Cruel people, death spiral, the fate of empire
This is a small paper written before the official update. Please read it for free.
(Patch: writing this actually refers to a smiling girl who was a prosecutor, not an allusion to China. I am not so bold)
Argument: The appointment of cruel officials stems from the power holder's aversion to the cost of using power. However, appointing cruel officials is like sucking people. The diminishing marginal utility of cruel officials will drive the power holders to further choose those who are more willing to gamble their lives. Cool official, this is an inevitable death spiral under the power game, and the fate of the collapse of the empire is hidden in it.
If we look at this argument using the classical empire as a model, a lot of things will be easier to write, and it will not be limited to sensitivities.
In the classical empires of the East and West, the founders of the empire gathered the most powerful forces of the civilization and era in which they were located at that time to establish the empire. The power of these founders was almost unlimited.
Under the heroic view of history (the heroic view of history has its rationality), they have shaped everything and are naturally qualified to control everything.
But the problem is that the power system created by the founder of the empire is too powerful, and subsequent successors will inevitably become power holders in the intergenerational inheritance, rather than power holders like their ancestors.
My book gives clear and detailed examples of this, that is, when President Cheng wants to become a decisive leader, he must win over ambitious collaborators.
Mr. Cheng can play games with these collaborators and gain relative control, but his successors will most likely not be able to do so.
Returning to the narrative model of a classical empire, when an empire develops to the point where it is unable to expand and its internal interests are overly eroded by vested interests, so that civil strife breaks out, the nominal supreme leader of the empire must respond.
Here I want to pay tribute to the class theory. Class determines the stance. This is so sharp. (Individual betrayal is inevitable in large samples)
The nominal leader of a classical empire is the holder of the highest power. He holds the power granted to him by the ruling class. However, those who erode the overall balance of interests of the country are often the group that occupies a dominant position in the country.
Landowners, clergy, military chiefs, bureaucrats, etc., their support shaped power itself.
But their greed has shaken the balance and stability of the empire.
Therefore, when the leader of the empire and the holder of power wants to rectify an unstable situation, it is difficult for him to obtain support from vested interest groups.
In other words, the price to pay for this kind of support is too great to be worth the loss.
Therefore, the power holders invariably chose to appoint low-ranking and powerful officials.
The death spiral begins from this step.
The characteristic of cruel officials is that they started from dust and have no big background, but they yearn for the favor of power.
They choose to be loyal to the power holders, risking their lives and fortunes.
When power holders seek out these people as knives, they can effectively avoid the cost of easily entering the game and using their supreme power.
This is a kind of thief, but this kind of thief does not mean imbecile.
That is: the death spiral itself is just a strategy of the game.
So, what is a death spiral?
To be precise, I would like to call it the death spiral of ‘the imbalance of loyalty and power of cruel officials’.
Why is it said that appointing cruel officials is like sucking drugs?
Because the methods of cruel officials serve the purpose of the power holders.
This is a terrible screening mechanism, because the power holders themselves are not gods and Buddhas, and they are also greedy.
Only the most brilliant and ruthless officials who can best achieve the goals of the power holders can get more favor from their masters.
As a result, the loyalty of the cruel officials became more and more cruel, and their methods became more and more bottomless under the terrible screening mechanism. As a vague collective, it is difficult for the ruling class to have a unified will. Under normal circumstances, they are scattered.
But the existence of cruel officials forced these people to gradually unite.
The power holder's thieves will be extremely effective at first, but as his 'opponents' become more united, the role of the ruthless official will decrease.
It's back to that death spiral here.
The efficacy of the drug decreases—increase the dosage of the drug—the resistance increases—increase the dosage of the drug.
However, the empire's resistance is limited.
Cruel officials can delay the outbreak of conflicts of interest, but they can also make such outbreaks gradually become bigger and bigger.
The burden of contradictions is engraved in the culture, system, economy, and ideological program of the empire. It is invisible but actually exists.
If the fundamental internal contradictions are not resolved, relying solely on power play will only accelerate the speed and intensity of the fireworks after a short period of relief.
In the end, the empire inevitably went to destruction due to the incompetence of its power agents and the acquiescence of the ruling group that abandoned it.
——
Patches:
As mentioned just now, the chicken thief's death spiral is only part of the method. This method is similar to a double-edged sword, but some people still use it well.
For example, the King of Qin who used Shang Jun - this is the most successful case, if not one of them.
So, what is the key to King Qin’s success?
Promote the development of productivity by adjusting production relations!
By making the cake bigger, unite more people to replace the original ruling class!
It’s just that I don’t see such a trend in the United States.
They took greed to the extreme.
More pessimistically, I don’t even think humans can go to the stars.
There is no brighter, more transcendent future for humanity.
There may also be an upper limit to the Creator’s mercy.
The limits of physics have been reached.
Science will never get more groundbreaking.
We are literally locked in eternal twilight.
Damn it, I wish from the bottom of my heart it was me Shabby.
Instead, I really guessed it right.
(End of chapter)