Lizard Folk

My previous post actually generated a couple of emails, something of a rarity here. Oddly, both emails were concerned about the lyrical content of the song Bad Math. I feel it should be fairly obvious that those lyrics are satire, but it is entirely possible that life in 21st century America has left me with an overdeveloped sense of satire. Thus, clarification:

I am fascinated by conspiracy theories, both for the theories themselves and for the multi-level fantasy world they represent. I'm not sure I actually buy into most of them, but I like reading about them. One of my favorites is the Reptilian Shapeshifters Control Everything theory put forth by David Icke, a former BBC sportscaster who believes that humanity is the product of a breeding program initiated by aliens from the Draco system, and that most of the world's political leaders are also aliens. Skrulls even. Furthermore, Icke has a mullet in every photo I've seen of him, which should be a pretty strong indicator that he's not completely sane.

Remarkably, Icke has tons of followers. Thousands of people in dozens of countries believe (or claim to believe) in the Reptoid Hypothesis, and that films and TV shows such as V, They Live and The Matrix are an attempt to warn us. Icke's fans are divided pretty evenly between UFO abductees, ironic hipsters, and aryan supremacists who believe that the Lizards in Icke's theories are actually secret code for Jews. Like, for real.

That's where this whole thing gets really interesting to me. The fact that an idea as far out as Serpent People can be linked to something as eff'd up and dangerous as racism seems like fiction, and yet this is an actual, Real World belief held by a number of people, many of whom own guns. Icke maintains that when he says "Lizards" he means "Lizards", but you can't put the Genie back in the bottle once it starts waving a swastika. Once again, Nazis ruin it for everyone.

I think conspiracies have a lot in common with mythology. Both are examples of scared humans trying to make sense of a world that is fundamentally creepy. It's easy for me to see why people might want to believe that someone like Dick Cheney is an alien. It might somehow be *slightly* less frightening to tell yourself that something as awful as China's recent wave of child stabbings are the result of MK ULTRA-style mind control, rather than something people came up with on their own. Existential Dread is far too horrible for some folks, so they try to convince themselves that there is some evil entity pulling the strings. I can understand that desire.

But the fact is that there might not actually be any strings, or even a puppeteer.

Maybe Number Six was really Number One, and the village was just his mind.

Pay no attention to the Man Behind The Curtain, because he might not exist, and then Oz meant nothing, and we really are stuck in Kansas.

Anyway, that's what the song is about. Maybe.

Relax, this is probably my last non-gaming post for a while. They don't seem to go over all that well. I'd argue that this whole deal is fodder for a pretty killer horror game though.

Maybe somebody's already running it for me.