When Barack Obama recently suggested that aliens might exist, much of the public reacted with surprise. This was, after all, a former President of the United States speaking, not a late-night radio host broadcasting from a Nevada bunker decorated with tinfoil curtains.
But for many Americans, the real surprise was not that aliens exist.
It was that anyone still thought this was controversial.
After all, under Joe Biden, millions of "aliens" have reportedly entered the country — legally, illegally, and metaphysically — so the conceptual groundwork has already been laid. The terminology has been normalised. The vocabulary is in place. The public has been carefully prepared.
What remains uncertain is whether these aliens arrive by foot, by raft, or by flying saucer.
The Strategic Ambiguity of Alien Disclosure
Obama's remarks, reported breathlessly by outlets such as InfoWars, raise important questions about timing. Why now? Why reveal the existence of extraterrestrials after decades of official silence?
One plausible explanation is bureaucratic inevitability. Governments are excellent at keeping secrets, but only temporarily. Eventually, someone retires, writes a memoir, and decides to spice up chapter twelve.
Another explanation is simpler: the word "alien" has become so bureaucratically overused that its original science-fiction meaning has been quietly reintroduced without anyone noticing.
This is linguistic inflation in action.
The Immigration Problem No One is Discussing
If aliens possess the technological sophistication required for interstellar travel, they would presumably also possess the intelligence to examine Earth beforehand.
And what would they see?
A planet dominated by traffic congestion, political dysfunction, subscription streaming services, and customer support chatbots that apologise profusely while resolving nothing.
They would see a species capable of splitting the atom but incapable of designing a printer that works consistently.
They would observe social media, conclude that humanity had weaponised narcissism, and quietly turn their spacecraft around.
Interstellar travel requires immense energy. One does not cross the galaxy merely to argue about parking regulations.
The Economic Case Against Visiting Earth
Advanced alien civilisations would likely operate on rational cost–benefit analysis. The cost of travelling light-years to Earth would be immense. The benefits, less obvious.
Earth offers no superior technology. No advanced governance model. No evident psychological stability.
If anything, humanity appears to be a cautionary tale.
Aliens, observing from a safe distance, would likely classify Earth as a developing civilisation exhibiting promising intelligence but catastrophic decision-making.
In other words, interesting, but not worth visiting.
The Political Utility of Aliens
Nevertheless, the idea of alien existence serves an important political function. It reminds citizens that no matter how strange their current leadership may appear, it could always be stranger.
Compared to the possibility of interstellar bureaucrats filing immigration paperwork across galaxies, ordinary political dysfunction begins to feel reassuringly terrestrial.
Aliens, in this sense, provide perspective. They make earthly incompetence seem provincial.
The Final Irony
The greatest irony of Obama's alien remarks is not that aliens might exist. It is that if they do, they are almost certainly avoiding us.
Humanity has achieved something remarkable: we have made ourselves so visibly chaotic that even hypothetical extraterrestrials would hesitate to make contact. They would observe from orbit, take notes, and conclude that Earth is best studied from a safe distance.
Not out of hostility. Out of caution. After all, any species capable of inventing reality television cannot be approached lightly.