“On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.”
“Odd,” said Arthur, “I thought you said it was a democracy.”
“I did,” said Ford. “It is.”
“So,” said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, “why don’t the people get rid of the lizards?”
“It honestly doesn’t occur to them,” said Ford. “They’ve all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.”
“You mean they actually vote for the lizards?”
“Oh yes,” said Ford with a shrug, “of course.”
“But,” said Arthur, going for the big one again, “why?”
“Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,” said Ford, “the wrong lizard might get in.”
– Douglas Adams. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, not for the first time either.
Adam’s prose was always anything but prosaic. ‘Miss the guy.
Yeah. Me too.
Strange isn’t it? Douglas Adams. Terry Pratchett. The more fantastic the plot lines, the closer they resemble real life. Wonder if that’s telling us something?
Red Ted will be the funniest thing to happen to Britain since the Plague.
Jumped the gun, sorry.
Libdems got butt fucked, Labor got butt fucked in Scotland, WFM! It’s not a request.
The people in this example are sensible.
The lizards are now the same – yes they are all lizards, but they are not the same.
The people try to choose the least bad lizards.
“Freudian slip”? – I meant to type “not the same” and I actually typed “now the same”.
Regional
May 7, 2015 at 9:37 pm
Regional
May 7, 2015 at 9:43 pm
That didn’t take long. About 6 minutes. Give or take.
Problem is, in this system everyone assumes a) that if you’re running you must be a lizard, and b) that saying you’re not a lizard is the most lizardly of attributes.
MSimon,
It’s what you get for believing the MSM are credible.