a large spaceship has crashed into harrods of london, and a large robot has emerged, and said, �take me to your lizard�. ford prefect explains this to arthur dent:
�It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see ��
�You mean it comes from a world of lizards?�
�No,� said Ford, �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 all 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. Got any gin?�
(brought forth from the old archives, it needed to be included here)
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