History Main / YouCannotKillAnIdea

Ideas are powerful things. They spread like viruses, leaping from mind to mind, irrevocably changing the mind they inhabit and their perspective on the world. Armies and dictators have no power over them and while men can die, their ideas are immortal.

* From {{Inception}}:
-->'''Cobb''': What's the most resilient parasite? An idea. A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules, which is why... I have to steal it.

* Many opponents of the WarOnTerror invoke this trope as one of their points. [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement We shall not go any further.]]

* Invoked in {DeusEx} when the terrorist leader says 'You can't fight ideas with bullets'.

* Invoked in ''{DeusEx}'' when the terrorist leader says 'You can't fight ideas with bullets'.

* Invoked in ''[[DeusEx]]'' when the terrorist leader says 'You can't fight ideas with bullets'.

* Invoked in ''[[Deus Ex]]'' when the terrorist leader says 'You can't fight ideas with bullets'.

* Invoked in ''Deus Ex'' when the terrorist leader says 'You can't fight ideas with bullets'.

** But do remember that this was said by a man who, along with his predecessors and successors, repeatedly twisted the meaning of communism or outright abandoned it when needed (NEP? Stalin and Hitler pact? Using the Orthodox church to boost morale?) Ideas may be immortal, but they sure as hell have limits. It doesn't matter how good an idea is, it still must operate within reality.
** So it's possible to twist an idea until it's proponents don't recognize it, but not to kill it?
*** The NEP was actually a policy of Lenin's, not Stalin's. Also, it's not at all clear that the Stalin-Hitler pact was a twisting or abandonment of communism, at least not Stalin's version of it. Arguably, it was the natural outgrowth of his "Socialism in One Country" doctrine.

* In ''[=~1984~=]'', this is both what the Party disproves and exemplifies. The Party ''does'' kill ideas, it manipulates minds to think whatever it wants them to think, but it itself is not dependent on anything other than the ideas and methods of the Party meaning that it can never be destroyed by a taking out any one individual or place. The ending of the novel is an inversion of the inspiration "The hero lives on" type of endings: [[spoiler: Winston is allowed to live long enough to be forced to admit that he really does love Big Brother before being killed, so that the audience knows in no way that the ideas of The Party were overcome.]]

** But do remember that this was said by a man who, along with his predecessors, repeatedly twisted the meaning of communism or outright abandoned it when needed (NEP? Stalin and Hitler pact? Using the Orthodox church to boost morale). Ideas may be immortal, but they sure as hell have limits. It doesent matter how good an idea is, it still must operate within reality.

* Subverted by all civilizations which vanished and left no knowledge to the present day. Probably.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''{{Discworld}}'' novels on several occasions, frequently with people using rumours that once they get started can not be stopped. In ''Discworld/InterestingTimes'', for instance, Rincewind goes around telling soldiers that ''in no way'' are there any invisible vampire ghosts about to attack them in the follow battle and there are ''absolutely not'' 2,300,009 of them, which gives everybody precisely the idea that there are 2,300,009 invisible vampire ghosts about to attack them that spreads like wildfire.

SuperTrpe of CantStopTheSignal.

* In ''[[AssassinsCreed Assassin's Creed 2]]'' one of the Codex pages reveals that Altair mused on this subject more than once, noting that the Templars waged war by seeking to win over the hearts and minds of people with ideas, rather than more conventional weapons. This made it rather difficult for the Assassins to fight back.

-->
-->- '''John Fitzgerald Kennedy'''

[[AC:Fiction]]
* The page quote comes from the ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Rightful Heir", where Chancellor Gowron is talking about the symbolic effect of the return of the Klingon GodEmperor.
* In ''[=~1984~=]'', this is both what the Party disproves and exemplifies. The Party ''does'' kill ideas, it manipulates minds to think whatever it wants them to think, but it itself is not dependent on anything other than the ideas and methods of the Party meaning that it can never be destroyed by a taking out any one individual or place. The ending of the novel is an inversion of the inspiration "The hero lives on" type of endings: [[spoiler: Winston is allowed to live long enough to be forced to admit that he really does love Big Brother before being killed, so that the audience knows in no way that the ideas of The Party were overcome.]]
* PlayedForLaughs in ''{{Discworld}}'' novels on several occasions, frequently with people using rumours that once they get started can not be stopped. In ''Discworld/InterestingTimes'', for instance, Rincewind goes around telling soldiers that ''in no way'' are there any invisible vampire ghosts about to attack them in the follow battle and there are ''absolutely not'' 2,300,009 of them, which gives everybody precisely the idea that there are 2,300,009 invisible vampire ghosts about to attack them that spreads like wildfire.