To state that 'I believe in 'aliens'
for me, is a bit of a misnomer...

Recently a team of scientists tracked & found a giant squid and got evidence of it...
but a few hundred years ago

it was a 'monster'...stories were told...myths grew

this whole universe is full of stuff
that is 'unknown'

but gets labelled 'alien'

in some cases i have a notion that 
mass media has allowed this to become a Public relations exercise
a kind of memetic warfare
which enables the military industrial complex to cover their high-tech asses
for a few decades or so, and gain advantage over their real enemy...

common humanity

remembering that famously 'useful metaphor' for the 
fear of communist invasion used in the 50's anti-communist era



Chomsky called these myths 'necessary illusions'

it is now revamped as another fear of 'outsiders'

i recently watched 'Dogma' on DVD [seen it?]

interesting part in it, when the character played by Chris Rock says
"ideas are more important than beliefs', religion should be an 'idea',
not a concrete dogma..."

i think this resonates well with the whole mystery / UFO /conspiracy culture etc

I have an idea that the unknown exists...
that the universe is one big place
perhaps [in my opinion] with many dimensions

so 'aliens' can, with reflection, become entities 
[friends...enemies.. or benign beings]
that i simply i haven't met/encountered yet

these can be unknown situations...places...people...times... dreams...memories 
[again, dimensions]

the archetype of 'the unknown' is a great way of testing how safe society wishes to keep itself...

and on an individual level, how safe and secure we feel with our own constructed view of our identity

in the words of Kirk:

"we should boldly go!"

Now, where is that holo-deck...again?