One World Order: Difference between revisions

m
delink camelcase
m (update links)
m (delink camelcase)
Line 20:
* In ''[[One Piece]]'', the entire world is ruled by the aptly named World Government. In the past, there were other countries (at least 20) but they banded together to defeat the old world power. Now a days there is a civil war led by the Revolutionary known as Dragon.
** There are ''still'' many minor governments, but the World Government is working hard to incorporate them (sometimes peacefully sometimes... not), or obliterate them and send their populations to slave works. [[The Empire|They are that kind of people]].
* Anatoray and Disith in ''[[Last Exile]]'' eventually merge to form [[One World Order]] under the leadership of {{spoiler|Empress Sophia.}}
* Sara's and Lottie's home planet in ''[[Soukou no Strain]]'', as well as possibly the whole Union, resembles... Victorian England in space with gender equality. Go figure.
* In ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00|Gundam 00]]'', the three world-dominating blocs which make up most of the world form a World Government to oppose [[Necessarily Evil|Celestial Being]], and call themselves [[The Federation]]. At first they are evil, due to the manipulations of the [[Big Bad]] ([[Unfortunate Implications|and headed by a guy who looks a lot like Barack Obama]]), but at the end of the show become a benevolent version ([[Memetic Mutation|and headed by someone who looks a lot like Hillary Clinton]]).
* The latter half of ''[[After War Gundam X|Gundam X]]'' focuses on the remnants of the old Earth Federation trying to reclaim their old influence... by forcibly conquering Europe, Asia, and Africa. By the end of the series, though, they're still having a hard time with North America (they really didn't expect the generally lawless and fractured city-states and Vultures to band together against them) and the remaining space colonies are not pleased with the Federation's revival.
* In ''[[Gundam Wing]]'', we get to see this in action as [[War for Fun and Profit|the Romefeller Foundation]] uses their overwhelming military power to conquer the planet, forming the World Nation. Then they make [[Rebellious Princess|Relena]] their figurehead leader and she pulls [[Reassignment Backfire]] by turning the Foundation benevolent. At the end of the series, the World Nation surrenders to the colony rebel army White Fang, and between then and [[The Movie]] it becomes the Earth Sphere Unified Nation, which despite the name seems to be a more benevolent [[The Federation]].
* In the Universal Century ''Gundam'' series, the Earth Federation had long establish control over the entire planet. On the other hand, it's presented (especially further down the line) as an elitist, bureaucratic mess rife with corruption. Their reach beyond the planet is also shown to be shaky at best, with many of the colonies not exactly eager to be under EF rule.
* In ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]'', many organizations hope that Johan Liebert will lead them to this. Of course, [[Complete Monster|Johan Liebert]] doesn't care about any of that as he shows all of them that [[Evil Is Not a Toy]].
 
Line 50:
** ''[[X Wing Series|Starfighters of Adumar]]'' is about, among other things, a planet that had been human-colonized and left isolated being discovered by the New Republic and the Empire. The planet, Adumar, was a nonunified mass of countries, many at war with each other, making trying to get the world to affiliate with one or the other complicated. Negotiations were with the leader of the largest country with the greatest number of allies. He was trying to unite the planet under him; other countries weren't having that, and there was a battle. The bottom line has a world government formed from representatives of each country, rather than that one guy.
* In the ''[[Left Behind]]'' series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, [[The Antichrist]] becomes leader of the UN and creates the Global Community, declaring a single world government, currency, and ''religion''. No one objects, and it's not clear if this is supposed to be because of his [[Mind Control]] abilities. Its successor, the universal state created by [[God]] after the Second Coming, also qualifies as a (supposedly) more benign example.
* Ira Levin's ''[[This Perfect Day]]'' has the entire world unified under the control of one gigantic supercomputer, although the backstory shows that political and cultural unification predates the building of UNICOMP by a generation or two, while each continent had its own computer before that (EUROCOMP, USACOMP, et cetera). This political unification is one of the few things about his society that doesn't annoy the hero so much that he decides to blow up the computer.
* This is one of the main points of the paradise-like Third Earth of DJ MacHale's ''[[Pendragon]]''.
* The first cycle of ''[[Perry Rhodan]]'', the third power feature as part of the plot the unification of Earth into a [[One World Order]].
Line 60:
* In Olaf Stapledon's ''[[Last and First Men]]'', this happens ''several times'' over Man's eon-spanning [[Future History]]. The first of these is an Americanized World State.
* This is pretty much what the Polity is in the [[Polity Series]]- they are autocratic but fairly benevolent.
* [[Dichter Und Denker|German philosopher]] Oswald Spengler wrote in his non-fiction book ''[[The Decline of the West]]'' that he thought the western civilization might create this at the end.
* ''[[Carrera's Legions|Carreras Legions]]'': The UN became this several centuries prior to current events in the series, and was renamed United Earth after the concept of nations was eliminated through legislative and bureaucratic methods.
 
Line 81:
{{quote|'''Garak:''' It's vile!
'''Quark:''' I know. It's so bubbly and cloying and happy. But you know what's really frightening? If you drink enough of it, you begin to like it. }}
**** A few seasons later there's a call back to that statement. When the Dominion invades the station, Quark is all too happy to throw out all the root beer and human food and stock for his new Cardassian customers. However, after a few months, Quark admits that he wants the Federation back on DS9 and that he wants to sell root beer again.
**** There is also a different explanation; maybe it's not insidious assimilation. Perhaps you just begin to like root beer because it's an acquired taste...just like [[The Federation]]. They're the most benevolent guys around, abounding with [[Reasonable Authority Figure|reasonable authority figures]] (Section 31 notwithstanding) and all sorts of benefits for their citizens, tangible and intangible, while pretty much anywhere else such niceties are very hard to find. There's nothing wrong with choosing root beer when the alternatives are unpalatable and you don't want to go thirsty.
* In ''[[Firefly]]'', the Alliance more or less rules all planets inhabited by humans, and has thoroughly put down the secessionist rebellion of the Independent Faction (in which Mal Reynolds served as a Browncoat).
Line 105:
* ''[[Project Sylpheed]]'' gives us the Terran Central Government (TCG), which apparently rules the entire Earth and its colonies. It has the Terran Central Armed Forces (TCAF) as its military.
* Averted in ''[[Galactic Civilizations]] 2'': factions start the games as a [[One World Order]], but moving up the [[Tech Tree]] allows more and more power to be delegated to colonies and other government bodies. The lack of red tape increases production, but also activates elections, forcing you to keep your popularity up to keep your political party in power, or suffer sever penalties if you lose the senate.
* Played straight in the ''[[Dead Space (series)|Dead Space]]'' series with [[Earth Gov]]EarthGov. It's mentioned in background sources that this was the result of several wars, political upheavals and the depletion of natural resources planetside. It's also mentioned, however, that special preference was made to the United States.
* In ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'', the Administrator is the CEO of two [[NGO Superpower|NGOSuperpowers]], RED and BLU, and a [[War for Fun and Profit|weapon supply company]], TFIndustries; all together, they give her complete control of the entire world.
* The ultimate objective of most ''[[Total War]]'' games is to make one of these with your faction of choice. A ''lot'' harder than it sounds.
* One method of winning Campaign Mode in ''[[Rise of Nations]]'' is to have your faction take over the world, creating a [[One World Order]].
Line 122:
 
== Expanded Universe ==
* In the ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[Expanded Universe]], species that don't have much to do with the greater galaxy are quite capable of maintaining several different cultures, factions, sects, teams, and fan clubs.
** A good aversion of [[Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale]]. Since a vast majority of star systems in the galaxy can ''(and do)'' support sentient life, there are simply far too many races and planets for all of them to be homogenized under one banner. Even [[The Empire]] at it's height controlled maybe 60-65% of the galaxy and had nowhere near enough soldiers or starships to make their presence known outside of space-faring systems, with many "mini-Empires" and planets that enjoyed ''de facto'' autonomy. Chances are good that hundreds, maybe thousands, of star systems within the Empire's borders watched it come and go without ever having known it was there.
 
Line 145:
== Live-Action TV ==
* [[Lampshade|Lampshaded]] in ''[[Alien Nation (TV series)|Alien Nation]]'' when Sykes is surprised his Tenctonese lady friend follows a more "Eastern" religion, then admits it's stupid to think an entire race of people would only follow one belief system.
* Both the Minbari and the Centauri in ''[[Babylon 5]]'' had wide enough variations in languages that different representatives had different accents when speaking in English (Lennier vs. Delenn, Vir vs. Londo). (But they still had monolithic cultures, against which Earth's diversity was [[Lampshade Hanging|deliberately contrasted]] in a first-season episode.)
** Judging from the flashes to the future at the end of the fourth season, it seems to be implied that the humanity is on its way towards a monolithic culture, as well -- the logical result of easy travel and long-distance communication in the long term, presumably.
* In ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', the Goa'uld are ruled by a group called the System Lords; true to their name, their government is generally very feudal, with Goa'uld serving different leaders, trying to empower themselves, and at war most of the time (using expendable human slaves).
** Also, the Tok'ra [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much|reject the Goa'uld practice of taking over unwilling hosts]], and live as symbionts with partners who voluntarily host them.
Line 159:
* The backstory universe of ''[[BattleTech]]'' has the One World Order forming and collapsing no less than 4 times! First Earth became a one-world order who sent out space colonies. Eventually the colonies rebelled into several bickering nations. Finally a force of personality united the bickering 5 major nations into a united One-Galaxy Empire. This collapsed after a Usurper killed the leader and his family and the five nations each claimed the throne. The Army of the now gone One-World Government fled and set up a new one world government of its own (the Clans). After 300 year of fighting, these clans returned. After an initial thwarting, the One-world-Order leader of the Clans was dissolved. In eventual response to the invasion, the 5 governments recreated the original one-world government again as a united force to stop the invaders. after the invaders stopped, the government, its mission accomplished, was dissolved. At which point an army of religious fanatics attempted to take on the whole galaxy to recreate another one-world government in their own image. The point seems to be that [[One World Order|One World Orders]] aren't viable...up until you realize that if a sustainable version were to be created, the game would end.
** ...or just tear themselves apart anyway, [[Humans Are Warriors|'cause that's how we roll]]. After all, [[Real Life]] governments of all sizes have a habit of doing this once there's nobody left to fight, too. ''[[BattleTech]]'' always was one of the more intensely political fantasy/sci-fi universes.
* [[Traveller]]: Played with. The Third Imperium is the dominant power. However the Imperium has thousands of subsidiary governments, sometimes several on the same world, as well as governments outside the Imperium. [[Planet Terra]] itself is usually under one government.
 
 
Line 172:
* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' both uses and subverts this trope. On the one hand, there is a galactic council that oversees issues relating to the entire galaxy. But the in-game literature also talks about how separate, smaller governments still exist. Also, they mention how each other species has as many varied languages, cultures, and religions as humans do.
** Even at a species level, truly unified government seems rare: the Turian Hierarchy is fairly centralised, but the Systems Alliance is a multinational organization that provides interstellar defense and diplomatic representation to Earth's actual nation states, the Salarian Union is a semi-feudal collection of independent matrilinear clans, and the Asari Republics barely qualify as a government at all (Their concil member is the ''only'' permanent asari political office).
* Also averted in ''[[Homeworld]],'' at least with the Kharaki/Hiigarans. While the species itself is unified, it's mentioned there are various, distinct clans and houses that serve as countries onto themselves.
* More or less the goal in ''[[Civilization]]'' games. The conquest victory would be an evil example, the diplomatic victory a benign case (although the U.N. does appoint you ruler over everything, including anyone still voting against you, so it can still overlap with the sinister examples). The cultural victory doesn't really imply an abolishment of nations, but more turning earth into a [[Planet of Hats]] where the entire culture is like that of your country, so it comes close. The science victory might imply the formation of [[The Federation]] when you travel to another star, but it seems more like telling the world [[South Park|"Screw you guys, I'm going to]] [[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri|Alpha Centauri"]].
* While the United Nations in ''[[Halo]]'', or rather the UNSC serves as a unified front against the Covenant, it's mentioned that it's more or less a projection of the modern-day UN rather than a world government. Among others, it's stated that individual countries, organizations and cultures are still very much alive.