What's one more meaningless act of violence on that zoo of a planet? It would be appropriate. When in Rome; burn it. - Iain Banks

It looks perverted and wasteful to us, but then one thing that empires are not about is the efficient use of resources and the spread of happiness; both are typically accomplished despite the economic short-circuiting—corruption and favoritism, mostly—endemic to the system.

Did the Doctor really imagine that everbody went around believing different things? One believed what one was told to believe, what it made sense to believe. Unless one was a foreigner, of course, or a philosopher.

Choice," he said heavily. A small smile disturbed his face. "We all think we have so much of that, don't we?