h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What's all this I read about electing a president of h2g2?
I'd like to reserve judgement until I know more about it, but I honestly don't see the necessity.

*I* don't know either, and I really can't be bothered to find out.

Presumably, that would make me a prime candidate, at least for anyone following the true spirit of DNA's great teachings, as expressed in the radio series. I'm not sure if the man-in-the-hut actually made it into the books?

In fact, I suspect the above point has been made already by one or more real candidates, but I honestly couldn't give a toss about that either.

Apathy rules, or it probably would if it could be bothered to try. Who cares anyway?

The office of Virtual President of h2g2 is largely symbolic. It is primarily a method for members of the h2g2 virtual community to have a bit of fun, whilst simultaneously mocking the silliness of modern politics.

For instance, many of the candidates have used their imagination to present themselves as something other than strictly human. Most have been doing this since long before the campaign began. Some campaigners unabashedly offer virtual bribes, while others openly condone violence against their adversaries. And, of course, many platform positions are similarly skewed: advocating an h2g2 Mars edition, platforms to Save the Fish, and so on.

Feel free to ignore the race if you like. If you want to get informed in time to vote, here are a couple of links.

Rules for voting:
http://www.h2g2.com/A417313

The Candidates:
http://www.h2g2.com/A373907

Fragilis,

Thank you for the information. I am generally more than happy to ignore things, but not before I've determined whether or not they warrant the energy ignorance often requires. For example, after an onslaught of media attention, I once determined that the Madonna version of "Evita" was well worth ignoring. As was the O.J. Simpson trial (though I had the considerable advantage of not being in the United States at the time). Still, even in Japan, the latter was hard to ignore.

Nonetheless, one must realize that, should they choose to ignore something, they give up all rights to have an opinion on the thing in question For this reason, I completely abstain from judging the likes of Pokémon, carpenter pants and cellular telephones.

I visited the campaign pages of each candidate (thank you for the link), and though I have my favorite, I will likely not vote. I've chosen instead to leave the main mast to the wild men, and hang out in the hold.

But thank you, once again.
Noodles

You're welcome.

Everyone has the right to *have* an opinion on whatever they want.
Whether other people are likely to pay attention to any particular opinion one may have, and hence whether it's worth taking the time to express that opinion is a different matter.

In fact, I'd argue that everyone has the right to both have and express opinions, but if one is going to express an opinion, one has to accept some degree of duty to explain or defend that opinion, so that other people and/or oneself may become enlightened by subsequent discussion.

Given the media exposure that phenomena such as Pokemon are granted, even without actively seeking information, I suspect many people with little or no real interest could glean enough information to form *some* worthwhile opinions on *aspects* of the phenomena, especially if those opinions were substantially based on prior general knowledge.

If one has other, better things to do, avoiding paying *active* attention to things of litte interest really doesn't take much effort - taking the Evita example, and given that musicals never have engaged my interest, personally I would have switched off and concentrated on something else as soon as I'd heard the word 'musical'. I generally keep a book handy when I'm watching television to dip into to avoid the adverts and irrelevant parts of news programs.

I suspect my initial reference to DNA's theory - roughly 'Anyone capable of getting themselves elected to a position of power should on no account be allowed to do the job' was obscure enough to begin with, and was further obscured by the bulk of my posting, but it *was* the end of a very long day.