There’s a lot that has happened in short order in the United States, and I have to say – I’m not really that happy about it. It’s not that I didn’t expect it, but expectations and seeing reality form are two different things.
It’s a lot to soak in.
Because things have gotten so weird, I want to express my thoughts on hyperspace bypasses. If we follow that metaphor, we can see that the Vogons demonstrate both Democrat and Republican behavior.
Since everyone is busy picking on all the idiocy that is happening that is the new Republican Party (or some argue, the old Republican party with the mask dropped), I’ll start with the Democrats:
Democrat-Like Vogon Behaviors
- Endless Committees and Task Forces
- Prioritize forming committees to analyze and deliberate endlessly before making decisions, ensuring everyone feels included, even if progress is slow.
- Complex Legislation
- Craft convoluted, overly detailed laws designed to address every possible edge case but often bogged down in impractical implementation.
- Hyper-Regulation
- Advocate for strict oversight in the name of fairness, equity, and environmental protection, often leading to labyrinthine rules that frustrate implementation.
- Compassionate Bureaucracy
- Attempt to frame authoritarian decisions as necessary for the greater good or social justice, sometimes overlooking individual autonomy in favor of collective solutions.
- Poetry as Policy
- Use elaborate rhetoric and idealistic language to justify policies that can seem disconnected from pragmatic realities (akin to Vogon poetry’s abstract absurdity).
The Democrats basically represent a system that the American public sees as broken, partly because the Democratic party is the last party in power. Is that fair? Maybe not, but Luigi Mangione didn’t kill a CEO because he thought things were going well with healthcare insurance, and the support he has demonstrates a level of anger at a system seen as unjust. The election of Trump is pretty much the same thing, it seems.
Never-mind the lobbyism and corporate interests, but that’s sort of common with the Republicans.
So let’s move on to the Republicans.
Republican-Like Vogon Behaviors
- Rigid Rule Enforcement
- Emphasize strict adherence to rules and traditions, often prioritizing authority and order over adaptability or change, or justice.
- Deregulation Irony
- Push for the removal of “unnecessary regulations” while creating equally complex systems of their own, especially around national security or corporate interests.
- Cultural Conservatism
- Justify Vogon-like authoritarianism as preserving “the way things have always been,” valuing tradition over experimentation or innovation.
- Business-Centric Authoritarianism
- Advocate for policies that favor corporations or industry elites while framing rigid decisions as necessary for economic growth.
- Blunt Messaging
- Communicate in direct, sometimes harsh terms, prioritizing effectiveness over nuanced or empathetic delivery, much like a Vogon officer giving orders.
That speaks for itself, doesn’t it? The blunt messaging of Trump, often filtered by people that follow him as “but what he really meant was”, and the fact that he found all the big tech billionaires for his inauguration… and the conservatism behind “Make America Great Again” shows a demand for going back to the way things were, which has people who couldn’t even vote not too long ago understandably nervous.
The ‘deregulation’ lines up with the ‘Department of Efficiency’ which, ironically, has two leaders – one who made a strangely familiar salute, and one of East Indian descent.
Yeah, this tracks.
Certainly there are some things that the Republicans and Democrats have in a Vogon context, right?
Shared Vogon Behaviors
- Lack of Transparency
- Both sides may engage in Vogon-esque obfuscation, making processes and decisions inaccessible or incomprehensible to the general public.
- Red Tape Galore
- Generate systems so mired in procedure and formalities that they hinder meaningful action, regardless of the side they represent, while they say that they will effectively remove red tape… with more red tape.
- Self-Interest as Principle
- Veil self-serving actions in a cloak of principle or necessity, creating a “justification poetry” for what might otherwise be seen as selfish or myopic decisions.
- Overzealous Compliance
- Strictly enforce rules (often ones they create) in a way that feels overly punitive or needlessly bureaucratic to outsiders.
This all tracks. The problem isn’t the Democrats and Republicans, it’s both of them. It’s the Vogons.
Vogons don’t even like Vogons, yet we keep electing Vogons because if we don’t the wrong Vogon might get elected.
The parties created a system that works for them, and they call upon the people only when they need the people.
I realize that this may upset people of either party, but it’s my experience that Vogons are generally unhappy anyway.
I’ll lean on Buckminster Fuller to finish this.
