History Main / InherentInTheSystem

->'''King Arthur''': [grabs Dennis] Shut up! Will you ''shut up?!''\\
'''Dennis''': Ah, now we see the violence [[TropeNamer inherent in the system]]!\\
'''King Arthur''': [shakes Dennis] Shut up!\\
'''Dennis''': Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help, I'm being repressed!\\
'''King Arthur''': Bloody Peasant!
--> --''MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''

Compare CrapsackWorld. See also SocietyIsToBlame, WretchedHive. Compare also AsLongAsThereIsEvil, which is when supernatural evil is inherent in the world.

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<<|PoliticsTropes|>>

[[MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail "Come see the violence inherent in the system!"]]

* In ''BraveNewWorld'', it's a more-or-less irreversible choice between pointless, brainwashed hedonism and total destitution. If everyone were truly free to determine his destiny (as is technologically feasible), the [[WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture menial labor on which society depends]] would collapse.
** Hey, there were also those islands where the best people get sent. Those places sounded alright.
** Huxley himself notes that he inadvertently [[TakeAThirdOption created a third option]] when he invented the islands, and just didn't notice it as he wrote the rest of the book.
** He also argues that the menial labor is needed to run society, but they can't automate more to keep from putting the menial labor out of work, because it's too unpleasant for them. That they could phase in automation while slowly decreasing the number of Epislons and Deltas produced does not seem to have occured to anyone.
*** Ah, but the society is also based around ''consumption'' of the goods and services produced. If automation was introduced then there would be fewer workers to consume the products created. Why not shift some of the population balance towards the higher castes? Because there's only a limited number of jobs ''there'', and that would result in competition and conflict. ''BraveNewWorld'' is so perfectly balanced (in a house-of-cards way) that if you try to change one thing, society collapses.
**** An explicit case of YouFailEconomicsForever.
*** It was explained to the protagonists near the end of the story that an attempt WAS once made to create a genuine Utopia society entirely of Alphas. I don't recall what level of automated support was said to be used for manual work, but the whole thing was a disaster in the end. Nobody felt any motivation to do what work remained and everyone ended up feeling useless and restless until tensions ran out of control and it all melted down in riots. Turns out people need to feel like they have a purpose or something to accomplish.

* ''GhostInTheShell: Stand Alone Complex'' mainly deals with problems inherent in human social systems.

*** And let's not forget that the third point ''did'' get both considered and implemented. The country of Liberia gets its name and origin from this issue. But, well, let's just say it [[ItGotWorse started off well enough...]]

** The very simple explanation of the War on Drugs used by many experts is that combating the drug ''dealers'' is useless: combating the drug ''users'' is what needs to be done. It becomes an argument of addressing the need of the users to use drugs in the first place, and it's ''always'' a losing proposition.
** Or you could just legalize drugs... (you don't see too much organized crime around the liquor trade any more).
** Just because you don't see it in movies doesn't mean it isn't happening. Heck, there's still a lively cigarette smuggling industry, and that's never been illegal. [[http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/tobacco/pages/introduction/ "Experts estimate that contraband accounts for 12 percent of all cigarette sales, or about 657 billion sticks annually."]]
*** Because of "sin taxes" on tobacco products making such smuggling profitable. The pattern is unbroken: where the government tries to forbid or exploit, people will seek to circumvent.
*** Also, 12% is a hell of a lot less than 100%.
** Replace "combat drug ''users''" with "combat drug ''addiction''" in the above post and everybody can be happy.
*** So functional drug addicts, the ones who don't make the headlines but do make all their career and family obligations, these should be juvenilized by big government taking away their choices. And spend everyone's tax dollars on it. How about non-addicted recreational users? Anyone who claims drug use is not a victimless crime has so far evaded the burden of proof of that, but they'll still dedicate a whopping amount of the public budget to punishing it.

** Of course, in this era of globalisation, one could argue slavery is still with us, but [[OutOfSightOutOfMind exported outside our borders]].

* In some TalkingAnimal worlds, CarnivoreConfusion may invoke this trope. For example, Talking Foxes might have to eat Talking Rabbits to live, but Talking Rabbits have names and families too! A certain amount of tragedy is inherent in the system, but that's just how life is. Example: ''KevinAndKell''.

*** In 616 (the main universe) canon, at the end of the universe Galactus becomes the new big bang. Oh, and the Celestials are more like "gardens" (they create the lifeforms on planets).

** The problem of TheHeartless tends more towards AsLongAsThereIsEvil, since there's no reason why they need to stay around apart from the fact that human nature makes it really hard to eliminate them. Nobodies are a better example of a problem that's InherentInTheSystem - they're sentient beings whose very existence prevents their Others from existing. ''358/2 Days'' takes this even further with [[spoiler: Xion's link to Roxas, which effectively makes it impossible to coexist.]]

* Buckminster Fuller had a quote relating to breaking free from this, saying that nothing is gained by fighting the system, and that the solution is to create a new system which renders the old one obsolete. Essentially it's TakeaThirdOption, or perhaps create new options instead of choosing the existing ones.

The name of this trope comes from a peasant in MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail, who critises the rule of monarchy as system of violent oppression and launches into a tirade when King Arthur tries to assert his authority. "Come see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help, I'm being repressed!"