"On its world", said Ford, "the people are people. The lizards 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 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. Got any gin?"
[Excerpt from
So Long And Thanks For All The Fish, by Douglas Adams.]
[ update in april 2006. so. whee. several days later the radio version of this was broadcast. they got rid of the lizards. :(
however it got added back in the cd! with some added bits regarding reality tv. ]
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