The Wisdom of D. Adams

[mishalak]

"I come in peace," it said, adding after a long moment of further grinding, "take me to your Lizard."

Ford Prefect, of course, had an explanation for this, as he sat with Arthur and watched the nonstop frenetic news reports on television, none of which had anything to say other than to record that the thing had done this amount of damage which was valued at that amount of billions of pounds and had killed this totally other number of people, and then say it again, because the robot was doing nothing more than standing there, swaying very slightly, and emitting short incomprehensible error messages.

"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."

"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"

"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like to straightforward. 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. Got any gin?"

Comments

[elemirion]

Ford played to lose...
I love the got any Gin line.

we have the wrong Lizard in office right now... I didn't vote for him though...

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

In my opinion we've had a lizard in office since Jimmy Carter.

[elynne.livejournal.com]

Amen, and pass the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. :|

[bcp.livejournal.com]

I love that bit :)

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

It is a pretty darn good one in my opinion. These days anyway.

[bcp.livejournal.com]

heh in Western Australia we've got the current federal government politicians wanting to ban gay marriage, the opposition federal politicians wanting to ban gay marriage, and the opposition state politicians wanting to roll back the state's gay law reforms if they get elected.

talk about all the wrong lizards... *mumbles*

[jcfiala.livejournal.com]

Yess... one really good strong bit. Some people don't like that book, but I always found it somewhat refreshing after all the nasty stuff that happened to poor Arthur during the first three.

[kralice.livejournal.com]

which book is that from?? I love Douglass Adams. ♥

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

[kralice.livejournal.com]

nice, thanks