Absolute Destiny Game
Chapter 185 - 48: Telling Stories with Morals

Chapter 185: Chapter 48: Telling Stories with Morals

"Every operation of human society is conducted by humans themselves, religions, traditional cultures, legal morals, and even social structures are essentially operated and set by humans. Thus, if one learns the way of humans, which is to grasp the fundamental logic and operational rules of human society, one can understand all human social behaviors and their essence."

According to the book, although we all appear to be the same humans on the surface, the differences in cognition essentially set us worlds apart."

Human cognition is divided into four levels—fools, knowers, cunning, Wiseman.

It can be roughly understood as, 1, the commoners. 2, intellectuals. 3, opportunists, and 4, Great Wisdom.

The logic with which these four view the world is completely different.

Fool—surface logic.

Intellectuals—true logic.

Opportunists—realistic logic.

Great Wisdom—fundamental logic.

Take Faith in God as an example.

The cognition of a fool—believing in God leads to Heaven, not believing sends you to Hell, so I must believe, and I even donate all my money to the Church, so that after I die, I can go to Heaven and eternally enjoy, blissfully thus."

The cognition of intellectuals—does God really exist? Why are there so many BUGS in the doctrines? I think this faith is wrong, and I need to expose the truth."

The cognition of opportunists—of course, God does not exist, but since those fools believe, might as well pretend for a bit too. Oh right, why not sell indulgences in the name of God? This could make a fortune, as there isn’t a God to punish me anyway."

What? Someone wants to expose the truth that God doesn’t exist? Then let’s burn them to death in the name of blaspheming God."

The cognition of Great Wisdom—I want people to follow the rules I set, but no one listens to me, talking sense with these fools is too tiring, why not create a god—let’s call it God. Tell them all these were said by God, concoct some stories, like if you don’t believe in God you’ll go to Hell, but if you follow my rules, you can go to Heaven and enjoy eternal blessings..."

Xiao Jie, having listened, was somewhat unconvinced, "Isn’t this just the same old feudal superstition stuff, and still calling it Great Wisdom? This?"

Chen Tianwen, however, shook his head and said, "No no no, you’ve misunderstood my point, God is just an example. It could be God, or Buddha, universal values, freedom, democracy, even LGBT, everything that influences our thoughts, humanistic theories, traditional cultures, all are included."

You don’t believe in God because you haven’t been indoctrinated with such thoughts, but if you had lived in the Middle Ages, surrounded by people who believed in God, being indoctrinated daily, then you would naturally see it as a matter of course."

All nations, all civilizations generally have such elements."

The West has its Faith in God, the East has Confucian filial piety, Indians have their caste system... Each civilization has its own traditional culture, these so-called traditional cultures all share a common feature, which is that they seem right and just to those within the framework, but preposterous and irrational to those outside."

We look at the belief in God and the caste system and of course think that it’s nonsense, but in the eyes of other civilizations, our filial piety of Confucianism is equally nonsensical."

And your understanding and interpretation of these cultures also determine what kind of person you are."

In the eyes of a fool—these traditions are very sacred and must be observed."

In the eyes of intellectuals—these traditions are full of errors and holes, even entirely irrational, and should be broken."

In the eyes of opportunists—maintaining tradition is a tool for profit, breaking tradition is also a tool for profit, the specific choice of whether to maintain or break depends on which is more beneficial for oneself."

And only the Great Wisdom—can truly understand the purpose of these traditions, and whether they need to be maintained or broken."

Xiao Jie, speechless, said, "But what’s wrong with respecting your parents?"

Chen Tianwen shook his head and said, "Respect and filial piety, one word difference, a world apart."

The original filial piety involved burying sons for mothers, lying on ice to catch carp, when a lord orders a servant’s death, the servant must die, when parents demand their child’s death, the child must not refuse, mourning a parent’s death for three years, something no one can do nowadays."

What we call filial piety nowadays has been modified, removing content that doesn’t fit modern times, such as mourning for three years."

And whether it’s ignorance or the truth depends on the culture you have been indoctrinated with and your level of cognition."

If you can understand ’the way’, understand the fundamental logic of human society, then you can comprehend how all this happened, why there are so many inexplicable traditions."

Xiao Jie curiously said, "Then tell me, why are there so many different traditional cultures? Can you understand the fundamental logic of human society?"

"Originally, I didn’t know, thanks to the Taoist Scriptures you gave me, I have also figured out some," though he spoke humbly, there was an inherent arrogance in his words.

Xiao Jie said, "Then explain, what is ’the way’?"

"Take these social traditions for example, why in Hua Country it’s Confucian filial piety, the West has Faith in God, India has its caste system? The answer is quite simple, due to the choices made by ancient rulers based on their needs."