History Main / DystopianEdict

* It doesn't get more absurd than the half-hour episode of ''Six Dates with Barker'' starring Ronnie Barker, about a world in which everybody has to laugh at old music hall routines.

** The Imperium of Man: Worship the God-Emperor of Mankind as in the Imperial Creed. Any divergence from this creed (as arbitrated by the higher church officials based on personal opinion) is heresy and punishable by immediate death. Violations (which may or may not be overlooked depending on how trigger-happy the cleric in question is) include being a freethinker, questioning the imperium, pointing out that the guy who wrote their Bible fell to Chaos soon afterward because the Emperor ''rejected'' being the subject of religion, annoying someone with the power to declare anyone a heretic, porn, being tangentially associated with somebody accused of heresy, minor doctrinal differences stemming from a world having little contact with the larger Imperium, being a mutant of some sort, technological innovation (inherited from the Adeptus Mechanicus), not revering the Emperor hard enough, being sympathetic to aliens, and so on.
** The Eldar: All Eldar must adopt a 'path', or a profession they master utterly before moving on to the next. Eldar life is absolutely paramount over non-Eldar, even when you're sacrificing billions of humans who would otherwise have also fought Chaos. No non-Eldar are allowed on Maiden Worlds (and no, you're not allowed to tell them which worlds are Maiden Worlds). And while it isn't law, most Eldar are hampered by the extreme cultural arrogance and an unwillingness to cooperate on level with other species.

See also TheEvilsOfFreeWill for what most of these Dystopian Edicts ultimately boil down to. Common [=Dystopian Edicts=] include:

* "[[HappinessIsMandatory Happiness is mandatory]]. Unhappiness is treason. Treason is punishable by summary execution. Are you happy, citizen?" - Friend Computer, ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' Fortunately, The Computer is your Friend, and will be only too happy to ''help'' you be happy by applying Better Living Through Pharmaceuticals. As a result, many Citizens are so happy they forget to do anything else, like eat or sleep.

* ''Film/{{Anon}}'': All memory has to be stored online.
* No children allowed! (Vulgaria in the movie version of ''Film/ChittyChittyBangBang'', unsurprisingly written by Creator/RoaldDahl)

* No emotions at all! (''Film/{{Equilibrium}}'' and ''Film/{{Equals}}'')
* ''Film/Firebird2015AD'': Because of PostPeakOil (which is a big fat lie made long after the edict was made in TheNineties - apparently at the very beginning [[ForTheEvulz there was no damn reason at all]]), motor vehicles are for government use only. Anybody who is caught driving a car will be labeled a "[[FutureSlang burner]]" and arrested [[KnightTemplar by any means necessary]].
* ''Film/{{Footloose}}'': No Dancing!

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOMovie'': No creativity allowed, everyone must follow the instructions.

* Creator/RobertSilverberg's ''To See The Invisible Man'' (which was adapted as an episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985''). A future society requires everyone to be friendly and warm to each other at all times. Anyone convicted of being "cold" must spend an entire year with a mark on their forehead that warns everyone else not to acknowledge their existence in any way.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E65TheObsoleteMan The Obsolete Man]]", anyone who does anything the State declares wrong or useless (here being a librarian, believing in God) is judged "obsolete", with the penalty being death.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': [[ArcWords There is no war in Ba Sing Se]]. Any attempts to point out the war that's been raging for 100 years ''outside'' of Ba Sing Se will, at best (i.e. if you're the Avatar and his friends and cannot be disappeared) be met with stonewalling and run-arounds. For most people, it'll be met with arrest by the Dai Li and being taken to Lake Laogai to be brainwashed into a puppet of the regime.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'': Timmy once ended up in a dystopian alternate future (ruled by his dad!) where everyone must smile all the time!
* Everyone must dance to Music/{{Bananarama}}! (''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad''. Roger takes over as dictator of a small Caribbean island.)
* In the ''Tomorrow Boys'' episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'', Jimmy and his friends, Sheen and Carl, were testing his time machine and finds a city under Libby’s control. Under this, '''the people are required to watch many dance programs at certain time'''. The boys discovered Libby was given the Megalomanium by mistake on her birthday and must go to the future Jimmy and get him to rethink about science after marrying Cindy.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In the "Cutie Markless" episode's, Starlight Glimmer runs a town that practically runs on IndividualityIsIllegal. At one point, she confines the mane cast in a room with a loudspeaker that does nothing but play Dystopian Edicts that are variations on "Everyone is the same."

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': A Treehouse of Horror episode has Homer visit an alternate reality ruled by Dictator Flanders. HappinessIsMandatory, and anyone found not happy will be forced to smile for hours by metal hooks, and if that doesn't cheer them up, they're given Flanders' special cure of a nice glass of warm milk and a total frontal lobotomy.
* ''WesternAnimation/SantaClausIsCominToTown'': Burgermeister Meisterburger bans all toys from Sombertown after he trips on one and hurts himself. This is not good news for the young Santa Claus, who is tasked with delivering the toys made by the elves to the children of Sombertown.

** The [[GaiasRevenge enviro-tyranny]] of {{Cascadia}} launches one after its previously WellIntentionedExtremist government is taken over by a PathOfInspiration. They outlaw laughter, judging that it unduly wastes air, one of Nature's precious treasures.

[[folder:Film]]

* No chocolate! (''Bootleg'' by Alex Shearer, which was also made into a TV series, a manga and an anime.)

** ''Literature/HarrisonBergeron'': [[TallPoppySyndrome Nobody is allowed to be better at anything than anyone else.]]

* ''Firebird 2015'': Because of PostPeakOil (which is a big fat lie made long after the edict was made in TheNineties - apparently at the very beginning [[ForTheEvulz there was no damn reason at all]]), motor vehicles are for government use only. Anybody who is caught driving a car will be labeled a "[[FutureSlang burner]]" and arrested [[KnightTemplar by any means necessary]].

* ''LightNovel/TheThirdTheGirlWithTheBlueEye'' has the "Technos Taboo". Enforced by the ruling elite known as the Third to prevent the most advanced of technology from being used outside of their control.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/BlackMirror'' has a popular episode wherein people's worth is defined by a 5-point system.
* No unhappiness! (The ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E2TheHappinessPatrol The Happiness Patrol]]'')

** "Majority Rule" features a planet where the number of "likes" a person has attached to a device they wear can have them get mind wiped in the worst case. As if the entire planet is a comments section, so to speak.
** "All the World is a Birthday Cake" features a planet ruled by astrology. Specifically, people are deemed to be either cursed or destined for greatness depending on the stellar sign they were born under. To top it off, it's really just a fascist dystopia that targets people based on FantasticRacism.

* In the ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]'' episode "A Taste of Armageddon" two planets are at war with each other, but have set up a system where, instead, of actually dropping nuclear bombs on each other, they have computers calculate how many people ''would'' be killed if one of them dropped a bomb on another. Anyone the computers determine would have been killed by the hypothetical blast have 24 hours to report to a DisintegrationChamber and let themselves be killed. Apparently, in the 500 years the war had been going on for, no one had ever refused to let themselves be disintegrated until Captain Kirk came along. It's implied that this orderly and clean system of war is actually what has kept the conflict going for so long when the horrors (and physical cost) of a real war would have had both sides crying for peace centuries ago.
* The people of Kaelon II are required to commit ritual suicide at age sixty according to Doctor Timicin in the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Half a Life." The intent of the almost two-thousand-year-old "resolution" is to allow people to face death with dignity instead of dying slowly from natural causes (it also relieved pressure on Kaelon II's health care system), but Lwaxana Troi finds it barbaric and convinces Timicin to seek asylum on the ''Enterprise'', nearly causing a diplomatic incident. When his work is threatened (his people will not allow him to publish his work on restoring their dying sun if he receives asylum), Timicin agrees that his people are more important than his life and Lwaxana accompanies him to his resolution ceremony.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E65TheObsoleteMan The Obsolete Man]]" anyone who does anything the State declares wrong or useless (here being a librarian, believing in God) is judged "obsolete", with the penalty being death.

* ''Firebird 2015'': Because of PostPeakOil (which is a big fat lie made long after the edict was made in TheEighties - apparently at the very beginning [[ForTheEvulz there was no damn reason at all]]), motor vehicles are for government use only. Anybody who is caught driving a car will be labeled a "[[FutureSlang burner]]" and shot.

* ''ComicBook/Transformers2019'' has the Nominus Edict, which is increasingly seen as one of these by the general population. It was instituted by the Autobot leader Nominus Prime following the devastating [[WarJustBefore War of the Threefold Spark]], and while part of the edict is understandable (lethal weapons are sealed away, Cybertronians aren't allowed to have integrated weaponry built into them), others like a ban on both the founding of colonies without unanimous approval from the Senate (something nigh impossible) and exploration is viewed as stifling Cybertron's culture and citizens. When the series begins, the Autobots ''try'' to [[HeadInTheSandManagement present Cybertron as being a peaceful utopia]], but ignore when it's pointed out the Nominus Edict has long worn out its welcome.

* ''Film/RepoMen'' and ''Film/RepoTheGeneticOpera'': If you cannot pay TheUnion's/[=GeneCo=]'s fees for transplants, they will send an assassin called a Repo Man to [[RidiculousRepossession literally rip Little Billy's transplanted heart out of his chest to resell it]].

* ''Film/RepoMen'' and ''Film/RepoTheGeneticOpera'': If you cannot pay [=GeneCo=]'s fees for transplants, they will send an assassin called a Repo Man to literally rip Little Billy's transplanted heart out of his chest to resell it.

* ''Firebird 2015'': Because of PostPeakOil (which is a big fat lie made long after the edict was made - apparently at the very beginning [[ForTheEvulz there was no damn reason at all]]), motor vehicles are for government use only. Anybody who is caught driving a car will be labeled a "[[FutureSpeak burner]]" and shot.

* The "It is illegal to be unhappy!" variety seems pretty common. It also appears in a MickeyMouse cartoon, where Mickey and WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck have fallen through the Bermuda triangle into a fantasy kingdom. Everybody is smiling like crazy. At one point, the king orders his guards to arrest a gardener, seemingly at random. When Mickey protests that the man wasn't being unhappy, the king replies: "Well, now he is! I'm a great believer in preventing crimes."

* ''LightNovel/AiNoKusabi'' has "NoSexAllowed" for the ruling class of Elites. So they just keep [[SexSlave "Pets"]] for voyeuristic purposes.

* In ''Theatre/WeWillRockYou'', the Music/{{Queen}} musical, rock is not allowed. It was really probably the only way to get any kind of a plot out of ThePowerOfRock.
* Behold, the oppressive Motor Law in ''Theatre/FreewillIn2112,'' the fanmade Music/{{Rush}} musical, in which all forms of transportation, leisure, and technology are forbidden. You must adhere to one destiny- and ''only'' one destiny- and abide to the religion of Chruddism. IndividualityIsIllegal, and conformity and BlindObedience are applauded. The home of this extremely oppressive dictation? ''[[spoiler: [[OppressiveStatesOfAmerica The good old US-of-A, of course!]]]]''

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/PebbleInTheSky'': A [[EarthThatUsedToBeBetter slowly dying future Earth]] has [[TheTheocracy the Society of Ancients as their local government]]. Any rule called a "custom" is enforced by the death penalty, including [[WeWillHaveEuthanasiaInTheFuture euthanasia for those who are sixty years old]].

* Enid Blyton's ''Land Of Do-As-You-Please'': No laws of any kind! An inversion of course, but still a kiddy version of a [[MarySuetopia Straw Dystopia]], though.

A MarySuetopia, CrapsackWorld or PlanetOfHats oftentimes has a single, not very realistic law (with other laws existing to shore up that law) which, often contrary to common sense, ''defines'' that society. The penalty for breaking the Dystopian Edict is usually draconian in nature -- death or imprisonment are the most common, but [[FateWorseThanDeath worse punishments exist]], particularly in speculative fiction.

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Skyrim}}'' mod ''VideoGame/TheForgottenCity'', The Dwarves' Law forms one of the cores of the plot: "The many shall suffer for the sins of the one." Unlike most examples on this page it seems reasonable and is draconian only in it's enforcement: Steal or kill and [[KillEmAll everyone in the city]] [[FinalSolution where the crime took place will be killed.]]
* ''VideoGame/WeHappyFew'': '''[[GovernmentDrugEnforcement Take]]. [[HappinessIsMandatory Your]]. [[FantasticDrug Joy.]]''' If you do ''not'' take your daily dose of Joy (or have the bad luck to be immune to it), then you are a Downer and will be summarily thrown into the Garden District. That is, if the Wellies (who do ''not'' like Downers at all) don't beat you to death first. Do ''not'' mention the events that led up to Joy being mandatory. And for the ''love of God'', do '''not''' get pregnant or have a kid. [[ChildlessDystopia Wellies don't like 'breeders']].

[[quoteright:320:[[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dystopian_edict.jpg]]]]

-->-- Graffito in Robert Harris' ''Literature/{{Fatherland}}''

[-[[caption-width-right:320: Who would've figured Robotnik would be a StopHavingFunGuy?]]-]

* ''Film/RepoMen'' and ''Film/RepoTheGeneticOpera'': If your cannot pay Big Pharma's fees, they will send assassin to literally rip Little Billy's transplanted heart off his chest and resell it.

** ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'': There is no love but the love for Big Brother.

%%* In ''Literature/ChristianNation'', the Fifty Blessings are considered this.