"The Council was a fine idea, with some altruism in the proportion. It even worked for a while. But lo, dear sweetling, your meat memories are short. In the mayfly blink of centuries, Armageddon fades away, cooperation shrivels up, bureaucratic Alzheimer's sets in. Impotency is a forgone conclusion.
Initiate the riddle: How can something be so mighty and so helpless?
All those opinions. All those agendas. The red tape forms a web that chokes all action. When a decision is actually made, it is respected, but those become more and more rare. Cue the farce and parody and slapstick show. The beating of gavels. The verbal sparring. Semantics devour truth.
Initiate the dark days."
Initiate the riddle: How can something be so mighty and so helpless?
All those opinions. All those agendas. The red tape forms a web that chokes all action. When a decision is actually made, it is respected, but those become more and more rare. Cue the farce and parody and slapstick show. The beating of gavels. The verbal sparring. Semantics devour truth.
Initiate the dark days."
— The Buzzing on the Council of Venice, The Secret World
Wadsworth: Professor Plum, you were once a professor of psychiatry, specializing in helping paranoid and homicidal lunatics suffering from delusions of grandeur.
Professor Plum: Yes, but now I work for the United Nations.
Wadsworth: So your work hasn't changed.
Professor Plum: Yes, but now I work for the United Nations.
Wadsworth: So your work hasn't changed.
— Clue
I was not elected to watch my people suffer and die, while you discuss this invasion in a committee!
— Queen Amidala, The Phantom Menace
The dragons began arguing among themselves about what to do and how best to do it. It reminded Cimorene of the way her father's ministers argued. Everyone seemed to agree that something ought to be done about the wizards, but they each had a different idea about what was appropriate. Roxim insisted huffily that the only thing to do was to inform the King, who would then make a formal protest. The thin dragon wanted to find out what the wizards were up to (she didn't say how this was to be done) before anyone tried to chase them off. The silver-green dragon wanted patrols sent out immediately to eat any wizard who ventured into the Mountains of Morning. The dragon at the far end of the table wanted to attack the headquarters of the Society of Wizards the following morning, and the purple-green dragon thought it would be entertaining to wait and see what the wizards did next. Woraug was the only one of the guests who did not have a proposal, though he made occasional comments, usually sarcastic ones, about everyone else's suggestions.
"I'm supposed to go back and explain this to forty-seven regional sovereigns? They'll pass their first unanimous resolution, calling for my head!"
— Burkus, Star Trek: Voyager, "Thirty Days"
Monitor #1: We should do something!
Monitor #2: Should we do something?
Monitor #1: We should do something!
Monitor #2: Should we do something?
Monitor #3: I'm changing!
Monitor #1: We should do something!
Monitor #4: *Bang!*
Monitor #1: We should do something!
Monitor #2: Should we do something?
Monitor #5: We should do something!
Monitor #6: Should we do something?
Linkara: YES, YOU SHOULD DO SOMETHING, YOU BORING IDIOTS!
Monitor #2: Should we do something?
Monitor #1: We should do something!
Monitor #2: Should we do something?
Monitor #3: I'm changing!
Monitor #1: We should do something!
Monitor #4: *Bang!*
Monitor #1: We should do something!
Monitor #2: Should we do something?
Monitor #5: We should do something!
Monitor #6: Should we do something?
Linkara: YES, YOU SHOULD DO SOMETHING, YOU BORING IDIOTS!
"In reply the Prime Minister said he had already set up a Royal Commission to look into the whole matter, and this was the strongest measure any government could take, short of doing anything about it."
— Newsreader, Come Back Mrs. Noah
Bender: Humans are no threat to us.
Blue Robot Elder: We're well aware of that.
Bender: You are?
Blue Robot Elder: Of course. But they're useful to us as a scapegoat to distract the public from their real problems.
Green Robot Elder: Like our crippling lugnut shortage.
Orange Robot Elder: And a corrupt government of incompetent Robot Elders.
Lime Robot Elder: Duh, that's for sure.
Blue Robot Elder: We're well aware of that.
Bender: You are?
Blue Robot Elder: Of course. But they're useful to us as a scapegoat to distract the public from their real problems.
Green Robot Elder: Like our crippling lugnut shortage.
Orange Robot Elder: And a corrupt government of incompetent Robot Elders.
Lime Robot Elder: Duh, that's for sure.
Elizabeth: (Watching the Pirate council bicker) This is madness!
Jack: This is politics.
Jack: This is politics.
If I ever do become an author decades from now that's one thing I'll definitely subvert. I intend to have an ancient conspiracy that didn't foresee Hitler declaring war on the Soviets and U.S., and with a poor understanding of nuclear weapons initially expected a bloody conventional war between the Warsaw Pact and N.A.T.O., only to find that the latter didn't happen and after previously investing too much into Germany they then transitioned to South America too soon which left them effectively powerless and prone to internal rebellion for decades. Then after they finally overcome the far-right prejudices of most of the older members and recruit Communist members the Soviet Union breaks up fifteen years later and the last of their useful Communist members (a Cuban) gets arrested on suspicion of spying for the Americans. They won't even be important to the story, it'll just be a big 'Take That!' to all the books, movies and games with ancient, all-powerful conspiracies.
— Granten, comment thread
for Mass Effect: Human Revolution
for Mass Effect: Human Revolution