I once got an "F" on a 7th grade Social Studies paper that I thought I'd done a good job on. I asked the teacher what was up, and she said it was because the work wasn't my own—clearly, she said, I had plagiarized it. Of course, I had done no such thing. It was entirely my own work product, and it was damn good. But my teacher assumed that I couldn't possibly have written that well. I was roused to an uncharacteristic anger. Indignantly, I insisted that I had written it myself. My teacher sighed heavily. "I'll change it to a 'C,'" she said, "but I think we both know that you didn't earn this."
I get the same indignant feeling when I watch Ancient Aliens on the History Channel.
Yes, Ancient Aliens, the show in which so-called "ancient astronaut theorists" expound upon their belief that all of the greatest engineering feats of the ancient world were, in fact, the work of extraterrestrial beings. The show is neatly encapsulated by the phrase "I'm not saying it's aliens—but it's aliens." It's all harmless fun of course, but there's something pernicious about it, too.
You see, I'm a humanist. Put simply, I am a proud human, with a reverence for human potential. When it comes to the engineering triumphs of the ancient world—such as, say, the pyramids of Giza—I support the mission of UNESCO to designate such places as "world heritage sites," for they are, indeed, part of the heritage of our species. Although the pyramids and many other wonders of the ancient world were built as monuments to false gods, they stand today as monuments to human ingenuity. We should be proud of them, and of us for building them.
But Ancient Aliens ascribes these monuments not to us, but to aliens. Just like my 7th grade Social Studies teacher, "ancient astronaut theorists" assume that humanity "couldn't possibly have built that." As fun as it is to speculate about aliens, it's very condescending to ancient peoples—who were not appreciably different from us today—to deny the mental and physical labor that went into building these monuments, and instead contemplate extraterrestrial intervention. It is what Maajid Nawaz refers to as "the bigotry of low expectations." (Indeed, more thoughtful commentators than I have pointed out that there's something racist about denying the agency of ancient black and brown cultures.)
At the same time, though, I suppose there's something very human about Ancient Aliens. The pyramids were built to exalt the the god kings of ancient Egypt. The moai of Easter Island were erected to honor the mythical ancestors of the Rapa Nui. The Parthenon was built to worship the goddess Athena. As proud as I am to be a human, there is clearly something about us—some inherent need to imagine a "higher power" to venerate as a god. A "higher power" far more advanced than us that we pray to for guidance.
It is probably no exaggeration to say that 99% of the gods that man has invented over the past 150,000 years are no longer worshipped today. Science has all but disproved the existence of a god or gods—but aliens, on the other hand? Now that is far more plausible. And so, on Ancient Aliens, extraterrestrial beings become a modern stand-in for that primordial impulse for a "higher power" to whom to ascribe our fortunes. In this respect, Ancient Aliens is part of a proud human tradition. At 16 seasons, it is, perhaps, our generation's pyramids, moai, or Parthenon.