Editing The Imperium of Man (section)

===IoM in contrast to True Totalitarian Regimes===
Whilst it ''is'' true that the IoM combines many elements from all of the dictatorships on Earth, the key word you are looking for is <u>elements</u>. All of the dystopian tropes in the IoM are nitpicks from great dystopian classics. They aren't a true mixture of various authoritarian tropes, but are mere themes to set up the atmosphere of the Imperium. The presence of authoritarianism is there all right. However, it is not outright enforced outside of specific circumstances; the Imperium doesn't care how your planet is run as long as the tithes come in on time and there's no outright heresy to be found. Imperial law focuses on best practices, security against subtle enemy attack methods, and anti-Chaos related manners of thinking (like a distinct lack of questioning the unknown because it could enter you and play havoc with your world). Basically, as long as you have laws that don't leave you wide open for the horrors in space and don't get uppity when it comes to paying the tithe, the Imperium is fine with you. And as mentioned before, the dystopian elements varies between planets to planets with the fact that you could actually ''leave'' the planet if given money and time. The reason why places like Oceania from [[1984]], North Korea, and the aforementioned Interim Coalition of Governance are terrifying is because they are actually true totalitarian governments with extremely nihilistic attitudes. These are totalitarian regimes done horrifyingly right. These are governments which pride themselves on their malevolence and power; in which an ordinary person has little to no chance of leaving the hell hole they are born into. Their governmental and ideological structure is done in such a way that the mere act of pragmatism will be condemned for [[Heresy|HERESY]]. Places like these are concentrated and true dystopias in which control is so absolute that you live in a personal prison for all eternity. These governments make the raging incompetence of the Imperium look like Fantasia. Furthermore, the Imperium has one thing these governments do not have: a sense of humanity and heroism. Throughout all the GW works on the Imperium, we have characters who show remarkable amounts of [[Sanguinius|selfless]] [[Ollanius Pius|heroism,]] [[Ciaphas Cain|courage,]] [[Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt|and]] [[Saint Celestine|intense]] [[Vulkan|humanity]]. The protagonists (and general "good guys") in these stories consistently try to move heaven and earth to [[Logan Grimnar|protect the weak]] against all odds. We almost never see that kind of optimistic effort in the aforementioned dystopian works. This is why [[1984]] and the [[Xeelee Sequence]] are so horrifying: there is no hope, no epic struggle, no grandeur... just a collapsing social reality where the very concept of humanity is treated like a nonexistent joke.

Essentially, what we are trying to say here is that the worst thing the Imperium can do is not out of outright malice (barring some rare exceptions like the Age of Apostasy), but out of desperation, incompetence and necessity. For example:

''"We are forced to commit exterminatus on a billion souls because we have no choice and the [[Chaos|alternative]] [[Xeno|outcome]] would be much worse. I pray that these innocent souls would meet peace with the Emperor.''

In contrast this with Oceania which go along the lines of:

''"We torture you not because of some politically motivated means or a necessary evil. We do so because we want to exercise our power. We do so because we can."''

Or the Interim Coalition of Governance:

''"We are ready to send over a untold number of kids to die against the Xeelee. Why you ask? Because it is more economically viable to protect our sweet, sweet moolah and we need something to cover up our deep insecurities and spite."''

The bottom line: the IoM embodies not perpetual evil and suffering for its own sake, but desperate measures taken in desperate times, exacerbated further by inefficiency and human error that has built up for millennia in end. It may be shit by our standards, but considering all the other alternatives that would actually stand a chance in the grim darkness of the far future, it's pretty clear the Imperium is the ''least horrible'' alternative for humanity.

In a way, this makes it worse than the full dystopias as those guys have no one but themselves to blame. The Imperium simply cannot afford anything better.