Chapter 162: [Editor is a good career]

"Did Thick Smoke read through the Oracle?"

Ma Shao couldn't help but be a little surprised when he heard the news.

The current version of "Spiritual Oracle" has about 150,000 words, covering a wide range of fields, including mathematics, physics, humanities and history.

Although avoiding obscurity as much as possible is one of its basic writing principles, if you want to read it through, you will need at least 5,000 words.

It is not only a matter of vocabulary, it is also a great test of reading ability and even saliva secretion ability.

After reading 150,000 words, most people would probably lose control of their lips halfway through, even if they were allowed to take multiple breaks.

In fact, the so-called freedom after reading the "Spiritual Oracle" was just a highest reward arbitrarily set by Ma Shao. He didn't think any of the war criminals could do it.

Unexpectedly, someone actually did it.

I have to say he is a ruthless person.

"Yes. He had a good foundation in Apache, so he quickly mastered a large vocabulary." Rainy Day nodded.

"…plus he does have a talent for languages, so he was able to accomplish this feat."

Ma Shao thought for a moment and asked, "After he was freed, did he ever consider leaving slepping bear city?"

Rainy Day Smile: "If the smoke wants to leave, I won't give him freedom just like that."

"It was because I saw that he had already fallen in love with Apache that I let him pass this challenge... After all, if you really want to find mistakes, how could there be no mistakes in 150,000 words?"

"Nongyan is now a legal resident of Sleeping Bear City and works as a trainee teacher at the school. I had planned to make him a regular teacher next year."

He paused and said, "But now it seems that he should be more suitable to be the editor-in-chief of the Apache News Agency."

Thick Smoke is undoubtedly the first place in the essay contest. It deserves the award for its excellent content, neat writing, and novel title.

Under the thick smoke, there were three other excellent players, and they were roughly equal in performance, so Ma Shao gave them second prize.

There were more than twenty people who won third prizes and encouragement awards.

A few days later, slepping bear city held a public meeting. An important part of the meeting was the announcement of the results of the essay contest and, of course, the award ceremony.

Public meetings were still held in the open air in the square, and city residents were allowed and encouraged to watch. Basically, every meeting had at least a few hundred spectators.

There were even more onlookers this time, people were standing or sitting, filling the square, and there were many police officers interspersed among them to maintain order.

"...Over the past half month, we held an essay contest. More than five thousand people participated in the competition, and the chief and I selected thirty-two winners from them." Rainy Day Preaching.

"I will now announce the results of the Apache Communications Essay Contest."

"First, we have the winners of the Special Encouragement Award. Although their essays are not outstanding yet, they are all children under ten years old. They have great potential and deserve encouragement. The winners include—"

As the list of winners was read out on a rainy day, several children walked from the crowd to the podium one after another and received their certificates and prizes from Ma Shao.

Among these children, the oldest is ten years old and the youngest is only seven years old.

They instinctively expressed their joy, holding certificates and award books with smiles on their faces.

Correspondingly, there were also discussions from parents in the audience.

"Second brother, your child has made great progress. He will definitely become a great shaman in the future." Various envious voices were heard.

"Look at other people's children, and then look at you, all you do is play all day long!" Such scolding voices are heard one after another, and parents take the opportunity to teach their children a lesson.

The Apaches had no tradition of competitive learning, and this tradition was rare throughout the American continent.

However, after Ma Shao became the chief, the aura of the East Asian test-taker radiated in the tribe every day.

In just three or four years, the Apaches here have subtly acquired many characteristics of East Asians, and "other people's children" is undoubtedly the most basic one.

Strictly speaking, this is not a good phenomenon, and people who like to say this are often mediocre educators.

But Ma Shao didn't have any strong feelings. After all, he couldn't expect every teacher and parent in the tribe to be an excellent educator. This was normal.

This is also common in later China. The results of most educators depend on luck. If they are unlucky, they blame the educated. If they are lucky, they brag about their educational experiences everywhere.

He has seen too many colleagues who just follow the script or even just go through the motions, as well as parents who make things more complicated and hold students back.

However, although these people are bad teammates, they at least know the importance of education. Although they rush around recklessly, they at least dream of doing education, which is quite rare.

Involution is inevitable, but the way of involution is chooseable.

Compared with the white people who are obsessed with guns, the East Asians who are obsessed with reading are simply too decent and civilized.

It's relatively good to let the Indians roll in this direction.

"Next is the encouragement award..."

The award ceremony continued, and the Special Encouragement Award, Encouragement Award, Third Prize and Second Prize were announced one after another. Ma Shao awarded the winners with all the awards.

"Finally, the first prize winner is Smoke, whose winning work is "Shocking! The truth about the Irish Famine is..."

The winners were not notified in advance and were not sure whether they had won the prize, let alone which prize they had won.

So when they heard the news, the crowd seemed quite shocked.

When he was not included in the first few awards, he almost thought he had no chance of winning the award.

Unexpectedly, he won the first prize!

Nongyan was a war criminal on parole a few months ago, so his winning the award did not cause much cheering and the scene was rather quiet.

"Come up, Nongyan, to receive the honor that belongs to you!" Ma Shao stood on the stage, waved to him, and led the applause.

"Pah, pah, pah—"

Following his lead, people applauded and the atmosphere finally became lively again.

The thick smoke then left the crowd, and he stood on the podium in a daze, lowering his head: "Great Chief..."

"Nongyan has taken a detour, but that doesn't mean he won't become a respectable person in the future." Ma Shao said slowly, "He proved his repentance by reading the Spiritual Oracle, and now he proves his talent with his writing."

"Let us learn from this good Apache."

"Clap, clap, clap——" Applause rang out again in the square.

Ma Shao handed him the award certificate and bonus receipt: "You can take this receipt and exchange it for gold coins over there later."

It seems inappropriate to give out money at such a serious award ceremony.

So Ma Shao did not give out the money directly, but instead made a prize voucher for the winners to exchange for cash later.

"After the meeting, all the winning works will be posted for everyone to learn from and, of course, criticize." Ma Shao said to everyone at the end, "These articles are not perfect, and my comments will also be posted together."

After the commendation ceremony, Ma Shao called some of the award winners individually and talked to them.

The first person he called was not the smoke, but one of the second prize winners, William Sebastian.

It looks like a white name, and in fact it does belong to a white person.

The three people who won the second prize were Messy Hair, Long Hair, and this William Sebastian.

This man was one of the first white people to convert to the Apache and one of the first white people to be trained as a shaman of the Spiritualist religion.

Like Thick Smoke, William Sebastian's article was written around the Great Irish Famine.

But in comparison, his writing is a little unsmooth and his Apache language is not proficient enough.

The flaws in the writing were not the biggest problem. What really led to his defeat in the thick smoke was his somewhat extreme ideas.

Perhaps it is because Sebastian has lived in Western capitalist society for a long time and has experienced the pain deeply.

So when he came into contact with the red ideas at the core of the Spiritual Oracle Religion, he almost immediately turned into a fanatic.

When he criticized the actions of the feudal aristocracy and capitalists during the Great Famine in Ireland, his tone was so fierce that it could be described as cursing, revealing a strong hatred.

Ma Shao even suspected that the original version of Sebastian's article might have been written with swear words, and then modified into the swear-free version he saw now.

"Sebastian, your article is well written. Considering that you have only been learning Apache language for a short time, this is an amazing result," said Ma Shao.

"Thank you, Chieftain." Sebastian said respectfully.

He was in his early thirties, had sparse blond hair, and a typical German face. In fact, he had lived in Germany for the first twenty years of his life.

But his attire at this time was no different from that of the Apaches in Sleeping Bear City, with jeans, a fur coat, and a feather tied in his hair.

Ma Shao can generally distinguish the appearance or temperament of white people, just like distinguishing Chinese, Japanese and Korean people, especially Germans, but he can't describe the specific characteristics.

This may be because a certain type of German film left a deep impression on him...

After some encouragement, Ma Shao changed the subject: "But your article also has some problems."

"First of all, there are some mistakes in vocabulary and grammar. These are minor problems. I believe you can correct them quickly."

"Then there are the ideas, or rather... the emotions, in the article."

"Although your analysis of the Irish Famine is also very accurate, it contains some one-sided conclusions and is mixed with overly strong personal emotions. For example, your description of capitalists has many traces of 'conspiracy theory'."

Sebastian didn't quite understand: "The conspiracy theory is..."

Ma Shao: "It is to imagine that capitalists are too proactive, united, and rational - like individuals who are sure to win, and imagine that many of the things they participate in are conspiracies that they actively and carefully manipulate."

"But in fact, conspiracies are not common, especially those that are brilliant and complex... Compared with conspiracies, open conspiracies dominate human history more often."

"Moreover, human society is a chaotic system that is dependent on nature. It is complex and fragile, and is filled with too many accidental and force majeure factors. No one or organization can carry out a conspiracy against the entire society. Capitalists are not even an organization."

"So, even those things that seem extremely beneficial to some people in hindsight are most likely the result of multiple games, including accidental factors, rather than the result of active manipulation by anyone."

Although Sebastian's writings are full of strong words, his personality in real life is somewhat silent. He keeps listening and nodding from time to time.

Moreover, compared with the Indian Apaches, his admiration for the horse whistle is only stronger, so he basically doesn't refute anything, just accepts it.

Ma Shao continued, "Capital has nothing to do with personality. Adjectives such as mean and shameless have no meaning for it. It is a natural phenomenon that occurs universally among human beings. There is no good or evil to speak of."

"Whether the Irish people are suffering or happy, capital doesn't care. Capital only cares about profits."

"Therefore, judging the personal goodness or evil of capitalists, or the carriers of capital, is not judging capital, but rather a side-effect."

"Just like when studying free fall, the color and taste of the object are never worth discussing. The law of gravity behind it is the truth that needs our attention."

Ma Shao learned that long before joining Apache, Sebastian already had a certain foundation in physics, at least knowing the law of universal gravitation.

So Sebastian could understand the analogy and was thoughtful for a moment.

After a while, Ma Shao looked at him and said, "Sebastian, do you want to be an editor?"

"Editor?" Sebastian was startled.

Ma Shao: "Yes, the editor of the news agency. The tribe has established an Apache news agency, but due to the lack of qualified editors and writers, it has only assumed very few functions and is not a real news agency."

"This call for papers is for selecting editors and writers. You are undoubtedly one of the candidates who can be the editor. Moreover, you are the only white person among them. Some tasks are only suitable for you."

Ma Shao smiled and said, "Editor is a good career. How about it, Sebastian, do you want to try it?"

Sebastian looked a little hesitant: "I have no experience."

"Any job starts with no experience. If you can only do it with experience, then there won't be any job you can do."

Ma Shao said.

"All editors of the news agency will be doing this job for the first time. Your specific job is not only to be an editor, but also to work as a part-time reporter."

Sebastian then nodded: "As long as the chief wishes, I am willing to serve as the editor."

Ma Shao: "Well, now you are one of the editors of the news agency. You will have several colleagues and a boss, Nong Yan."

"Tomorrow I will gather all the editors and tell you about the goals and requirements of the work."

After Sebastian left, Ma Shao brought in the smoke.

"Big Chief." Perhaps because he had just escaped from the identity of a war criminal, Nong Yan seemed a little cautious. His tone and posture seemed too restrained when he spoke, and he often bent over.

Ma Shao motioned him to sit down and said with a smile: "If you are still not used to your new identity, you can refer to other Apaches, especially those who have lived in Sleeping Bear City for three years."