133: Chapter 133 Absolutely Correct

Upon hearing Black Panther's question, Thompson said earnestly: "The Guga Planet person I'm partnered with, her name is Agor, and she is a very good person."

"When I chatted with her, she told me that the entire Guga Civilization is decided by the Emperor alone, and because the Emperor is absolutely correct, no one in the entire civilization checks or balances him."

"Moreover, because their civilization has been in a state of war, the higher-ups have absolute control over the lower-ups, and soldiers obey the Commander absolutely."

"I asked her why they don't pursue equality, and she countered by asking me what the benefits of equality were. I wanted to refute her at the time, but I found I couldn't argue with her."

After hearing this, Black Panther lowered his head to look at the electronic sand table in front of him and asked: "What do you think of their social system?"

Thompson lit a cigarette: "It sounds like the kind of feudal society our ancestors played with thousands of years ago."

Black Panther chuckled: "You're wrong. What our ancestors played with was called feudal imperial rule."

"And the social system of the Guga Civilization is called Philosopher King Feudal Imperialism. The difference between these two terms is like heaven and earth."

Thompson took the cigarette out of his mouth: "What do you mean?"

Black Panther walked to the wall and swiped his finger across the touch screen.

The largest screen on the wall lit up, displaying a hand-drawn diagram.

There were two parallel tree structures on the chart, one labeled "Blue Star Civilization" and the other "Guga Civilization."

Black Panther pointed to the "Blue Star Civilization" side. The tree there was scattered, with several parallel branches splitting off from the root. Each was growing upward, but in different directions and with different thicknesses. Some branches were cut off halfway, while others sprouted new branches. The whole tree looked like a shrub growing freely but competing for nutrients.

Then he pointed to the "Guga Civilization" side. It was very simple, with only one main trunk and a few branches.

"This is a tree." Black Panther's fingertip pointed to the very top of the canopy, "In the entire development history of the civilization, from the Stone Age to the interstellar empire, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years, all major decisions have come from the same person."

"This has resulted in almost no internal friction in the development of this civilization."

He pointed to the Blue Star Civilization tree diagram again: "And our Blue Star's democratic system involves debating for three months, legislating for a year, and then starting another round after the court rejects it. This whole process is equivalent to self-mutilation in their eyes."

"And according to my guess, their Emperor himself is very likely an immortal."

"The entire Guga Civilization takes him as the core and has built a self-consistent ecological system around this Emperor: he guides the direction for the civilization, and the civilization provides support for him."

"This means that as long as the direction is always clear, the support will always be stable."

"In this mode, the civilization has no internal loss, and all energy is output in the same direction." Black Panther withdrew his finger from the screen. "This is simply not something that can be caught up with by a few so-called technological explosions."

"Because even if you pull the Guga Civilization to the same starting line as Blue Star, they would leave you far behind in a very short time."

"Every technological leap of the Blue Star Civilization is accompanied by social pain, ethical debates, legal lags, and games between interest groups."

"But they don't need that. If the Emperor says to go in this direction, the whole civilization goes in this direction. There is no opposition party, no hearings, no protests, and no media questioning."

"All intellectual resources are invested in R&D, and all social resources serve strategic goals."

"This time we have completely lost." Black Panther turned off the display screen. In the darkness, his voice became heavier. "If we lost to Chen Mu's arrival on Blue Star in terms of technology—something we could still see—"

"Then this time we lost the future, we lost on the underlying architecture of civilization. The technological gap can be chased, but the systemic gap is difficult to change."

"Since that's the case, why don't we just choose an absolutely correct person to lead our civilization's development?" Thompson said, somewhat unconvinced.

Black Panther looked at him speechlessly: "Do you know how many absolutely correct people there are on Blue Star?"

Thompson put the cigarette back in his mouth: "Don't tell me there isn't even one!"

Black Panther shook his head: "On the contrary, there are too many to count."

"Looking back through history, whether it's an Eastern emperor or a king in Europa, whether it's a president or a leader, all regimes will declare that they are absolutely correct."

"They say the same thing in different languages: I am right, follow me."

Black Panther gave an example: "For example, Napoleon in the nineteenth century claimed to the outside world that his regime was the 'will of the people' and the 'inevitability of history'."

"And the supreme leader of the Axis powers in the twentieth century, the title page of his book was printed with 'Invincible'."

"You will find that although their wording is different and their ceremonies are different, the core structure is exactly the same: the leader is correctness itself."

Black Panther lit a cigarette as well: "I even know a few chiefs of tribes in Africa who use this same rhetoric, such as 'The ancestral spirits have chosen me, so what I say is the word of the ancestral spirits'."

"Son of the Sun God, Mandate of Heaven, chosen by God, historical inevitability, the choice of the people... It's all old wine in new bottles, just different labels poured from the same mold."

Thompson was almost stunned: "How can there be so many absolutely correct people in the world?"

Black Panther sneered: "Because the public buys into this. They always like to believe that someone will come to save them."

"This is a need, as basic as food and water. Human fear of uncertainty far exceeds the fear of tyranny."

"A tyrant is at least certain, while a future without a leader is completely unknown. Between certainty and the unknown, the vast majority of people will choose certainty."

"For example, this A-Zu in New York right now is a typical example."

Black Panther walked to the electronic sand table and zoomed in on the Midtown Manhattan area. A dense cluster of red dots covered almost the entire block.

"The revolutionary theory that Sima Bei designed for A-Zu, why do you think this rhetoric works?"

"It's not because what A-Zu says is that good, but because this rhetoric hits the most instinctive desire of some of the public: someone to save them."

"Although A-Zu's speech is full of logical loopholes and is ridiculous, the public doesn't care about logic."

"When people are desperate to be saved, any strong voice that can provide a 'certain direction' will be automatically amplified, and they can't tell whether the person making this sound is a hero or a tyrant."

Thompson remembered browsing A-Zu's comment section this morning.

Those crazy likes, crazy confessions, and the messages crazily repeating "A-Zu is our savior"—he had thought at the time that it was just a group of brainwashed low-lifes.

But now he suddenly realized, that wasn't brainwashing. It was a need.

If A-Zu didn't come, someone else would. Whether it's called A-Zu or some other name, someone will always stand up and say "Follow me."

"Whether it's Eastern or Western mythology or history, everyone highlights some heroic figures to save the people who are suffering."

Black Panther turned around, standing with his back to the sand table as he explained: "Yu the Great controlling the floods, Noah's Ark, the resurrection of Jesus, the return of King Arthur."

"Every culture has its own savior story. The underlying structure of these stories is exactly the same: disaster strikes, a hero appears, the hero saves, order is restored."

"The public has been soaked in these stories since birth. Over time, they have become accustomed to waiting for a hero to lead them. This is not the result of brainwashing, but the gene of civilization."

"This is reality." Black Panther said, his voice slowing down a bit, "And it is also related to the mayor assassination case you are investigating now."