How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
The President in particular is very much a figurehead—he wields no real power whatsoever. […] His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it. (4.14 footnote)
The president's role here is curious, since his job has little to do with power a lot to do with distracting people from the real sources of power. We're never told who really has the power in this government. Is it the civil service bureaucracy, which is full of Vogons? Is it corporations, like the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation? We don't know. All we do know is that power is something Zaphod doesn't have. After all, this is one of only two footnotes in the entire book.
Quote #5
Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz was not a pleasant sight, even for other Vogons. His highly domed nose rose high above a small piggy forehead. His dark green rubbery skin was thick enough for him to play the game of Vogon Civil Service politics, and play it well, and waterproof enough for him to survive indefinitely at sea depths of up to a thousand feet with no ill effects. (5.1)
What Prosser is to Earth, Jeltz is to the galaxy, which sounds pretty majestic until you realize that he's just a bureaucratic functionary: he's a guy (er, a Vogon) with a job, not some supervillain monster that wants to destroy Earth for some insane but personal reason. It's just a job, but it certainly isn't all that.
Quote #6
"Here is what to do if you want to get a lift from a Vogon: forget it. They are one of the most unpleasant races in the Galaxy—not actually evil, but bad tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous. 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." (5.63)
According to the Guide, the Vogons are terribly bureaucratic and mean. They're not going to break the rules in order to help you. On the other hand, they're not exactly evil—they're not going to break the rules in order to harm you, either. Still, it may be hard to remember that when you're being chased by the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal while the Vogons are busy going through the appropriate forms.