The Martial Unity

Chapter 3792: Civilizational Impediments to Change

”Civilizational darwinism...” Rui murmured. ”The survival of the fittest.”

She nodded. ”However, the fittest here aren’t simply those who are the strongest; it refers literally to those most fit for the circumstances.”

”...How do I create a nation that will always change to be most fit for its environment?”

”There is no fundamental condition for that, I’m afraid, at least none that I have identified in my studies of the life and death of civilizations.” She shook her head. ”However, what you can do is try to remove the most common reasons that civilizations are unable to change. And one of the most common reasons of them all is...”

Her tone grew more serious. ”Sociocultural. In many ways, it is the toughest to resolve. If the culture and society of a nation are unable to change due to rigid sociocultural norms, then eventually, it will suffer. And in the worst cases, it will die out in one form or another. Let me take some modern examples that you are most familiar with, such as...”

Her eyes narrowed. ”...the case of the hemosapien children.”

Rui’s ethereal eyes lit up with realization. ”I see... There was significant sociocultural dissent to the blood children. In many societies, the blood children were feared for their power and hated for the notion that they were going to become a dominant bloodline. It was worst in the Solaris Kingdom, where people actively hunted hemosapien children.”

”Until you intervened with your power and influence, yes.” She nodded with a hint of respect in her otherwise composed voice. Her auburn eyes bore deep into his with a serious expression. ”The advent of homo hemosapien is an example of the changing circumstances that I mentioned. And the sociocultural backlashes in different parts of our continental civilization are an example of the sociocultural impediment to change that I mentioned. Now, your intervention in this matter has caused the consequences to disappear, but imagine if you had not intervened.”

She leaned forward with a pointed gaze. ”What do you think would have happened?”

Rui threw a knowing glance at her.

He understood he was being tested. Just like he was testing her to see if she was worthy of being taken into his administration, she was probing to see whether he was an imbecile or actually worth serving under.

His ethereal eyes grew cloudy. ”...The Solaris Kingdom and others of its ilk would have killed off all their hemosapien children. Only nations with a society and culture that changed to accept hemosapiens and integrate them into their people, like the Kandrian Empire, would have gained the benefits of hemosapien DNA in their people. The long-term results would be...”

His ethereal eyes sharpened. ”...The people of the Kandrian Empire would grow to become genetically superior. They would be more intelligent, stronger, and longer-lived, and the emerging pathwalkers would be much more powerful. In the long run, the Kandrian Empire and others that changed to accept blood children would become stronger, and the Solaris Kingdom would suffer weakness.”

A glint of approval lit up in her auburn eyes as she nodded with an appreciative expression. ”Indeed, it would result in long-term weakness and drying up of both hard and soft political power for the Solaris Kingdom. That would have been an example of civilizational darwinism at work.”

”...I don’t think the Kandrian Empire is particularly prone to such kinds of impediments to change,” Rui thoughtfully pondered. ”I feel like the people of the Kandrian Empire are more open-minded and open to change. We have undergone a lot of change over the past quarter of a century. We have adopted great technological change in our nation. And I do think that we have handled the hemosapien children really well.”

The Shepherd lightly shook her head. ”That is largely the merit of your father avoiding political opposition from the masses with finesse. He chose his targets well, ensuring that the families and the communities that harbored the blood children were unlikely to resist. Still, you are correct. The Kandrian Empire does not have a dogmatic culture and society. The only religion that has strongly taken root in the Kandrian Empire is one that worships you as the messiah. But the Kandrian Empire, as it is now, originated as a combination of immigration and conquest before that. Thus, it does have enough diversity to prevent a uniform, rigid societal culture from forming. Other nations like the Virodhabhasa Theocracy are very different and can be unyieldingly solid.”

Rui’s expression lit up. ”Thankfully, I control that religion as well. So I can force it to change if I want.”

She nodded. ”That is true. Your popularity with the people and your influence over two of the most dominant religions will be of great help to you. I suspect that as long as you are able to maintain your popularity with the common people, they will never become an impediment to any change that you bring about. So this variable will not be much of a problem to you.”

Rui nodded. ”What of the other most common reasons?”

”Another large reason is stakeholder incentives,” she remarked with a knowing tone. ”When some of the major stakeholders of a nation are harmed by a particular change, they resist. The most well-known example of this is when agricultural industrialists in agricultural nations resisted the industrial revolution and industrialization in the past century. It is beneficial for a nation economically and in numerous other metrics to undergo the transition from an agrarian to an industrial society, but nations that are unable to overcome the impediments of their largest power blocs end up failing to change and suffer in the long run.”

”Is that much of a problem in the Kandrian Empire?” Rui pondered. ”I can force change even if certain powerful blocs in the nation selfishly want to prevent that change.”

”You can, but industrial and economic power blocs would not feel very safe in such a nation. If you show an excessive unwillingness to heed the interests of stakeholders of the nation, you will lose their sustained presence in your nation,” she remarked. ”For the Kandrian Empire, take, for example, the seafaring and maritime industry. It is the second largest industry in the Kandrian Empire after the Martial sector. But what if the day comes when negatron matter becomes extremely ubiquitous? What if the day comes when wormholes are cheaper than ships?”