History Main / ConceptsAreCheap

->''♫Justice is what he claims to fight for, but it's a mystery - what does this 'justice' mean? He hasn't got a clue!♫''

* Marvel Comics' Comicbook/{{Angela|MarvelComics}}, and by extension all Angels of Heven (this is the in comic spelling), believe in this trope to a scary extent, half their culture centres around [[DefiedTrope defying]] it (the other half around materialism and EquivalentExchange). Justice? Honor? Family? all those big and important words they translate to '''Nothing''' or to put it more flowery:

* [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness Back in the day]] Franchise/{{Superman}} spent a lot of time demolishing substandard ghetto housing, exposing political corruption and standing up for the rights of immigrants and the little guy. He was a New Deal superhero! But politics is bad for sales - even corrupt politicians buy comic books, after all. So Superman started to fight for the magnificent generality of "truth, justice and the American way" (the last part added in the 40s for the radio program), and as long as he limits himself to hitting supervillains in the jaw, it doesn't matter. No two people can agree on what Superman 'really stands for' anymore, but they all agree it's ''very heroic''. "The American way" part is also often dropped in modern stories, although it's usually [[CaptainObvious only Americans who complain about this.]]

* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'', and its sister game ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'', love seeding Heroes and Villains with motivations no thicker than 'Justice' or 'Villainy', and sometimes [[{{Troperiffic}} gleefully]] rolls characters around in the stuff. With a few exceptions, the entire Longbow faction is essentially Democracy! The Malta Group want you to BewareTheSuperman and reinstate the SuperRegistrationAct! The Crey Corporation is [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Capitalism]]! The Regulators, like Back Alley Brawler, say DrugsAreBad, m'kay! Positron and Vahzilok are ForScience! Eventually subverted by a bunch of different characters, albeit mostly in the supplemental material.

* Marvel Comics' Comicbook/{{Angela|MarvelComics}}, and by extension all Angels of Heven (this is the in comic spelling), believe in this trope to a scary extent, half their culture centres around {{defi|edTrope}}ng it (the other half around materialism and EquivalentExchange). Justice? Honor? Family? all those big and important words they translate to '''Nothing''' or to put it more flowery:

* The basis for real life PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny. If you can't be bothered actual ''making'' your government democratic, then naming it so is the next best thing. Whether or not this actually fools anyone though is unknown.

* In ''Videogame/DragonAgeInquisition'', Cassandra wonders what the Inquisition will stand for after the BigBad is defeated. The Inquisitor can remark that it's a little optimistic to be thinking about such matters when they haven't won yet. Cassandra's concerns are quite understandable, since she used to be a member of an organization that stood for justice and order, but eventually became more concerned with its own power.

* In ''Videogame/DraonAgeInquisition'', Cassandra wonders what the Inquisition will stand for after the BigBad is defeated. The Inquisitor can remark that it's a little optimistic to be thinking about such matters when they haven't won yet.

* Patrick Bateman in TheFilmOfTheBook ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'' gives a monologue on the important problems that we need to face, eventually dissolving into a bunch of vacuous rhetoric. Naturally, he doesn't actually care about these things, so his speech is just a huge Lampshade hung on the use of this trope.

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* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' with the "You can't trap justice..." riff.

* During the bloody period of TheFrenchRevolution, the phrase 'for the people!' or 'for France!' was used to justify repression, mass murder, and ill-thought out wars that sent France's economy down the toilet.

* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', [[TheHedonist Isabella]], [[HiddenDepths of all people]], expresses this belief.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'' more-or-less {{Lampshades}} this trope. "Let's hang ten for Justice!"

* In ''Series/RobinHood'', the main character would often use [[RichardTheLionHeart King Richard]] as his rallying cry, but opposed the Crusades. Therefore, the storylines ran on an odd paradox: King Richard was good, but his actions were bad. Many of the storylines revolved around trying to bring King Richard home, yet when the outlaws travel all the way to the Holy Land, Richard is revealed to be a rather weak, misguided King, raising questions as to why Robin was so slavishly devoted to him in the first place. The King even tries to have Robin and the gang executed, but by season three, everyone has reverted back to the mind-set of King Richard = good, peace, justice.

* Spoofed on ''ChibiRobo'' with Space Hunter Drake Redcrest, who claims to fight for justice, then admits he doesn't really know what it means. It even pops up in the vocal version of his theme song.

** Then there are the villains and their interpretation of "balance". For Sozin it was a Fire Nation lead hegemony, for Amon it meant bender genocide, Unalaq believed in a unified physical and spirit worlds ruled by him, and Zaheer just wants total chaos.

* While the invocation of "freedom", "justice" and "liberty" tend to be Americans' preference, European, politicians tend to make more understated speeches: they usually don't go further than "social equality", "citizenship", and "the republic" in the worst case (but that's from French Persident Sarkozy's administration, and that guy is very much into "American" methods). However, when talking about ''other'' countries, "democracy" and "human rights" pop up very frequently. There was a fad with "change" to try to [[FollowTheLeader copy]] BarackObama's vibe, but it settled very quickly.

->''♫Justice is what he claims to fight for, but it's a mystery - what does this 'justice' mean? He hasn't got a clue!♫''

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* ''FanFic/MyLittleUnicorn'''s supposed theme, believing, is constantly being thrown about. However, its message is ridiculously weak and vague.

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-->'''Zorg:''' I don't like warriors. Too narrow-minded, no subtlety. And worse, they fight for hopeless causes. Honor? Huh! Honor's killed millions of people, it hasn't saved a single one.

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* Music/MichaelJackson:

** "Heal the World"'s vague message -- "There are people dying/If you care enough for the living/Make a better place/For you and for me" -- is reflected in the music video for it: Kids go up to soldiers occupying some territory and give them flowers, which immediately convinces them to throw their weapons away. Huh?

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* This is enormously subverted in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', as the protagonist's dream is to become a superhero who can save everybody. He is confronted about the flaws of this in the Unlimited Blade Works route by [[spoiler:Archer, who is his future self who followed this ideal to the bitter end and gained nothing in return but betrayal, misery, and disillusionment]]. He points out that the protagonist's ideal of being a hero is too vague; there is no reason for it, no feasible plan to accomplish it, and that it is not even his own ideal - only sacrifice and more conflict can result from it. There is nothing in that ideal, as it is one that can only save everybody in his sight - but as one cannot look at oneself, it can't even let him save himself in the end. Angst and turmoil all 'round in this one. Kotomine also points out how Shirou's desire to save everyone is inherently flawed; saving someone requires they be in danger, so Shirou's desire can only be fulfilled so long as people are in danger.
* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'', and its sister game ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'', love seeding Heroes and Villains with motivations no thicker than 'Justice' or 'Villainy', and sometimes [[{{Troperiffic}} gleefully]] rolls characters around in the stuff. With a few exceptions, the entire Longbow faction is essentially Democracy! The Malta Group want you to BewareTheSuperman and reinstate the SuperRegistrationAct! The Crey Corporation is [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Capitalism]]! The Regulators, like Back Alley Brawler, say DrugsAreBad, m'kay! Positron and Vahzilok are ForScience! Eventually subverted by a bunch of different characters, albeit mostly in the supplemental material.
* Parodied in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' on the [[GTARadio Chatterbox radio station]]. A guy by the name of "Jeff" calls in, advertising a rally at Liberty City Park. However, when the show's host asks what the rally's actually about, Jeff responds with an escalation of otherwise meaningless phrases and appeals, including "for justice" "for the future", and "for hope". The host continues asking, only to be met with more cheap concepts and pleas for attendance, until it turns out the guy doesn't know what it's about.

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* ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'' more-or-less {{Lampshades}} this trope. "Let's hang ten for Justice!"
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': The Crimson Chin also uses "Justice!" as his vague but enthusiastic rallying cry.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'''s version of Batman also loves making pithy one-liners about "justice". This usually fits the show's tone, though it was rather jarring in the "Tornado Tyrant" episode where Red Tornado tried to explain good and evil to his son, when he could have just said "Evil people like stealing trucks and talking about crime, good people like punching those people and talking about justice, the end."

* Also parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "It Takes A Village Idiot, and I Married One", where Lois runs for Mayor - she quickly learns that making rational arguments and fully-explained proposals makes undecided voters fall asleep or get angrily confused, and resorts to ''exactly'' these kinds of platitudes, including responding to completely unrelated questions with "Jesus" and "9/11".

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* ''FanFic/MyLittleUnicorn'''s supposed theme: Believing, is constantly being thrown about, however, it's message is ridiculously weak and vague.

* Many activists for social change (feminism, racial/religious minority rights, LGBTQ rights etc.) use phrases like "Equality for all!" frequently, which leads to a lot of confusion as to ''what'' exactly this "equality" is and what it will mean for both people within and outside of the group in question. ''Other'' activists however are very specific in their aims, stating how they want a change to [societal structure] or an end to [bad thing] and explaining how they think this can be achieved, but these people tend to be accused of being against "equality" because they only focus on one group of people. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Can't think of a convincing personal motivation for your hero? No problem. There are lots of useful words out there. [[MeaninglessMeaningfulWords Useful words]] like [[ForGreatJustice 'freedom' or 'justice' or 'peace' or 'mankind']]! [[LoadedWords Or 'love'! Or 'hope'! Or ' good'!]] Yeah!

"Freedom" stirs up lots of warm fuzzy feelings in people. Better yet, any villains who oppose our freedom-loving hero [[DesignatedVillain must be, by definition, evil.]] Better than ''that'', freedom is an abstract. If nothing specific is added, a reader can fill in the blank with ''whatever they want''.

ConceptsAreCheap is the natural result of writers stuffing their narratives with lots of glossy one-size-fits-all words, rather than inventing motivations which emerge organically from the character's experiences. Like a cheap meal, it leaves you empty two hours after you've finished the work. Sure, the hero might have just told the villain that 'freedom' is better than 'tyranny' and then struck him with his laser sword, thus [[ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer (violently)]] winning 'freedom' for all 'mankind'. But why? Why did he care? Why should ''we'' care?

And would anyone but a CardCarryingVillain ''say'' that tyranny is better than freedom?

Compare MeaninglessMeaningfulWords, LoadedWords and ForGreatJustice.

Contrast JusticeWillPrevail.

Unrelated to HighConcept.

* This is a common criticism of ''PokemonTheFirstMovie'': the rather forced moral in the English dub is that "fighting is wrong" - in a series ''all about'' fighting. (ItMakesSenseInContext; the fighting in question is to the death and tied to Mewtwo's hatred of humans, while the series' regular battles are usually friendly and result in nothing more than short-lived KOs. Nonetheless, many fans agree that the film would have been better off with no such moral.)

* [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness Back in the day]] ''{{Superman}}'' spent a lot of time demolishing substandard ghetto housing, exposing political corruption and standing up for the rights of immigrants and the little guy. He was a New Deal superhero! But politics is bad for sales - even corrupt politicians buy comic books, after all. So Superman started to fight for the magnificent generality of 'truth, justice and the American way', and as long as he limits himself to hitting supervillains in the jaw, it doesn't matter. No two people can agree on what Superman 'really stands for' anymore, but they all agree it's ''very heroic''. "The American way" part is also often dropped in modern stories, although it's usually [[CaptainObvious only Americans who complain about this.]]
** Originally Superman fought for truth and justice and was in a constant battle against evil. The Truth, Justice and the American Way part came in in the 40s for the radio program and it was more of an anti Nazi thing than an anti commie thing.
* ComicBook/{{Spider-Man}} fights crime for the grand glorious cause of Responsibility: he has the power to do it, so he has to do it. (It ''does'' spin out of his {{origin story}}, but still.) This may mean that he was doomed to become a superhero no matter what: he was introduced as a young genius almost on par with the other super scientists of the time like [[ComicBook/AntMan Hank Pym]], [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Reed Richards]] and [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]]. Thus, he had great power, and thus, great responsibility.
** Not too long ago (right after the above happened) during a team up, Stark calls out Peter for [[ReedRichardsIsUseless wasting his genius]]. Peter retorts that he can't exploit it because then his villains will be able to come after his loved ones. He's saying this while standing in the ruins of Stark's company which was destroyed by a super-villain to get back at Stark, which Stark chose to allow in order to save his employees. So you can see Peter's point.

* The ''JusticeLeague'' villain Prometheus was designed as a sort of reverse Batman, whose parents were Bonnie and Clyde-like criminals gunned down by the police before his eyes. Why did he take on the Justice League? Because his parents' death instilled in him a deep and abiding ''hatred of justice.'' It's entirely possible it was meant to be as trite as it sounds, but most writers (and readers) don't treat it that way.
** Spinning off from Prometheus comes the mini-series "CryForJustice" where, suddenly, every single major character becomes this. They spend the entire series demanding "justice" without ever bothering to define what it means or how it's different from what the other heroes are already doing. Their actions are also closer to that of [[{{Revenge}} another concept]] altogether.

* Remarked on in ''Discworld/InterestingTimes'' when Rincewind explains why he doesn't support "worthy causes".
** Also see ''Discworld/NightWatch'', wherein a rant by Sir Samuel results in the rebels fighting for truth, justice, freedom, reasonably-priced love...and a hard-boiled egg. The egg, at least, can be had by morning.

* In the latest BBC series of ''Series/RobinHood'', the main character would often use [[RichardTheLionHeart King Richard]] as his rallying cry, but opposed the Crusades. Therefore, the storylines ran on an odd paradox: King Richard was good, but his actions were bad. Many of the storylines revolved around trying to bring King Richard home, yet when the outlaws travel all the way to the Holy Land, Richard is revealed to be a rather weak, misguided King, raising questions as to why Robin was so slavishly devoted to him in the first place. The King even tries to have Robin and the gang executed, but by season three, everyone has reverted back to the mind-set of King Richard = good, peace, justice.

* Music/MichaelJackson's intended anthems for change aren't much better than the Nickelback example.

* In third edition ''DungeonsAndDragons'', clerics can choose to devote themselves to some broad concepts rather than a deity. This allows the cleric to act pretty much however he or she wants as long it can be said to not violate the concept rather than worry about how his or her patron deity feels. Of course, some deity’s concepts can be just as cheap as those of patronless cleric, too.

** In the DC Wasteland, the only real fight is survival. That is, until you meet the Enclave (he has a few choice words on that subject, too).
* This is enormously subverted in ''FateStayNight'', as the protagonist's dream is to become a superhero who can save everybody. He is confronted about the flaws of this in the Unlimited Blade Works route by [[spoiler:Archer, who is his future self who followed this ideal to the bitter end and gained nothing in return but betrayal, misery, and disillusionment.]] He points out that the protagonist's ideal of being a hero is too vague; there is no reason for it, no feasible plan to accomplish it, and that it is not even his own ideal - only sacrifice and more conflict can result from it. There is nothing in that ideal, as it is one that can only save everybody in his sight - but as one cannot look at oneself, it can't even let him save himself in the end. Angst and turmoil all 'round in this one.
** Kotomine also points out how Shirou's desire to save everyone is inherently flawed. Saving someone requires they be in danger, so Shirou's desire can only be fulfilled so long as people are in danger.
* ''CityOfHeroes'' and its sister game, ''CityOfVillains'', love seeding Heroes and Villains with motivations no thicker than 'Justice' or 'Villainy', and sometimes [[{{Troperiffic}} gleefully]] rolls characters around in the stuff. With a few exceptions, the entire Longbow faction is essentially Democracy! The Malta Group want you to BewareTheSuperman and reinstate the SuperRegistrationAct! The Crey Corporation is [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Capitalism]]! The Regulators, like Back Alley Brawler, say DrugsAreBad, m'kay! Positron and Vahzilok are ForScience!
** Eventually subverted by a bunch of different characters, albeit mostly in the supplemental material. They also {{lampshade}} this mercilessly.

* Played with in ''VideoGame/WildARMs3''. Idealist Virginia is constantly harassed by GoldfishPoopGang leader Maya Schroedinger, who demands to know why she keeps traveling and fighting. Although Maya ostensibly is only motivated by greed and jewels, in the end she claims that that ideal also includes the planet she lives on - a blue-green jewel.
** Similarly, in the original ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs|1}}'', Calamity Jane refuses to accept that Cecelia and friends are fighting for some vague "save the world" mishmash and demands they solidify their reasons.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' is a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] that may or may not be intentional. The Boss uses the word "loyalty" several times in the game to mean very different things. The number of times she changes her mind about what loyalty is boggles the mind.
** Played completely straight in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' by The Patriots, who spend roughly a half-hour at the end of the game lecturing Raiden on the failures of "freedom" and how human beings don't deserve it. The Patriots bring up a lot of actually good points about crowd mentality and convenient self-deception, but they jump completely into the bad guy camp the moment they start talking about how bad freedom is.

* The [[AvatarTheLastAirbender Avatar ]] must bring "balance" to the world, but every Avatar (and their friends/allies) have their own interpretations of what balance is, and inveitably, some people disagree and try to resist them. Avatar Wan thought it meant keeping humans and spirits separate for their own safety, Kuruk interpreted balance as letting people solve their own problems and not interfering unless absolutely necessary, Kyoshi believed in ruthlessly enforcing peace, Roku wanted total segregation between the nations, Aang eventually decided that balance meant accepting the changing world and encouraging unity and understanding between the nations, and [[LegendOfKorra Korra]] reopened the spirit portals and is trying to rebuild the Air Nomads to heal the world after the War.

** The "cheap" part also lies in the fact that no matter what they want they will be ''very'' fuzzy about where they intend to get the money from.

** In Britain the current concepts are fairness and progressiveness. Every policy of the Tory party in government is fair and progressive. Every policy of the Labour party in opposition is fair and progressive. The only way to tell them apart is that the Tories will occasionally throw in "[[ForGreatJustice justice]]" for good measure.

* The Occupy Wall Street movement has been criticized by people from all over the political spectrum for seemingly having little more of a goal than making rich people feel bad.
** The Occupy Wall Street organizers (and their counterparts all over the globe) actually stated that they didn't want to elaborate on their stances too much because they didn't want [[WeAreStrugglingTogether to divide the movement along factional lines]], instead opting to unite as many people as possible by getting them all to agree that the rich being greedy was a bad thing that needed to change. The result was very large crowds and very little clarity. Also, if you dug a little you would find that these different factions already existed beneath the surface, they just all found it in their interest (and no doubt belief) to imagine that each of them represented the 99% rather than a tiny proportion of a broad but ultimately not very effectual movement.
* A common slogan of the LGBTQ/women's/minorities'/etc. rights movements is "Equality for all!" However, it's not difficult to find examples of marginalized groups whose equality these movements haven't the slightest interest in, like polygamists, certain religious minorities, [[FurryFandom furries]], and people of especially uncommon sexual orientations. Also, conversely, these movements (granted, after frequent false-positives) tend to be too jaded to give consideration to whites, men, heterosexuals, Christians, etc. who claim they have been discriminated against, even with ample evidence. [[HandWave Handwaving]] these problems as "part of the patriarchy"/"white supremacy"/etc. without investigating them further is common.
* During the bloody period of TheFrenchRevolution, the phrase 'for the people!' or 'for France!' was used to justify repression, mass murder, and ill-thought out wars that sent France's economy down the toilet.
** Cheap concepts have been used to justify anything and everything - from mass murder to children's rights to efficient sewage disposal - since the dawn of politics. "Freedom" and "justice" were already soundbites in the Roman Republic, over 2000 years ago.
** Roman writers noticed [[BreadAndCircuses and discussed]] it, making this trope OlderThanFeudalism.

* Many who oppose Obama contend that his famous slogans of "Hope" and "Change" and "Yes We Can" were a little too vague.
* Quite common for [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters terrorist organisations and freedom fighters]]; indeed the very act of naming yourself "freedom fighters" falls into this trope. Some cases are [[WellIntentionedExtremist arguable]], but others couldn't be more blatant.
** A good example would be the infamous '''Revolutionary United Front''' or RUF, who fought against the government of Sierra Leone. Really, that's pretty much all there is to know about their Agenda. How did they try to do this? By killing villagers, raping women and amputating the limbs of their victims to keep them from voting.

* The [[AvatarTheLastAirbender Avatar ]] must bring "balance" to the world, but every Avatar (and their friends/allies) have their own interpreataions if what balance is, and inveitably, some people disagree and try to resist them. Avatar Wan thought it meant keeping humans and spirits separate for their own safety, Kuruk interpreted balance as letting people solve their own problems and not interfering unless absolutely necessary, Kyoshi believed in ruthlessly enforcing peace, Roku wanted total segregation between the nations, Aang eventually decided that balance meant accepting the changing world and encouraging unity and understanding between the nations, and [[LegendOfKorra Korra]] reopened the spirit portals and is trying to rebuild the Air Nomads to heal the world after the War.

* The [[AvatarTheLastAirbender Avatar ]] must bring "balance" to the world, but every Avatar (and their friends/allies) have their own interpreataions if what balance is, and inveitably, some people disagree and try to resist them. Avatar Wan thought it meant keeping humans and spirits separate for their own safety, Kuruk interpreted balance as letting people solve their own problems unless absolutely necessary, Kyoshi believed in ruthlessly enforcing peace, Roku wanted total segregation between the nations, Aang eventually decided that balance meant accepting the changing world and encouraging unity and understanding between the nations, and [[LegendOfKorra Korra]] reopened the spirit portals and is trying to rebuild the Air Nomads to heal the world after the War.
** Then there are the villains and their interpretation of "balance". For Sozin it was a Fire Nation lead hegemony, for Amon it meant bender genocide, Unalaq believed in a unified physical and spirit worlds ruled by him, and Zaheer wants total chaos.

** Then there are the villains and their interpretation of "balance". For Sozin it was a Fire Nation lead hegemony, for Amon it meant bender genocide, Unalaq believed in a unified physical and spirit worlds ruled by him, and Zaheer believes in total chaos.