The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

From Arthur’s run-in with the local council and planning office to the incompetent intergalactic civil servants, unchecked bureaucracy runs rampant throughout The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Not only does Arthur Dent lose his personal home, he also loses his planetary one, both casualties of the faceless bureaucratic entities that exercise their power without empathy. Adams suggests that the Galaxy is no different than the Earth: bureaucratic ineptitude, thoughtless development schemes, and job dissatisfaction mark the modern age.

Arthur’s confrontation with bureaucracy comes as his house is scheduled to be demolished to make way for a new bypass. When Arthur questions Mr. L. Prosser about the purpose of the bypass, Prosser provides a wholly unsatisfactory answer, an example of circular reasoning: “’What do you mean, why’s it got to be built? [ . . .] It’s a bypass. You’ve got to build bypasses’” (9). Prosser’s answer reveals the truth at the heart of bureaucratic fiats: The entire enterprise exists to justify itself. Prosser represents the quintessential bureaucrat as he would rather be anywhere than there, dealing with another disgruntled citizen: “He shifted his weight from foot to foot [ . . . ] Obviously somebody had been appallingly incompetent and he hoped to God it wasn’t him” (9).