In this text, I argue that there are numerous affinities between 19th century messianism and testimonies of UFO sightings, both of which I regarded as forms of secular millennialism. The common denominator for the comparison was Max Weber’s concept of “disenchantment of the world” in the wake of the Industrial Revolution which initiated the era of the dominance of rational thinking and technological progress. However, the period’s counterfactual narratives of enchantment did not repudiate technology as the source of all social and political evil—on the contrary, they variously redefined its function, imagining a possibility of a new world order. In this context, I analysed the social projects put forward by Polish Romantics in the first half of the 19th century, with emphasis on the role of technology as an agent of social change. Similarly, the imaginary technology described by UFO contactees often has a redemptive function and is supposed to bring solution to humanity’s most dangerous problems.
Keywords
- messianism
- millennialism
- Romanticism
- UFO
- disenchantment of the world
Reflections of Theatrical Activities in Lithuanian Local Periodical Press Under German Occupation 1941–1944 Architectural Criticism in Lithuanian Interwar Press: Preconditions of the Phenomenon Uniate Sacral Architecture in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: A Synthesis of Confessional Architecture In Search of Missing Collection: The Case of Artist Albert Rappaport Performance Art Using Biometric Data Arctic Drama to Sámi Theatre – Cultural Clashes Towards Decolonisation: In Shared Dialogic Spaces Art Studies in the Context of Power Relations in Lithuania, 1940–1953: The Case of the Activities and Closure of Kaunas Applied and Decorative Art Institute Gatherings of Jewish Artists in Interwar Lithuania Art, Aura, and Admiration in the Age of Digital Reproduction Celebration of the Hyperreal Nostalgia: Categorization and Analysis of Visual Vaporwave Artefacts