History Main / BombThrowingAnarchists

** The Professor, the purest example of this trope in the book, is a NietzscheWannabe who gives Verloc a bomb. He despises Michaelis's idealism and [[{{Darwinist}} wants to create a world where the strong have free reign to crush the weak]].

Anarchism is an umbrella term for a bunch of views that advocate the reduction or elimination of hierarchic power. The majority of anarchists encourage nonviolent means for this goal.

Usually a victim of [[TheNewRockAndRoll dangerous pop culture trends]] which turn out to be [[BrokenAesop the real threat]].

SubTrope of StrawmanPolitical.

* The VinDiesel vehicle ''xXx'' had a group of these as its villains, who intended to launch a chemical attack against several cities to provoke a world war and cause all order to break down leading to global freedom... somehow. The hero, on the other hand, has almost exactly the same social philosophy without the "killing people" part.

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[+A Bacteriologist, after a bit of prompting, shows a young man a vial containing a live culture of cholera, then leaves the room momentarily to answer the door, his return quickly followed by the visitor apologizing for wasting so much of the Bacteriologist's valuable time and leaving. The Bacteriologist then notices that there's something missing. One [[StandardSnippet Yackety Sax]]-worthy taxi chase (one taxi for the anarchist, one for the Bacteriologist, and one for his wife with his hat, shoes, and overcoat) later, the vial breaks in the anarchist's hand and the anarchist decides to act as the first carrier and drinks what's left, at which point he feels free to exit the cab, yell "Vive l'Anarchie! You are too late, my friend. I have drunk it. The cholera is abroad," and walk off into a crowd. On the ride home, the Bacteriologist reveals that he had just told the anarchist that the vial had contained cholera to impress him, while it actually contained a bacterium that turns animals blue.+] ]]

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* The Play "The Just Assassins" by french writer Albert Camus explores the moral issues faced by a group of Russian terrorists plotting to kill the Governor General of Moscow by throwing a bomb at his carriage.

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* OlderThanRadio example: Joseph Conrad's 1907 novel ''The Secret Agent'', in which a group of anarchists are persuaded to bomb the Royal Observatory as a demonstration against pure science. The story includes the grotesque figure of Karl Yundt, who expresses himself thus: "I have always dreamed of a band of men absolute in their resolve to discard all scruples in the choice of means, strong enough to give themselves frankly the name of destroyers, and free from the taint of that resigned pessimism which rots the world. No pity for anything on earth, including themselves, and death enlisted for good and all in the service of humanity -- that's what I would have liked to see." He has long since forgotten what he hoped to build in place of the old order.

** Somewhat more plausibly in the 14-16th century, when the peasant revolts during the Reformation ''were'' anarchist. The leader of the Anabaptists was drawn and quartered for proclaiming that he would rather the Turks invade Germany ([[ValuesDissonance a realistic proposition at the time]]) instead of having self-proclaimed Christians [[TechnicalPacifist rule by force]]. In England in the 1300s, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occams_Razor William of Ockham]]'s seminary students were Socialists in the 1300s who tried to eliminate all rulers in England and set up... they weren't sure yet. Their Peasant's Revolt nearly deposed the monarchy [[AlternateHistory in the 1300s]], but was turned back at the gates of London.

** They were communists, not anarchists, but they [[ContractualGenreBlindness managed to get themselves pigeonholed]] in the whole "anti-authoritarian radicals are insane" stereotype.

* The Intellivision game ''Bomb Squad'' uses this as the premise behind the game. One of these has planted a really big bomb under downtown and you're set to disable it. While you and your pal are trying to disable it, he taunts "It won;t be easy!" in what ''might'' be an East European accent.

** Not to mention that one of the revolutionary movements active in Russia at that time actually was the Nihilists, who considered all authority and hierarchy to stand in the way of free choice.

** At the time, "mad bombers" were all assumed to be anarchists, and vice versa, based on the notoriety of the assassin attempts, hence the origin of the stereotype. Ironically, in reality, most anarchists at the time were basically [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/council_communism council communists]] -- the people who wanted Russia to be run democratically from the ground up by workers councils. They all got killed by Lenin. So basically, anarchism at the time was another name for communism -without- the dictatorship part, not nihilism. (In the US, they briefly took over Saint Louis during a General Strike and turned local governance, mail, etc. over to the Unions until the Federal Government shelled the city).

* The play "Last Meals" has in one of its vignettes a Timothy McVeigh {{expy}} with a thing for mint chocolate chip ice cream. He is shown making a speech to the camera and does an UnflinchingWalk from a building he has just blown up, while eating his ice cream.

* Whenever anti-globalization activists or environmentalists (of any stripe) show up on ''LawAndOrder'' or other {{Police Procedural}}s, they are invariably this. If the producers wish to [[StrawmanPolitical explore their motivations]], they will turn out to be {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s who believe UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans, but undergo a VillainousBreakdown [[ExasperatedPerp in response to]] a KirkSummation.

* This is a staple of the era, so much so that the titular short story of [[HGWells H. G. Wells]]' first collection, ''The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents'', mocks the idea of an anarchist committing bioterrorism. [+[[hottip:Synopsis (show):\\
A Bacteriologist, after a bit of prompting, shows a young man a vial containing a live culture of cholera, then leaves the room momentarily to answer the door, his return quickly followed by the visitor apologizing for wasting so much of the Bacteriologist's valuable time and leaving. The Bacteriologist then notices that there's something missing. One [[StandardSnippet Yackety Sax]]-worthy taxi chase (one taxi for the anarchist, one for the Bacteriologist, and one for his wife with his hat, shoes, and overcoat) later, the vial breaks in the anarchist's hand and the anarchist decides to act as the first carrier and drinks what's left, at which point he feels free to exit the cab, yell "Vive l'Anarchie! You are too late, my friend. I have drunk it. The cholera is abroad," and walk off into a crowd. On the ride home, the Bacteriologist reveals that he had just told the anarchist that the vial had contained cholera to impress him, while it actually contained a bacterium that turns animals blue.]]+]

** From about the same era (1908, to be precise), the anarchists in GKChesterton's ''TheManWhoWasThursday'' are actually proud of being devoted to destruction as an end in itself, considering partisan terrorists weaklings. "The outer circle are sad because the bomb did not kill the king; the inner circle are glad because the bomb killed somebody."
*** ''The Man Who Was Thursday'' is actually a Christian parable of sorts. The "anarchists" are not rebelling against society, but against God.
**** And there is only one real anarchist in the end.
*** The full title is ''The ManWhoWasThursday: A Nightmare''.
** This is a staple of the era, so much so that the titular short story of H. G. Wells' first collection, The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents, mocks the idea of an anarchist committing bioterrorism. Synopsis: [[spoiler: A Bacteriologist, after a bit of prompting, shows a young man a vial containing a live culture of cholera, then leaves the room momentarily to answer the door, his return quickly followed by the visitor apologizing for wasting so much of the Bacteriologist's valuable time and leaving. The Bacteriologist then notices that there's something missing. One Yackety Sax-worthy taxi chase (one taxi for the anarchist, one for the Bacteriologist, and one for his wife with his hat, shoes, and overcoat) later, the vial breaks in the anarchist's hand and the anarchist decides to act as the first carrier and drinks what's left, at which point he feels free to exit the cab, yell "Vive l'Anarchie! You are too late, my friend. I have drunk it. The cholera is abroad," and walk off into a crowd. On the ride home, the Bacteriologist reveals that he had just told the anarchist that the vial had contained cholera to impress him, while it actually contained a bacterium that turns animals blue.]]

[[ObviouslyEvil http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bombthrowinganarchist.gif]]

Traditionally equipped with a CartoonBomb, described by one stock image-hosting site as an "[[http://www.images.com/image/316805/slightly-blurred-shot-of-an-old-fashioned-anarchist-style-round-bomb-with-burning-fuse/?&results_per_page=1&detail=TRUE&page=59 anarchist-style round bomb with burning fuse]]."

-->"Blow it all up man!"\\
-- '''[[BatmanBeyond Mad Stan]]'''

** From about the same era (1908, to be precise), the anarchists in GKChesterton's ''The Man Who Was Thursday'' are actually proud of being devoted to destruction as an end in itself, considering partisan terrorists weaklings. "The outer circle are sad because the bomb did not kill the king; the inner circle are glad because the bomb killed somebody."

** And, of course, before The Dead Kennedys was Crass, which is likely the ultimate example of an ''actual'' AnarchistPunkBand.

* Referenced in [[Tintin The Scepter of Ottokar]]. When Tintin sneaks into the palace to warn the king about the plot, he is captured by guards in the middle of a ball. The guests are told that Tintin was an anarchist, causing one of the guests to faint.
** Of course the book was written around the time when anarchists were practically synomimous with terrorists.

-->"Blow it all up man!!!!!!!!"\\

** The Joker was more of an Illegalist, a type of French anarchism where crime is considered the only true expression of anarchy. Essentially ForTheEvulz ''is'' the Joker's political cause, as he thinks everyone should be like that.