The Reptoid Hypothesis: Utopian and Dystopian Representational Motifs in David Icke's Alien Conspiracy Theory‪.‬

I am the lizard king, I can do anything. Jim Morrison, "Celebration of the Lizard" Alien reptilian invasions, blood-sucking, pedophilic Illuminati agents acting as totalitarian world leaders, trans-dimensional alien-humans interbreeding to support a program of cosmic imperialism on an unimaginable scale--no, this is not an X-Files episode, neither is it an undiscovered Philip K. Dick or H.P. Lovecraft novel, nor is it the latest Hollywood science fiction spectacle. Rather, it is the real-life and ever-evolving conspiracy theory of the self-proclaimed "most controversial speaker and author in the world," David Icke. Icke, one-time British soccer star turned BBC sports personality turned UK Green Party spokesman, is now today's most (in)famous proponent of what we are calling the "Reptoid Hypothesis"--the idea that alien lizards conspiratorially control the Earth and with it human destiny. Inasmuch as the reptoid, a figure of radical difference--what we have termed "UFOtherness"--also takes on decidedly animal overtones, we will seek in this paper to examine how Icke's narrative stands today as representative evidence of a popular dystopianism that projects onto the animal (as cause) the sum total of the fear and discontent that have arisen around contemporary issues such as global imperialism and transnational capitalism. Yet, a closer investigation of Icke's theory also suggests that utopian readings of his work are possible in which it is theorized that the end to global domination can be arrived at only via the formation of new human/ reptoid alliances toward peace. In this paper we will attempt to unravel these various layers of ambiguity, arguing that Icke's theory simultaneously represents a progressive desire for the construction of a holistic animal/ human future and a reactionary attitude that is unable (or unwilling) to overcome the fetters of capitalist spectacle and conservative conceptualizations of liberal-humanist subjectivity.