Editing Greater Good (section)

==But Seriously, Folks==
[[File:8812 md-Dawn Of War Humor Motivational Poster Poster The Greater Good.jpg|thumbnail|right|300px|This is what happens when you bring philosophy to a [[Thunder Hammer|thunder hammer]] fight.]]
{{Topquote|their obsessive pursuit of the so-called 'Greater Good'. Which, let us be clear, would be rather more accurately translated into Gothic as 'the Greater Good of the Tau, and the warp take the rest.'|[[Amberley Vail]], ''The Greater Good''}}

For reals though, this is the background on it:
 
The Greater Good (Tau’va) is the central, guiding philosophical doctrine of the [[Tau Empire]] and its diverse citizens. Essentially, it involves always taking the course of action that is best for the majority of people (and the fact the majority of the Empire's citizens have blue skin and forehead slits is totally coincidental, we swear. Although with the joining of Hive Worlds it’s ironically humans), and dictates that everyone and everything has its place in the system; as such, the system will look after you, and you after it. ([[Humanity Fuck Yeah|Real-life humans]] have thought of this too; it's called [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism utilitarianism]). It goes a lot deeper than that for the Tau, who believe it is their duty to bring the enlightening message of the Greater Good to everyone in the galaxy, and subsequently join them under the rule of the Tau Empire in order to work together for a better future for all.
 
It was the [[Ethereal]]s who first brought the message of the Greater Good to the other Tau on their homeworld during the age of civil war and barbarism that they now refer to as the Mont'au, or "The Terror." The Ethereals preached a message of peaceful cooperation between the four major Tau tribes, and explained that each tribe's skills should be harnessed for the benefit of all to secure a brighter future. In this way, the Ethereals united them as a single-minded people, and over the next few millennia, the Tau got their shit together in record time for a sapient species, much like [[fa/tg/uys]] might were it not for the insurmountable levels of [[skub]] and [[rage]] [[Grimdark|produced by the internet on a daily basis]]. There was a massive growth in technology, science and knowledge, and the Tau became a spacefaring race very rapidly compared to [[Imperium of Man|others]]. They <s>mind controlled</s> contacted several [[Kroot|less advanced]] [[Vespid|races]] and won them over with their ideals; these were some of the first non-Tau members of what would become the Tau Empire.
 
Since approaching the space controlled by the [[Imperium]], however, the Tau have been somewhat disabused of the notion that most of the galaxy's denizens are interested in anything but killing them, since every other major race they have encountered either rejects their overtures for unity with a bolt pistol or straightaway tries to fight or nom them. Even the Tau's own member species generally join in the hopes of killing things. [[Tau Diplomacy|Here]] are some typical instances of the Tau Empire's [[Rape|negotiations with]] [[RIP AND TEAR|other races]].
 
Cue galaxy-wide [[lulz]].
 
As mentioned above, the idea of a greater good is not really all that new in the real world. It has existed in modern society for a while, although not in the form of an official guiding doctrine, and instead as more of a general rule of thumb to do your best by society as a whole and to not be selfish. To create in full the Tau idea of the Greater Good you will need: communism, Marxism, utilitarianism, naïveté, enough politics to make your head spin, xenophilia, the power of friendship and working together, and of course guns, lots and lots of guns, just in case 'persuading' someone to adopt the Greater Good fails. The resulting mixture resembles none of the ingredients (and would make Karl Marx chew his own beard off) but gives you a sense of the different bits and pieces [[Games Workshop]] added into its big concept cauldron to concoct the Tau Empire's Greater Good.

In the first edition Tau Codex the idea of the Greater Good was pretty clean if vague, a noble goal to unite the galaxy. The book "Fire Warrior", though, which was published at this time, goes into it at great length, including what it means and what happens when a Tau has his or her eyes open to what kind of galaxy they live in (in a mature, non-grimdark way too). By the first Tau Empire book, though, there is some gritty realism, with stories of people resisting the Greater Good, and in the current situation there are clear cases where the Greater Good will be meaningless ([[Orks]], [[Tyranids]], etc.).

In the wider galaxy, if you don't like the Greater Good, you hate it. In this way it is kind of like [[skub]]. The [[Imperium]] hates it because it is a challenge to their authority and they are afraid that [[Gue'vesa|nervous, weak-willed humans]] will see it as an alternative to what the Imperium offers, and they can't have that. [[Chaos]] hates it because it is the antithesis to what each of the four ruinous powers stand for: selflessness and discipline over indulgence ([[Slaanesh]]); peace over war ([[Khorne]]); growth and progress over decay ([[Nurgle]]); and structured order over change and randomness ([[Tzeentch]]). In short, the concept of the Greater Good is in direct opposition to the powers of Chaos, and exactly why Chaos has not launched a [[Black Crusade]] against the Tau Empire so far is unclear. (Obvious reasons include the Eye and the Tau being separated by an entire galaxy, the Imperum being a juicer target with more squishy blood-filled sacrifices, and because Chaos hasn't had a codex update, the Riptide spam is too strong, and that [[Failbaddon|Abbadon]] still can't do anything right.) [[Necrons]] and [[Eldar]] dislike the Greater Good simply because they consider it to be the starry-eyed drivel of a young species (although the Eldar have a soft spot for the Tau, likely because they created them), and the [[Orks]] and [[Tyranids]] couldn't care less, obviously. They will fight (and eat) anyone.
 
So all in all, pretty hard times being a missionary for the Greater Good in the 41st millennium.