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Finding the Everyday

Douglas Adams ability to target politics is very effective in creating the satire found in the
novel The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Adams uses the characters such as Zaphod and
the Vogons to create satire, by mocking the ability of politicians, and ridiculing the political
systems that are seen in a majority of countries around the world. He uses many different
comedic elements such as ridicule and parody to criticize the task of the government and
bureaucracy .Through parody Adams is able to show the corruption, laziness, and
hardheartedness of the government as part of the everyday in the Hitchhiker's Guide to question
the lack of transparency in our world and during his generation.
In Hitchhiker's Guide, politics is a giant mess, which is very different from how it is in real
life. Politics has to do with how groups of people live together, and it's not a pretty sight. For
instance, there's the absurd bureaucracy that would knock down a house (or a planet) without
letting anyone know. That's politics here. There's also the fact that the president of the galaxy is
ridiculous: his role is basically to distract people from the real sources of power.
Earth being destroyed by the Vogons under the guise of 'Building a hyperspace by-pass' was a
very sarcastic scene in the novel where we see the laziness and the irresponsibility of the earth
( or in this case Constitutional Monarchy) and the Vogon government. The duty of the
government and bureaucracy is to provide services to the citizens , the responsibility of
informing projects such as building a bypass and hearing the opinions of the citizens about them.
Minutes before the earth was destroyed , Arthur Dent was "telling people about it at great
length..... It had been in the pipeline for months only no one seemed to have known about it. No

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one wanted a by-pass, the council didn't have a leg to stand on." (8) Arthur was fighting against
Mr. Prosser 's company of bulldozers because under the city councils orders , his house was in
the way of an unheard by- pass construction and to him it was unfair to destroy his precious
house out of nowhere and with no notice. Going back to the reason why the earth is being
destroyed , sarcastically enough it is the same reason as why is Arthur's house is being
destroyed, for local affairs of the council. It is pretty funny that because of the lack of advance
technology , "the planning department in Alpha Centauri for fifty of [the]Earth years sign that
was located four light years away "(26) was not seen , cause the destruction of earth for an
unknown by-pass construction. The irresponsibility of the earth governments to update the
technology , caused the destruction of earth , and never had the chance to protest or move out.
Similarly this happen to Arthur, the council was lazy and irresponsible to inform the residents of
the new construction and cause a riot between Mr. Prosser's company and Arthur. The lack of
transparency cause the destruction of earth, and Arthur's home. If Alpha Centauri council did
their job to inform properly earth that it was in the way of a bypass ,would the outcome been
different? If the council would have inform Arthur that his house was in the way ,would he have
understand and moved away? Projects like these , have negative outcomes if one isn't informed.
It is the duty for the council and the government to inform such projects and avoid conflict. The
destruction of earth was in fact sarcastic for the event of the planned demolition of Arthur's
house , but it also show the incompetence of the governments and bureaucracy , they failed to do
their jobs twice that it even it destroyed the earth.
Jeltz is the captain of the Vogon fleet that destroyed the Earth, and he is representative of the
Vogons as a whole: he's cruel, bureaucratic, and he writes terrible poetry .Similarly, both the
narrator and the Hitchhiker's Guide note the bureaucratic aspect of the Vogons: not only do they

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fill the Galactic Civil Service, they also have a stubborn love of rule-following in all sorts of
situations. "They wouldn't even lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from the Ravenous
Bugblatter Beast of Traal without orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost,
found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat and recycled as
firelighters" (38). In other words, the Vogons are stuck in bureaucratic redundancy. They aren't
so much concerned with right or wrong, good or bad. They aren't trying to be mean or nice.
They are simply following the letter of the law and making sure that all proper and correct
procedures are followed for everything. What should be an easy quick decision about anything
takes the Vogons an eternity because they have to check it, double check it, submit the proper
forms, check for authenticity, and then get proper authorization for the forms, etc. It is a
bureaucratic nightmare.
Why should we care if political bureaucrats do? We should care because their actions and
decisions affect us , look at what happened to the earth . Bureaucrats just like the Vogons aren't
concerned for the well being of the citizens ,as long as they do their job it's ok for them. The lack
of transparency in politics closes any opportunities of our voice as citizens to be heard. Recently
the city council voted in favor of renaming Elysian Park Avenue in honor of the announcer Vin
Scully. The committee "to Save Elysian Park, the Echo Park Historical Society, voiced their
opposition to erasing the name of Elysian Park Avenue, which has been existence since the late
19th century." As a former resident who lived in that area for all of their childhood and the rest
of the residents ,had the right to vote whether this change should happen. It was said that the
council send a letter to residents about the matter but only 16 residents answered. It was "found
that 12 opposed changing the name while four supported the measure. But most persons did not
respond to the survey. Public Works spokesman Paul Gomez said the City Council has the final

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authority to change the name to Vin Scully Way despite the results." Why did they change the
name if they knew most of the residents didn't want the change ? This is a perfect example
similar to the construction of the bypass both on earth and in space. The city council failed to do
their job to inform their citizens of the project they had in mind. However they did not fail to
send a survey ,and check the results, just like the Vogons to them whether the decision was right
or wrong they didn't care as long as they did their job. The fact that they just ignored the results
and decided to do the change anyway, to me is a corruption and lack of responsibility of the city
council to do their job. Douglas Adams was concerned that the lack of transparency can lead to
the destruction on earth(literally) and we as citizens won't be able to have the chance to fix that
problem. Today we still have the same problem , we still lack the openness between the
government and the citizens, we are barely getting the idea that we need transparency and
demand more opportunities for us citizens to have opinions about matters.
Through humor and parody ,Douglas Adams is trying to tell us that the corruption, laziness,
and hardheartedness become part of the everyday for political bureaucrats in Douglas
Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, forcing readers to stop and consider what a lack of
transparency does to their own political circumstances. And it is time to recognize and treat this
matter as soon as we can , if not Vogon ships will come with no warning and destroy our world.

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Bibliography:
"Not Everyone Is a Fan of Vin Scully Way." The Eastsider LA RSS. Jesus Sanchez, 6 Apr. 2016. Web. 14 Apr.
2016.