History Main / NoDelaysForTheWicked

-->-- Jonah Goldberg, ''National Review Online,'' 9/13/06

* TheDraka are perhaps the MostTriumphantExample of this trope. Founded by loyalists fleeing North America after the Revolutionary War, they somehow turn South Africa into a productive, industrialised slave-owning state within ten years. By 1900 they control all of Africa and have the second-largest economy in the world. By 1950 they control almost of Eurasia as well. Did I mention their technology is generally a generation ahead of everyone else's? And less than 10% of their population isn't a slave? They never fail, they ''always'' win, [[IdiotPlot and the world's other nations never do anything about it until it's too late]] - even when they '''know''' the Draka are planning a first strike against them, they delay their own in the hopes they can negotiate peace. Despite the fact the Draka's ideology is basically "enslave the strong, crush the weak, torture/rape the rest". Nuclear holocaust is preferable to Drakan rule. Basically the entire trilogy is S.M. Stirling handing Nietzschean slave owners an "I Win" button.

* Many of the real-life conspiracy theories that tend to spring up around significant, earth-shattering world events (such as those around the assassination of JohnFKennedy or the 9/11 attacks) often seem to hinge on this principle, relying on the belief that those involved in them - regardless of how many people by necessity would need to get roped in to them, or how apparently incompetent or inept they have previously seemed in the past - suddenly become both incredibly competent AND immune to any kind of likely twists of fate or chance that would see the whole conspiracy blown apart (regardless of how likely or even inevitable they would be), and are incredibly committed towards keeping the conspiracy quiet. Specific examples are both too numerous and, often, bitterly contentious to be expanded upon here.

* Similarly, despite the popular image of Nazi Germany as a hyper-efficient clockwork-fascist state (see the ''StarTrek'' example above), it's widely argued that it was actually one of the most ''inefficient'' states ever seen. Whilst their armies were undeniably efficient in combat (at least initially), when it came to social and financial management the Nazis were merely very good at generating the ''illusion'' of prosperity and efficiency rather than the reality. Hitler was notoriously lazy and vague, providing hazy suggestions for policy rather than concrete proposals, and tended to [[WeAreStrugglingTogether encourage in-fighting and rivalry]] between his underlings (often by assigning them overlapping responsibilities) with the result that they usually spent more time undermining each other than getting the job done. A lot of contemporaries (both pro- and anti-Nazi) who marvelled at Germany's apparent efficiency during this time were fooled by endemic propaganda showing off the 'efficiency' of Germany whilst ignoring the chaotic, bureaucratic reality. Without the Second World War proving access to resources and a boost to armaments manufacturing, it's believed Germany would have gradually stagnated and perhaps even imploded.

** In addition to repeatedly breaking into Dexter's apartment and leaving no trace, the Ice Truck Killer (acting alone) once retrieved one of Dexter's victims from the bottom of the ocean OVERNIGHT just to mess with him.

* Media piracy, full stop. Pirates get what they want, now, with a few clicks of a mouse. Paying customers need to go to a store to pick up a physical disk, or wait several days for it to arrive (CDs); put up with an inferior product (MP3 stores); or both (DRM; region-locked discs).

** [[SubvertedTrope And yet Hitler managed to build a whole bunch of infrastructure, get the economy going, raise the public's standard of living, and pose a threat to the entire continent of Europe.]] [[SarcasmMode Boy, talk about chaos and inefficiency.]]

** [[SubvertedTrope And yet Hitler managed to build a whole bunch of infrastructure, get the economy going, and provide jobs for the public.]] [[SarcasmMode Boy, talk about chaos and inefficiency.]]

* A similar point to the Goldberg page quote is made in ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'', which notes that apparently governments are incompetent at everything ''except'' hushing conspiracies up, at which they excel.

One more thing; this trope describes (real or fictional) entities which are either realistically prone to complications or unrealistically immune. Examples of how (real or fictional) entities are [[JustifiedTrope protected]] by the WeirdnessCensor, [[BavarianFireDrill human nature]], or [[XanatosSpeedChess integrate those complications into their plans]] belong [[XanatosPlannedThisIndex elsewhere]]. In other words, [[{{Gargoyles}} David Xanatos]] is ''not'' referenced here, and is in fact smirking at [[XanatosSucker all of you who believe in this trope]].

* Not only do TheDraka never make mistakes ''ever'', [[IdiotPlot their opponents repeatedly do nothing about them]].

->''A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.''
-->-- Douglas Adams

* A small subversion in the James Bond film ''TheWorldIsNotEnough'', where the bad guys are a relatively small band of Eastern European terrorists, rather than (as usual in Bond films) the well-funded personal army of a megalomaniacal multi-billionaire. One scene has the lead terrorist's accountant complaining to him about 3 vehicles destroyed by Bond in a preceding chase scene; they were rented and the rental company is going to be pissed. RogerEbert even cited this little scene in his review of the movie while musing about where the villains in movies manage to get all their logistics so tidily.