Tuesday, June 25, 2013

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Democracy

“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."

               ~ Douglas Adams


In April, a Public Policy Polling national survey of 1,247 registered American voters found that 4% answered Yes to the question : 
Do you believe that shape-shifting reptilian people control our world by taking on human form and gaining political power to manipulate our societies?
4% extrapolates into roughly 13 million US voters - only a million or so less than the total number of Canadians who voted in the 2011 federal election.
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5 comments:

West End Bob said...

Lady Alison, your mind does indeed work in mysterious ways, and I LOVE it ! ! ! !

Beijing York said...

FOUR PERCENT! Truly astounding.

Purple library guy said...

Yes, it's amazing that many people have figured it out.

;)

Purple library guy said...

Incidentally, when I first read that years ago, my immediate thought was "It's the Mouseland story!"

Alison said...

PLG : Yeah, me too and many others I'm sure.

BY : Of course this also says something about polling. If polled myself, I admit I would be sorely tempted ...
A 20th Century Fox poll in the UK in 2008 netted a 3% YES to the statement "The world is run by dinosaur-like reptiles."

One of the funniest things I've ever read was Jon Ronson's excerpt in The Guardian about lizard illuminati proponent David Icke's visit to Vancouver in 2001. If you don't have time to read the whole thing, here's my excerpt of his excerpt.

Bob : I hope not too mysterious ;-) It's a point about strategic voting.
An admittedly spurious comparison but I was also struck by the entire Canadian voting public almost equaling US lizard-believer voters in numbers.

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