History Main / WeHaveBecomeComplacent

** It's lampshaded by Fred and George in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half-Blood Prince]]'' when they tell Harry a good amount of their sales come from the Ministry buying in mass what were supposed to be joke hats with protective spells, but were being used for protection as a number of their Auruors had no idea how to cast protective charms.
* In Creator/VladimirVasilyev's ''Literature/WolfishNature'' duology, the AlternateHistory dog-humans are masters of genetic engineering. In distant past, they have managed to breed out the so-called "wolf gene", which allowed one to kill without remorse. Now, killings are so rare that cops aren't prepared to deal with murderers (who are deranged psychopaths). Anyone who kills is likely to go insane, and nations, no longer able to wage wars, have taken the spy game up a notch. Special agents are the only ones trained to kill, and even then extensive psychological therapy is necessary after the fact. Then the world finds out about an isolated enclave of unmodified "wolves". The wolves reveal that they were abducted by an alien empire prior to the Bio-Correction (the removal of the wolf gene) to be used as mercenaries in interstellar wars and have returned after the end of their tour of duty to find a world of pussies, totally unprepared if Earth happens to become the target of an alien race. The ending reveals that [[spoiler:the Bio-Correction was the cover story for a massive PR campaign to convince people they're incapable of killing, making it a case of ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve]].
* This brought about the fall of Kontovar in ''Literature/TheWarGods''. The Council of Ottavar took so much faith in the ability of the Emperor's crown to detect dark magic that they never bothered devising any alternative methods to do so. Unfortunately, over time, the Emperors decided that the side effects of using that particular crown (mind-reading) meant that it should only be used on certain ceremonial occasions. When the dark wizards figured this out, they were able to gather and plan so long as they closed up shop shortly before said ceremonial occasions. This allowed them to grow strong enough that they were eventually able to steal the crown, at which point they could operate freely.

* At the start of ''Literature/TheGodfather'', the Corleones have been the undisputed head of the New York Mafia for ten years. As a result of not having faced any real challenges to their power in ten years (Or any challenges period for five, thanks to WWII), they end up being caught totally off guard when a rival family actually does challenge their primacy.

* ''Franchise/StarWarsTheHighRepublic'': The galaxy is in an unprecedented era of peace, push farther into the Outer Rim and building great works to unite and improve the lives of all. Then a group of pirates cause a disaster that threatens an entire star system, and from there declare war on the entire Republic. It's repeatedly stated that the only reason the Nihil are any threat whatsoever is because the Republic has greatly reduced their military might. That being said, the issues that often come with this trope ("We were stupid to dedicate money to civilian projects rather than prepare for war") are defied. The books have the clear message that yes, the Republic is unprepared for this level of aggression, but it's not their fault that the Nihil are a bunch of anarchist assholes who hate the Republic for trampling on their freedoms to raid and pillage the Outer Rim.

This is also frequently a motivation of villains who want to keep their people "[[TheSpartanWay strong" and "pure"]] - they are often TheSocialDarwinist.

* ''Webcomic/{{Dreamkeepers}}'' has it so that using your powers is grounds for exile. This is due to in part of the [[EldritchAbomination Nightmares]], the reason for their powers in the first place, hiding for a long time and having double agents in the government.

** ''ComicBook/LetMyPeopleGrow'': Superman feels incredibly upset when his ray enlarges the Kandorians but destroys their city. However, Van-Zee tells him it is not such a big loss at all. They'd grown accustomed to being under his care and had become more like pets that people. Van-Zee figures that now they will need to rebuild their city and their civilization without depending on him, they will get their sense of initiative back.
--->'''Van-Zee:''' These past years inside that bottle, we haven't been people-- We've been pets! You tended to us, protected us, loved us-- and gradually we lost our sense of initiative! Perhaps now we can begin to find it again!\\

** The ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' story ''ComicBook/TheGreatDarknessSaga'' features the Zeroxian. They're powerful, peaceful, and enlightened wizards, so naively confident in their ability to safeguard their world from any violence and evil than they didn't take the Legion's warnings about [[ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} the Master of Darkness]] seriously until they dropped the protective shields surrounding their safe haven-island and saw their planet was being ravaged by the Master's power.
** ''ComicBook/TheDominatorWar'': According to the Dominator's head scientist, the Dominators became weak because of long years of peace, and the baseless notion that the human heroes would remain out of their borders only because one paper told so.

* In ''ComicBook/DoubleDuck'', Head-H hints this is the reason for [[spoiler:the Agency being disbanded and replaced by the far less expensive (and competent) Direction]], as a government committee had seen them as far too expensive after [[spoiler:Axel Alpha and rogue Time Cop [=T32=] captured the leaders of the 21st century Organization, the Division, and other criminal organizations]]. Sure enough, at that very time [[spoiler:the new crime syndicate Actinia is rising to threaten the world]].

* ''Franchise/StarWars:''
** The fate of the Jedi Council over the course of the prequel trilogy. As it's been a thousand years since the Sith were a visible threat, the Council are convinced they've been wiped out for good. Not only are the Sith very much alive, one of them is [[MoleInCharge running the Republic right under their noses]].
** In ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'', the Jedi Order's surest sign of its blindness to the growing threat of Palpatine's scheme is when Obi-Wan is looking for info on the planet Kamino and there is none to be found. The Chief Librarian, Jocasta Nu, is so sure of the archives' comprehensiveness that she automatically dismisses the planet's existence without considering any other possibility of why there is no record. It finally takes one of Yoda's child students to suggest the obvious: that the Archives' records were tampered with (by one of their own who went rogue, no less) to hide Kamino's existence. When TheOrder's Chief Librarian is that stubbornly unwilling to acknowledge such a realistic possibility within the terms of her own calling, it's no wonder that Palpatine is able to crush the Jedi.
** Yoda comes to this realization himself during his duel with Palpatine in the novelization of ''Literature/RevengeOfTheSith''. He is forced to admit to himself that the Order's inflexibility and refusal to change over the last millennium and think outside the box ultimately allowed the Sith to triumph over them, truths which he confesses to Luke Skywalker decades later.
** The [[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Expanded Universe]] reveals this had happened to TheRepublic as a whole: after the [[RuleOfTwo apparent]] destruction of the Sith at the end of the [[Literature/DarthBane New Sith Wars]], the Republic, needing the funds for reconstruction on a galaxy-wide scale, [[PacifismBackfire disbanded its military while pressuring the Jedi to do the same]] and divided its assets between a reduced Judicial Force and various local planetary security forces, trusting the local sectors to maintain their forces. While the system worked at first, corruption in the Senate and at the local level and the relative poverty of the Outer Rim meant that sectors in the latter area often couldn't afford to maintain their security forces and started becoming pirate havens that the Judicials couldn't be bothered to police, allowing the Trade Federation to step in with its own (very effective) private security forces in exchange for effectively owning whatever sector turned to them. To make matters worse, after the [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic rise of Darth Revan during the Old Republic era]] laws were passed outlawing the [[ReligionOfEvil Sith religion]] that were heavily enforced during the New Sith Wars, but at some point [[TooDumbToLive they were repealed]], making it even harder for the Jedi to deal with Palpatine.
** In a nice twist, this happened to TheEmpire: while it rose from the ashes of the Republic and inherited its battle-hardened military, Palpatine allowed corruption to steep it much deeper than the Republic and employed the idea of suppressing crime and dissent by the threat of military power ([[VillainHasAPoint a valid concept]] born out of the realization the galaxy is simply ''too large'' to be policed through power alone, but [[DogKickingExcuse brought to the excess]]), thus giving people motivation to rebel while reducing its expanding military's ability to fight a determinated enemy by equipping it with [[AwesomeButImpractical awe-inspiring but less effective designs]]. Thus when the Rebel Alliance (that uses a mix of BoringYetPractical machines from the Clone Wars and state-of-the-art ones alongside [[TechnicallyATransport militarized civilian ships]]) scores an unexpected major victory by destroying the Death Star, the Empire finds itself on the backfoot and unable to mount a proper counterattack against the growing Rebellion.
** ''Film/TheForceAwakens'': The New Republic became complacent before even solidifying the peace and later repeated the same error as the Old Republic (though not to the same excess, as they still maintain a centralized navy and ''funds'' local security forces so they maintain proper training and equipment), and TheRemnant rebuilt as the First Order since the Republic didn't bother keeping tabs on them. The most Leia can get is a shoestring budget to finance a resistance.

* ''Toys/Bionicle: [[WesternAnimation/BionicleMaskOfLight Mask of Light]]'': The film takes place in a peaceful time when Makuta's forces have allegedly long been defeated. This causes Toa to find problems with each other instead, and they get beaten by the Rahkshi in combat. The only ones who do well are Kopaka and Pohatu due to GeoEffects. They get much stronger [[ThePowerOfFriendship with all six working together]].

* ''WesternAnimation/BionicleMaskOfLight'': The film takes place in a peaceful time when Makuta's forces have allegedly long been defeated. This causes Toa to find problems with each other instead, and they get beaten Rahkshi in combat. The only ones who do well are Kopaka and Pohatu due to GeoEffects. They get much stronger [[ThePowerOfFriendship with all six working together]].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}'': The people in the titular town have become so dependent on Luisa and her strength that hey basically ask her to do literally ''everything''.

** In the opening of ''VideoGame/{{Destiny2}}'', Ghaul believes this of humanity, saying how the centuries humans have spent sequestered within the Last City have rendered them weak. Given how Ghaul's Red Legion takes over the City within hours of arriving on Earth, it's not hard to see why he says this. [[spoiler: Later, in the "Season of the Chosen" storyline, Lord Saladin echoes the same point, claiming that the City's victories in the first game dulled their edge.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'': The Darkness believes this of everyone else. Its antipathy towards [[BigGood the Traveler]] is rooted in the belief that the civilizations it uplifts, guided to a golden age of peace and prosperity, are in reality suffering a living death, stagnant and pampered, left unprepared to face the harsh reality that the universe is a dog-eat-dog world in which [[TheSocialDarwinist only the strong are allowed to survive]]. It therefore takes satisfaction in bringing reality to their doorstep and seeing every civilization made complacent by the Traveler destroyed, viewing each one as a cancer to be cut from the universe to restore the natural order. Never mind that such civilizations are sometimes exceedingly well defended thanks to their new technology and that the Darkness is a SentientCosmicForce with [[RealityWarper an unfair advantage]]. Humanity, incidentally, was the latest species to receive such a treatment.