History Main / DystopiaIsHard

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* {{Warhammer 40000}} The Imperium of man not only has fight off external threats against its worlds, it also has to govern them. With the Imperium so huge and bloated this requires thousand of administrators and governors to deal with the day to day tasks of each planet, but they also need to put down constant rebellions, internal threats, and look out for incoming invasions. The Imperium also has a hard time communicating with worlds that are millions of light years away from each other, that they have no idea that they might be investing money in worlds that are already dead, or that their reinforcements are too late to arrive.
** Indeed, it seems that the Imperium manages to survive mostly because its so large that its exponential growth surpasses its exponential decay. Barely. Or maybe its just so large that its going to take a few centuries to get all the way to dead.

* The short story [[PoulAnderson ''Sam Hall'']] is about a dystopian government that collapses because of all the resources they expend trying to track down the titular malcontent who managed to get cross-referenced with a police report. The effort they expend to track him down increases as every effort they expend to find him fails. And the reason they can't find him is because ''he doesn't actually exist''. A data entry clerk created a file for a fictitious person named after a drinking song as a joke and entered it into the system.

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* This is one interpretation of the epilogue of ''[=~1984~=]''. It's an in-universe treatise on Newspeak, the language with which Big Brother intended to completely supplant English. The treatise itself is written in normal English, and refers to both Newspeak and Big Brother in the past tense, possibly implying that it was written some time after Oceana's totalitarian government fell. Orwell himself {{Jossed}} this one, but DeathOfTheAuthor and all that...

* In one example of OlderThanTheyThink, the para-text of ''TheHandmaidsTale'' practically spells this out: the Republic of Gilead, theocratic dystopia that it was, didn't take all that long to completely implode under the weight of its own contradictions and ineptitude. This gets pretty obvious even during the course of the novel, however, as even just seven years after its founding, it seems like Gilead is coming apart at the ''seams'': the "wives" of the theocratic strongmen who founded the Republic are not at all pleased with the results, it's clear that the same strongmen don't believe what they preach at all (a government-run brothel in a ''Christian theocracy''? yup), and it gets more and more obvious as the novel goes on that the complete ineptitude of those in charge is fomenting a massive counter-rebellion against Gilead; actually, sporadic warfare has already broken out in backwaters of the former USA, mostly incited by [[{{Irony}} dissident Christians]]. [[spoiler:It's implied that the end of the novel proper may even be the opening shots of the civil war that destroyed the theocracy.]]

* The short story ''Sam Hall'' is about a dystopian government that collapses because of all the resources they expend trying to track down the titular malcontent who managed to get cross-referenced with a police report. The effort they expend to track him down increases as every effort they expend to find him fails. And the reason they can't find him is because ''he doesn't actually exist''. A data entry clerk created a file for a fictitious person named after a drinking song as a joke and entered it into the system.

This trope is often used to [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstruct]] the concept of Dystopia. [[TheBadGuyWins The villains have won the day]], and now it looks like society is doomed. But then the villains learn a harsh lesson: running an ''actual'' country or company or what have you based purely on [[CharacterAlignment some flavor of evil]] is ''hard.'' Forget [[TheTrainsRunOnTime making all the trains run on time]], just ensuring all the {{Black Shirt}}s get a check on payday [[MookFaceTurn so they don't rebel]] is a ''titanic'' effort. Plus you're now opposed by those who you are trying to oppress at all turns. Your fellow ruling villains may turn on you or grow lazy and incompetent. In short, DystopiaIsHard and often falls apart quickly.

* In one example of OlderThanTheyThink, the para-text of ''TheHandmaidsTale'' practically spells this out: the Republic of Gilead, theocratic dystopia that it was, didn't take all that long to completely implode under the weight of its own contradictions and ineptitude. This gets pretty obvious even during the course of the novel, however, as even just seven years after its founding, it seems like Gilead is coming apart at the ''seams'': the "wives" of the theocratic strongmen who founded the Republic are not at all pleased with the results, it's clear that the same strongmen don't believe what they preach at all (a government-run brothel in a ''Christian theocracy''? yup), and it gets more and more obvious as the novel goes on that the complete ineptitude of those in charge is fomenting a massive counter-rebellion against Gilead; actually, sporadic warfare has already broken out in backwaters of the former USA, mostly incited by [[{{Irony}} Christians]]. [[spoiler:It's implied that the end of the novel proper may even be the opening shots of the civil war that destroyed the theocracy.]]

*** Some of the more cynical political commentators are even saying that basic human rights were adhered better in the late stages of the Soviet Union than in the modern Russia, since they were at least trying to believe in their moral superiority over the capitalist nations; dissenters were more often banished, rather than assassinated or perpetually imprisoned under fluke charges.

** North Korean was able to survive by means of getting a successor after Kim Il-sung finally died of heart attack. But it still plays it straight: the country is utterly crippled by its over-expenditures of its weapons, and that its military is thriving while its farming is barely enough to feed its people. The capital Pyongyang is the only city that gets any real help from the government, everywhere else barely has enough on what is needed.

** This troper would like to note that this trope is not played entirely straight: the majority of the men in this society are a) armed and b) do not expect to have a chance at a woman -- read 'any permitted sexual outlet whatsoever' -- unless they're really, really lucky because those government-run brothels are only for the high-ranking members of the government & foreign officials. And it's lasted seven ''years''?
*** Two words: Military homosexuality. And we see the results of that, too: the men in question are hanged as "gender traitors".

* ''AtlasSgrugged'': In the name of the greater good, the combined weight of the {{Dystopian Edict}}s, looters, moochers, job deserters, and the strike end the industrialized world.

* In one example of OlderThanTheyThink, the para-text of ''TheHandmaidsTale'' practically spells this out: the Republic of Gilead, theocratic dystopia that it was, didn't take all that long to completely implode under the weight of its own contradictions and ineptitude. This gets pretty obvious even during the course of the novel, however, as even just seven years after its founding, it seems like Gilead is coming apart at the ''seams'': the "wives" of the theocratic strongmen who founded the Republic are not at all pleased with the results, it's clear that the same strongmen don't believe what they preach at all (a government-run brothel in a ''Christian theocracy''? yup), and it gets more and more obvious as the novel goes on that the complete ineptitude of those in charge is fomenting a massive counter-rebellion against Gilead. [[spoiler:It's implied that the end of the novel proper may even be the opening shots of the civil war that destroyed the theocracy.]]

** This trope is discussed in the novel. It's stated that it's very rare for a civilization as brutal and oppressive to become as advanced as it has before collapsing.

** In general, StarWars villains tend to have a problem with this. It's virtually one of the main Jedi arguments against the Sith philosophy - the Sith are so concerned with jockeying and positioning for power, as per their code, that it is practically impossible for them ''to'' govern effectively.

** Heck, it was even a ''Sith'' argument against Sith philosophy, though of course the people making it wouldn't admit they were breaking tradition. Eventually Darth Bane wiped out this heresy very thoroughly by killing every other Sith in one go and establishing the RuleOfTwo. Even the Rule of Two was a way of dealing with this, deriving from [[KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Darth Revan]], who was very strict that there should only be two Sith Lords, the master and one apprentice, because multiple apprentices could kill the master too easily by joining forces. Of course, real Sith like Bane and Revan still believed [[{{Darwinist}} that the insane competition and mistrust the Sith philosophy encouraged would make the Sith stronger by weeding out the weak]], rather than weaker because they couldn't really co-operate.

* The Novelization of ''StarWars: A New Hope'' outright stated that rebellion was getting massive support because of Palpatine's inability to actually '''rule''': he can run a masterful XanatosGambit to depose somebody without seeming involved, sure, but how about ''actually deciding which projects should be greenlit'', aside from the Death Star? In fact, {{CorruptCorporateExecutive}}s were running things in Empire long before its fall.

*** Two words: Military homosexuality.

Typically leads to a WorldHalfFull situation. A crucial component of PostCyberPunk, which tends to reject the ideas that a society can't be repaired and that explicitly malevolent organizations can sustain themselves even ''without'' "heroic" interference.

A crucial component of PostCyberPunk, which tends to reject the ideas that a society can't be repaired and that explicitly malevolent organizations can sustain themselves for long even ''without'' "heroic" interference.

*** In other words, he isn't ''incompetent''' by any stretch of imagination, its just that his priorities as Emperor and the priorities of the citizens, corporations, [[OverlyLongGag livestock]], [[TheLongList force ghosts, and droids]] that compose the Empire are not in any way related. Like many real-life dictators, he's too busy with building up and maintaining the military, protecting himself and ensuring his continued rule, and ensuring corrupt bureaucrats liked him to care much about economic stability, competition, prosperity, or well-being.

*This is one interpretation of the epilogue of ''[=~1984~=]''. It's an in-universe treatise on Newspeak, the language with which Big Brother intended to completely supplant English. The treatise itself is written in normal English, and refers to both Newspeak and Big Brother in the past tense, possibly implying that it was written some time after Oceana's totalitarian government fell.