Do the Men in Black exist? Is anyone monitoring alien activity on our planet?
In the collective imagination, fueled by the hilarious film trilogy featuring two excellent Hollywood actors, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, the Men in Black are mysterious characters dressed in black clothes who are concerned with "cleaning up" the evidence of any alien contacts and to address those who have had some type of "close encounter" with alien entities, recommending them not to tell anyone what they have seen.
The origins of the Men in Black can be traced back to the early 1950s, when a UFO enthusiast named Albert Bender founded a small organization, the International Flying Saucer Bureau, and began publishing a magazine called “Space Review”.
In 1953, Bender claimed to have been visited by “three men wearing dark suits” who told him to immediately stop publishing classified information about flying saucers.
About a decade later, Bender wrote an in-depth book on his strange story, hypothesizing that his mysterious visitors were "shape-shifting" extraterrestrials worried that humanity might learn of their existence.
According to Bender, the Men in Black were not alone, but accompanied by "three beautiful women dressed in tight white uniforms."
Naturally, Bender's story and persona have met with numerous detractors, who have described him as an "entertainment and folklore artist, rather than a de facto journalist."
According to James W. Moseley, editor of the rival magazine “Saucer News,” Bender was a prankster and a hoaxer: “He even once faked a letter from the U.S. State Department claiming that the government had of concrete evidence on the existence of alien contact."
The fact is that the Men in Black have fully entered the Conspiracy Theory, partly because their existence seems to be legitimized by the testimonies of numerous eyewitnesses. The Men in Black have also entered literature and cinema thanks to John Keel with his novel "The Mothman Prophecies" and Ed Solomon, screenwriter and creator of the Men in Black film saga, starring Smith and Lee Jones.
But are the stories about the Men in Black true?
But can at least some of these stories be plausible? Of course, it is possible that there may be “dark-suited” government agents investigating particular cases including those involving UFOs and “close encounters.”
After all, one should not forget that in the 1950s there was a US Air Force program called Project Blue Book, which investigated the most sensational cases of UFO sightings.
American government officials (including military, police, secret services, for example) are sadly known for their intimidating ways, very often used to obtain confidentiality from eyewitnesses of some event which is being investigated.
Is it possible that some people, intimidated by the gruff ways of these agents, mistook them for Men in Black? Or is it possible that there seriously exists a government agency that monitors and keeps alien activity on our planet under control?
The Men in Black seem to have fallen out of fashion in recent years, perhaps because they have been successfully archived into Conspiracy Theory mythology, convincing people that they are tales of people frightened by inexplicable events and threats from zealous government officials who they order the eyewitnesses to silence.
What half a century ago seemed threatening and scary (three men dressed in black knocking on your door imposing silence on you), perhaps today is less scary and more smiley. At least, that's what they want us to think...
