Mouseland
From Freepedia
The Story of Mouseland was a speech written in 1961 by Clare Gillis for Tommy Douglas, leader of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, a democratic socialist party in Canada. It was a political fable for the flaws in the way in which the Canadian population voted, which tended to be for parties that did not represent their interests.
The mice voted in Black cats, which represented the Progressive Conservative Party, and then they found out how hard life was. Then they voted in the white cats, which symbolized the Liberal Party of Canada. The story goes on, and a mouse gets an idea that mice should run their government, not the cats. This mouse was accused of being a Bolshevik, and imprisoned. However, the speech concludes by saying you can lock up a mouse or a man, but you can't lock up an idea.
The Story of Mouseland
Mouseland, was a place where all the little mice lived and played, were born and died, and lived pretty much like you and I do. They even had a Parliament. And every 4 years they had an election. They used to walk to the polls and cast their ballots. Some of them even got a ride to the polls. And got a ride for the next four years afterwards too. Just like you and me. And every time on election day, all the little mice used to go to the ballot box and they used to elect a government. A government made up of Big Fat Black Cats.
Now if you think it's strange that mice would elect a government made up of cats, you just look at the history of Canada for the last 90 years, and maybe you'll see that they weren't any stupider than we are. Now I'm not saying anything against the cats. They were nice fellows, they conducted the government with dignity. They passed good laws, that is laws that were good for cats. But the laws that were good for cats, weren't very good for mice. One of the laws said, that mice holes had to be big enough, so the cats could get their paws in. Another law said, mice had to travel at certain speeds, so the cat could get his breakfast without too much physical effort. All the laws were good laws for cats. But oh they were hard on the mice, and life was getting harder and harder.
When the mice couldn't take it anymore, they decided that something had to be done about it. So they went en masse to the polls. They voted the Black cats out. They put in the White cats. The White cats had put up a terrific campaign. "All that Mouseland needs is more vision." They said, "The trouble with Mouseland is all those round mouse holes. If you put us in, we'll give you square mouse holes." And they did. But the problem was that the square mouse holes was twice as large as the round mouse holes, so now the cat could get both his paws in.
And life was tougher than ever. And when they couldn't take that anymore, they voted the White cats out and put the Black ones in again. Then they went back to the White cats, and back to the Black cats, they even tried half Black cats and half White cats. And called that coalition. They even got one government made up of cats with spots on them. They were cats that tried to make noise like a mouse, but ate like a cat.
The trouble wasn't the colour of the cats, but the fact that they were cats. And since they were cats, they naturally looked after the cats, instead of mice. Presently, there came along one little mouse, who had an idea.
My friends, watch out for a little fellow with an idea.
And he went to the other mice and said, "My friends, why do we keep on electing a government made up of cats, why don't we elect a government made up of mice?" "Oh!" They said, "He's a Bolshevik" So they put him in Jail.
But what I want to remind you, You can lock up a mouse or a man, but you cannot lock up an idea.
As recited by Tommy Douglas, January 1st, 1961 on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Radio.
So Long And Thanks For All The Fish
The story is almost exactly repeated in Douglas Adams' novel So Long And Thanks For All The Fish:
- ‘On [the robot’s] 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 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’
