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KD
Since: May, 2009
30th Mar, 2023 04:54:25 AM
Some mixture of Secret Test of Character and Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught.
A setting exists in which characters are subjected to a certain rule (e.g., 'don't go outside after 10.') Someone breaks the rule. We then find out that whoever set the rule never wanted it to be followed (at least not by everyone) in the first place. No, this rule was made for a very different reason: so that people, or at least some people, would break it. That way the rulers can see who was enough of an independent thinker to break the rules (which can either be good or bad for those people, depending on the setting), or the rules can use the rule as a distraction (so that people feel clever and let off steam breaking an unimportant rule and never think to challenge the more important ones), or they exploit how some people will feel guilty after breaking a rule and that they can be coerced via guilt, etc. Regardless of the motive, the key point is: a rule is made specifically so that people will break it.
Edited by ZMilesGuy