History Main / ConceptsAreCheap

* ''{{Music/Evita}}'': Late in the film, when Eva [[spoiler:is dying]], she and her fascist dictator husband Juan start talking about how their "dream" may never come to pass. It's never really revealed what this dream was supposed to be, unless it turns out it was "Enjoy and abuse the Presidential office" (in which case, Mission Accomplished).

* In ''Film/TheDarkKnightSaga'' much of the plot is about Bruce exploring, discovering and refining his concept of justice and his boundaries (for example, Lucius challenges him on his decision to implement a nigh-omnipresent security system throughout Gotham and Bruce decides to retire it after the current crisis).

* More politicians than not, if not all politicians.

** Obi-Wan declares his loyalty not to any political party or leader, but to 'democracy'.

* 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.

* In ''Film/TheDarkKnightSaga'' much of the plot is about Bruce exploring, discovering and refining his concept of justice and his boundaries. (for example, Lucius challenges him on his decision to implement a nigh-omnipresent security system throughout Gotham and Bruce decides to retire it after the current crisis).

* ''Film/{{Braveheart}}'' speaks a lot about "OUR FREEDOM!" with only a couple of lines giving context they were fighting for ("beg forgiveness for a hundred years of theft, rape, and murder"[[note]]The thirteenth century was a fairly peaceful one for Anglo-Scots relations; shortly prior to the war, there had even been talks of uniting the two countries via royal marriage- 300 years before James VI/I. A few unfortunate deaths in the Scottish royal family changed that.[[/note]]). Although movie-Wallace's crusade just started out as an act of personal revenge against the man who killed his wife, then somehow morphed into "Freedom for UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}}".

** The trope is deconstructed by showing that while simply throwing the words around with no meaning is indeed cheap, the base concept of trying to save people is indeed beautiful. Shirou then decides to avert Archer's biggest flaw in order to not become his future self: Being a perfectionist. You can't save everybody, but trying isn't a bad thing at all.

* ''Film/{{Braveheart}}'' speaks a lot about "OUR FREEDOM!" with only a couple of lines giving context they were fighting for ("beg forgiveness for a hundred years of theft, rape, and murder"[[note]]The thirteenth century was a fairly peaceful one for Anglo-Scots relations; shortly prior to the war, there had even been talks of uniting the two countries via royal marriage- 300 years before James VI/I. A few unfortunate deaths in the Scottish royal family changed that.[[/note]]). Although movie-Wallace's crusade just started out as an act of personal revenge against the man who killed his wife, then somehow morphed into "Freedom for Scotland".

* [[BigBAD The Claw]] in ''Anime/GunXSword abuses this, constantly taking about "dreams" and "world peace" to refer to his plan, when it is more or less an [[spoiler: AssimilationPlot]]. It got him quite a devoted fellowship.

** [[MessianicArchetype The Avatar]] must bring "balance" to the world, but every Avatar (and their friends/allies) have their own interpretations of what balance is, and inevitably, 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 [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra Korra]] reopened the spirit portals and is trying to rebuild the Air Nomads to heal the world after the War.

* ''Comicbook/AngelaMarvelComics'''s main character Angela, and by extension all Angels of Heven (this is the in comic spelling), says her culture centres 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.]]
* ComicBook/SpiderMan 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.
* Inverted by the morally gray characters of Creator/AlanMoore. V (''ComicBook/VForVendetta'') fights for "freedom" not in the form of a vague generality, but in the form of smashing the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Norsefire regime]] and creating a state of anarchy that may or may not be an improvement. In ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', Rorschach and [[spoiler:Ozymandias]], in very different ways and results, devote their entire lives to their ideals, at the cost of distancing themselves from the morality (and, in Rorschach's case, hygiene standards) of everyday folk. [[spoiler:Ozymandias firmly believes that UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans and that a few million deaths to prevent the ''rest'' of the global population from dying is an acceptable sacrifice, while Rorschach believes that ''not even Utopia'' justifies the means, and that global extinction under the truth is better than peace through a lie.]]
* Periodically, ComicBook/CaptainAmerica will become disillusioned when he realizes that even he doesn't really know what representing "America" really means. [[WriterOnBoard Usually when a Republican's in office.]]

** In the mini-series "ComicBook/JusticeLeagueCryForJustice", 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.
* 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:

* The ''Franchise/StarWars'' tried to hang a lot important plot points off it too. Anakin is introduced as a slave: we don't see his performing any slave duties (working in a shop could just be his job for how he's treated), or the effects of slavery on him, or any motivations as a result of his experience, but it earns the tyke sympathy points. Obi-Wan declares his loyalty not to any political party or leader, but to 'democracy'. The Sith are dangerous moral relativists, except when they're rigid moral absolutists, but in the end they only seem to be whatever term the story can hang off them to make then [[CardCarryingVillain eeeevil]].

* {{Franchise/Batman}} usually fights for an ill defined "Justice" like many of his contemporaries but in ''Film/TheDarkKnightSaga'' much of the plot is about Bruce exploring, discovering and refining his concept of justice and his boundaries (for example, Lucius challenges him on his decision to implement a nigh-omnipresent security system throughout Gotham and Bruce decides to retire it after the current crisis.)

** Remarked on in ''Discworld/InterestingTimes'' when Rincewind explains why he doesn't support "worthy causes".
** ''Discworld/NightWatch'', wherein a rant by Sir Samuel results in the rebels fighting for truth, justice, freedom, reasonably-priced love (the [[UnusualEuphemism seamstresses]] objected to the inclusion of "free love")... and a hard-boiled egg. The egg, at least, can be had by morning.

* Generally averted in works by BrandonSanderson, particularly ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' and ''{{Literature/Mistborn}}''. The heroes are frequently forced to grapple with what their high-minded ideals actually mean in practice, and implementing them tend to have all manner of unforeseen consequences.

** Usually this describes whichever gods sponsor humans and halflings in any given setting, having vague concept philosophies like 'survival' and 'freedom' which don't actually demand specific behaviors. Painfully averted by whomever is in charge of Paladins, such as Cuthbert in 3rd edition, who tend to have a very explicit set of specific philosophical demands that are often enforced on even non-paladin worshipers by the universe itself.

*** The Imperium of Man and the Force of Chaos are both Deconstructions of this trope; they both over-emphasis high concepts (Daemons and the Chaos Gods basically ARE concepts given solid metaphysical forms) and encourage acting on them for their own sake. Naturally, both factions are ridiculously kill happy, anti-intellectual, fanatical, and short-sighted, unless they stray from dogma and adopt more practical ways.

* ''MetalWolfChaos'' has propaganda broadcasts from the Policy Promotion Department, making pronouncements like "A heart of '''Justice''' is a heart that loves '''Freedom'''." This is when they're not promising to execute everyone who's even tangentially connected to Metal Wolf.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'' doesn't let this worry him, being an IdiotHero. "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."

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' [[{{Troperiffic}} gleefully]] plays this straight with [[IdiotHero Finn]], who loves to boast about his defence of "honour" and "justice" without actually having any idea what those things mean ("I swear." "Swear to what?" "I swear ''to justice!''") and fighting evil monsters 'cuz they're "evil". CharacterDevelopment means he's a lot less prone to this in later seasons, but he still won't object to randomly punching monsters.

* More politicians than not, if not all politicians. It doesn't matter whether you're talking to the [[UsefulNotes/AmericanGunPolitics National Rifle Association or Handgun Control Inc]], the American Civil Liberties Union or an attorney general, everyone is for the protection of rights and has no problem with reasonable regulation; those phrases mean ''exactly'' nothing. The real fun starts when all sides claim that ''their'' politicians back up their meaningless soundbites with actual policy and claim that everyone ''else's'' politicians have nothing but soundbites.

* 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" and "citizenship." 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]] UsefulNotes/BarackObama's vibe, but it settled very quickly.
** On that note, many of Obama's critics contend that his famous slogans of "Hope" and "Change" and "Yes We Can" were a little too vague.

* 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 organizers (and their counterparts all over the globe) 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.
** YMMV on this. It was repeatedly pointed out Occupy's overall goal wasn't to psuh through specific changes in public policy, but to raise awareness there is a problem in the first place. It came about as a grassroots movement in the truest sense of the word as gradually people all over the world compared notes and realized they weren't the only ones stuck with unacceptable social conditions created through the fact that 0.01% of the world's population own over a third of Earth's wealth. How could social reform take place if society denies there's a problem in the first place? Insofar Occupy succeeded in their mission to educate the public.

* Roman writers noticed [[BreadAndCircuses and discussed]] it, making this trope OlderThanFeudalism.

* Periodically, CaptainAmerica will become disillusioned when he realizes that even he doesn't really know what representing "America" really means. [[WriterOnBoard Usually when a Republican's in office.]]

* 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]] UsefulNotes/BarackObama's vibe, but it settled very quickly.

* Blog/LessWrong [[http://lesswrong.com/lw/jb/applause_lights/ has an article]] on this trope as it appears in politics, using "democratic" as a specific example.

* ''Film/{{Braveheart}}'' speaks alot about "OUR FREEDOM!" with only a couple of lines giving context they were fighting for ("beg forgiveness for a hundred years of theft, rape, and murder"[[note]]The thirteenth century was a fairly peaceful one for Anglo-Scots relations; shortly prior to the war, there had even been talks of uniting the two countries via royal marriage- 300 years before James VI/I. A few unfortunate deaths in the Scottish royal family changed that.[[/note]]). Although movie-Wallace's crusade just started out as an act of personal revenge against the man who killed his wife, then somehow morphed into "Freedom for Scotland".

** 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 unified physical and spirit worlds ruled by him, Zaheer just wanted total chaos, while Kuvira sought complete control and subjugation under the guise of unity.

* John Stuart Mill supported freedom. G.W.F. Hegel supported Freedom. What is meant by freedom in each case is VERY different from the other. This sometimes leads to leads to political BlueAndOrangeMorality between the two factions.

* Periodically, CaptainAmerica will become disillusioned when he realizes that even he doesn't really know what representing "America" really means. [[AuthorOnBoard Usually when a Republican's in office.]]

* The ''Franchise/StarWars'' prequels abused this a lot, which might be forgiveable in a free-wheeling SpaceOpera story, except that they tried to hang a lot important plot points off it too. Anakin is introduced as a slave: we don't see his performing any slave duties (working in a shop could just be his job for how he's treated), or the effects of slavery on him, or any motivations as a result of his experience, but it earns the tyke sympathy points. Obi-Wan declares his loyalty not to any political party or leader, but to 'democracy'. The Sith are dangerous moral relativists, except when they're rigid moral absolutists, but in the end they only seem to be whatever term the story can hang off them to make then [[CardCarryingVillain eeeevil]]. It also goes to show you that a lot of fantasy and SpaceOpera [[{{Backstory}} backstories]] ''[[FridgeLogic do not make sense]]''.
* ''{{Music/Evita}}'' had a bit of this. Late in the film, when Eva [[spoiler:is dying]], she and her fascist dictator husband Juan start talking about how their "dream" may never come to pass. It's never really revealed what this dream was supposed to be, unless it turns out it was "Enjoy and abuse the Presidential office" (in which case, Mission Accomplished).
* The films ''Film/ThePatriot'' (with Mel Gibson, not Steven Seagal) and ''KingArthur'' (2004) threw the word "freedom" around, which just made the weak scripts all the more apparent. Even ''Film/{{Braveheart}}'' nearly fell into this, were it not for at least a couple of lines giving context they were fighting for ("beg forgiveness for a hundred years of theft, rape, and murder"[[note]]The thirteenth century was a fairly peaceful one for Anglo-Scots relations; shortly prior to the war, there had even been talks of uniting the two countries via royal marriage- 300 years before James VI/I. A few unfortunate deaths in the Scottish royal family changed that, though.[[/note]]). Although movie-Wallace's crusade just started out as an act of personal revenge against the man who killed his wife, then somehow morphed into "Freedom for Scotland".
* One of the worst offenders has to be Christian in ''Film/MoulinRouge'', who seems to basically think that because he and Satine believe in Freedom and Art and Love, the universe has to bend around them and everyone is obliged to give them stuff for free. Neither does it ever seem to occur to him that these concepts aren't always compatible with each other, such as Art having to make a sacrifice for Love or Satine being free to love someone other than him.
* 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 (being a shallow sociopath, a racist, and a serial killer), so his speech is just a huge Lampshade hung on the use of this trope.

* After the BigBad Zorg in ''Film/TheFifthElement'' is failed by a group of warrior aliens and forced to compromise on a deal, he launches into a monologue about his dislike for warriors and their causes.

ValuesDissonance can hit with some of these concepts. ForScience was a cheap concept in TheFifties (positive or negative, depending on [[MadScientist the sanity of the scientist]]), but these days there are enough people real and fictional who claim that ScienceIsBad that taking a stand for it does mean something (again, for good or ill).

* Abraham Reyes from ''RedDeadRedemption'' gives speeches that have him throwing around rabble-rousing buzzwords such as "Freedom" and "For the people!" And while the people drink it up, it's obvious to Marston and the player that he's nothing more than a self-important blowhard. [[spoiler:You only get to see how fake he really is in the epilogue, when a newspaper blurb spells out to you that he's become a dictator.]]

* Makoto Naegi in ''VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa}}'' genuinely believed in hope as a valuable concept, and it payed off in the final trial against the BigBad's DespairGambit. [[VisualNovel/SuperDanganronpa2 The second game]]'s Ultimate/SHSL Luckster Nagito Komaeda, Naegi's OddballDoppelganger, seems intended to satirize the idea by using the word in the context of doing horrible things like arranging for a murder to occur or helping the culprit to see who's hope was "stronger" under the guise of fighting for all hope. All while proving again and again that the he's more infatuated by the idea of hope, rather than having any hope of his own; Naegi may have been a HumbleHero, but he never went around calling himself 'trash' the way Komaeda does, nor did he ever revel in seeing followers of despair get punished.

* ''{{Gundam 00}}'' skillfully uses this trope as a plot point. As season 2 beings, Celestial Being managed to end war [[spoiler:by making themselves the entire world's common enemy, which is not what they hoped for, also everyone is being oppressed by the A-Laws who are an expy of the Titans from MobileSuitZetaGundam]].

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Fanfics ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live Action Television ]]

* Mohinder's voice-overs at the beginning of each episode of ''{{Series/Heroes}}'' can be summed up thusly: "Destiny, blah, blah, fate, blah, blah, life and all its mysteries, blah."

[[folder: Music ]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* LessWrong [[http://lesswrong.com/lw/jb/applause_lights/ has an article]] on this trope as it appears in politics, using "democratic" as a specific example.