The victories of any good tyrant should encompass more than just “strategic” victory. You can’t forget about moral victory, where the defeated enemy is happy to be defeated and finds themselves agreeing with you. If your citizens, prisoners and political dissidents don’t share your convictions, make like the Soviet invaders in Red Dawn and send them to a reeducation camp.
Reeducation camps have been around as long as dictatorships have. The Romans were mighty implementers of slave labor, and scorned their enemies by exacting tribute from conquered peoples. As technology advanced, these camps evolved into more complete tools for control. The Soviets sent political opponents to the Gulag, the Chinese threw their dissenters into Laogai camps, and the Vietnamese used the “trại học tập cải tạo,” which you can’t say three times fast without being re-educated. China’s Laogai system is famous for its tagline: “Forced labor is a means toward the goal of thought reform.”
How should you run a proper camp? There are many fun tools available to you. Never underestimate a good camp administrator. Find a proper warden candidate—ideally, one that is vengeful. Take a high-ranking military officer who has a history of clamoring for power, and demote him to camp warden. His anger against you will be fueled, but instead of upstaging you or planning a coup, he’ll take out his jealousy on the prisoners. Two birds with one stone. You could also get creative and promote one of your political dissidents to camp warden. The sudden rush of power will feel so good that he will forget why he disagreed with you in the first place. The sniveling cur will do his job with such gusto that you might want to promote him to general. But don’t. Make another prisoner into the camp warden and send the first guy back to forced labor.
A good speaker system is necessary for re-education. Your political ideology is much more likely to be believed when broadcast over a wide area at loud volumes. The louder, the better. Above a certain decibel level, your prisoners won’t be able to think straight. First, place wooden or metal towers around your camp. Next, install your speakers. They should blare with a metallic resonance. They should be static-tinged, but not so much that they are unintelligible. Just static enough to grate on the ears and inject your propaganda into beleaguered minds. Make sure that your gentle voice is heard over the speaker system at all hours to encourage contrition for their sins against you. You could even have a statue of yourself erected, with a speaker for a mouth. Have this statue belt out inspiring quotations, or better yet, demand that all present bow to it three times a day. You could have objectors thrown into the furnace like King Nebuchadnezzar II.
Speakers aren’t a cure-all, though. You’ll need to put your enemies to labor, that they may repay you for the grief they’ve caused. What public works need to be constructed? What minerals need to be torn from the earth? Well, by disagreeing with you, your army of prisoners just agreed to help you construct, extract, and harvest to your heart’s content. “You just pulled landscaping duty,” you might inform them. You may build a wall on one of your domain’s borders, construct newer, bigger prison camps, or erect monuments to your nation’s glory. Can you think of any arbitrary ditches that need digging? Regardless, you are mortaring bricks with the blood of your enemies, which should please any proper tyrant. Mining is also useful. May I recommend coal? As your dissidents’ lungs blacken in the darkness, they’ll repent of their foolishness, only to be greeted by more days, months, and years of soot and grime. Their morale will be crushed by repeated cave-ins, and you will be able to fuel your war machines and warm your capitol city with all the cheap energy.
Reeducation camps have been around as long as dictatorships have. The Romans were mighty implementers of slave labor, and scorned their enemies by exacting tribute from conquered peoples. As technology advanced, these camps evolved into more complete tools for control. The Soviets sent political opponents to the Gulag, the Chinese threw their dissenters into Laogai camps, and the Vietnamese used the “trại học tập cải tạo,” which you can’t say three times fast without being re-educated. China’s Laogai system is famous for its tagline: “Forced labor is a means toward the goal of thought reform.”
How should you run a proper camp? There are many fun tools available to you. Never underestimate a good camp administrator. Find a proper warden candidate—ideally, one that is vengeful. Take a high-ranking military officer who has a history of clamoring for power, and demote him to camp warden. His anger against you will be fueled, but instead of upstaging you or planning a coup, he’ll take out his jealousy on the prisoners. Two birds with one stone. You could also get creative and promote one of your political dissidents to camp warden. The sudden rush of power will feel so good that he will forget why he disagreed with you in the first place. The sniveling cur will do his job with such gusto that you might want to promote him to general. But don’t. Make another prisoner into the camp warden and send the first guy back to forced labor.
A good speaker system is necessary for re-education. Your political ideology is much more likely to be believed when broadcast over a wide area at loud volumes. The louder, the better. Above a certain decibel level, your prisoners won’t be able to think straight. First, place wooden or metal towers around your camp. Next, install your speakers. They should blare with a metallic resonance. They should be static-tinged, but not so much that they are unintelligible. Just static enough to grate on the ears and inject your propaganda into beleaguered minds. Make sure that your gentle voice is heard over the speaker system at all hours to encourage contrition for their sins against you. You could even have a statue of yourself erected, with a speaker for a mouth. Have this statue belt out inspiring quotations, or better yet, demand that all present bow to it three times a day. You could have objectors thrown into the furnace like King Nebuchadnezzar II.
Speakers aren’t a cure-all, though. You’ll need to put your enemies to labor, that they may repay you for the grief they’ve caused. What public works need to be constructed? What minerals need to be torn from the earth? Well, by disagreeing with you, your army of prisoners just agreed to help you construct, extract, and harvest to your heart’s content. “You just pulled landscaping duty,” you might inform them. You may build a wall on one of your domain’s borders, construct newer, bigger prison camps, or erect monuments to your nation’s glory. Can you think of any arbitrary ditches that need digging? Regardless, you are mortaring bricks with the blood of your enemies, which should please any proper tyrant. Mining is also useful. May I recommend coal? As your dissidents’ lungs blacken in the darkness, they’ll repent of their foolishness, only to be greeted by more days, months, and years of soot and grime. Their morale will be crushed by repeated cave-ins, and you will be able to fuel your war machines and warm your capitol city with all the cheap energy.
Creativity will be your friend as you find ways to make your enemies pay. Torture can be too heavy-handed. Subtly break the dissenter’s spirit as you break their body, and you could conscript them into your army when they’ve been straightened out. Your prisoners are valuable assets, though relatively expendable, depending on your mood. Ask yourself one question: “what have my political opponents done for ME lately?” Probably not a lot. Put them to work.
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