Dystopia Is Hard: Difference between revisions

 

Typically leads to [[A World Half Full]] situation.

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== Literature ==

 

 

* ''[http://misspentyouthgame.com/ Misspent Youth]'' by Robert Bohl attempts to deal with this trope by making the Dystopia local and relevant to the lives of teenagers. During Dystopia creation, the group creates Systems of Control that are technological ways The Authority has to mess with your lives.

** Indeed, it seems that the Imperium manages to survive mostly because it's so large that its exponential growth surpasses its exponential decay. Barely. Or maybe its just so large that it's going to take a few centuries to get all the way to dead.

** However, the hardness comes from [[Failure Is the Only Option|losing constantly to various xenos races and Chaos]].

** Generally, however, it varies. Some places are real shitholes, being heavily polluted, or just plain unpleasant. Others, not so much. The planet Merosa, for instance, is described as a planet where billions of serfs mine every day, while despots rule through might in arms, while Macgragge is described as being a generally pleasant place to live, not unlike England, or France. This is because the Imperium knows it cannot run its billions of worlds, so it just leaves them to get on with it. As long an you venerate the God Emperor, pay your taxes, and don't trade or deal with Xenos, they don't really ''give'' a shit.

 

== Western Animation ==

* The reign of homicidal maniac [[The Caligula|Caligula]] was followed by the more moderate and successful reign of Claudius, following the former's assassination when his guard found his rule unbearable, though Claudius was at least initially treated as a puppet emperor.

* North Korea was able to survive after Kim Il-Sung finally died of heart attack, but it still plays it straight: the country is utterly crippled by its excessive military spending, with the result that its military is thriving while everyone else tries to get by on what remains. The capital Pyongyang is the only city that gets any real help from the government, everywhere else barely has enough of what is needed.

*** Also, don't forget the "[[Human Resources|long pork]]". All of that [[Sarcasm Mode|wonderful, wonderful]] [[No Party Like a Donner Party|long pork]].

** It is important to note that the Communist state of North Korea has managed to endure without any real institutional change, which should go as an example of just how much a government can get away with so long as it maintains the support of the military and keeps the population so repressed that organized opposition is impossible. However, North Korea's policies and lack of reform do mean that it is heavily reliant on aid from the outside world (including its enemies the U.S and South Korea ironically) to survive.

** North Korea's international economic strategy at this point is essentially to [[Batman Gambit|extort the rest of the world into sending aid to its populace by threatening to kill them, then intercepting and selling the shipments]], [[Crapsack World|while using the populace as human shields to ward off potential invasion and buying off the countries that wouldn't care as much about the collateral damage]].

* The only reason [[Nazi Germany]] lasted as long as it did was because [[Adolf Hitler]] was very, very good at convincing people to ignore logic and observable evidence, and because the loot from invaded countries all went to Germany. By the end of [[World War II]], the economy and government was in shambles. Even if Germany had won, the regime probably would not have lasted very long, especially once there was no longer a war to distract people's attention.

** Nazi Germany only really functioned in two modes: preparing for a war and fighting a war. Repeat. End result; the "thousand-year Reich" lasted 13 years.

* [[To Get Rich Is Glorious|Modern China]] is a very strange aversion. During Mao's rule, the country was an authoritarian ''and'' unstable hellhole against which North Korea actually compared favourably. After Mao died, those left in the system figured that if they don't [[Bread and Circuses|keep the populace fed and happy]] and focus on development rather than knocking around for a global revolution, they would not last long. [[Magnificent Bastard|Deng Xiaoping]] ensured that those with a stake in the old system had a stake in the new system too. The result? The authoritarian system Mao placed survived, but evolved into become something less dystopian, significantly more stable and infinitely more pragmatic (keeping in mind that [[Banned in China|some]] [[Gaia's Lament|problems]] [[Apathetic Citizens|persist]]). One could say that China is a [[Police State]] that tries make an authoritarian dystopia work by trimming the harder bits out, to the point where some people might wonder if it is even a dystopia.

** China exists by being too large and making enough money to fund things so it can survive along with actually encouraging tourism unlike many dictatorships. There are massive problems but China is even larger

 

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[[Category:You Would Not Want to Live In Dex]]

[[Category:Settings]]