"don't build the torment nexus" is a meme that's repeated so often it's becoming a cliche, and yet

Ankh-Morpork no longer had a fire brigade. The citizens had a rather disturbingly direct way of thinking at times, and it did not take long for people to see the rather obvious flaw in paying a group of people by the number of fires they put out. The penny really dropped shortly after Charcoal Tuesday.

from a Terry Pratchett book published in 1997.

those who forget history are condemned to...something something.