Full-Circle Revolution: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy."''|'''[[Franz Kafka]]'''}}

{{quote|''"Why Independence, if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow?"''|'''Jose Rizal'''}}

WhenA '''Full-Circle Revolution''' happens when a revolutionrevolutionary government loses revolutionaryits zeal and just repeats the pre-revolution business as usual, via [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|bureaucratic inertia]]. The leaders change, but [[Status Quo Is God|the injustices stay the same]]. The word "revolution" comes from the Latin for "turn around"; these are revolutions that turn around 360°, back to where they started.

** Executed subtly in ''Tintin and the Picaros'': during the course of the book, the heroes help Tintin's friend General Alcazar overthrow the despotic General Tapioca from the leadership of [[Banana Republic|San Theodoros]] (mostly because said despot imprisioned Madame Castafiore and sentenced Thomson and Thompson to death). However, the penultimate panel of the book is almost a carbon copy of an earlier one (showing soldiers patrolling a slum filled with starving people), only a sign now reads "Viva Alcazar" instead of "Viva Tapioca" and the police's uniforms are slightly different, hinting that nothing important has changed.<br /><br />Also, Alcazar wants to execute a whole lot of people, starting with Tapioca of course, and is only kept in bay because Tintin is his [[Morality Pet]], showing that Alcazar and Tapioca are as bad as each other. Tapioca actually consoles Alcazar over being stopped -that is, ''the man who just overthrew him and wants to shoot him.'' Similarly, the only reason Tintin became Alcazar's friend in the first place was because he ended up as his lieutenant. A few hours of slippage and he could have ended up as Tapioca's lieutenant just as easily.

* ''[[Duck You Sucker]]'': A [[Sergio Leone]] [[Spaghetti Western]] -- also—also known as ''[[A Fistful of Dynamite]]''. The story focuses on an ex-IRB demolitions expert who goes to help the revolution in Mexico. His accomplice, a bandit named Juan, has a much more cynical outlook on revolutions:

* Subverted in ''[[The Hunger Games (novel)|Mockingjay]]''. The President of freedom-fighting District 13 appears to be going the way of the old President, complete with a continuation of the Hunger Games which the old regime used to keep the populace in line, but {{spoiler|Katniss assassinates her before she comes to power.}}

** As noted in ''[[Discworld/Night Watch (Discworld)|Night Watch]]'', revolutions usually end up simply replacing one set of bastards with another set. "That's why they're called 'revolutions' -- they always come round again."

** And previously to that, in ''[[Interesting Times]]'', when Rincewind refuses to help the communist rebels against the Agatean Empire, one of the things he points out is that their plans amount to setting up exactly the same government that they're trying to overthrow, just with different names.

* In the ''[[X Wing Series]]'' novel ''Starfighters of Adumar'' (part of the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]), Wedge confronts a New Republic diplomat who's willing to do whatever it takes to get an independent planet to join the NR, even adopting the methods of the Empire. Wedge declares this is the same as having the Empire back in power, just with different faces on the credit notes.

* ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]](2004 TV series)|The reimagined ''Battlestar Galactica'']]: The Cylons, after Season 2's "Downloaded."

* ''[[StarcraftStarCraft]]'':

{{quote|'' It's funny... it seems like yesterday Arcturus was the idealistic rebel crusader. Now he's the law, and we're the criminals.''|'''James Raynor''', neatly summarizing this trope.}}

** That's not quite accurate. Yes, the Year of Revolutions was a bust. But by the turn of the twentieth century, every European country except Russia, the Ottoman Empire and a few others had some form of parliamentary democracy. In fact, [[World War OneI]] actually snuffed out some democracies.

* This is what happened with Iran: the US-supported brutal monarchy of the Shah was overthrown by a revolution that brought immense hopes of independence and justice. Then [[Gone Horribly Wrong|the Islamists came out on top of the revolution]] [[From Bad to Worse|and imposed Sharia law]].

* Ancient China actually had a name for this trope: the "Dynastic Cycle." Essentially, it was the idea that an empire would rule until it became disapproved of by the gods, who would show their disapproval by some cosmic event (say, a lunar eclipse). Following this, the people would rise and a new empire would begin, and the whole thing would happen all over again.

* Nineteenth century France arguably went through this... more than once. The French Revolution establishes a republic that turns into an imperial monarchy more authoritarian than anything that existed under the old monarchy. After Napoleon is finally defeated for good, Louis XVI's brother, Louis XVIII, becomes king and brings with him a more constitutional government than what existed before the Revolution. However, he's succeeded by his reactionary brother, Charles X, leading to another (but much less violent) revolution that brings in King Louis-Philippe, whose government is something of a monarchy-republic hybrid. He became more reactionary over time, leading to yet another revolt, which brought in the Second Republic of France, although that soon ended when Napoleon's nephew was elected President and quickly set about making himself Emperor Napoleon III. Already long story short, it wasn't until 1870 that France got a government, the Third Republic, that broke the cycle by simply lasting.