CHAPTER 551: CHAPTER 550 OPPRESSION AND EXPLOITATION

Degenerate Civilization said, "Our research has found that the development of science is deeply related to the system of civilization, but we weren’t aware of it initially."

"As everyone knows, the speed of scientific development is closely related to the pool of scientific talents, and the number and quality of scientific talents determine the pace of scientific progress. Hence, scientific talent is the biggest factor affecting scientific development—without exception—much more important than any scientific environment or materials, which is why there’s a saying that human resources are fundamental. I believe this is not unfamiliar to everyone."

"However, the cultivation of scientific talent is not an easy task; it involves a massive redistribution of resources. Previously, we thought that the world’s resources were limited, so the number of scientific talents, especially top-tier talents, were also limited. This was an essential conflict we believed to be unsolvable, and it limited the speed of scientific development. We used to think that this limitation was an intrinsic restriction of the physical world, insoluble. But upon further consideration, the distribution of resources is determined by the system of wealth distribution, which is the core of our civilizational system because the key to civilization lies in solving the distribution of social wealth. Hence, our research conclusion is that the system of civilization essentially has a driving relationship with scientific development." "To understand this inner argument, the system of civilization addresses the distribution issue—solving the methods of distribution allows the creation of more scientific talents, to avoid excessive accumulation of resources in a single individual, distributing them to those who need them—ultimately, the quantitative change in scientific talent leads to a qualitative leap, propelling the high-speed development of science."

"I have to admit, your research is quite interesting!"

After listening to Degenerate Civilization’s interim statement, Black Hole Civilization and other civilizations suddenly showed great interest.

And for Black Hole Lu Chen and the Wandering Alliance, they had a deep understanding, since the very essence of the communist system was to resolve the social distribution pattern.

Before the appearance of the communist system, social systems would change with the development of productive forces, and the essence of this change was the redistribution of wealth.

For instance, the transition from a slave society to a feudal society was to change the tribal wealth distribution to one dominated by feudal lords. Under this system, even state governance heavily depended on the cooperation of the landlord class. During governance, rulers had to seek support from the landlord class to maintain stability. Consequently, many state-level policies were skewed towards the landlord class.

Then came the development from feudal society to capitalism, shifting the distribution method from landlords to capitalists. There were similarities between the two, but the fundamental difference was that landlords divvied up the surplus value of the agricultural economy while capitalists divided the surplus value of the industrial economy, involving an advancement of concepts spurred by improved productive forces. Initially, in order to overthrow the feudal nobility, capitalists even initiated movements like the Renaissance—behind the main promoters and advocates of the Renaissance were capitalist shadows. Their main goal was to advocate for human dignity and rights as slogans, to overthrow the privileges of the feudal lords and the oppression of feudal theocracy. Essentially, after gaining a certain economic status, capitalists were dissatisfied with the existing distribution model and wanted to redistribute the cake.

However, both feudal society and capitalism shared one thing in common—that is, the exploitation of workers’ surplus value.

Feudal lords exploited the surplus value created by peasants through land as production capital, while capitalists used machinery or technology as production capital to exploit the surplus value created by the working class. Without workers creating value, those means of production would not yield any benefit or value. Capitalists even considered workers as a kind of live production material for repeated use, which was a significant backward step and an ironic regression for feudal society. The progress of civilization did not improve oppression and exploitation; on the contrary, it intensified exploitation under the guise of humanity. This is also one of the origins of the ’leek theory’ in capital society.

Therefore, the communist system emerged on Earth to solve the distribution method and to relieve long-standing oppression and exploitation.

The communist system, through the machinery of the state or society, relatively fairly redistributes the economic value and resources created by society to every citizen, ensuring that not just 20% of a country’s created trillions of economic value is distributed to the people, and 80% flows into the hands of capitalists. Such a system may be disadvantageous for the former capitalists but guarantees broader fairness for ordinary people, making a civilization stronger from within.

Black Hole Lu Chen couldn’t help but recall a line from a movie: "Neither you nor money is important to me, but having neither is very important to me!"

However, to be honest, until Degenerate Civilization presented this conclusion, Black Hole Lu Chen and the Wandering Alliance had not realized the crucial importance of the relationship between the system of civilization and scientific development.

Although Black Hole Lu Chen recognized the need for talent in scientific development, thus instituting a policy of universal elitism, he had not truly and systematically grasped the real relationship and importance between the two—a revelation now striking him.

To put it simply, scientific development is talent-based, and the system of civilization is a macro-control for managing and cultivating talent, as well as a tool for resource distribution. Thus, the system of civilization is to scientific development what roots are to a tree; how fast science can grow depends on how many nutrients the roots can supply.

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"We also find this research quite fascinating; it expands our perspective and understanding."

Degenerate Civilization said, "However, the communist system is just the foundation. The universal elite policy proposed by the Wandering Alliance is the expressway created upon this foundation; this is the main reason for the Wandering Alliance’s rapid scientific development. Put bluntly, the Wandering Alliance has created an industrial production system for cultivating scientific talents with its universal elite policy, while we are still in an era of manually nurturing scientific talents. Industry versus pure craftsmanship, the gap is more than slight, so naturally, this contrast is reflected in the development of science."

"Alright, let’s hear your second piece of evidence from the research!"

Some civilizations present were somewhat displeased, because while it’s fine to praise a civilization, to belittle oneself in the process of praising another made it somewhat unacceptable, as they all still had their pride.