Page 148 - Lunacy and the Age of Deception

there was a structure many miles high. However, if this is a studio lot on earth, the scale is revealed
to be no more than about 30 feet high.

Richard Hoagland, 1994

Hoagland’s Video was recorded at Ohio State University in 1994. During his presentation, Hoagland
states, “I was afraid that someone would call the university and say that a lunatic was coming on
stage here tonight.” The word “lunatic” originated from the belief that changes in the lunar phase
caused periodic insanity. A mentally disturbed person might be referred to as “moon-struck.”
Although I would not declare Richard Hoagland to be a lunatic, there is a certain lunacy to his
theories. It is believed that President Theodore Roosevelt, in his 1913 autobiography, was the first
to use the expression “lunatic fringe.”

Then, among the wise and high-minded people who in self-respecting and genuine fashion strive
earnestly for peace, there are foolish fanatics always to be found in such a movement and always
discrediting it -- the men who form the lunatic fringe in all reform movements.
[Teddy Roosevelt]

In a sense, Richard Hoagland is a member of the lunatic fringe of those who seek to bring to light
the deceptions of America’s space agency. He brings discredit to the subject by positing incredible
theories of ancient extraterrestrial civilizations on the moon. Even while contending that NASA is
engaged in a cover-up that centers on the Apollo Moon missions, he brings into disrepute the very
notion of a deception by associating it with theories that are even more fanciful than the tales NASA
would have us to believe.

Hoagland has in one sense provided a service by bringing to light the unusual character of the lunar
backdrops in the photographs supplied by NASA. At the same time, he leads men away from the
truth by being a believer in the government deception that asserts men rode rockets to the Moon,
walked on its surface, planted flags, took photos, golfed, and then returned safely back to Earth to
tell the story of their adventures.

It remains therefore, to explain these mysterious backdrops. That subject will be the focus of our next
chapter.