Douglas Adams Quotes
To be frank, it sometimes seems that the American idea of freedom has more to do with my freedom to do what I want than your freedom to do what you want. I think that, in Europe, we're probably better at understanding how to balance those competing claims, though not a lot.
Adams, Douglas. The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time. Macmillan, 2002.
This statement is at first hard to comprehend in that the Arab League is made up nations not one of which guarantees much less allows its citizens any modicum of freedom. However, the notion of freedom for many Muslim nations at the time was that individuals have obligations and duties while groups and nations are entitled to group freedom. Thus this Prime Minister of an autocracy with no freedom guaranteed any of its citizens can call for freedom for the Palestinian people as a group of Iraq as a nation. The concept is different than that of Western, industrialized democracies.
Adams is best known as the author of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", which originated in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold more than 15 million copies in his lifetime and generated a television series, several stage plays, comics, a computer game, and in 2005 a feature film. Adams's contribution to UK radio is commemorated in The Radio Academy's Hall of Fame. Adams was known as an advocate for environmentalism and conservation, as a lover of fast cars, cameras, technological innovation and the Apple Macintosh, and as a "devout atheist".
