MTLNOVEL Chapter 174: Tilan Gets Serious
At night, on the chilly streets, Tilan walked down the avenue.
After leaving the opulent banquet held by the conglomerates, she was supposed to take a hover car directly back to her residence, but midway, she changed her mind, telling others to stay far away while she took a solitary walk on the street.
As a city in the Central Star Domain, the night scenery here was quite beautiful. Many shops lined the street, appearing especially clean and tidy from the outside, with occasional customers coming and going.
However, as Tilan looked at the scene, she always felt something was missing. She strolled down the street, pondering the words she had heard today.
'For thirty years, until the great building tilts.'
Economically speaking, this was indeed the most prosperous area of the Federation, yet it lacked much of life's essence. Precisely because it was expensive, it rejected countless citizens who wanted to settle here. At least during her years of studying in the Central Star Domain, the streets were always filled with young people and adults in their prime, with few children or elderly around.
Regarding the laments from the conglomerate groups, Tilan knew they weren't lying; there were indeed parts of sorrow and lamentation. But from another perspective, human desires are difficult to satisfy. Even those at the top of society still felt their lives were inadequate, filled with worry and anxiety.
When could a world be established where the vast majority of people could feel secure and stable, without daily anxieties and worries?
Standing amidst the towering buildings, where countless people ceaselessly rushed about under neon lights of the night, she gradually halted her steps, looking up at the dim starry sky obscured by light pollution.
Fulfilling one person's wishes is easy, but to fulfill the wishes of 90% of the world's people is almost impossible.
Everyone struggles bitterly in this whirlpool of fame and fortune. If you tell them not to compete, they will respond in voices full of resentment and indignation: "Why should I yield? I, too, want a good life. Is that not allowed?"
Indeed, everyone wishes to reach the best, one step at a time, ascending to the endless sky, until they are shattered to pieces.
In the past, Tilan had no good answer to this question. Though she felt the current Federation was inadequate, she did not express strong opposition.
But today, she suddenly thought of another non-answer. Could it be that an overly competitive environment and a poverty of spiritual conditions have led to the current situation?
Material abundance does not equate to spiritual abundance. When material needs are scarce, people strive to survive. At such times, as long as there is food to eat and a warm, rainproof house to live in, one can be happy and joyful. But when material abundance suddenly arrives, all previously desired things are attained. Without a firm direction, one easily becomes confused and thus follows public opinion blindly into the realm of consumer comparison.
It's like you can find happiness through various means, such as walking, sightseeing, playing with bugs, pushing sand, petting animals up close, doing crafts, drawing, or listening to music. All can make one feel relaxed and fulfilled. But the direction of public opinion is different. They inevitably steer you into high-consumption areas for profit because these areas generate money, giving them more resources to create such momentum and atmosphere, leading to gradual indoctrination and taming of the people.
The final result is that, clearly, a boundless track hundreds of kilometers wide exists, yet everyone squeezes into an extremely narrow grid, racing along the artificially drawn line, jostling and trampling over each other. If you escape this track, you, in turn, become subject to ridicule and collective bullying by those people.
Even though the shackles of material constraints have been shed, greater spiritual oppression has emerged. This mental oppression permeates every corner of life, seeping in through the information network. To resist it requires great effort, leaving one exhausted.
More frightening is that when this spiritual indoctrination becomes more widely accepted, it truly gains the ability to affect the material world, like being able to make money, rewarding the other's actions materially, thus making it easier for them to attack others using this advantage.
Personal values are negated, hobbies are mocked. In the real world, one cannot physically counteract these attacks penetrating through information networks, leading to the rise of anxiety, repression, and distortion. New marketing channels are thus discovered through these emotions, triggering yet another 'big performance.' Ultimately, the operators and leaders gain benefits, leaving only the exhausted, used-up ordinary people, mentally and physically reduced to residue.
Unlike the traditional world, the new era's media information has really begun to intervene in every aspect of life. They are not weak or powerless but have truly subtly influenced the world, and as material wealth grows, their roles diminish, while the value of spiritual satisfaction and joy increase.
Psychologically speaking, once a person escapes the anxiety of survival, they inevitably begin to seek dignity and spiritual fulfillment.
How to achieve spiritual fulfillment? In the past, it was through religion, ritual, and customs that spiritual satisfaction and accomplishment were attained. After traditional concepts were broken, this position was replaced by the nests of comparison and consumerism, hence the idea of not laughing at poverty but at prostitution arose.
But whether it is comparison, consumption, or profit-seeking ideologies, they are ultimately fragile. They can only ever be the decoration upon a finished structure. Once faced with the test of iron and fire, these frameworks built up often collapse first. When someone stands before you, gun in hand and face covered in blood, can you use money or your fancy clothes to make them submit? They won't listen to such things because with a single shot, they can take everything you own.