Culture Police: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* The first episode of the ''[[Excel Saga (anime)|Excel Saga]]'' anime parodies this. Lord Il Palazzo believes manga is corrupting the youth of Japan, and sends Excel out to assassinate manga authors, starting with the author of the [[Excel Saga (manga)|Excel Saga manga]]. She succeeds, and is promptly bitched out by the personification of the universe—essentially a living [[Reset Button]]—for breaking reality by killing her own author. It's [[Gag Series|that sort of show]].

* ''[[Library War]]'' is about a future Japan where the government institutes a policy of book burning and culture policing. An intentional loophole built into the law by its less enthusiastic signers allow public libraries to 'confiscate' books and save them from the bonfires, which has led to an elaborate system of ritualized warfare between culture police and the libraries.

* In ''[[AKB0048]]'', we have the DES who have banned any kind of artistic expression that "disturbs the heart". They consider the titular [[Idol Singer]]s to be terrorists, and will open fire on them and their fans.

 

== Comic Books ==

* In [[Marvel Comics]]' ''The New Exiles'', Dr. Doom, after taking control of the world, not only bans culture (comedy in particular), but also people's ability to show any strong emotion other than love and adoration toward him and hatred toward Reed Richards.

* The facist Norsefire government does this in ''[[V for Vendetta]]'', confiscating or stomping out most forms of art and music; V, as a contrast, uses the suppressed materials as an iconic symbol.

 

== Film ==

''So shall it be-e-e...

''This is the land of the free!'' }}

 

== Literature ==

* As detailed in the quote at the top of the page, ''[[The Book of Lord Shang]]'' advocates making music and learning illegal so the average person will devote his attention to farming.

* Society in ''[[The Giver]]'' is strictly regulated under a policy of "Sameness," in which [[Utopia Justifies the Means|life is carefully regulated to eliminate strife and division]]. Music and media have been eliminated. Weather is kept constantly pleasant, only raining at night to water crops while the people sleep. Sex drives, or "stirrings" as they're called in the Community, are suppressed by mandatory drugs (except for the few whose job it is to breed), as are other strong emotions. Even positive emotions like familial love have been carefully eliminated so as to avoid making waves. Animals of all descriptions have been eradicated, at least in the areas where people might actually see them, {{spoiler|and even the ability to see color has been carefully removed from the general population. Everyone is kept in blissful ignorance of the fact that life has ever been any different, with the exception of one individual per Community called "the Receiver of Memory," who is entrusted with the memories of life before Sameness in case a situation arises that requires such knowledge to resolve}}.

* In ''[[Matched]]'' by Ally Condie, there are only 100 of the best artworks of the past allowed to be appreciated, and people are not taught to write or draw.

 

* The ''[[Quantum Leap]]'' episode "Good Morning, Peoria" had Sam leaping into the body of a DJ during [[The Fifties]] and fighting a movement by the local government to ban rock music.

* An episode of ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'' had a town outlaw dancing and music while simultaneously passing a law that forced all children into military service. Xena was conscripted to train the children, and she undermined the changes by teaching the children dance and rhythmic music masked as military drills.

* In the ''[[Crusade]]'' episode "The Needs of Earth", a refugee thought to have information about a cure for the Drakh plague turns out to have recordings of his planet's cultural heritage, which is being systematically destroyed by its governing [[Moral Guardians]].

* The final episode of ''[[Max Headroom]]'' features a battle between the heroes and the Censor Board.

 

== Music ==

* The music video for DJ Kentaro's "FREE" is about a world where vinyl is banned—specifically, vinyl records.

* The [[Nine Inch Nails]] concept album ''Year Zero'' features a [[dystopia]]n future where the "Bureau of Morality" has eroded American civil liberties and generally act as a Culture Police against any form of expression, particularly music, that dissents against the powers that be.

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* ''Starchildren: The Velvet Generation'' (which could best be described as ''Ziggy Stardust: the RPG'') takes place in a future where an organization colloquially known as "Mad Mother" has ridden the wave of public distrust and stamped out rock music.

 

* Killer Queen and Globalsoft in ''[[We Will Rock You]],'' the rock musical based on the music of Queen, are bent on eliminating all music and, thus, free thought, on Planet Mall, aka Earth.

** Ironically, Killer Queen sings a song about half way through the play. This is excusable, though, because it's a musical. And who else but a villain could do "Another One Bites The Dust"?

** After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, all western TV, film, and music was banned in Iran. When liberalizing political attitudes in the mid-2000s lead to some western music being authorized for sale in the country, ironically enough, a Queen's greatest hits album was the first disc approved for sale. This was due to "Bohemian Rhapsody" containing the phrase "Bismillah."

 

== Video Games ==

* Semi-obscure first-person adventure ''[[Normality Computer Game|Normality]]'' plays this pretty straight; music is banned, joy is banned, most ''color'' is banned, and people have to turn their TV on (with only crap on air, of course) at all times. Later, you smash walls apart using a guitar.

* The INKT corporation in ''[[De Blob]]'' bans music and color. They take a more proactive approach on color, sucking it away with robots... which they then leave around for the protagonist to slam into and gain color to go spread around Chroma City once more.

 

== Web Comics ==

* Several storylines in ''[[Fans]]'' played this trope hilariously straight. Apparently, the only thing standing in the way of would-be world conquerors is science fiction fandom. Ban sci-fi, or go back in time and kill someone big like [[H. G. Wells]], and Earth is all yours.

* The Mayor in ''[[The Word Weary]]'' has a Grand Jury indict Yorick for his performance art.

 

== Web Original ==

* In the ''[[Chaos Timeline]]'' in Technocratic Germany. Censors the book "Das Paradies der Goldis" by Katherine Geller (apparently a bit like ''Valley of the Dolls'') for the depiction of mental diseases, drug addiction and lesbian love.

* Shows up a lot in ''[[A World of Laughter, A World of Tears]]''.

 

== Western Animation ==

* In [[Sequel Series]] ''[[The Legend of Korra]]'' cultural ''[[Muggle Power|revolutionaries]]'' the [[Anti-Magical Faction|Equalists]] want to eradicate the [[Supernatural Martial Arts]] of [[Elemental Powers|Bending]] and extend this to opposing its most popular culture, the [[Fictional Sport]] of pro-bending, on the grounds that it leads to idolizing benders, while [[The Magocracy]]'s anti-Equalist task force target the Equalist's chi-blocking dojos in turn, stamping out [[Muggle]] martial arts in the process of fighting terrorists.

* Mocked, like all tropes, on ''[[The Simpsons]]'' with the episode "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge". After Maggie hits Homer on the head with a mallet, Marge creates a Culture Police group to protest the hyperviolent Itchy & Scratchy cartoons that inspired Maggie's attack. She successfully convinces the studio behind the cartoons to clean up their act. Later in the episode, when Michaelangelo's ''David'' is brought to Springfield as part of a coast-to-coast American tour, the group Marge started is appalled to discover that she doesn't want it banned despite the exposed genitals. When grilled about it on a local talk show, Marge is called out on her hypocrisy and is forced to admit that it's wrong to censor one form of art but not others.

 

== Real Life ==

{{quote|'''Q:''' Why are Protestants opposed to shagging while standing up?

'''A:''' For fear that it might lead to dancing! }}

** There are also some insane regulations governing hair length and style, not a few of which are implicitly racist—applying language like "distracting" or "political" to ban, say, afros or cornrows. There are schools—including public schools—where black girls in particular are essentially forced, by process of elimination, to straighten their hair. There was [https://web.archive.org/web/20130824034526/http://www.racialicious.com/2008/07/28/denied-kindergarten-for-being-native/ a case] where an Apache boy was denied entrance to a ''kindergarten'' for having his hair long—and this was a school that was willing to make exceptions on "proven moral grounds," for which Apache tradition apparently doesn't qualify. ''And'' there are schools where, in addition to boys' not being allowed to have long hair, ''girls aren't allowed to have theirs too short''.

** A few of the stricter Protestant schools in the Netherlands ([[Freestate Amsterdam|there's quite a few actually]]) caught flak a few years back when not relaxing their no-pants-only-dresses-for-girls rules. This was during a particularly cold winter. And many girls came to school by bike.

** The previous Korean regime, the Joseon Kingdom, being a Neo-Confucian ideological dictatorship, had done the same thing ''to its own country's culture'', brutally suppressing shamanism and Buddhism and enforcing traditional sex-roles with Taliban-like zeal.

* During [[The American Civil War]], the government released propaganda on ''both'' sides claiming that the other was (insert horrible trait here).

** Although [[Never Live It Down|the world will not let Americans forget]] about the movement temporarily renaming french fries to "freedom fries" and french toast to "freedom toast" during [[The War on Terror]], [[Older Than They Think|it wasn't the first time this happened]]. During [[World War I]], sauerkraut was known as "Liberty cabbage," German measles became known as "Liberty measles", and dachshunds as "Liberty hounds". One name change that stuck in some parts of the country was the change from 'Frankfurter" to "Hot Dog"

** During the 1918 pandemic at least one American doctor used that very argument to claim that "Spanish Flu" should be renamed "German Flu". It didn't take (not that ''either'' name is appropriate, since the virus was first detected in Kansas).

** And hamburgers were renamed "Salisbury steaks," which now refers to a completely different meat dish.

* Of course, Americans are ''hardly'' the only people to develop Culture Police of [[Patriotic Fervor]] during wars. [[World War I]], in fact, was rife with Renames of [[Patriotic Fervor]]:

** The French renamed many foods that shared a name with [[Useful Notes/The Sound of Martial Music|Austria-Hungary]] or its territories and cities; for example, Café Viennois (Coffee from Vienna, the Austrian capital) became Café Liégeois (Coffee from Liege).

** The Brits pulled their own version of the "Liberty hound" and renamed the German Shepherd into the Alsatian. They also renamed German biscuits into Empire biscuits (also known as Belgian biscuits). Out of all the name changes, the Brits probably trumped ''everyone'' when their own royal family, by decree of George V, ''changed their own surname and house name'' from "Saxe-Coburg" to "[[The House of Windsor|Windsor]]" to remove any relation to Germany.

* Canadian and Australian authorities are still apologising - and rightly so - for having sent thousands of Aboriginal children to residential schools whose curriculum was essentially to destroy the various First Nations languages and cultures by teaching the students English and converting them to Christianity, "for their own good."

* As [[Godwin's Law|Godwin demanded]]: the Nazis condemned what they called "[[Gratuitous German|entartete Kunst]]" - "degenerate art." It was mostly [[Complaining About Shows You Don't Like|Complaining About Art They Didn't Like]]. In addition, they set about destroying art made by Jews, [[Hypocrite|except for classical music that Hitler liked]]. They downplayed the importance of the Jewish Lorenzo Da Ponte to Mozart's operas and the ancestry of the Johann Strauss's, but Hitler seemed to feel this was less important than the destruction of "degenerate art" famously declaring "[[No True Scotsman|I decide who is Jewish]].".

* Romania was doing this actively to the native Hungarians in Transylvania, during the communist administration. When the communists were chased out of Bucharest, they attempted to instigate a civil war and briefly came back to power but they are gradually losing influence. Many of their spiritual successors are currently in government and are continuing with the culture police.

* Censorship departments in several countries of Latin America during their dictatorships were this - Though, to be fair, they mostly censored political content.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Help Help This Index Is Being Repressed]]

[[Category:Censorship Tropes]]

[[Category:Politics Tropes]]

[[Category:Villains]]