Hate is, of course, an almost entirely terrible thing. There is not, say many people, enough love or understanding in the universe. Though the first of these may continue to be a problem, it is in the interests of increasing the general level of understanding that the following facts will now be revealed: Zaphod Beeblebrox’s full title was President of the Imperial Galactic Government. The term Imperial is kept, though it is now an anachronism. The hereditary emperor is now nearly dead - and has been for many centuries. This is because in his last dying moments he was - much to his imperial irritation - locked in a perpetual stasis field. All his heirs are now, of course, long dead and the upshot of all this is that without any drastic upheaval political power has simply and effectively moved a rung or two down the ladder, and is now seemed to be vested in an elected governmental assembly, headed by a president elected by that assembly.
In fact, it vests in no such place - that would be too easy. The president’s job - and if someone sufficiently vain and stupid is picked he won’t realise this - is not to wield power, but to draw attention away from it. Zaphod Beeblebrox, the only man in history to have made presidential telecasts from the bath, from Eccentrica Gallumbits bedroom, from the maximum-security wing of the Betelgeuse State Prison, or from where ever else he happened to be at the time, was supremely good at this job.
...
The major problem - one of the major problems - for there are several - one of the many major problems with governing people is that of who you get to do it. Or, rather, of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarise: it is a well-known and much lamented fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarise the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made president should, on no account, be allowed to do the job. To summarise the summary of the summary: people are a problem. And so this is the situation we find. A succession of Galactic Presidents who so much enjoy the fun and palaver of being in power that they never really notice that they’re not. And somewhere in the shadows behind them, who? Who can possibly rule if no one who wants to, can be allowed to?
= new reply since forum marked as read
