"Come see the violence Inherent in the System! Help! Help! I'm being repressed!"
— Dennis the Peasant, Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
When you live under the thumb of The Empire or a Dystopian government, they have several ways to keep you there. This is a list of the many ways.
Named for a line in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which may have its origins in a Norman legal proceeding called the clameur de haro
.
Now we see the Tropes inherent in the Index!
Categories:
- 2 + Torture = 5: Forcing people to believe in a lie.
- Airstrip One: Your country no longer has a name.
- All Crimes Are Equal: Whoever tells a white lie or thinks of perverted thoughts is just as bad as a mass murderer and a child rapist, and all must be punished within the same degree.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Being unassimilated from the majority risks severe punishment.
- Anarcho-Tyranny: A corrupt government or tyrannical regime creates a state of Anarchy Is Chaos so everyone is too busy fighting each other to worry about them, criminal neglect on a nationwide scale.
- Ban on A.I.: Not a good place to be an engineer, even worse to be an intelligent robot.
- Ban on Magic: Sucks to be you if you're a wizard of some kind.
- Being Tortured Makes You Evil: If they don't like you, torture them 'till they do.
- Benevolent Dictator: The dictator is actually a good ruler.
- Big Brother Is Employing You: The main character works for the dystopian government.
- Big Brother Is Watching: Intruding in all aspects of private life.
- Bigot with a Badge: They'll profile you right into a jail cell.
- Book Burning: Destroying literature and art that dissents against the powers that be.
- Bread and Circuses: As long as the citizens enjoy the food and the entertainment, they don't have to know what exactly are we doing.
- Canned Orders over Loudspeaker: Broadcasting propaganda everywhere.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: You will do as we say or you're gonna suffer physically for it.
- Commie Land: When communists are in charge, expect things to be depressing and oppressive.
- Conscription: Refusing to join the army is illegal.
- Crapsaccharine World: Gruesome dictatorship masquerading as a Sugar Bowl, usually to ensnare more slaves.
- Crushing the Populace: When an empire decides that an area it has gained or regained a hold on must be punished, rather than rebuilt.
- Culture Police: Censoring all forms of art that seem subversive.
- Diagnosis: Knowing Too Much: Forcibly medicating someone to keep them quiet.
- The Dictatorship: An undemocratic and authoritarian form of government that is controlled by a leader or small clique.
- Dressed to Oppress: Clothing and other fashion choices as a visual cue to denote that a character is a dictator.
- Dystopian Edict: If you break the edict, you suffer the government's wrath.
- Emergency Authority: If Martial Law sets up a Police State.
- Evil Colonialist: A foreign oppressor against the natives.
- The Evils of Free Will: We can't have everyone making up their own minds, now can we?
- Exalted Torturer: Those people being tortured had it coming.
- The Exile: You're no longer welcome in your homeland.
- Fantastic Underclass: A fantasy or sci-fi is the lowest of the low.
- Fascist, but Inefficient: Turns out crushing human rights doesn't magically make trains run on time.
- Fascists' Bed Time: Forced curfews.
- Forbidden Holiday: Even holidays are against the law.
- Force Feeding: When the victim won't eat, or just to torture them.
- Forced to Watch: Cold-Blooded Torture is so passe. Better to make the victim watch their loved ones suffer!
- Full-Circle Revolution: Leaders change, but things stay the same.
- Government Drug Enforcement: Forcing everybody to take mind-controlling drugs.
- Government-Exploited Crisis: The government uses a disaster (which it may or may not have created) to further its own goals.
- Happiness Is Mandatory: Show how wonderful the regime makes you feel, on pain of death.
- Icon of Rebellion: The symbol of freedom fighters opposing the government.
- Illegal Religion: Forbidding people from following their own religion, usually in favor of the religion of those in power or devotion to the state.
- Individuality Is Illegal: You cannot have any personality that is different from others.
- Intellectually Supported Tyranny: The smart people support the dictatorship.
- Kill the Poor: If someone has to be sacrificed for any purpose, use poor people, that's what they're for.
- Lady Land: Sucks to be a guy.
- Love Is a Crime: Romance of any kind is forbidden.
- Mandatory Motherhood: Citizens are obligated to have children whether they like it or not!
- Make an Example of Them: We keep citizens in line by demonstrating the severe punishments on those who have disobeyed our laws!
- No Sex Allowed: The government tries to make everybody celibate.
- No Woman's Land: Sucks to be a girl.
- Oppressed Minority Veteran: Minority veterans face oppression in civilian life by the government of the country they fought for.
- Oppressive States of America: America being the exact polar opposite of the "Land of the Free".
- People's Republic of Tyranny: Masquerading as a democracy.
- Persecuted Intellectuals: Scholars are considered a threat to the regime, and dealt with accordingly.
- Police Brutality: Police are given free rein to get brutal on those who don't toe the line.
- Police State: Keeping a close watch over the citizens.
- Population Control: In order to have a manageable population, the government takes measure to keep the population within certain limits, either by sterilization or punishing dissenters. Alternatively, if the government needs labor or armies, they will mandate or encourage more babies.
- The Presents Were Never from Santa: Used as an excuse to justify oppressive power.
- President for Life: Wanted to vote the guy out of office? You're outta luck.
- Propaganda Machine: Hiding the truth from the people, feeding them lies instead.
- The Purge: Eliminating those who are deemed a threat.
- Quiet Cry for Help: Subtly asking another person for help.
- Rage Within the Machine: Subverting the dystopia from the inside.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Sending soldiers to do exactly that (maybe without the rape) to wipe your hometown off the map as an example.
- Red and Black Totalitarianism: A totalitarian state has red and black as its official colors.
- Reign of Terror: A rebellion begins purging its opponents.
- Released to Elsewhere: Executions are covered up with lies by the powers that be.
- Repressive, but Efficient: The dictatorship is cruel, but efficient.
- Restricted Rescue Operation: There are restrictions on how much you can help people.
- Secret Police: A stealth repressive arm that secretly abducts troublemakers.
- Sentenced Without Trial: Sentencing someone without a fair trial.
- The Stateless: Dissenters are stripped of their citizenship or nationality.
- State Sec: Thought Police Brutality and the Secret Police were bad? Well, now they have an entire army backing them, just so you know a direct confrontation is hopeless.
- Super Registration Act: Keeping all the individuals with superpowers under the government's thumb.
- A Taste of the Lash: Dissenters will be publicly whipped for all to see.
- Teach Him Anger: Enforcing shyness and hatred to specific subjects that are considered irrational.
- Thoughtcrime: You're not allowed to even think against the establishment.
- Totalitarian Gangsterism: Criminal gangs or organised crime are the ones oppressing the citizens.
- Un-person: Erasing all evidence that someone existed, when used as a method for oppression.
- Villainous Gentrification: Forced mass relocation under the name of urban renewal.
- Walls of Tyranny: Using walls not to protect, but to restrict movement and keep people under the government's thumb.
- Whip of Dominance: Using a whip as a symbol of dominance, control, authority, or sadism.
- You Are Number 6: Numbering people as a means of dehumanization and oppression.
