# Where would an authoritarian world government send dissidents? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 7, 2025, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-an-authoritarian-world-government-send-dissidents/1018011 "2025-05-07T15:48:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-an-authoritarian-world-government-send-dissidents/1018011/21 "2025-05-07T18:56:54Z")
A mere 1,000 miles. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-an-authoritarian-world-government-send-dissidents/1018011/22 "2025-05-07T19:02:51Z")
932 miles is a short hop? ---
**Author:** ![Cmyers1980](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyers1980/32/11814_2.png) [@Cmyers1980](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cmyers1980)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-an-authoritarian-world-government-send-dissidents/1018011/23 "2025-05-07T19:58:30Z")
Because the prompt was explicitly inspired by Brave New World, which didn’t have gulags. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-an-authoritarian-world-government-send-dissidents/1018011/24 "2025-05-07T21:18:06Z")
“Unpleasant” yet “able to sustain” is sort of like saying that you want a lemon cheap car that’s very reliable. ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2025, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-an-authoritarian-world-government-send-dissidents/1018011/25 "2025-05-07T22:36:35Z")
Yeah, that. Pleasant or not, there _are_ no places on Earth that can sustain millions of people that aren’t _already occupied_ by millions of people. ---
**Author:** ![Cmyers1980](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyers1980/32/11814_2.png) [@Cmyers1980](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cmyers1980)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2025, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-an-authoritarian-world-government-send-dissidents/1018011/26 "2025-05-08T01:10:25Z")
I think Sicily, Greenland or Nicaragua would be perfect penal colonies in a scenario like this. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2025, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-an-authoritarian-world-government-send-dissidents/1018011/27 "2025-05-08T01:19:10Z")
Australia worked well for this the first time around. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2025, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-an-authoritarian-world-government-send-dissidents/1018011/28 "2025-05-08T01:39:17Z")
Maybe Tasmania? It is isolated enough, being an island of its own, yet close enough to a major populated area (Australia) that the regime could keep close tabs on it. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2025, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-an-authoritarian-world-government-send-dissidents/1018011/29 "2025-05-08T02:43:18Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > _Brave New World_ was written in the very early 1930s. Do we know what Aldous Huxley thought about the German Trains to Oblivion? No, it was written before that. It’s implied that World State is using “the islands” as an escape valve fortheupper castes. Exiling dissents means the World State can still draw on their talents if they face an out of context problem. The World State has a population of 2 billion. If say only 1% are Alphas that’s only 20 million. Assume Betas wre eligible and make up another 5% that’s another 100 million. So exiles are drawn from a pool of only around 120 million, all of whom have been selectively bred and conditioned since before they were even decanted to conform to their assigned role. Dissidents and malcontents also have the option of just going on a permanent Soma holiday like Linda and Tomakin. There will never be enough exiles for a regime that has the resources and control of an entire planet to have trouble finding room for. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2025, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-an-authoritarian-world-government-send-dissidents/1018011/30 "2025-05-08T04:08:29Z")
I know it was written before the German Holocaust happened. I was wondering if he spoke about that Holocaust at all. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2025, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-an-authoritarian-world-government-send-dissidents/1018011/31 "2025-05-08T07:38:08Z")
> [@Cmyers1980](#): > > Sicily, Going to Sicily is by no means a punishment. And you could literally swim to mainland Italy. ---
**Author:** ![Cmyers1980](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyers1980/32/11814_2.png) [@Cmyers1980](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cmyers1980)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2025, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-an-authoritarian-world-government-send-dissidents/1018011/32 "2025-05-08T10:32:09Z")
There would be measures in place to stop this from happening. ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2025, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-an-authoritarian-world-government-send-dissidents/1018011/33 "2025-05-08T20:34:44Z")
In the novel it is made abundantly clear (by Mustapha Mond himself, the World Coordinator, no less) that the government in “Brave New World” would not flinch at exterminating dissidents if it was not feasible to send them away. Yes, having a pool of inquisitive and “maladjusted” individuals can be convenient in case society ever meets a truly “outside problem”… but that would go by the wayside if it were not possible to have a place to keep dissidents away from society (ironically, Mustapha Mond himself was one of the “dissidents” himself, but the powers that be saw his potential and offered him the choice of exile or becoming one of the leaders, with the understanding that he would leave behind his “dissident-ness” and apply his mind and skills to keep society going). Here is a scan of the relevant passage of the book (towards the end, when Mustapha Mond sentences Helmholtz and Bernard to banishment and later has a philosophical conversation with “Mr. Savage”): [[Album] Brave New World ![](https://i.imgur.com/cGtyGzw.jpeg?fb "Brave New World") ](https://imgur.com/a/FKI5Vnn) For something written in 1931, it is eerily and creepily prescient in indicating that the government would get rid of “undesirables” by means of what sounds very much like a gas chamber… ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-an-authoritarian-world-government-send-dissidents/1018011/34 "2025-05-13T18:43:11Z")
Seems to me that any place habitable enough to support a decent sized population of criminals would be economically valuable. _Too_ valuable for a government to “waste” on mere punishment like that (outside of slave labor, perhaps, which is what Australia originally was for). Any place _not_ economically valuable in that sense would simply be a death sentence, with extra steps. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2025, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-an-authoritarian-world-government-send-dissidents/1018011/35 "2025-05-21T10:49:01Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > economically valuable. _Too_ valuable for a government to “waste” on mere punishment like that (outside of slave labor, perhaps, which is what Australia originally was for). But there’s lots of places that are economically _marginal_. They can be made livable with some minor investments, but probably can’t produce enough economic value to be worth that investment without some other, external motivation, like a colony for political prisoners. The key is finding such a marginal place, that is also relatively secure without constant, large-scale interventions. An isolated island works well for that, which is why lots of people are suggesting them. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2025, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-an-authoritarian-world-government-send-dissidents/1018011/36 "2025-05-21T11:14:00Z")
It sends them underground, of course. To the mines and the machinery, never to come up again, not them, nor their children, nor their children’s children. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2025, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-an-authoritarian-world-government-send-dissidents/1018011/37 "2025-05-21T19:57:09Z")
A nuclear war would create more options. The Republic of Gilead in _The Handmaids Tale_ sent troublemakers to clean up nuclear waste in ‘the colonies’. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2025, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-an-authoritarian-world-government-send-dissidents/1018011/38 "2025-05-22T02:56:20Z")
Probably to “a nice big farm upstate.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-would-an-authoritarian-world-government-send-dissidents/1018011.md?page=1)