"The Roswell incident, for instance, had over three hundred witnesses - some describing the bodies, some the craft, some the military procedures. Were they all perpetuating their own lives in a myth?"
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Schultz is doing a very actorly thing here: he’s staging a scene, not arguing a case. The line opens with a casual “for instance,” as if Roswell is just one item in a longer mental file, then hits you with a number big enough to feel like evidence but fuzzy enough to stay uncheckable in conversation. “Over three hundred witnesses” isn’t a citation; it’s a prop. It creates the impression of overwhelming testimony without requiring the listener to wade into the messy question of who counts as a witness, what they saw, or when they started talking.
The subtext is less “aliens are real” than “skeptics are smug.” Schultz frames disbelief as an accusation of vanity: that these people are “perpetuating their own lives in a myth.” It’s a neat reversal. Instead of defending the extraordinary claim, he puts the burden on the doubter to explain away a crowd of human stories. The question isn’t really asked to be answered; it’s asked to make the alternative sound implausible, even mean-spirited. Who wants to say: yes, hundreds of people can misunderstand, embellish, misremember, or get swept into a cultural script?
Context matters: Roswell sits at the intersection of Cold War secrecy, military mistrust, and a long American appetite for hidden narratives. Schultz’s phrasing leans into that cultural mood. “Bodies… craft… military procedures” is a cinematic triad, escalating from sensational to institutional, suggesting not just a strange event but a machine built to conceal it. The real force of the quote is emotional: it asks you to respect testimony as identity, and to see “myth” not as fiction but as a life raft.
The subtext is less “aliens are real” than “skeptics are smug.” Schultz frames disbelief as an accusation of vanity: that these people are “perpetuating their own lives in a myth.” It’s a neat reversal. Instead of defending the extraordinary claim, he puts the burden on the doubter to explain away a crowd of human stories. The question isn’t really asked to be answered; it’s asked to make the alternative sound implausible, even mean-spirited. Who wants to say: yes, hundreds of people can misunderstand, embellish, misremember, or get swept into a cultural script?
Context matters: Roswell sits at the intersection of Cold War secrecy, military mistrust, and a long American appetite for hidden narratives. Schultz’s phrasing leans into that cultural mood. “Bodies… craft… military procedures” is a cinematic triad, escalating from sensational to institutional, suggesting not just a strange event but a machine built to conceal it. The real force of the quote is emotional: it asks you to respect testimony as identity, and to see “myth” not as fiction but as a life raft.
Quote Details
| Topic | Truth |
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