History Main / IndustrializedEvil

* In ''The Legends of Treaure Island'', at one point Long John Silver is KilledOffForReal and sent to Hell. He's given the tour of place and shown the demons "[[MinionWithAnFInEvil torturing]]" (in the Bowdlerized way you'd expect from a kids show) the damned. Silver scoffs at this and claims he can implement a much more evil system in exchange for being released from Hell. He is allowed to do so and when he is finished we see that he has basically turned Hell into a huge machine where the damned are placed in conveyor belts. The machine itself doesn't even seem to do that much torture, which the head demon comments upon. Silver replies that that's the whole point: the damned are simply shuffled around from place to place by an indifferent machine with no rhyme or reason and fully aware of the pointlessness of it all. The head demon calls it brilliant and Silver is returned to Earth.

'''NoRealLifeExamplesPlease''' We don't like to call real people evil.

* In ''The Legends of Treaure Island'', at one point Long John Silver is KilledOffForReal and sent to Hell. He's given the tour of place and shown the demons "[[MinionWithAnFInEvil torturing]]" (in the Bowdlerized way you'd expect from a kids show) the damned. Silver scoffs at this and claims he can implement a much more evil system in exchange for being released from hell. He is allowed to do so and when he is finished we see that he has basically turned Hell into a huge machine where the damned are placed in conveyor belts. The machine itself doesn't even seem to do that much torture, which the head demon comments upon. Silver replies that that's the whole point: the damned are simply shuffled around from place to place by an indifferent machine with no rhyme or reason and fully aware by the pointlessness of it all. The head demon calls it brilliant and Silver is returned to Earth.

When the bad guys aren't satisfied with killing one or two people at a time, and couldn't care less about EvilIsStylish, they may hit upon the "creative" solution of applying industrial efficiency to their vile practices. Rather than spend time crafting personalized tortures for their victims, they will automate their evildoing to an efficient and loveless routine that is all the more creepy for it's impersonal detachment. It may not involve machines (though those can be used to amp up the metaphor), but a systemic approach much like a TechnicianVersusPerformer... [[ForTheEvulz of evil!]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[CrushKillDestroy Crush, Kill, Destroy?]] No: [[UnusualUserInterface perforate]], [[PeopleJars plug in]], [[HumanResources drain]].]]

->It is time to treat humans as - let's not mince words here - as the cattle they are!
-->-- '''TheMaster''', ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "The Wish"

When the bad guys aren't satisfied with killing one or two people at a time, and couldn't care less about EvilIsStylish, they may hit upon the "creative" solution of applying industrial efficiency to their vile practices. Rather than spend time crafting personalized tortures for their victims, they will automate their evildoing to an efficient and loveless routine that is all the more creepy for it's impersonal detachment. It may not involve machines (though those can be used to amp up the metaphor), but a systemic approach much like a TechnicianVersusPerformer... [[ForTheEvulz of evil!]]

Why should vampires spend hours hunting a [[WarmBloodbagsAreEverywhere juicy bloodbag]] when they can just breed and slowly exsanguinate people in PeopleFarms? Or for that matter, the [[{{Dystopia}} repressive police state]] may just build an all purpose AgonyBeam rather than bother with psych evaluations to put political prisoners in [[{{Room 101}} tailor made torture chambers.]] A werewolf may decide that rather than wait for college students to wander into his forest to hunt, he could just kidnap people off the street and [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame release them for sport.]]

As with RealLife automation, one of the "benefits" of this approach is a potentially vast scale of application. While even the single murder of an undeveloped InnocentBystander can be tragic thanks to the RuleOfEmpathy, mechanizing/serializing it and putting it on a national or even global level gives a sense of extra dehumanization and elevates the horror to near incomprehensible levels. And it's precisely because AMillionIsAStatistic that using this trope can be risky; the flippant treatment of human life and lack of "anchoring" individuals can alienate audiences. It's not even a case of ShowDontTell, unless the threat or horror is represented as tangibly real it can't be conveyed even by dialog.

Add HorrorHunger, PoweredByAForsakenChild or AndIMustScream with this trope for extra (evil) fuel economy. Since the execution of this idea requires order and discipline, the perpetrators will usually be LawfulEvil unless they are an uncharacteristically well organized [[NeutralEvil Neutral]] or ChaoticEvil, or they represent BlueAndOrangeMorality. Less vile examples may be ObliviouslyEvil or an example of HumansAreCthulhu. Compare LuddWasRight, where technology and [[ScienceIsBad science are considered bad]] in and of themselves.

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!!Examples:

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* Subverted in ''Anime/{{Simoun}}'', where at first the [[{{Arcadia}} pastoral Simulacrum]] is presented as morally superior to the early industrial Argentum but eventually proven to be NotSoDifferent behind the facade.

[[AC: {{Film}} - Live Action:]]
* In Disney's ''TheBlackHole'', [[spoiler: the humanoid robots are actually the mass - labotimized crew of the Cygnus]]. Dr. [=McCrae=] finds herself on an assembly line, where she is about to be turned into one.

* The Machines in ''TheMatrix'' famously turned humans into batteries (physics notwithstanding, due to {{Executive|Meddling}}s thinking [[ViewersAreMorons viewers wouldn't understand]] WetwareCPU).
* In ''Film/TheChroniclesOfRiddick'', the evil Necromongers have a highly automated process to convert the inhabitants of conquered planets.
* ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' is probably the UrExample of this trope.

[[AC: {{Film}} - WesternAnimation:]]
* In ''FerngullyTheLastRainforest'', the forest is threatened by a gigantic automated logging machine capable of converting acres of pristine wilderness into barren wasteland and piles of wood. The human operators are ObliviouslyEvil, but the BigBad turns out to be a CardCarryingVillain.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* In ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', the new lord of hell tried this approach - since people get used to pain, he established a lot of rules that changed hell into a tedious, bureucractic horror. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Even the demons were horrified]] and quickly arranged to have him KickedUpstairs.

* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' Mordor and especially the post-FaceHeelTurn Isengard are depicted in early industrialization stage. This is an oft-repeated trope in JRR Tolkien's work because Tolkein had an intense dislike of industralization.

[[AC: LiveActionTelevision:]]
* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode, "A Taste of Armageddon", the Enterprise discovers two planets are involved in a bizarre war in which computers simulate the conflict, and civilians deemed "killed" in the simulation are required to report to disintegration chambers. The people willingly go to their deaths, believing that in doing so, they are preventing an actual war from breaking out.

* The ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "The Wish" shows how The Master might have adapted to modern times by "evolving" vampire practices by replacing hunting humans into a literal abattoir.

[[AC:VideoGames]]

* The Reapers in the ''VideoGame/MassEffect'' franchise. AmbiguousRobots MechanicalLifeforms operating on BlueAndOrangeMorality, every several thousand years they awaken from their slumber in the dark space between galactic spiral arms to "harvest" all star-faring civilizations. Their process is extremely methodical, with their own [[PortalNetwork Mass Relay]] technology left behind as LostTechnology for ascendant civilizations to find as part of a BatmanGambit to nudge those civilizations into developing along predictable lines. This helps ensure that galactic leadership becomes centralized at the Citadel space station, which is the first thing they take control of in a surprise attack, simultaneously decapitating galactic leadership and giving them access to the records of how those civilizations have been spreading. The Reapers will then sweep away all space-born resistance and prioritize targets based on what can offer the biggest military challenge. Following this, a combination of MassHypnosis and military dominance allows them to round up survivors and render them down into organic liquid that will then be "archived" into new Reaper hulls. When all is harvested, they retreat to dark space, go back to sleep, and wait for the cycle to begin again, like clockwork.

Why should vampires spend hours hunting a [[WarmBloodbagsAreEverywhere juicy bloodbag]] when they can just breed and slowly exsanguinate people in an assembly line? Or for that matter, the [[{{Dystopia}} repressive police state]] may just build an all purpose AgonyBeam rather than bother with psych evaluations to put political prisoners in [[{{Room 101}} tailor made torture chambers.]] A werewolf may decide that rather than wait for college students to wander into his forest to hunt, he could just kidnap people off the street and [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame release them for sport.]]

* In ''TheChroniclesOfRiddick'', the evil Necromongers have a highly automated process to convert the inhabitants of conquered planets.

* In the ''StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode, "A Taste of Armageddon", the Enterprise discovers two planets are involved in a bizarre war in which computers simulate the conflict, and civilians deemed "killed" in the simulation are required to report to disintegration chambers. The people willingly go to their deaths, believing that in doing so, they are preventing an actual war from breaking out.
* The process of assimilation employed by the Borg in ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration''.
* The ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "The Wish" shows how The Master might have adapted to modern times by "evolving" vampire practices by replacing hunting humans into a literal abattoir.

* In ''The Legends of Treaure Island'', at one point Long John Silver is KilledOffForReal and sent to Hell. He's given the tour of place and shown the demons "torturing" (in the Bowdlerized way you'd expect from a kids show) the damned. Silver scoffs at this and claims he can implement a much more evil system in exchange for being released from hell. He is allowed to do so and when he is finished we see that he has basically turned Hell into a huge machine where the damned are placed in conveyor belts. The machine itself doesn't even seem to do that much torture, which the head demon comments upon. Silver replies that that's the whole point: the damned are simply shuffled around from place to place by an indifferent machine with no rhyme or reason and fully aware by the pointlessness of it all. The head demon calls it brilliant and Silver is returned to Earth.

[[AC:RealLife]]
* This is a major reason why the 20th century's wars were [[WarIsHell so much worse]] than what had gone before; [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement and that's probably all we need to say here]].
* Often cited as one of the things that makes [[NaziGermany The Holocaust]] worse than any other genocide; the tools were not (just) famine, or mobs, or armed soldiers hunting people down. It was trains, poison gas, and furnaces to dispose of the bodies- organized, efficient, industrialized mass murder.
* The Aztec Empire and surrounding cultures were guilty of this during the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_war Flower Wars]], a series of low intensity campaigns intended to provide POW victims for ritual sacrifice in order to ensure plentiful crops. This trope (probably) wasn't in play for these peoples due to a combination of culturally ingrained MoreThanMindControl, MartyrdomCulture and AGoodWayToDie.

* In ''TheChroniclesofRiddick'', the evil Necromongers have a highly automated process to convert the inhabitants of conquered planets.

[[quoteright:350:[[TheMatrix http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/photo-mat_pods_388.jpg]]]]

Why should vampires spend hours hunting a [[WarmBloodbagsAreEverywhere juicy bloodbag]] when they can just kidnap, breed and slowly exsanguinate people in an assembly line ala cattle? Or for that matter, the [[{{Dystopia}} repressive police state]] may just build an all purpose AgonyBeam rather than bother with kidnappings and psych evaluations to put political prisoners in [[{{Room 101}} tailor made torture chambers.]] A werewolf may decide that rather than wait for college students to wander into her forest to hunt, she could just kidnap people off the street and [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame release them for sport.]]

As with RealLife automation, one of the "benefits" of this approach is a potentially vast scale of application. While even the single murder of an undeveloped InnocentBystander can be tragic thanks to the RuleOfEmpathy, serializing it and putting it on a national or even global level gives a sense of extra dehumanization and elevates the horror to near incomprehensible levels. And it's precisely because AMillionIsAStatistic that using this trope can be risky; the flippant treatment of human life and lack of "anchoring" individuals can alienate audiences. It's not even a case of ShowDontTell, unless the threat or horror is represented as tangibly real it can't be conveyed even by dialog.

Especially cruel villains may pair tropes like PoweredByAForsakenChild. Since the execution of this idea requires order and discipline, the perpetuators will usually be LawfulEvil unless they are an uncharacteristically well organized [[NeutralEvil Neutral]] or ChaoticEvil, or they represent BlueAndOrangeMorality. Add HorrorHunger or AndIMustScream with this trope for extra (evil) fuel economy. Less vile examples may be ObliviouslyEvil or an example of HumansAreCthulhu. Compare LuddWasRight, where technology and [[ScienceIsBad science are considered bad]] in and of themselves.

Why should vampires spend hours hunting a [[WarmBloodbagsAreEverywhere juicy bloodbag]] when they can just kidnap and slowly exsanguinate people in an assembly line? Or for that matter, the repressive police state may just build an all purpose AgonyBeam or Fear Drug rather than bother with psych evaluations to put political prisoners in [[{{Room 101}} tailor made torture chambers.]] A werewolf may decide that rather than wait for college students to wander into her forest to hunt, she could just kidnap people off the street and [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame release them for sport.]]

As with RealLife automation, one of the "benefits" of this approach is a potentially vast scale of application. While even the single murder of an undeveloped InnocentBystander can be tragic thanks to the RuleOfEmpathy, serializing it and putting it on a national or even global level elevates the horror to near incomprehensible levels. And it's precisely because AMillionIsAStatistic that using this trope can be risky; the flippant treatment of human life and lack of "anchoring" individuals can alienate audiences. It's not even a case of ShowDontTell, unless the threat or horror is represented as tangibly real it can't be conveyed even by dialog.

Especially cruel villains may pair tropes like PoweredByAForsakenChild. Since the execution of this idea requires order and discipline, the perpetuators will usually be LawfulEvil unless they are an uncharacteristically well organized [[NeutralEvil Neutral]] or ChaoticEvil, or they represent BlueAndOrangeMorality. HorrorHunger, AndIMustScream with this trope for extra (evil) fuel economy. Less vile examples may be ObliviouslyEvil or an example of HumansAreCthulhu. Compare LuddWasRight, where technology and [[ScienceIsBad science are considered bad]] in and of themselves.

* In ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', the new lord of hell tried this approach - since people get used to pain, he established a lot of rules that changed hell into a tedious, bureucractic horror. Even the demons were horrified and quickly arranged to have him KickedUpstairs.

* This is a major reason why the 20th century's wars were so much worse than what had gone before; [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement and that's probably all we need to say here]].

Why should vampires spend hours hunting a [[WarmBloodbagsAreEverywhere juicy bloodbag]] when they can just kidnap and slowly exsanguinate people in an assembly line? Or for that matter, the repressive police state may just build an all purpose AgonyBeam rather than bother with psych evaluations to put political prisoners in [[{{Room 101}} tailor made torture chambers.]] A werewolf may decide that rather than wait for college students to wander into her forest to hunt, she could just kidnap people off the street and [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame release them for sport.]]

* The Reapers in the ''VideoGame/MassEffect'' franchise. AmbiguousRobots MechanicalLifeforms operating on BlueAndOrangeMorality, every several thousand years they awaken from their slumber in the dark space between galactic spiral arms to "harvest" all star-faring civilizations. Their process is extremely methodical, with their own [[PortalNetwork Mass Relay]] technology left behind as LostTechnology for ascendant civilizations to find as part of a BatmanGambit to nudge those civilizations into developing along predictable lines. This helps ensure that galactic leadership becomes centralized at the Citadel space station, which is the first thing they take control of in a surprise attack, simultaneously decapitating galactic leadership and giving them access to the records of how those civilizations have been spreading. The Reapers will then sweep away all space-born resistance and prioritize targets based on what can offer the biggest military challenge. Following this, a combination of MindControl and military dominance allows them to round up survivors and render them down into organic liquid that will then be "archived" into new Reaper hulls. When all is harvested, they retreat to dark space, go back to sleep, and wait for the cycle to begin again, like clockwork.

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* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' Mordor and especially the post-FaceHeelTurn Isengard are depicted in early industrialization stage. This is an oft-repeated trope in JRR Tolkein's work because Tolkein had an intense dislike of industralization.

* The [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/daybreakers_5084.jpg former page image]] was from ''{{Daybreakers}}'', where a VampireApocalypse has forced humans to near extinction, and the remaining people are plugged in as living plasma batteries in farms.

* The Machines in ''TheMatrix'' famously turned humans into batteries (physics not withstanding).

* In "TheChroniclesofRiddick", the evil Necromongers have a highly automated process to convert the inhabitants of conquered planets. Also, the process of assimilation employed by the "Borg" in "StarTrek" seems relevant.

* In the ''StarTrekTheOrigionalSeries'' episode, "A Taste of Armageddon", the Enterprise discovers two planets are involved in a bizarre war in which computers simulate the conflict, and civilians deemed "killed" in the simulation are required to report to disintegration chambers. The people willingly go to their deaths, believing that in doing so, they are preventing an actual war from breaking out.

* In the ''StarTrekTheOrigional'' Series episode, "A Taste of Armageddon", the Enterprise discovers two planets are involved in a bizarre war in which computers simulate the conflict, and civilians deemed "killed" in the simulation are required to report to disintegration chambers. The people willingly go to their deaths, believing that in doing so, they are preventing an actual war from breaking out.

* In the ''StarTrek'' Origional Series episode, "A Taste of Armageddon", the Enterprise discovers two planets are involved in a bizarre war in which computers simulate the conflict, and civilians deemed "killed" in the simulation are required to report to disintegration chambers. The people willingly go to their deaths, believing that in doing so, they are preventing an actual war from breaking out.

* In ''{{Quake}} 4'', the Strogg take captured humans and put them through a industry line the saw off body parts and attack cyborg limbs. The player even goes through this, in first person.

Why should vampires spend hours hunting a juicy bloodbag when they can just kidnap and slowly exsanguinate people in an assembly line? Or for that matter, the repressive police state may just build an all purpose AgonyBeam rather than bother with psych evaluations to put political prisoners in [[{{Room 101}} tailor made torture chambers.]] A werewolf may decide that rather than wait for college students to wander into her forest to hunt, she could just kidnap people off the street and [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame release them for sport.]]

Especially cruel villains may pair tropes like PoweredByAForsakenChild, Since the execution of this idea requires order and discipline, the perpetuators will usually be LawfulEvil, unless they represent BlueAndOrangeMorality. HorrorHunger, AndIMustScream with this trope for extra (evil) fuel economy. Less vile examples may be ObliviouslyEvil or an example of HumansAreCthulhu. Compare LuddWasRight, where technology and [[ScienceIsBad science are considered bad]] in and of themselves.