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Original Position Fallacy: Difference between revisions

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Original Position Fallacy (view source)

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== Anime and Manga ==
 
* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (Mangamanga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]],'' both the Emperor of Xerxes and the military leadership of Amestris fall victim to this. They both conspire with Father, the original Homunculus, to commit mass human sacrifice in order to achieve immortality; none of them realize that their immortality [[And I Must Scream|will consist of having their souls transmuted into a Philosopher's Stone]].
 
== Comic Books ==
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* In one of the stories of Ooka Tadasuke, a famous Japanese judge of the 18th century, he has to divide a father's estate between twin sons. One is known as greedy and selfish; the other is known as having helped the father and for being honorable. No one can tell which son is which. Ooka picks one son at random and tells him to divide the estate. The chosen son starts giving himself all the money and property; and gives his brother merely the good will of the neighbors. The crowd thinks Ooka made a huge mistake {{spoiler|until Ooka announces that he told the son to divide the estate, but that only Ooka has the power to '''award''' the items. Ooka gives the money to the honorable son and tells the greedy son that he needs the neighbors' good will more}}.
* In the first novel of the ''[[Slave World]]'' series, the heroine is horrified with how naively her colleagues embrace the [[Alternate Timeline]] world they have found. The scientists joins the society, believing that they will get to be part of the aristocracy and thus accept the social order where the aristocrats have absolute power over everyone else. {{spoiler|And yes, they do end up enslaved.}}
** [[Zig -Zagging Trope|Zigzagged]] in the third novel, as Sarah seems to be falling in the same trap as her predecessors. {{spoiler|She's actually setting herself up for permanent enslavement, although her plan is to belong to the woman she loves... Who then give her the basic "thanks but no thanks" and auction her off to a random aristocrat... a young lady to grow to become the true love of her life.}}
* Debated in the book ''SS-GB'' by [[Len Deighton]]. SS Standartenfuhrer Oskar Huth states that when he figured out that the Nazi party was going to be in power, he decided that the only position that was acceptable to him was in the ruling class. Strength determined your status in Nazi life and he was going to be on top, regardless of the cost.
* Invoked in one of [[Isaac Asimov]]'s essays, quoting a dialogue at a social function. See page quote above.
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== Tabletop Games ==
 
* In ''Book of the Dead'', a book for the ''[[New World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|New World of Darkness]]'' (mostly ''[[Geist: The Sin Eaters (Tabletop Game)|Geist: The Sin Eaters]]'' and ''[[Mage: The Awakening (Tabletop Game)|Mage: The Awakening]]''), all the underworld realms presented are designed so the gamemaster can play them this way. It's outright encouraged in general, and one of the realms is designed so it's hard to NOT play it this way. This realm is called Oppia, and is a place of abundant soul-energy in the form of delicious food. The rulers are very generous and hospitable, and their rules seem simple enough. Sure the system runs on enslavement of souls, but those idiots are bad guests who broke the rules. Seems easy enough to accept... until you realize how ''very'' easy it actually is to break the rules. Including by accident.
* In ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (Tabletop Game)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'', this is a common ploy of the [[Lawful Evil]] alignment, inviting people to join a system that benefit the strong at the expense of the weak. The regular adherent is an [[Asshole Victim]] who overestimated his strength and is really unhappy with finding himself as one of the despised and exploited weaklings.
** It's mentioned in ''Fiendish Codex II'' that this is why Lawful Evil characters often make deals with devils - they expect to swiftly take positions of power and prestige in the diabolic hierarchy after their deaths. "No tyrant looks upon a wretched lemure and thinks that this will be their afterlife."
* In the [[Mutant Chronicles]] book ''Ilian'', there are two short-stories on this theme. Humans who joined [[Religion of Evil|the cult of Ilian]] because they wanted to become the exploiters rather then the exploited. And of course, their futures are ''so'' bright, since Ilian will smile upon them forever... until they fail or get backstabbed by each other, that is. Suckers.
* ''[[Warhammer 40000 (Tabletop Game)|Warhammer 40,000]]'' and ''[[Warhammer (Tabletop Game)|Warhammer Fantasy Battles]]'': Many people who join Chaos cults do so in the hopes of attracting their chosen god's favor. Unfortunately for them, said gods are just as likely to ignore them, give them what they want or subject them to horrible (or benign) mutations.
 
== Theater ==
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