How would a "Universal Oppressor" behave?

I think I'm probably in over my head in my attempt at developing my antagonist, because my antagonist is an embodiment of oppression itself (i.e. it isn't of human or even physical origin).

So my concern at the moment is am I just going to up mostly aping The Party from "1984"?

Define it.

Describe it. In detail.

Oppression is something one person or group does to another person or group. For a reason. Usually, the oppressor is attempting to claim and/or retain control over one or more resources.

Very well then.

The antagonist believes that humans are sloppy, inefficient, and idiotic beings.

Therefore it believes that humans must have every sense of pride, whether in their nation, culture, skills, or personal traits, broken and replaced with nothing.

Given sufficient scale and time, the antagonist hopes to achieve twisted version of world peace occupied by hollow shells.

edited 23rd Sep '16 9:26:45 AM by Worlder

Ok, that sounds good. Why? Why is he like that?

Or is he something akin to an Eldritch Abomination who has no known or knowable motivation? Is he a person or just a personification, you known what I mean?

I'm going with a personification of absolute order.

Sounds like someone with "Authoritarian Personality Disorder" taken to 11. Google it.

Ooh, how fun!

BTW, thanks for reminding me of "oppositional defiant disorder". It perfectly describes my second antagonist.

Also, how does one break a person's soul while leaving the body perfectly intact?

edited 23rd Sep '16 10:16:24 PM by Worlder

Uuuuh.... Define "soul" and "body", please? And why you want to split a soul?

Depends on your belief system. In Christianity, what you are describing is impossible.

So you have one character who is the personification of oppression, and another who is the personification of defiance. What happens when those two get together for beers after work?

edited 24th Sep '16 8:44:23 AM by DeMarquis

"This brand is superior. YOU MUST DRINK IT!"

"NEVER! I... don't even like beer at all! Take that!"

Ok, let me reword that. How does one break a person's psyche/mind, and leave the body intact?

Alright, I'm essentially asking for brainwashing, but I'm looking for something subtle and surprisingly effective.

In real life? There is no such thing. So make it up.

Ok make it up I shall.

EDIT:

Microaggressions and such are the hot talk of the moment. Should I use that as material for my antagonist?

edited 24th Sep '16 1:53:31 PM by Worlder

Be careful. That's a politically hot topic of contention. Make sure you do your homework, and try for a balanced treatment.

So you're telling me my antagonist creating a magical billboard that subtly denigrates one's existence can be cause controversy among readers?

IRL microaggressions aren't so much brainwashing as more or less dehumanizing behaviors. They reinforce stereotypes that cause people to be abused, neglected, and/or fetishized. Essentially, they would be a side tool of Oppression but not his main weapon so to speak.

I think if you want Oppression to subtly "break" someone's mind, you should make him assault his victims with an endless barrage of harmful narratives. For example, IRL impoverished people are often characterized as lazy by those who benefit from that same poverty.

If Oppression can convince the masses that a group deserves suffering, nobody except Defiance will try to stop him because they'll have internalized his narrative; and by the time they all realize EVERY group is a group he's trying to abuse, it'll be too late - so my advice is to make him influence public opinion.

Influence public opinion in way that the public believes they are worthless disgusting sacks of meat?

Well, I can guess what happened when you make oppressed became a part of human being: Clinical depression.

You stop considering things, you stop smiling, you let things pass away through you, you care for nothing....

Yes, yes, that's exactly what my antagonist has in store for humanity.

Wipe out desire, wipe out greed, wipe out lust, wipe out emotions in general.

edited 24th Sep '16 10:21:06 PM by Worlder

It's the old adage of the wheat field. If you want control, make sure all the wheat is the same size, that it can't rise higher, and doesn't want to. Also, the old story of Stalin and the canary. If you take a canary, and pluck off all it's feathers, it's grateful for the warmth of your hand.

It'll be hard, replacing the "spirit" with nothing, as that's what has generally been used in the past to keep people in line, the promise of heaven (live a good life and/or maintain the status quo, and you'll get to paradise) or reincarnation.

edited 25th Sep '16 3:04:07 PM by Robbery

Hmm, then I'll have to make adjustments to villain's methods.

Aside from typical fascists, which groups of people are also susceptible to corruption by this entity?

Everyone with no real drive to change. Everyone who feel oppressed by system, but see no benefit in changing anything.

Fascist was driven with will to power through unity. These people basically lack of drive of anything.

Be careful with trying to cause mass depression—a lot of times it wrecks your immune system and saps your energy, and there's no real telling who's going to be "numb but (just enough) functional" or "numb and barely able to get out of bed."

As for micro-aggressions: I'd advise either researching them a LOT, or just not focusing on them too much. They're not just billboards and the off-color comments that rub people the wrong way—they're in the commercials about "Third world countries who desperately need food and medicine," and they're how people comment that a person of color "is so well-spoken."

Yeah, micro-aggressions are definitely the tiny dehumanizing things like petting a black person's hair, but they're also things that might SEEM good on the surface (giving to charities, complimenting a person's education), but the power dynamics imply a much different picture ("Look at all the poor, suffering brown people who need the help of rich Western/white countries!" and "You Are a Credit to Your Race because unlike your fellows, you are educated and speak properly.")

Unless this non-human antagonist has a REALLY massive human support base to handle micro-aggressions for them, I don't think they're going to grasp the subtlety of human psychology.

edited 12th Oct '16 4:00:19 PM by Sharysa

From the most efficient way of achieving your example is to create an puppet that holds every possible opposite view and they both rally armies and build nation states based on those opinions and encourage conflict by convincing their subjects that they are fighting for the one great truth against the one great enemy...

Sort of like the ideological (and to a lesser extent actual) cold war between the USA and USSR, except those in power and starting conflicts are one and the same and their end goal is conflict itself.