hsntnovel Chapter 75 Contemplation
Chapter 75 Contemplation
Just as the meteorological department at the Jiangcheng Shelter predicted, after a brief and not exactly sunny day, the sky turned overcast again.
Fine, continuous rain fell gently, pattering on the ruins and the water's surface. This rainfall seemed much "gentler," but it still carried a considerable, accumulating force.
Xu Mo stood in front of a broken window on the third floor, looking at the continuous rain and the murky water surface rippling with countless waves. He couldn't help but feel a sense of emotion: "Science, no matter what era, is the primary productive force."
If the Jiangcheng shelter hadn't retained a considerable level of scientific research and technical capabilities, enabling it to monitor and predict weather, hydrology, and geology, and issue early warnings, countless more survivors would have perished unknowingly in this natural disaster. Even he benefited from this, making preparations in advance to deal with the flood.
In my ears, the radio still carried the steady yet urgent voice of the Jiangcheng broadcaster, repeatedly emphasizing precautions against secondary disasters and reminding survivors to be vigilant against rising water levels, landslides, and the potential risk of disease outbreaks from the floods.
This involuntarily reminded Xu Mo of the heated argument on the radio—the survivor gathering place called "Falling Star Valley." He wondered if, after that near-desperate outburst, they had ultimately heeded the advice and moved to higher ground in time.
"Jiangcheng issued warnings time and again, so why did a group of survivors with several hundred people ignore them until they were in dire straits before they thought to cry for help and make accusations?" This question once again surfaced in Xu Mo's mind. This time, he did not simply attribute it to the stupidity or stubbornness of the leaders, but tried to analyze it from a more macro and profound perspective.
Xu Mo recalled some sociological knowledge he had learned before his transmigration: the apocalypse was not just about the collapse of the physical environment, but also about the complete disintegration and reconstruction of the old social order, morality, ethics, and value system.
First, there is the collapse of the information trust system. In the old days, information released by the government, especially disaster warnings, had extremely high credibility. But in the apocalypse, with order broken down, former authority is being questioned.
Many survivors may have personally experienced the chaos of the early stages of the collapse of order and witnessed the powerlessness or even inaction of certain forces, which naturally makes them somewhat skeptical of information from large shelters.
Conversely, they might place more trust in the leaders of their own small groups or rely more on direct experience and judgment. The leaders of Falling Star Valley may have exploited this mentality, or perhaps they themselves harbored this skepticism, thus selectively ignoring the warnings from Jiangcheng Sanctuary.
Secondly, there are "sunk costs" and path dependence.
Establishing a settlement of several hundred people is no easy task. It requires clearing the area, building defenses, distributing supplies, and maintaining basic order, all of which require a tremendous amount of effort and resources. Once the decision is made to abandon the base and migrate, it means that all previous investments will be in vain, and one will have to face unknown and potentially more deadly dangers during the migration, such as zombies, mutated beasts, attacks from other survivor groups, hunger, and disease.
This "sunk cost" can create a sense of wishful thinking, making people tend to believe that "the situation may not be so bad," "the flood may not reach here," or "if we just hold on a little longer, it may pass," thus delaying the difficult decision to relocate.
Furthermore, there is the solidification of power and the blocking of information. In a secluded community of survivors, leaders often wield absolute power.
To maintain their power and status, they may intentionally or unintentionally shield or downplay unfavorable external information, creating an image of "it's safe here" and "I can protect everyone." Survivors at the bottom have limited access to information and are easily manipulated and controlled. Even if some individuals are aware of the danger, they may remain silent due to their lack of power or fear of punishment.
Finally, we must discuss the distorted values in a post-apocalyptic environment. In an environment where survival pressures override everything, short-term survival interests may outweigh long-term risks. Migration means instability and resource depletion, while staying in one place seems "stable," at least in the immediate future. This excessive pursuit of "immediate stability" blinds one to the long-term crisis.
After much thought, Xu Mo felt that the root of Falling Star Valley's problems lay in the drastic and still-unsettled changes that occurred in humanity's morality, values, and worldview under the backdrop of the apocalypse, which propelled the social structure towards a more closed, more individual-led, and more fragile direction.
This reminded Xu Mo of a philosophical question he had discussed with a friend before his transmigration: "Is the current state of 'moral decay and social disorder' in modern society a sign of progress or regression?"
At the time, Xu Mo's answer was: From a long-term historical perspective, this is more like a growing pain in the process of "progress"; or, in other words, it is an inevitable adjustment of the social ethical system as it adapts to the new environment.
Xu Mo's reasoning is that society is dynamically developing, technology is advancing, information dissemination methods are changing, and people's ideas and the amount of information they receive are far beyond what was possible in previous eras.
A moral and ethical system built upon the old economic foundation and information environment is inevitably unable to fully adapt to the new social reality. Therefore, the apparent "collapse" of old norms is actually a process in which new ethical norms, more adapted to modern society, are being conceived and formed. This process is usually slow, controversial, and iterative.
So why do many people intuitively feel that it is a "collapse of etiquette and music"?
This is naturally due to the different frames of reference. People often compare the present with a potentially idealized past in their memories, or with some idealized, static template of a "golden age," thus concluding that "the world is going downhill." However, they ignore the complexity of history itself and the darkness and injustice that also existed in past societies.
Then there's the amplified effect of information dissemination. Under the spotlight of modern media, especially the internet, any event that violates traditional morality will be rapidly spread and amplified, creating the illusion that "such events are everywhere and escalating." Meanwhile, many well-behaved and compliant behaviors in daily life, because they are "ordinary" and lack news value, are rarely widely reported and thus "silenced" in the public sphere.
This is an inevitable growing pain and period of confusion during the transition period. Old norms have been broken, and new norms have not yet been established. In this transitional period, people often feel lost and confused. The diversification of values can sometimes manifest as chaos, and some extreme and negative phenomena are more likely to stand out, triggering widespread unease and criticism.
Finally, capital and traffic have eroded morality. In a market economy, some capital and media may deliberately create and promote content that challenges traditional moral bottom lines in order to gain traffic in pursuit of profits. This has objectively accelerated the loosening of traditional moral order and even guided distorted values to some extent.
Connecting his pre-transmigration thoughts with the post-apocalyptic reality before him, Xu Mo seemed to be witnessing a social evolution experiment accelerated countless times.
In peacetime, the "collapse of rites and music" is merely a conflict of ideas and a deviation from certain behaviors. However, in the end times, this "collapse" is bloody and directly related to survival.
Existing laws and morals appear utterly powerless in the face of survival instincts and the struggle for resources. Falling Star Valley is precisely the result of flawed value judgments and a dysfunctional social structure under such extreme circumstances.
"So, what's important is not lamenting the collapse of morality and social order, but finding the most basic consensus and rules that can sustain human civilization amidst change." Xu Mo looked at the rain outside the window and thought to himself, "For example, respect for objective laws, attention to early warning information, and maintaining the most basic spirit of cooperation and mutual assistance in times of crisis."
What Jiangcheng Shelter was trying to establish and maintain was perhaps this kind of basic order. But the leaders of Falling Star Valley chose isolation, suspicion, and stubbornness, ultimately leading the entire group into danger.
The rain is still falling.
On the radio, Jiangcheng's broadcasts continued, conveying messages of order and reason. But the Falling Star Valley channel, since yesterday's heated argument, had fallen into complete silence.
That silence was more somber than any accusation.
Xu Mo withdrew his gaze, no longer speculating about the ending in the distance.