Still, it is a rather remarkable phenomenon, this deluge of data endlessly blasting us. Perhaps my descriptions of it are a bit melodramatic and unfair. We’re not passive victims in this dynamic – we welcome the noise, invite it, seek it out. Each little hit of info provides a dopamine surge and perpetuates our thirst for it. Even in our frequent outrage, we pursue more info – sometimes for edification, but more often so that we can be “in the know” and then pass it along (bundled with our own two cents, of course) via social media, our twenty-first-century grapevine.

Though information overload is hardly a new development, it’s reached a fever pitch with the advent of platforms like Facebook, Twitter – sorry, X – and the myriad of other apps that populate our computers and smartphones. We are – or can be – dialed in and connected to what’s going on at all times.

Of course, our information intake is only as good as those governing its flow allow it to be. (See, e.g., Censorship Industrial Complex.) But aside from the obvious pitfalls of gossip and increasingly distorted narratives, there’s another downside to our frenetic form of information gathering and disseminating: We become desensitized to even the most sensational of happenings. We become numb.

Think about it – we’re so used to pinballing from one wild news story to the next, we even have jokes and memes about “slow news days.”

Slowest news day in Wales ever. pic.twitter.com/guVY3cRPXg

— No Context Brits (@NoContextBrits) August 2, 2023

What prompted my musings this morning was this article by Buzz Patterson: Buzz Cut: What’s up There? In it, our resident retired Air Force pilot and former aide to Bill and Hillary Clinton (and carrier of the “Nuclear Football”), reflected on the recent hearing before the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs regarding “unidentified anomalous phenomena” (UAPs), a/k/a UFOs. Regarding the testimony, Buzz observed:

If true, this is truly a pivotal moment for mankind. Only in today’s chaotic, news cycle-based world would we not be somewhat curious. Are we being visited? Are these phenomena advanced technology from other nations (China) in the form of drones? Or are these, in some cases, atmospheric anomalies?  

And he’s right. It is only in the chaotic, news cycle-based world of today that we’d barely bat an eye at a congressional hearing regarding the possible (probable?) existence of alien craft. Now, I concur that the testimony of David Grusch was somewhat fantastical – he’s the one whose clips have gotten the most play since the hearing. And between his over-eager demeanor and his cagey “I can only tell you about that in a SCIF (sensitive compartmented information facility,” one could be forgiven for concluding that his testimony was too wild to believe (perjury implications notwithstanding).

But the same cannot be said of the other two witnesses, Ryan Graves (Executive Director of Americans for Safe Aerospace), whose primary concern expressed was the flight safety issue presented by the multitude of UAP encounters detailed, and David Fravor (Former Commanding Officer of the U.S. Navy), who testified regarding a well-known, well-documented UAP encounter, as Buzz described:

In one of the first documented encounters between our military and a UAP, Navy fighter pilot David Fravor responded to a request to investigate an unusual object operating off the coast of California on November 14, 2002. There, he and three other naval aviators observed the now famous “Tic Tac” UAP and its ability to climb and descend thousands of feet in seconds, from 80,000 feet to 20,000, and then hover over the ocean. Fravor testified to those facts, and 19 years later, exactly what he saw remains unsolved. 

And let’s take note again that these accounts weren’t just news interviews or segments aired on “Ancient Aliens,” the attendance of George Knapp notwithstanding. This testimony was presented under oath in a congressional hearing. While one can acknowledge that congressional hearings frequently amount to little more than dog and pony shows, think back ten or 15 years and imagine what your reaction would have been to someone describing a hearing before Congress in which witnesses would be testifying – in detail – about UFOs (and “non-human biologics”). If you’re at all like me, you’d have thought that a pretty big deal.

And yet, that wasn’t even close to the biggest news of that day. No, the UFOs were overshadowed and outshined by the specter of the son of a sitting president appearing in court to accept a sweetheart plea deal that subsequently blew up when it became apparent to the judge presiding over the case that the parties had constructed an unprecedented arrangement which seemed designed to provide the scion with very broad immunity for a host of crimes known and unknown. Which, in turn, revealed that said First Son is still under investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ), whether that investigation is aimed at uncovering additional misdeeds or merely boxing out congressional oversight.

Speaking of oversight, that same committee is elbow deep in digging up bank and financial records that reveal a convoluted mass of shell companies and dubious transactions indicating the First Son and other Biden family members have long been cashing in on the president’s name – and may even implicate the president himself in bribery schemes. And while Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblowers and close business associates are offering transcribed interviews and congressional testimony regarding those shady goings on, that president’s DOJ is busy indicting his top political opponent for 2024’s presidential race, himself a former president.

All of which is just the tip of the iceberg when one considers the multitude of other crises, catastrophes, and cultural conundrums unfolding around the world. I’d start listing those off, too, but I’m running out of ink.

So, let’s say we are being visited by extraterrestrial or interdimensional beings. How would one even begin to describe or explain today’s world? Would it be the interspecies equivalent of, “Nice to meet you – I swear, we’re not always this crazy – it’s just been one of those…centuries”?

Buzz closes out his piece by asking a critical question:

It’s incredibly intriguing to think about the possibilities. All joking aside, this would change our lives forever across all fronts. Are we ready for that?

At this point, how could we even be sure?

We have indeed become numb. Though perhaps not comfortably so.