Chapter 656 - 408: Human Flaws (Part 2)

She placed the building blocks in front of Su Mo, smiling brightly, "Daddy, you stack the blocks as high as you can."

Su Mo picked up the blocks and started stacking them. Initially, they were all stacked steadily, but when they reached waist height, perhaps because something wasn’t placed right underneath, they suddenly collapsed.

"Let me try." Su Motong retrieved the scattered blocks and began stacking them herself.

The blocks piled higher and higher, eventually surpassing the height of Su Mo’s stack. Later, she even had to ride on Su Mo’s shoulders to continue stacking, and not a single block fell until all were used.

From a structural standpoint, the blocks formed a perfect column.

This was truly perfect in every sense.

Even with the most advanced equipment, even exhausting the current limits of human measurement, observing at units as small as the Planck length, their center of gravity lay perfectly on a straight line, without even an Amie’s deviation.

Su Mo looked at the stable cylinder in front of him. Although it was just some children’s building blocks, his gaze was as if admiring a supreme artwork.

At this time, Su Motong began answering the earlier question, "About what you said regarding the cycle of rise and fall, it’s actually the same as stacking blocks."

"At first, the blocks are scattered all over the place. It’s very simple to stack them up, as the physical center of gravity is very low, they can be stacked steadily in any way."

"It’s like the chaotic end of an era of war, where both order seems to have disappeared and rituals to have collapsed, but actually everything is waiting to thrive. As long as a capable person appears to unify people’s hearts and sweep away remnants, a stable governance can be established."

"But as the blocks continue to be stacked higher, the precision of your hands is ultimately limited, and unavoidable deviations appear between the blocks, large or small, eventually affecting the overall stability."

"This is like, in the initial development of governance, prosperity is achieved, but over time, ’accumulated malpractices’ keep emerging during this process, such as the old noble departments arrogant of their contributions, or the monopolizing aristocratic families..."

"Some ’malpractices’ are timely corrected, others are left unchecked, or simply undetected, they just remain and are passed down to later generations."

"And as those blocks are stacked higher, the ’accumulated malpractices’ from the previous stacking are increasing, the overall structure becomes more unstable, and eventually..."

Su Motong stretched out her small hand and tapped at the base of the block column, causing the entire column to scatter with a crash, leaving pieces all over the ground.

"Eventually, like this, destroyed instantly over the passage of time or through external force."

"Within this lies a sociological truth, any governance requires the flow of social resources, generating circulation up, down, inside and outside."

"This circulatory flow is like a river, starting with surging currents, but then someone starts scooping water away from the river, or someone simply built one dam after another, claiming the river water for themselves. Eventually, the flowing water diminishes, falling into a dead cycle, and the river naturally withers."

Su Mo nodded thoughtfully and continued to ask, "In your view, has there ever been a perfect system of governance throughout humanity’s long history that could fundamentally prevent this kind of phenomenon?"

Su Motong answered without hesitation, "Yes."

"Yes?" Su Mo was somewhat surprised by this answer, "Since there was a perfect system, why did that governance still perish?"

Su Motong again displayed her humor, describing the answer in vivid detail: "Because rules are dead, but people are alive. Everything can be negotiated, right?"

Su Mo was taken aback for a moment, then burst into laughter.

Su Motong playfully poked her father’s face and began to answer seriously, "The cycle of rise and fall ultimately boils down to human drive."

"The greed inherent in human nature ensures that social resources will continually concentrate and inevitably lead to a lack of resource mobility, eventually dragging everything into a cycle of destruction and rebirth."

"A perfect system does exist, but no matter how perfect, it requires people to execute it."

"It is humanity itself that is imperfect."

Su Mo’s pupils trembled as he hugged Su Motong tightly, whispering, "You speak so well..."

"I once heard a theory that all social issues stem from resource scarcity, and the solution is technological advancement, making the cake bigger."

"As long as the cake is made large enough, for example, achieving controlled nuclear fusion, developing room-temperature superconducting materials... giving humanity endless energy, ideally developing light-speed travel technology, constructing spacecraft to venture into the deep universe, possessing almost infinite land space, all problems will vanish."

"They were wrong, so very wrong."

"As you described with that river, no matter how wide it becomes, even if it turns into a boundless ocean, someone will construct higher dams, claiming even more seawater for themselves. This is destined by human greed."

"Pure technological advancement is useless, establishing a perfect system is useless, as long as societal activity relies on human operation, nothing will change, history will only continue to repeat."

At this point, Su Mo’s gaze became profound, "Mo Tong, what do you think about the war we are currently facing?"

Su Motong: "Meaningless."

Su Mo: "Oh? Why do you say that?"

Su Motong gazed into the nightscape of New Moon City, where the smoke over the ruins had dispersed, and the falling snow had cleansed all filth, but couldn’t wash away the scars that war had inflicted upon this city.

"In view of the entire history of civilization, this war is insignificant. There have been countless wars more tragic than ours today, bringing periods of prosperity in return, but all the achievements eventually turned to dust."

"This war is no different. I believe we can achieve victory, but what then? Whether it lasts hundreds of years, or several decades, or even a few years, the spoils of victory will be stolen away."

"Among us, some will become today’s titans, and then a new group similar to how we are now will rise up, and overthrow those titans... it’s predictable."

Su Mo gently patted Su Motong’s small head, deliberately using a tone of reprimand, "What, does Mo Tong not believe in Daddy and those companions? Do you think we’ll become evil dragons after slaying dragons?"

Su Motong twirled her deep black eyes and cheekily threw out a question, "If Daddy becomes the leader of the new world, one day, Mom commits a crime, and the law mandates capital punishment."

"The masses are clamoring for Daddy to execute Mom according to the law, to uphold the fairness and dignity of the law in the new world."

"Suppose Daddy happens to have a gun in hand at that time, what would you do?"

Su Mo replied without hesitation, "I’ll shoot all those masses, and if there are any bullets left, shoot them again to ensure they’re thoroughly dead."

This answer, filled with dark humor, made both father and daughter burst into laughter.

Su Motong hugged Su Mo’s waist and nestled in his embrace, her eyes appeared somewhat dreamy, "Daddy, I love you very much. You are indeed strong, wise, and farsighted."

"But ultimately, you’re just an ordinary human."

Upon hearing these words, Su Mo’s eyes did not show any anger or sadness from being offended but rather an unprecedented relief.

He pressed his face closely against Su Motong’s small head, smiling with relief, "Mo Tong, you’re right, I’m just an ordinary human, and so is everyone else."

"Just like earlier downstairs, I was unwilling to share resources, and people called me selfish. They’re right, I am a selfish person. It’s not just me, most people are like this."

"Does an absolutely selfless person exist? Yes, they do, I’ve seen them."

"But they are ultimately a rare few, no matter how noble their ideals, how much effort they’ve put in, individual lifespan is ultimately limited, their existence and ideal visions will wither away with time."

"The development of civilization doesn’t rely on a rare few, but on the majority, so humanity can’t escape the cycle of rise and fall through its own means."

"This has nothing to do with system or technology, it is determined by the nature of humanity as a species."

The snow fell heavier and heavier, the snowflakes in the night sky danced along with the cold wind, rapidly covering every corner around, as if to drown the entire world in this endless white.

"Mo Tong," called Su Mo.

He held his daughter tightly in his arms, his eyes reflecting the intense cold snow, yet they burned as if ablaze.

"You have to give them a perfect world."