Im writing a book about world wide domination with the premise that somone has the possibility to beam anything they want to into the minds of the whole planet. Im looking for ideas on what you could do with this power such as brainwashing the public, marketing massive corporate empires, influencing politics, spreading religious ideals, destroying the planet, or creating a great social utopian world, or any other crazy thing. I was wondering what you thought would be cool do if you could shape the mindstate of the world.
Doesn't sound like a very interesting story to me. If you can shape the entire planet, every single person, then noone is going to be able to stop you. Therefore, there is no story. Unless, there's that ONE other person who somehow is IMMUNE to your SOLE magical ability, they alone are destined to save humanity, blah, blah, cliche, cliche....
True. If you're going to do something like that, there will have to be a reason to maintain conflict in your story. Otherwise you'd just be depicting one person's world takeover, which would be assured from the outset. You could write about a resistance...could be one person or a group of people, or even a clash between two societies with different values. I don't think that the story of creating a social utopia that way would resonate with many people, since most of us appreciate our autonomy. A dystopian setting would probably be more interesting to your readers, i.e. where brainwashing is not portrayed as a good thing...you could depict the pros and cons of free societies vs. those where people are programmed to behave a certain way.
Or, a group of people/a small community. One person will be pretty much helpless. Something like, Hitler has the power and Jews are immune in an extreme case. Replying to the OP, it all depends on the person who has the power. Say, if Gandhi or Dalai Lama acquired such power, they will most probably go for more or less utopian world. Then again, we never know if having such a power will change them or not. Realistically, they will change in some way.
To be honest, this immediately reminded me of Death Note. If you truly want to go for this sort of story, which is so generic in itself (yet no one really dares to do it,) you'd have to tailor it immensely. Anyways, back to Death Note, (because the general idea of that story was entirely simple, but had an incredible plot.) The main character is the villain, a boy who dreams of a Utopia, after finding a Death-God book, which gives him the power to kill anyone he wants by simply writing down their name. With this power, he starts killing off criminals, and soon in-visions becoming a 'God' of a new, and perfect world. Eventually, he starts killing hundreds of offenders, and society starts to reverie him as hidden killer of killers, as an idol, and eventually, a god. The opposition in this is a detective (who's never been seen, nor had his identity revealed) trying to discover whom the killer is, and expose him as a mass serial killer. Basically, they spend most of the graphic novel trying to find each other, when all they have to start with are aliases. It's a very enthralling battle, and has a lot of deep inner-workings to keep the plot forever twisting and mind boggling, even when the story itself was incredibly simple: A boy wanted to create a perfect world, and in the end, became corrupt and evil himself. Make some sort of corporation or guild immune to the power; striving to take out the head-hancho. Add incredible struggles, obstacles, and ideas that will -really- keep the readers intrigued, and constantly wondering: How are they ever going to succeed?
Given the effectiveness of mass-marketing and the general gullibility of people... aren't you describing the world of today?
I think there are many consipracy sites around where they give ideas that very well MIGHT be true. So why using too much fantasy? Think HAARP induced earthquakes, fluoride added to potable water, genetically modified food, etc.
You do need someone/thing to put up some kind of fight. Without a conflict the plot would either be rather lame or very tough to write. Three options come to mind: 1) you could have a person or group that is somehow safe from the mind control, 2) you could have a character who is in a position of trust and so is not injected with the mind control, or 3) you could have the antagonist struggle with his conscience. 1) If you do this you'll want to be creative. I suggest backing the reason with some scientific details (obviously with a topic like this they don't need to be real/I] science). This also opens some options for sub-plots and introductions. For example, you could open with a science experiment procedure just finishing up (used as the basis for immunity) then skip to present time. 2) It could be a henchman/sidekick type, and the villain simply forgot or didn't see the need to control them. Or someone the antagonist loves. That would provide a good reason not to wipe away their personality and freedom of character. 3) In this case it might be better to make it a short story. 5.000+ words of the antagonist struggling with whether he really should/wants to be doing this or not could get tedious. If you did this you might also want to be careful not to give away his final decision until you get to it. ~ Mist
You could make it so that they have to beam the idea into people's head over airwaves, or over transmissions, like TV for instance (maybe during the world cup when much of the planet would be watching), or over the internet. They could be in the form of subliminal messages. Thereby getting the idea into most people's heads, but for some reason the main character doesn't watch TV, or he doesn't like technology in general so therefore he isn't affected. Or maybe he was in a coma when the idea was transmitted, and has recently woken up.
This makes for an interesting dystopia. You know what -- the whole "chosen one" who is immune and must save everyone is super cliche, but what if he's the only one who can't be brainwashed so it puts him in a position to see the horrors of the world around him? To see, experience, flee from, fight against etc the catastrophes that happen when people no longer think for themselves? You know, the reason why the Nazi Holocaust and other similar mass atrocities can occur is because of the thousands of enablers who say "Hey, I don't create the policies, I just enforce them, don't blame me." Perhaps instead of one sole person, there are a small group of people. Perhaps 1 percent of the population is not affected. Be sure to come up with a plausible reason to avoid the Chosen One cliche. This way, you can have relationships and character drama and friendships and whatnot among those who are still left (because the zombie movies never have one lone survivor, right?) And just because they don't save everyone from brainwashing doesn't mean they can't be happy. Have you read "Anthem" by Ayn Rand? You really ought to; it doesn't go on and on with huge diatribes like her other books, I promise. In the ending of that one (highlight; it's in white so as not to spoil it for anyone) the main character and his girlfriend find a way to escape the totalitarian, 1984-esque society. They find the remains of ancient civilization (our current civilization, because it's in the future), live in an old house and get pregnant and raise their kid to embrace individualism and liberty. They live happily ever after.
Hmm..I like Rand's philosophy to an extent, although I believe in altruism and that there is good art and atrocious art, but one can both likeand learn from bad art.. Anyway, you could have the antagonist blanket the world in his terror and then implement a way for the protagonist and his necessary group of heroes to somehow fall out of control..fight it off, then fight the antagonist.
I wasn't mentioning Rand's philosophy at all. I was simply using an example from one of her short dystopia novels (which was similar to "1984") to illustrate a case in which the MC is unable to change the situation, but able to escape it and live a happy life.
I hear you..I was just making a comment about Rand. Happen to be listening to The Fountainhead again..mainly for the superior tone she uses, because I had an idea for a novel and it uses this really high brow concept of strong-willed, almost to the point of bull-headed people living by their own innate code, and want to steep myself in Rand while I'm in the note taking and outlining phase.. Margaret Atwood is another good example of dystopian excellence. I liked The Handmaid's Tale the best..
hmm much to ponder. thank you for the input. i was actually planning on getting rands Atlas Shrugged, so maybe ill have to check out the other one too. Someone ear'ilier suggested the book FEED to me by mt anderson. thats almost exaclty what i was thinking about where all media, tv and internet is beamed directly into the brains of the world and the either catastrophic our miraculous consequences.
Yeah..that was a pretty good book..kinda short though. Only thing about that was it was almost voluntary, like they came to depend on it so much that it sort of brainwashed them.. I was working on a novel idea with a friend and we were pretty much doing the same thing..the antagonist somehow managed to sway nearly the entire world, and there were those who didn't submit for various stubborn or ignorant reasons, and there was the protagonist and his group of heroes..I kept telling my friend to picture The Stand as the structure, cause to me that's what it most closely resembled in our case..really it all comes down to how you end up doing the controlling the world thing, and making sure that you give the antagonist his soapbox to provide reasonable motivation for doing it..I always liked villains who had some reason behind the cause besides the obvious, makes them more identifiable..the protagonist's reason for stopping him will naturally stem from the antagonist's as the story develops..maybe the antagonist learns of him and then takes something or someone precious to him, or maybe the protagonist, in your case, finds himself the only one capable of standing up and planning a way to stop the villain, at least at first..protagonist will probably need a supporting cast to aid him, even if it's slowly drawing some of those from the antagonist's side over to his side..I don't know, there are tons of ways to do it, I'm just riffing on things that come to mind and my experiences cause the bigger the idea pool, the more likely you will find what you need to get started, and after that your imagination can take over and really start to distinguish it and make it yours, or just reading different advice might cause you to take a small piece and build on it until it feels right..whatever you decide to go with, I'll bet it ends up changing for the better as the story progresses..good luck!
Yah i think the religious aspect and the financial could intertwine and build off of eachother... spread a giant religion then promote the charity of the religion that has to reach a certain amount of donations to expand the web networks to prime the world through media before the world is ready for the next stage of awakening.
