History Main / ConceptsAreCheap

* 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. It was repeatedly pointed out Occupy's overall goal wasn't to push through specific changes in public policy, but to raise awareness that there is a problem in the first place.
* 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.

* Brought up in ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'', when a young man wants to become a paladin and a champion of justice because a hook-handed man killed his parents. The gate guard points out that he's confusing justice with revenge, and should find a definition of justice that is more than just furthering his own needs and goals. Years later, after finishing his training, the now-paladin is no longer interested in vengeance upon finding the hook-handed man.

* The defining concept for the Marines in ''Anime/OnePiece'' is "[[ForGreatJustice Justice]]", to the point that the kanji for "justice" is emblazoned on the backs of their uniforms. However, each Marine (aside from the corrupt ones who are simply in it for themselves) has their interpretation of the concept, from the more heroic interpretations, to interpretations that justify committing genocide, or killing Marine [=POWs=] for being weak enough to be captured.

* The defining concept for the Marines in ''Anime/OnePiece'' is "[[ForGreatJustice Justice]]", to the point that the kanji for "justice" is emblazoned on the backs of their uniforms. However, each Marine (aside from the corrupt ones who are simply in it for themselves) has their interpretation of the concept, from the more heroic interpretations, to interpretations that justify committing genocide, or killing Marine POWs for being weak enough to be captured.

* The defining concept for the Marines in ''Anime/OnePiece'' is "Justice," to the point that the kanji for "justice" is emblazoned on the backs of their uniforms. However, each Marine (aside from the corrupt ones who are simply in it for themselves) has their interpretation of the concept, from the more heroic interpretations, to interpretations that justify committing genocide, or killing Marine POWs for being weak enough to be captured.

** 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.

* [[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.

* Brought up in ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'', when a young man wants to become a paladin and a champion of justice because a hook-handed man killed his parents. The gate guard points out that he's confusing justice with revenge, and should find a definition of justice that is more than just furthering his own needs and goals.

* ''Franchise/WildArms'':
** 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.

* ''Literature/TheSwordOfGood'' is dripping with this trope, as the protagonist Hirou wields the eponymous weapon and teams up with the Forces of Good to defeat the Bad Races led by the Leader of Dark. These are their literal, in-universe names. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope But as the Lord of Dark points out]], the prophesied "Choice Between Good and Bad" isn't a matter of merely saying "Good", but of ''knowing which is which''. The so-called "Forces of Good" only uphold the malignant status quo, which the so-called "Lord of Dark" is overthrowing for the benefit of everyone -- the Sword only comes into its true power when Hirou realizes this.]]

* {{Discussed|Trope}} and {{invoked}} in Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/TheCavesOfSteel''. [[FantasticRacism Robophobic]] detective Elijah Bailey scoffs at the notion that law-enforcement robot R. Daneel Olivaw has a "justice circuit," saying that justice is too abstract a concept to be programmed into a robot. When asked to define justice, Daneel says "That which exists when all laws are enforced." While that would not be many humans's concept of justice, it is perfectly adequate for a law-enforcement robot to function.

** After their overwhelming success in the 2015 elections, the Polish ruling party [=PiS=] (Law and Justice) went to work on a series of reforms and other operations under the common name of "The Good Change". Several loud anti-government manifestations and badly received reforms later, they still haven't dropped the name.

* The Twelfth Doctor's MythArc in ''Series/DoctorWho'' reconstructs this trope. From the beginning, he is concerned with the question of whether he is a genuinely good person. This is for several reasons: he's a PragmaticHero as previous incarnations often were, he has a major GuiltComplex about the less-than-noble things he's done for the greater good then and now, he isn't particularly [[GoodIsNotNice nice]] this time around, and his first companion Clara Oswald becomes less and less of a MoralityChain for him because her personality becomes more like his for better (more brave and self-sacrificing) and for worse (more dishonest, reckless, oblivious to others' feelings, willing to endanger herself for the sake of adventure and accept the loss of innocent lives). In his adventures he's forced to recognize, or recognizes on his own, that he's often NotSoDifferent from his adversaries, particularly ArchEnemy Missy. However, all of this helps him come to a better understanding of who he is as a person and what matters to him. In the end, he realizes that while he is not flawlessly moral Good Man nor a Nice Man, he ultimately wants to be (and is) a Kind Man who chooses to try to save everyone he can -- no matter who they are or the risks he poses to himself in the process. He also wants those who help him to do so by choice.

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

* ''Film/MoulinRouge'', Christian thinks 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.

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

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''.

Concepts Are Cheap 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?

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''VideoGame/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.

** After their overwhelming success in the 2015 elections, the Polish ruling party PiS (Law and Justice) went to work on a series of reforms and other operations under the common name of "The Good Change". Several loud anti-government manifestations and badly received reforms later, they still haven't dropped the name.

** It ''is'' possible to figure out politicians are all about by looking at what, specifically, they are planning to do if they get elected - and if you don't trust them to be honest about that (which most people don't), you can at least look at their track record so far. They just count (with some justification) on most voters not looking any deeper than those meaningless but nice-sounding sound bites.

** After their overwhelming success in 2015 elections, the Polish ruling party PiS (Law and Justice) went to work on a series of reforms and other operations under the common name of "The Good Change". Several loud anti-government manifestations and badly received reforms later, they still haven't dropped the name.

* 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. It was repeatedly pointed out Occupy's overall goal wasn't to push through specific changes in public policy, but to raise awareness there is a problem in the first place.

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

* {{Discussed|Trope}} and {{invoked}} in Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/TheCavesOfSteel''. [[FantasticRacism Robophobic]] detective Elijah Bailey scoffs at the notion that law-enforcement robot R. Daneel Olivaw has a "justice circuit," saying that justice is too abstract a concept to be programmed into a robot. When asked to define justice, Daneel says "That which exists when all laws are enforced." While that would not be any human's concept of justice, it is perfectly adequate for a law-enforcement robot to function.

** "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?

* In third edition ''TabletopGame/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.

* ''Music/{{Evita}}'': Late in the film, when Eva [[spoiler:is dying]], she and her president 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 the perks the Presidential office."

* ''Literature/DonQuixote'' is a deconstruction of this trope: In the first part of the novel, he wants to be a KnightErrant ForGreatJustice. In reality, he is TheHedonist and all his efforts are really guided to live his dreams, but he doesn't accept it because he is a {{Hypocrite}}. In the second part of the novel, his motivation changes ForHappiness. But this time Don Quixote is an honest man who must admit at the end of the novel that [[ShaggyDogStory his efforts didn’t help anyone]] and his ChivalricRomance [[FanDisillusionment dreams were shallow]].
* [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] and {{invoked}} in Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/TheCavesOfSteel''. [[FantasticRacism Robophobic]] detective Elijah Bailey scoffs at the notion that law-enforcement robot R. Daneel Olivaw has a "justice circuit," saying that justice is too abstract a concept to be programmed into a robot. When asked to define justice, Daneel says "That which exists when all laws are enforced." While that would not be any human's concept of justice, it is perfectly adequate for a law-enforcement robot to function.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' gives us the DJ Three Dog who spouts off fighting the good fight while simultaneously being really really vague on what the good fight was.

** 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 [[spoiler: not become his future self]]: Being a perfectionist. You can't save everybody, but trying isn't a bad thing at all.

** Played with in ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs 3}}''. 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.

* More politicians than not, if not all politicians. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glittering_generality See also]] TheOtherWiki.

** In the mini-series "ComicBook/JusticeLeagueCryForJustice", suddenly, every single major character spends 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.
* ''Comicbook/AngelaMarvelComics'': its 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: