Lue Elizondo Embraces "Zoo Hypothesis," Calls for Complete Social Restructuring

In a recent podcast appearance, UFO advocate and media personality Lue Elizondo explained his reasoning behind claiming that UFO mysteries have made him "somber." His speculative ideas are straight out of middle twentieth century science fiction, particularly the so-called "zoo hypothesis" that appeared in a number of stories at that time, imagining that Earth was essentially a zoo run by space aliens. This is an outgrowth of Charles Fort's claim that some non-human intelligence essentially operates Earth as a prison or an ant farm to watch us, and it is the basis for the "prison planet" claims of some contemporary ancient astronaut theorists.

I transcribe here Elizondo's comments for posterity so there will be a written record of them the next time someone needs evidence of his sci-fi inflected speculation.

“What if it turns out that there’s another species that is even higher on that ladder than we are? Do we need the social institutions that we have today, do we need government and religious organizations that we have today, if it turns out that there is something else or someone else that is technologically more advanced and, perhaps from an evolutionary perspective, more advanced? Have we been wasting our time all this time? Or are we doing exactly as we are supposed to be doing?
 
“[What] if it turns out that mankind is in fact just another animal in the zoo? If we saw ourselves as the zookeeper before, maybe we’re just another exhibit inside the zoo? What would that mean to us?
 
“So, when I say ‘somber’ or ‘sobering’, I mean there’s going to come a point in this conversation when we’re going to have to do a lot of reconciling with ourselves, whatever that means, from whatever philosophical background you have. This is going to impact every single one of us. And I think that’s important. Do we find ourselves in a situation that history may have to be rewritten? So that’s what I meant.” 

Note the distinct echo of Christian millenarianism in Elizondo's suggestion that the existence of aliens would require an overthrow of social, political, and cultural structures in favor of a new, more utopian world submissive to a superior heavenly power. It is difficult not to see his imagined Disclosure as the Christian Apocalypse of Revelation recast in secular, pseudoscientific terms.