Chapter 165: Telling Stories and Making Sense

Chapter 165: Telling Stories and Making Sense

Chapter 165: Telling Stories and Making Sense
“Everything in human society is done by humans. Religious beliefs, traditional culture, legal ethics, and even social structures are essentially run and set by humans. Therefore, as long as you learn the way of man, that is, master the underlying logic and operating rules of human society, you can understand all human social behaviors and nature.

According to the book, although we all seem to be the same human beings on the surface, we are fundamentally different due to differences in cognition.

Human cognition is divided into four levels: the foolish, the wise, the cunning, and the wise.

It can be roughly understood as: 1. Fools, 2. Intellectuals, 3. Speculators, and 4. Great wise men.

The logic of these four people in looking at things is completely different.

Fool - surface logic.

Intellectuals - real logic.

Speculators - realistic logic.

Great wisdom - underlying logic.

For example, let’s take belief in God.

The fool’s perception: If you believe in God, you can go to heaven, and if you don’t believe in God, you will go to hell, so I have to believe, and I have to donate all my money to the church, so that after I die I can go to heaven and enjoy it forever.

Intellectuals' cognition: Does God really exist? Why are there so many bugs in the doctrine? I think this belief is wrong, and I want to expose the truth.

The speculator’s cognition: Of course God does not exist, but since those fools believe in Him, I will pretend to believe in Him too. Oh, and I might as well sell indulgences in the name of God. I can make a lot of money this way, and there is no God who will punish me anyway.

What? Someone wants to reveal the truth that God doesn't exist? Then burn them for blasphemy.

The cognition of the wise man: I want people to abide by the rules I set, but no one listens to what I say. It is too much trouble to reason with these fools, so why not create a god, let's call him God. Tell them that these words are said by God, and then make up some stories, such as if you don't believe in God, you will go to hell, as long as you follow my rules, you can go to heaven and enjoy eternal happiness, etc...."

Xiao Jie couldn't help but be a little disapproving after hearing this, "Isn't it just feudal superstition? Why is it so complicated? And he is a wise man? That's it?"

Chen Tianwen shook his head and said, "No, no, no, you don't understand what I mean. God is just an example. It can be God, it can be Buddha, it can be universal values, it can be freedom and democracy, it can even be LGBT. All humanistic theories and traditional cultures that influence our thinking are included.

You don't believe in God because you have not been instilled with such an idea, but if you grew up in the Middle Ages, and everyone around you believed in God and instilled this idea in you every day, then you would naturally take it for granted.

All countries and all civilizations have something like this.

The West has belief in God, the East has Confucian filial piety, Indians have the caste system... Every civilization has its own traditional culture. These so-called traditional cultures all have one common characteristic, that is, they seem natural to people within the framework, but they seem absurd and unreasonable to people outside the framework.

When we look at belief in God and the caste system, we of course think that they are nonsense, but in the eyes of other civilizations, our Confucian filial piety is also nonsense.

Your recognition and understanding of these cultures also determines what kind of person you are.

To the fool – these traditions are sacred and must be observed.

In the eyes of intellectuals, these traditions are full of errors and loopholes, and even make no sense at all, and should be broken.

In the eyes of speculators - maintaining tradition is a tool for profit, and breaking tradition is also a tool for profit. The key to choosing to maintain or break is how to do it in your own benefit.

Only those with great wisdom can truly understand the significance of these traditions and whether they need to be maintained or broken. "

Xiao Jie was speechless and said, "But what's wrong with respecting your parents?"

Chen Tianwen shook his head and said, “There is a world of difference between filial piety and obedience.

The original version of filial piety is to bury one's son to serve one's mother, to lie on ice to catch carp, to have one's subject die if the king wants him to, to have one's son die if the father wants him to, and to observe mourning for three years after the parents die. No one can do this nowadays.

These behaviors of the ancients may seem foolish today, but in ancient times they were the truth and the social rules that everyone had to obey.

What we now call filial piety has been improved, and those contents that are not in line with the times have been eliminated, such as observing mourning for three years.

Whether it is ignorance or truth depends on the cultural indoctrination you have received and your level of cognition.

If you can understand the Tao and the underlying logic of human society, you can understand how all this happened and why so many inexplicable traditions emerged.”

Xiao Jie asked curiously, "Then why do you think there are so many different traditional cultures? Can you understand the underlying logic of human society?"

"I didn't understand it originally, but thanks to the Taoist scripture you gave me, I can now understand a little bit." Although he said this modestly, there was a sense of pride in it.

Xiao Jie said: "Tell me what the Tao is."

"Take these social traditions for example. Why is China Confucian filial piety, the West belief in God, and India caste system? The answer is actually very simple. It is a choice made by the ancient rulers according to their needs.

The ruler of China is the emperor, and the emperor naturally wants to be supreme, so he needs a kind of ideology to control people.

Qin Shi Huang chose the Legalist ideology and used laws to stipulate the emperor's supremacy, but obviously he failed.

So the Han Dynasty learned from experience and chose Confucianism, the so-called ruler is ruler, minister is minister, father is father, son is son, linking loyalty and filial piety together, and morally pushing the emperor to the supreme throne.

The emperor, of course, hopes that his position will not be threatened, so Confucianism is the best. Taoism's policy of inaction and Mohism's policy of universal love and non-aggression do not meet the emperor's requirements, so naturally they have no need to exist. Universal love and non-aggression sounds good, but how can an emperor accept being on the same level as ordinary people?

Why do Confucianists link loyalty and filial piety together? Because by advocating loyalty, one can gain the support of the king; by advocating filial piety, one can gain the support of those in power in the family.

With the support of these two, Confucianism will naturally be respected. It can be said that the success of Confucianism seems accidental, but in fact it is inevitable.

As long as a unified dynasty appears, Confucianism must become the dominant school of thought, because it is most in line with the interests of those in power. Confucius may have seen this clearly when he founded Confucianism. He was very clear about what kind of ruling school Confucianism would become in the future.

But in Europe, the situation changed. There was no unified dynasty or supreme emperor in Europe. Instead, there were a large number of kings and princes. These people were probably similar to the warlords in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and had no legitimacy or sacredness.

Therefore, the early rule of these kings was very unstable and their kingdoms were easily overthrown. They urgently needed an idea to endorse their sacredness and legitimacy.

So the Christian Church came into play. The so-called divine right of kings means that God gave power to kings, so the crowns of these kings added a certain sacredness. When the king ascended the throne, a coronation ceremony must be held, and the crowner is the church. This is the church endorsing the king's power in the name of God.

In this way, their rule will naturally be relatively stable.

In return, the king ceded some economic and social rights to the church.

For example, the tithe of the church. Why do you think the kings gave the power to collect taxes to the clergy? They didn't care about God, but the stability of their power.

The king and the church actually had a mutually cooperative transactional relationship, working together to suppress the resistance of the lower classes. The priests provided ideological prisons, and the king provided the basis for military force, and they used each other.

This situation changed in Eastern Europe, where there was an emperor, the Byzantine Empire. Although this emperor was not as powerful as the emperor in China, he was still more sacred than the kings, so they suppressed the church more. In order to adapt to this change in power structure, the Eastern Orthodox Church emerged. The biggest difference between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church is that the emperor's secular power is greater than the church's religious power.

To put it bluntly, it is about asking for a price from each other. The greater the power and the more capital, the more shares you will naturally own.

But when it came to India, the situation changed again. The ruler of India was not an emperor or a group of kings, but a nation - the Aryans. Naturally, the ideas they adopted would be different.

This culture must benefit the entire nation.

So a group of people compiled a collection of Brahmanism settings in order to maintain the rule of their own nation.

They believe in Brahmanism and the caste system not because they are ignorant, but precisely because they are smart and know how to safeguard the interests of their own race.

So you see, all the ancient traditional cultures and sacred religious traditions that our world observes today are essentially choices made by ancient rulers for their own interests. They are fabricated and deeply rooted in national civilization, and passed down from generation to generation.

To put it bluntly, it's just a tool.

But for those who are under the rule, they naturally have to be indoctrinated constantly, because most of the human beings are ignorant. If you are told to believe in God, you will believe in God; if you are told to believe in Buddha, you will believe in Buddha; if you are told to believe in filial piety, you will believe in filial piety.

Therefore, every civilized person is proud of his or her cultural traditions, but to put it bluntly, most of these people are fools, enslaved by the ideas instilled in them since childhood.

Intellectuals can see the problems, but they do not understand the true purpose of these traditions and are only futilely opposing these superficial cultural loopholes.

Speculators, on the other hand, don’t care about these traditional cultures at all. They either pretend to believe in them or simply use them to gain benefits for themselves.

Only those with true wisdom can understand the true meaning of these cultures and guide and drive them..."

Xiao Jie was stunned for a moment. Chen Tianwen's words were somewhat shocking, but they seemed to make sense. But suddenly, he thought of something and smiled, "No, I don't think so. Our Confucian filial piety is different."

"Hehe, tell me, what's the difference?"

Xiao Jie smiled slightly, "Filial piety is about reason. Regardless of whether this reason is perfect or has bugs, it is at least a reason.

The rest, whether it's the caste system or belief in God, are all just made-up stories, and that's the essential difference."

Chen Tianwen was stunned for a moment, and a thoughtful look appeared on his face.

Xiao Jie became more and more confident as he spoke.

“You are right about one thing. The so-called religion is essentially PUA for fools, just like the stories that parents make up for their children. Go to sleep quickly, or the big monkey will come to catch you.

Be a good child and Santa Claus will give you gifts.

All heavens and hells, all darkness and light, all gods are essentially a combination of the Monkey King and Santa Claus.

As children grow up and their cognition improves, they can no longer be fooled by giant monkeys or Santa Claus.

At this time, something more believable is needed. Heaven and hell are nothing more than a more beautifully packaged and detailed monkey and Santa Claus.

But the essence has not changed, it is still a made-up story, and as long as it is a made-up story, there will be flaws. People with strong enough thoughts and clear enough logic will see through it.

Only China's traditional thought - filial piety - is reasonable. This is the most essential difference. Because Chinese civilization is more mature and rational, the idea of ​​making up stories works in other civilizations, but it doesn't work in China. At least most people don't buy into it.

It was not until modern times that other civilizations began to learn to be reasonable, that is, capitalism, freedom, democracy, LGBT and other things.

Even some backward civilizations have not learned to reason until now, and are still using made-up stories to fool the common people.

This is the biggest difference between our Chinese civilization and other civilizations."

Chen Tianwen was a little stunned for a moment, and then suddenly burst into laughter.

"What a good story and moral. You are right. This is the underlying logic of human civilization. This is the Tao. So it seems that you have already realized it."

Xiao Jie also laughed. At this moment, he really felt like he had suddenly been enlightened.

"Yes, I have figured it out! The so-called underlying logic, the so-called way of man - that's it! That's it!" Xiao Jie said excitedly, his mind filled with a thousand thoughts in an instant. Countless mysteries and countless past events in human history became extremely clear in an instant, like reading the lines on the palm of your hand.

This is true for everything in human society, whether it is doing business, working in the government, studying, or writing stories. If you master this, you will naturally be able to be successful in everything.

Be it a story or a truth, they are just tools to be used. If you really believe them, you will fall into their trap and be caught in your own web.

The reason why Confucius created Confucianism was not because he really believed in it, but because he calculated that it would eventually become the only school of thought and the ruling ideology. Even if he did not create it, someone else would. So it would be better for him to come up with this theory first. It is just a tool.

Jesus knew very well that there was no God in the world. It was precisely because he was clear about this that he could call himself the savior without any scruples and act in the name of God. In fact, he was doing the same thing as Confucius, except that Confucius was talking about reason, while he was making up stories.

And in a sense, he is indeed the savior of the Jews. If the Jews believe in his identity as the savior, follow him, and promote the reformed faith to Europe together, then the Jews will become the controllers of the Vatican, the power base of Jesus, and become a European Brahmin-like existence.

Unfortunately, those priests were all opportunists. They knew very well that God did not exist and naturally would not believe in Jesus' identity as the savior. And Jesus had touched their interests, so naturally he had to be killed.

There are countless such people in human history. On the surface, they seem to be doing different things, but in fact they are doing the same thing.

They are all making up stories to convey morals.

The so-called human way is how to use and drive others to work for you.

Humans may seem alike, but in reality they are all completely different.

There is no need to reason with fools, because their cognition is too low and it is difficult to make them understand. Just make up a story. As long as the story is good, the fools will believe it and do what you want them to do.

Only intellectuals need to be reasoned with and told what is right and what is wrong. Only by distinguishing right from wrong can they be motivated to act. But reason, to put it bluntly, is just a tool. It's just that compared with stories, it is more sophisticated. The man has his own reasons and the woman has her own reasons. The key lies in the perspective from which you interpret it. So just use it and don't get obsessed with it.

For speculators, it is useless to make up stories or reason with them. Only real interests can convince them.

And the wisest person is the chess player.

Stories, principles, and interests are nothing more than tools.

As long as you master the method, you can drive and use the fools, intellectuals, and speculators to become a wise man, use these people to act for you and achieve your ultimate grand plan. This is the great way of human beings.

(End of this chapter)