Alternate answer to life the universe and everything

[klondike]

HHGTTG readers will think this is 42 but this little nugget from later in the books strikes a chord with me....

     

It is part of an explanation about a robot guarding a UFO which has asked to see our lizard.

"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 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 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?"
"What?"
"I said," said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, "have you got any gin?"
"I'll look. Tell me about the lizards."
Ford shrugged again.
"Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happenned to them," he said. "They're completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone's got to say it."
"But that's terrible," said Arthur.
"Listen, bud," said Ford, "if I had one Altairian dollar for every time I heard one bit of the Universe look at another bit of the Universe and say 'That's terrible' I wouldn't be sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin."
― Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish


Just been listening to the books again and this is just so obviously spot on I had to post it.

Sorry

[GrannyMac]

Brilliant and true!! Rishi actually has a reptilian look in real life 😏

[Raven]

;

Brilliant and true!! Rishi actually has a reptilian look in real life 😏

Actually yes, your right he does. I don't like reptile like creatures, they wigg me out.

[Alex]

  

[JBR]

Excellent!
Well, except for Maggie.  She was never a reptile.  She was our saviour... well, for a few years until you know who got voted in.