a mere sprinkling of empathy. Empathy is nothing special when given to like-minded friends, but it can move mountains when offered where it is least expected.

That is my thought for today. If you appreciate it, pay it forward with a random act of empathy today. 👍🏼