We ARE Struggling Together!/Literature: Difference between revisions

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* In Tolkien's ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' books, the elves, dwarves, and men are constantly squabbling with each other when they should be joining forces to fight the [[Evil Overlord]]. The Lothlorien's elves distrusts Gimli the dwarf, and so all the Fellowship must go blind into the path to Lorien:

* In ''[[Discworld]]'' novels Lord Vetinari has secretly set up several of the organisations dedicated to his overthrow, in order to keep the real ones busy with infighting. In ''The Discworld Companion'', Vetinari's rule is credited to realising that even [[La Résistance|revolutionary anarchists]] want stability so they can fight their ''real'' enemies; people with a slightly different definition of revolutionary anarchy.

** Vetinari doesn't just deal with potential rebellion this way: it's practically his whole political philosophy. "If there are two sides to an issue, see that they quickly become two hundred."

* In the [[Strugatsky Brothers]]' novel ''[[Prisoners of Power]]'', the mind-controlling totalitarian oligarchy is opposed by what may initially seem to be an unified rebel "Underground". However, to quote the novel itself, "the Underground wasn't a political party. What's more, it wasn't even a front of political parties". Its members couldn't even agree as to whether or not the mind control has to go. Factions range from blatant fascists (who want to overthrow the government and keep the mind control towers) to "biologists" (who just want to destroy the towers, but don't mind keeping the government - so they can't even agree about that), and there are factions within factions as well. It is explicitly pointed out that many prominent Underground leaders are either agents or secret allies of the government. The protagonist ultimately doesn't even bother trying to rally them, instead striking a deal with one of the less secure government leaders for inside information, recruiting a few of the more sensible Underground members and blowing up the mind control center without consulting anybody else. It is implied in later Noonverse novels that he and his allies then had to put down rebellions by some of the other groups, even though the country was already a terrible mess by then due to mind control withdrawal and such.

* ''[[The Thrawn Trilogy]]'', being the earliest-written look at the New Republic after the Emperor died, shows an unfortunate amount of political jockeying. Most of this can be blamed on Borsk Fey'lya and his attempts to gain power, but he's not alone. Garm Bel Iblis, after Bail Organa's death, had actually split off and formed his own rebellion against the Empire, since he thought Mon Mothma was becoming too authoritarian. One of the many plot points in the trilogy is his realizing that a great deal of her reasoning was due to [[The Chains of Commanding]], and they could work together again.