History Main / TotalitarianUtilitarian

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Wish}}''. Magnifico's wish granting is quickly revealed to be a tool of social control: by taking people's wishes he makes them more docile and he only grants ones he believes aren't "dangerous", but it initially appears that he genuinely cares for Rosas and its people and believes this is the best way to protect them. However, his VillainSong reveals that he doesn't actually care about protecting Rosas, he's a massive ControlFreak and just wants the praise and adoration that comes with being a "benevolent" king. When he starts to lose his control he goes full EvilOverlord literally overnight.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Wish}}''. Magnifico's wish granting is quickly revealed to be a tool of social control: by taking people's wishes he makes them more docile and he only grants ones he believes aren't "dangerous", but it initially appears that he genuinely cares for Rosas and its people and believes this is the best way to protect them. However, his VillainSong reveals that he doesn't actually care about protecting Rosas, he's a massive ControlFreak and just wants the praise and adoration ''for'' protecting Rosas. When he starts to lose his control he goes full EvilOverlord literally overnight.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Wish}}''. Magnifico's wish granting is quickly revealed to be a tool of social control; by taking people's wishes he makes them more docile and he only grants ones he believes aren't "dangerous", and it initially appears that he genuinely cares for Rosas and its people and believes this is the best way to protect them. However, his VillainSong reveals that he doesn't actually care about protecting Rosas, he's a massive ControlFreak and just wants to be praised and adored for protecting Rosas. When he starts ti lose his control he goes full EvilOverlord in a matter of days.

* The fourth season of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' has [[Characters/TheLegendOfKorraKuvira Kuvira]], "The Great Uniter", who ijust wanted to wrangle the anarchy in the wake of Earth Queen [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Hou-Teng]]'s assassination by [[BombThrowingAnarchists Zaheer]] and his Red Lotus cohorts, defying her patron, Suyin Beifong, who abstained from doing it. Su's abstention struck a nerve with Kuvira, who conflated it with her own ParentalAbandonment issues before Suyin took her in. Things snowballed out of hand because PowerCorrupts, and she became a despot worse than Queen Hou-Teng was. [[DeconstructedTrope This ultimately]] [[SanityHasAdvantages works against her]], however, since her inability to accept compromise and her tendency to make personal sacrifices 'for the cause' (such as her ''husband'') ultimately bring about numerous defections from her cause, alienate possible allies, and leave her with no support network to advise her decisions.

* [[Characters/TheLegendOfKorraKuvira Kuvira]], the "Great Uniter", from Book 4 of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra''. Initially, she just wanted to wrangle the anarchy in the wake of Earth Queen [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Hou-Teng]]'s assassination by [[BombThrowingAnarchists Zaheer]] and his Red Lotus cohorts, defying her patron, Suyin Beifong, who abstained from doing it. Su's abstention struck a nerve with Kuvira, who conflated it with her own ParentalAbandonment issues before Suyin took her in. Things snowballed out of hand because PowerCorrupts, and she became a despot worse than Queen Hou-Teng was.
** Ultimately this [[SanityHasAdvantages works against her]], her inability to accept compromise and tendency to make personal sacrifices 'for the cause' (such as her ''husband'') ultimately leave her with numerous defections, alienate possible allies, and leave her with no support network to advise her decisions.

** [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3003 SCP-3003 ("The End of History")]] is a distant planet inhabited by 30 billion TransplantedHumans whose [[HiveMind minds have been overtaken]] by [[PuppeteerParasite parasitic beetles]] called "marce". These beetles have forced their hosts to make every single aspect of their lives themed around beetles. The marce parasites turned the entire SCP-3003 planet into a singular totalitarian state devoid of personal freedom due to everyone valuing the goodness of the state over themselves (a result of gaining hyper-rational behavior through the parasites). However, the result is so extremely effective the race is more advanced than whatever humanity can even hope to achieve on Earth, its members kept perpetually happy due to marce stimuli, and [[WorldOfSilence internal dissent is completely non-existent]]. As SCP-3003-2 states, this totalitarian efficiency it created is "[[TitleDrop The End of History]]", because no other forms of society could come after it.

** ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' contains a very grim {{satire}} of this concept. The ruling party are trying to make sure that the party members are the happiest people in the world -- by [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans making their own lives hell but making everyone else's lives far worse]]! Of course, it [[SarcasmMode works great]]. Even the protagonist [[MoreThanMindControl agrees with the party about everything]]... [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil eventually]].

** In the ''Literature/FatherBrown'' story "The Wrong Shape", the murderer [[spoiler: claims to believe that what is good is what makes people happy, and has convinced himself that killing his love rival will make everyone happier -- even the victim, who is unhappy in life.]]

** The ''Paradoxes of Mr Pond'' story "When Doctors Agree" has [[spoiler: a doctor who commited murder for the greater good tries to convince a younger colleague that this is justified. When he succeeds, the younger doctor kills ''him'' for the greater good.]]

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'', The Computer maximizes happiness by simply [[HappinessIsMandatory making unhappiness a criminal offense]]. The severity varies by campaign and edition, from simple fines for pessimism to summary execution for frowning in the face of the enemy.

* In later ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' fiction, particularly the ''Capellan Solution'' duology, Sun-Tzu Liao ''is'' this trope. It's all about the good of the Capellan Confederation for him (as he sees it, of course), and no trick is too dirty or underhanded and no sacrifice too great if it brings him one step closer to making his nation great again.
* In ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'', the Silver Ladder wants to restore the connection between Earth and the Supernal Realms, allowing all of humanity to achieve godhood. They end up doing a lot of shady manipulation and exploitation in their efforts to bring everybody into line with their plans and frequently end up falling into AmbitionIsEvil by pursuing power for its own sake.
* In the earlier ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'', the Technocracy wants humans to live in a futurist utopia, safe from things like rogue mages, terrorist werewolves, manipulative vampires, and so on, and thus they're trying to make everyone [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve put their faith in science instead of magic and superstition]]. In practice...well, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few magical eggs.
* In ''TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace'', UsefulNotes/{{Kazakhstan}} is ruled by the terrifying Sergei Zarubayev, who uses a vaguely plausible but very totalitarian philosophy to justify the creation of a surveillance state in which the secret police use advanced technology to play with the minds and perceptions of anyone they choose.
* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': Jin-Gitaxias, the Blue Praetor and leader of the [[MadScientist Progress Engine]], really intends to improve life for everyone on New Phyrexia. How? By dissecting them and performing massive surgery without anesthesia to ease their ''compleation''. Surprisingly, [[VillainousFriendship he gets along very well]] with the PrinciplesZealot Elesh Norn.