Bread and Circuses: Difference between revisions

* Aldous Huxley's [[Brave New World (novel)|Brave New World]] gives us an interesting example of a dystopia that manages to be surprisingly nice. As long as you're upper-caste (Alpha and Beta, at least), life is orgies and drink and drugs and parties; the lower-caste (Delta and Epsilon) are conditioned to be content both with their workload and with their life in general (and their free time is also orgies, drinks, drugs, and parties).

** It's never quite made clear what the Gammas are, but as you can see, it doesn't make very much difference.

* [[Discworld|The Patrician]] runs Ankh-Morpork well, so most of his people don't question all the shady activities involved in the running. {{spoiler|Except the mimes.}} [[Vetinari Job Security|So far he's been reinstated after every deposition.]] Although he has been described as Machiavellian, unlike the page quote, he does not fortify himself through being loved (in fact most either dislike or are indifferent to him), but by being ''necessary'', and better than any alternative.

** In ''[[Discworld/Interesting Times|Interesting Times]]'' some middle-class revolutionaries try to overthrow the Agathean Empire in the name of the workers. Rincewind asks them if they've checked what the workers would prefer to happen. (They haven't.)