We don't know if this is best characterized as (i) pollsters with too much times on their hands or (ii) the merits of using popular vote to elect our leaders:
While most depictions of extraterrestrials are confined to science fiction, nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that some form of alien life exists somewhere in the universe, according to a new survey.
Of those who believed, most agreed that they would be “excited and hopeful” upon learning of the discovery of extraterrestrial life while 90 percent of them said Earth should reply to any message from another planet, the poll reported. At least two-thirds of those polled who said they did not believe in extraterrestrial life also stated that Earth should respond to an alien signal if the situation arose, the survey reported.
Link.
This whole extra-terrestial search has really picked up steam lately. We're going to have to dig out that Voegelin passage where he referred to such things as a manifestation of disorder in our age (we think he classified it under Gnosticism, but then again, he classified almost all disorders that way).
