Chapter 124 Re-evaluation in the Great Trough_1

PS: This chapter is still about reflections on the Great Ravine, which can be skipped. The summary is that if we cannot change people's hearts, we should change the structure of human society to lay the groundwork for the author's post-disaster plan.

The Trisolaran crisis has aggravated the arrogance and paranoia of the crowd. More and more people are attaching themselves to such groups, appearing exceptionally powerful because they have the backing of the crowd.

They are like an inflated giant stretched taut, ready to explode at a single poke.

They do not allow dissenting opinions, and at the same time, they are easily incited and gullible. Any positive or negative sentiment can be magnified within the group.

The human leadership is powerless against this and even needs to rely on this kind of groupthink wave to maintain social stability. To cope with the economic transition necessitated by the Trisolaran crisis, the accumulated public resentment needs this trend to resolve it.

This is also why in this era, despite so many people predicting the Great Ravine and many elites making ample preparations for it, what was bound to come still came. The development of the world does not shift with human will.

Those who study mass psychology often despise the crowd, viewing it as the disappearance of a conscious personality and the rise of an unconscious one. The intelligence of individuals is weakened, leading them to unconsciously lose their self-awareness and become a completely different type of creature with a significantly lower level of intelligence.

Indeed, this seems to be the case in society. In Lin Sen's previous life, there was a very popular book, "The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind," which accurately described this phenomenon. Once a person enters the crowd, their individuality is obliterated, and group thought dominates, with the crowd's behaviour manifesting as unanimous, emotional, and low IQ.

Individuals, once separated from the crowd, often have an immediate epiphany and even cannot understand why they appeared so unintelligent within the group.

Lin Sen recognized this phenomenon, but one must not only look at the surface. In the grand scheme of time, it is still the crowd that drives societal development, and the elites are not as exemplary as we imagine.

As in economics, elites can amass vast wealth in the short term through finance, while the crowd, though foolish, is continuously creating wealth, which is then transferred away by the elites.

The crowd may be somewhat unintelligent, but the essence of this phenomenon is that people need to be socialized. Everyone needs to find their value within the group, and this value can only be that of the group's.

This is not foolishness; it is simply a necessary phase of development.

In the original timeline, the arrogant and paranoid human crowd also faced the Great Ravine, which lasted half a century. During this disaster, a second ideological revolution was born.

So what is the real significance of the post-Great Ravine ideological revolution? Is it that it promoted a second leap in human technology?

Lin Sen does not think so; the development of civilization has deeper underlying driving mechanisms.

The Medieval Renaissance emerged from the dark Middle Ages, which were constrained by religion, hampering the development of human nature and society, compounded by the most severe occurrence of the Black Death in history.

A century of plagues and a divided church shook people's faith in the Pope. Thus, people urgently sought new ideas, turning from religion to the pursuit of art and scientific research. They strived to survive amid hardships, ushering in the Age of Discovery and opening the door to a new century.

It wasn't new ideas that opened the door to a new century, but the entire social environment that necessitated and facilitated the wide acceptance of new ideas. However, the clash between old and new forces was anything but peaceful.

The second ideological revolution in the later period of the Great Ravine superficially represented another contemplation of the doomsday battle, questioning the worth of the sacrifices made for victory in the war of doomsday.

But essentially, it was the most thorough defeatism, draining the last traces of civilization's driving force, and more foolishly, this complete defeatist ideology was preserved.

During the doomsday battle, the reason humanity was easily defeated was not due to technology but a lack of spirit; they even resorted to a strategy of psychological victory.

Trisolarans "can touch," I "cannot touch?"

The speed of Trisolaran space battleships is slower than ours, making us stronger. Imagine a middle school student would know that in space, speed has nothing to do with the power of a space battleship but with the duration of acceleration at the same power.

Even the strategic tactics of space battleships were not studied; with powerful weapons at hand, they did not research how to use them.

The second thought revolution differed from the first (the Renaissance) in every respect except that both followed great catastrophes, as people sought new ideas and looked for new societal structures.

The essence of the second thought revolution was absolute defeatism, an acceptance of everything, including death, and a complete loss of any pursuit.

We naturally cannot blame the first person who proclaimed "Give civilization to the years, rather than giving years to civilization," but once such a group formed, the new human was born.

The new human had innate defects; it was founded on an ideology of escape. This was not about finding a new path but about abandoning the search entirely. The most sophistic claim was that not choosing was also a choice.

Still, achieving success with the wrong methods is more terrifying than failure.

Of course, this is not a huge mistake; the error lay in transmitting a very poor idea to new humans, stirring the greatest selfishness (egocentrism, self-preservation) in their hearts.

All history is contemporary history. Understanding history requires looking beyond the surface. When the West speaks of liberating thoughts and human nature, they do not mean unrestrained freedom or selfishness, but a rebellion against the oppressive and violent ideologies imposed on us.

Throughout history, be it in the West or the East, both sought internal breakthroughs amidst disasters and embarked on grand explorations to accomplish the real transformation of social ideologies, redeeming and transforming themselves through blood and fire.

In the East, the legal reforms of Shang Yang were not merely about oppressive governance or weakening the people through laws, but for the purposes of strengthening the nation and the military, and freeing the slaves to unleash productivity.

At that time, the term "people" did not refer to the vast majority, but to the aristocratic landlord class. In fact, the majority at the time were slaves who had no names.

The early feudal society of Huaxia indeed brought strength to countries of that time and propelled social development, followed by repeated cycles of dynasties until, after a century of decline, we continuously sought breakthroughs to emerge from this downfall.

These were all in accord with the social developments of their time. They were all in search of self-breakthrough.

In today's era, society under the threat of the Trisolaran crisis is unlike any other epoch. To address the Trisolaran crisis, human society must concentrate all resources, but economic transformation also binds human thought.

The development of society cannot rely solely on the elite; it requires the wisdom of the broad masses. However, human nature is selfish, and most people are driven by their own interests to unleash their greatest enthusiasm and intelligence.

At this point, an important shackle appears...resource limitations.

Humanity needs to concentrate all resources to implement strategic development and defense plans. Technological progress relies on the mass of people, but it significantly consumes human resources. The key is, humans are uncertain how far technology can develop when the basic theories are locked by Sophon.

Shackles of resources, technology, and thought all weigh on everyone, and it is essential to find a way to break these three chains; that will be the real second thought revolution.

Guiding the thought of one person is easy for Lin Sen. But how should he guide the thought of the entire society?

The overall social thought is affected by the social environment and size. Under the current conditions, Lin Sen could not think of any way to guide it.

If the overall thought of human society cannot be guided, then change the structure of human society. The great trough provided a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, which might also be the moment for a major breakthrough in human technology...

PS: I expect many will have objections to the views on Shang Yang's reforms expressed in this section. The author also considered whether to delete it and, after much thought, chose not to. This represents the author's viewpoint, which is open for discussion.

The author enjoys discussing history and historical perspectives but is not a professional. I've read various summaries like China's general history, world history, and Yuan tengfei's lectures on history... I've tried reading texts like the Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance but can't get through more than a hundred pages.