Chapter 677 Subjectivity
Why?
Ling Xiao had never thought about this question.
But she had no idea and could not think further, so she continued to ask: "So... what conclusion did the senior have?"
She didn't care what the answer was. She just wanted to know Li Qi's thoughts and figure out Li Qi's charm through the combination of thoughts and actions.
Li Qi replied: "You said that everyone's distrust and oppression of each other is due to a fundamental incomprehension between people?"
"Hmm?" Ling Xiao was surprised.
Wait, think about it carefully, it seems to be the case.
People naturally don't trust each other. You don't know whether the other party is kind or malicious, and what the other party has planned for you, so naturally you will be on guard.
The reason for this distrust is that everyone cannot perceive each other's thoughts and cannot understand other people's thoughts.
"This is indeed... a very simple but easily overlooked idea, but it's useless, right? After all, you can't read the mind. Even if you read the mind, you can't be sure whether it is true or false. This inference seems to be nothing." Ling Xiao said after thinking.
Li Qi said: "No, how could it be meaningless? In fact, this is the basis of all inferences."
"On the one hand, there is inhuman coldness and heartless selfishness, and on the other hand, there is indescribable poverty, and all this is caused by this distrust."
"A few days ago, we went to observe the residences next to the urban mining area together. Did you see it?" Li Qi asked.
"I have been watching you, senior. It is difficult to draw you...so I only have you in my eyes." Ling Xiao said.
The implication is that she did not pay attention to what was going on over there.
"Over there is a residence that is not of grade. I counted it. There are a total of 14,000 houses, with at least 28,000 families living in them, a total of about 1.2 million people." Li Qi reported the data very clearly.
This surprised Ling Xiao very much.
She thought of her own expertise in painting.
If Ling Xiao is paying attention to Li Qi and wants to draw Li Qi's charm, then Li Qi is paying attention to everyone in this world and wants to draw the charm of this world.
Just this point, Ling Xiao became happy.
She understood this senior better, and was closer to mastering his charm.
Li Qi continued: "There are so many people, but the area is less than 80 square meters in total. This level of crowding leads to the fact that many families are often crowded together in the rooms. Several couples, all their children, sometimes add up to five or six or even ten, and sometimes even grandfathers, live in only one room, and next to them, there are large tracts of open space."
"Is there no place? Or is there no raw materials for building a house? No, neither. There are plenty of places, and building materials are also readily available. Even those immortals who are called hard laborers can easily let these mortals live a good life. The reason for this is that they are afraid."
"The immortal hard laborers are afraid that mortals will snatch their already unstable positions, and you are afraid that the hard laborers will climb up, and the Tongtian Realm are afraid that you will climb up."
"But is it really a reason to worry about competition from others? Is this world... really short of resources?" Li Qi asked.
This made Ling Xiao think for a while. After careful consideration, she chose to shake her head.
Yes, she knew that it didn't take much resources to make these people live well, and resources were never lacking.
She didn't know how many resources there were in this world, but it was definitely not enough.
Li Qi knew that this was a first-grade world. A group of ninth-grade or even lower-grade people consumed less than the natural breathing of heaven and earth.
"You see, the reason for all this is because of your fear of each other, and this fear is not caused by the problem of living space and resources." Li Qi said: "So, where does this fear itself come from? Does it come from the inability to understand each other? Have you ever thought about the nature of this mutual suspicion?"
This made Ling Xiao confused.
Mutual suspicion... and the essence?
Others may harm themselves, and it is natural to be on guard against others. Isn't this right?
"It may be a bit obscure to say this, so let me put it another way." Li Qi smiled: "Do you think that 'you' are defined by yourself or by others?"
"Of course it's me!" Ling Xiao answered immediately.
Just kidding, of course she defines herself, how could she let others define herself?
"Really?" Li Qi immediately asked back: "Don't be so sure."
Then, he continued: "Is it because other people watch you and interact with you that you are what you are now, or... no matter how the world changes, you will always be you?"
This question raised the depth of the conversation.
Indeed, can a person grow up without being influenced by others?
Obviously impossible.
If so, wouldn't people not be subjects?
From the beginning, we ourselves coexist with others. Simply put, I am part of the world, and the world is part of me. Moreover, there are other people in this world. I have been with others from the beginning. "Everyone" is inherently social.
Everyone is not a single individual. The essence of all people is a group of people, an undifferentiated, abstract, anonymous, and vague group of people.
This possibility made Ling Xiao suddenly break out in a cold sweat.
If this is the case, doesn't it mean...she doesn't have a real self? Because she is influenced by others all the time, and in the end, countless influences have made her who she is now.
She has never had real free will, she is influenced all the time, and the self is a social product, and the self is constructed by others.
Li Qi said, as if teaching or talking to himself: "So, you say, is this kind of resistance actually a kind of struggle? You are afraid of them, not because you are afraid that they will compete for your living space, because you all know, but you are fighting for subjectivity."
"As part of this group of vague people, you each want to expand your influence as much as possible, want to let the 'self' overwhelm the 'others', and finally occupy the 'others' self, and become the absolute leader in this group of people, so that you can present your true self, otherwise you will present the self of others."
"Look, is this kind of struggle for subjectivity among each individual in the group the root cause of all this?" Li Qi asked.
He seemed to be asking Ling Xiao, and also seemed to be asking himself.
In this situation assumed by Li Qi, others must exist and must be suppressed.
Others are hell, not because others have malicious intentions, but because the existence of others is suppressing their own subjectivity, so in order to maintain their own subjectivity, they need to reaffirm their own subjectivity and suppress the subjectivity of others.
Others are everywhere. Even if they don't actually meet you, even when you are alone, you and others are still fighting for subjectivity.
Therefore, oppressing and suppressing others has become a normal state. This is not to compete for living space and resources, but to ensure that one is always independent in this abstract and chaotic society.
Ling Xiao was fooled by Li Qi's words.
She even forgot that she came to observe Li Qi's charm and was shocked by Li Qi's thinking of trying to analyze the essence of society.
But Li Qi didn't wait for her to react. After asking these questions, he lowered his head again and fell into deep thought.
Obviously, Li Qi himself didn't have the answers to these questions.
He needed more clues, he needed to observe more of the actual situation of the fairyland and get more specific information before he could continue to infer.
After a long while, Ling Xiao raised her head.
Li Qi in front of her was still the same.
Silent, indifferent, ignoring everything around him, looking at everything around him seriously, with a pretentious attitude.
Before, Ling Xiao also thought that this person was pretending to be profound.
But now, after listening to the other party's remarks, she found that this person was really thinking about something that she could not understand at all, the root of society.
So, Li Qi's charm seemed to be more profound.
She quickly took out a pen and paper and drew a sketch.
It was a very crude sketch, and even the face and other things did not look like Li Qi.
But the contemplative temperament had three points of true meaning.
Ling Xiao took a look at the sketch she drew and simply tore up the paper.
Not enough, far from enough.
These three points of true meaning were not enough to describe the man in front of her. She needed to observe more deeply and experience the other party's actions and thoughts more carefully.
Thinking of this, she even looked forward to the next step with Li Qi.
Li Qi just said it casually, and did not expect the other party to really give an answer. Anyway, for him, keeping Ling Xiao was just to avoid some trouble.
Yes, if Ling Xiao is driven away, the local six-rank officials will probably be very uneasy. When they are uneasy, they will do some irrational things. At that time, Li Qi’s safety will not be a concern, but the social structure he wants to observe will be destroyed.
Is this kind of surveillance actually a competition for subjectivity? After all, if Li Qi takes the lead, they will probably lose their authority in this city.
Yes, in the situation constructed by Li Qi, authority and reputation are the main forms of subjectivity. When your words and will are implemented by others, this subjectivity is fully demonstrated, the subjectivity of others is erased, their personality is suppressed, and everyone is forced to implement the subjectivity of the authority and implement his will.
When you need others to define you, you no longer have subjectivity.
You need other people’s evaluation to define yourself, otherwise you don’t know what you are like.
This is very simple and common. For example, a typical self-cognition: I am a man, and my job is an engineer.
So, for this "I", men and engineers are his own definitions of himself, descriptions of himself, and labels for himself.
However, aren’t these labels formed by ourselves in our interactions with others and from the feedback of others?
If a person lives alone and does not come into contact with any external things, can he still form this kind of self-cognition?
So, doesn’t this prove that all self-evaluations are actually obtained from others’ gazes on ‘me’, judgments on ‘me’, and descriptions of ‘me’.
Therefore, there is no real 'self', only 'self-subjectivity' in which all people are constantly influencing each other and constantly fighting with other people.
Others will fight for subjectivity with ‘me’, and others will objectify ‘me’ and label ‘me’.
For 'me', this is unacceptable. I am the subject, why should I be objectified by others?
However, when faced with authority, ‘I’ may surrender in this struggle for subjectivity.
‘I’ think that his label on me is... quite right?
I seem to be really a man, I seem to be really an alchemist. They all say that I am an alchemist, so there is nothing wrong with me being an alchemist? Then I just lay in the label that others had woven for ‘me’, and I felt very comfortable. I did what a man should do, what an alchemist should do, and I could be a man and an alchemist with peace of mind.
This is the outcome after the struggle of subjectivity fails, that is: ‘the self is defined by others’, ‘finding one’s own position by following the evaluation and definition of others’.
The end result after victory in the struggle is naturally to be able to define others and occupy a dominant position in the group. You can say: "These people are actually just lazy" and "What are the characteristics of certain groups".
The characteristic of victory is that the qualities he mentioned will be accepted by others, and even become the self-perception of a certain group, and the losers will naturally accept these perceptions.
Some people may not have won, but they can still make this kind of evaluation, because in this way they can pretend that they have won the subjectivity war, and have the pleasure of pointing out the country, but no one listens to them.
This authority to define others is the victory of the individual within the group.
In order to maintain such authority, power, fame, wealth, and so on are needed.
The purpose of these things is to define others conveniently and easily.
In this way, the vague "group of people" in the group differentiates at this moment, and the individuals in the group are defined at this moment.
Therefore, maintaining the existence of the bottom is to maintain the existence of one's own subjectivity, that is, to maintain one's absolute status.
Li Qi observed the work of the miners and thought about this.
A few more days passed and he stood up.
Then, he said to Lingxiao: "Okay, now that we've seen the lower level, it's time to check out your place. I want to hold a banquet. Could you please send me an invitation?"