Possible to create a non-straw Totalitarian Utilitarian

The main villain in my story is somewhat a Totalitarian Utilitarian, in contrast with one of the protagonists as a person and a foil to the main villain who goes For Happiness as the main goal. The problem is that often a Totalitarian Utilitarian falls into straw territory and I would to ask if it's theoretically possible to have a non-straw TU.

Oh, it's certainly possible. It just depends on how much thought the writer puts into not making him just a cookie-cutter character, and how well that comes out in the writing.

What makes a character a Straw <Whatever> is that the author gave them <Whatever> only or primarily in order to show that <Whatever> is bad, or doesn't work, or basically, in order to knock it down.

I guess the obvious thing to do would be to give his ideology realistic pros and cons but have him believe that, at the end of the day, the pros outweigh the cons. You could try to give him a character beyond his political beliefs. Like have him be an intelligent, hard-working guy who takes his principles too far and tries to force it on others while believing he's doing them a favor. Maybe give him interests beyond his politics. The most important thing is how it's framed. A strawman is when the narrative itself sees a character's beliefs as being wrong. You have to show that this character has good points but might be misguided.

I'd like to counterpoint that "makes good points but is ultimately misguided" is still "wrong." A strawman doesn't just try to make an ideology look wrong, it tries to make it look ridiculous by exaggerating its flaws and dismissing anything positive about it.

Pushing an ideology to its breaking point by demonstrating how its principles contradict one another or established reality is a perfectly legitimate way to examine it. Mocking it for "sounding silly" without putting any serious thought into whether it might actually work is not.

Adding to everything that's been said (including my previous statement): The most important thing is to make the character more than just a mouthpiece for his ideology. Give him a reason to fight for his cause, even if the cause itself isn't the right one.

One thing that might help: Invent a biography for him, even if it's just a brief one. Give him a background, hobbies, interests, dislikes, and personal relationships. Even if none of those details come up in the story themselves, they can serve as a guide for how the character might act in a given situation.

edited 9th Jan '13 6:20:20 PM by Specialist290

Havelock Vetinari in Disc World is a sympathetic and practical Tyrant. He opposes slavery for economic reasons He don't need to torture because he is so good at intimidation.