🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Sep9.153848.29883@porthos.cc.bellcore.com> dick1@hera.uucp (25443-vaughn) writes:
>
>  1992 Voter's Lament
>  -------------------
>
>Although Bush and Quayle
>Will Most Certainly Fail,
>Clinton and Gore
>Scare Me More.
>
>So I'll Hold My Nose
>And Look Away,
>As I "Vote for Bush"
>On Election Day.
>
An excerpt from Douglas Adams' _Hitchiker's Guide to the
Galaxy_ series (I forget exactly which book). 

    "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... "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 coherent than he had
been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple.
Nothing anything like so 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 pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less
approximates 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.  Have you got any gin?" 

    "I'll look.  Tell me about the lizards." 

    "Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happened to
them," he said.  "They're completely wrong of course, completely and utterly
wrong, but someone's got to say it." 

-Mark

"it [the economy] looks very scary" --Milton Friedman.  8/17/92 Forbes