Chapter 174: Comic Sociology

But it was important not to forget that the Viridians were essentially plants, producers. Their lifestyle and environment, from ancient times to their present day, were completely different from those of humans.

Different living environments shape entirely different ways of thinking. The mindset of ancient times can easily carry over into the interstellar age. These historical imprints aren’t necessarily positive, and it takes the dedicated efforts of multiple generations to gradually erase them.

Human desires, like many other traits, are a remnant of primitive times. Some of these instincts actively hinder societal progress, but eliminating them is incredibly difficult since the vast majority of people are just ordinary folks, not saints.

The old saying that “harsh environments breed harsh people” isn’t without reason, and it applies just as much to the interstellar era.

The fewer resources a species has available for survival, the more selfish it becomes, the smaller the population it can sustain, and the more ruthless its methods of competing with rival groups.

Conversely, the more abundant the resources, the more selfless the species. They can maintain massive populations, and their methods of competition become far more peaceful and diverse.

The Viridians evolved from plants and could be described as easygoing and content. They didn’t place much importance on survival resources simply because they naturally produced what they needed.

Therefore, the concept of “private property” among the Viridians was easily eliminated.

Humans had never actually observed the Viridian social system firsthand; they could only speculate based on how different species behaved on Earth.

Plants, herbivores, omnivores, carnivores… because they adapted to different living environments, they evolved different types of intelligence and entirely different ideologies.

Carnivores possess the strongest territorial instincts and a rigid sense of hierarchy.

When a pack of wolves hunts down prey, the alpha eats first, followed by the oldest or former alpha, and so on. The wolves at the bottom of the hierarchy often go hungry. Such creatures place extraordinary importance on food and territory.

This led scholars to theorize that intelligent beings evolved from apex predators would be the least likely to ever accept an egalitarian, shared-resource society.

Herbivores have a much weaker sense of territory. Changes in the local flora often force them to migrate freely. They typically graze independently and are relatively docile; there are no strict rules about who gets to eat first.

Following this logic, intelligent beings evolved from herbivores would be far more likely to accept a communal system.

This field of study—Cosmic Sociology, was a brand new discipline proposed by Hazel and other leading cosmologists. It encompassed not only carbon-based lifeforms but also theoretical ideologies for silicon-based life and other exotic entities.

The discipline was still in its infancy. It could only be perfected once the Federation encountered enough alien civilizations to verify its specific theories one by one.

According to Cosmic Sociology, humans were omnivorous creatures with a predominantly herbivorous diet, meaning that, in theory, they could adapt to a communal system.

However, total public ownership was impossible for the time being. The civilization still retained elements of private property; individuals’ digital currency, housing, and personal belongings were legally protected, and that wasn’t going to change.

What currently gave Jason a headache was the concept of “distribution according to need.” The general public’s moral conduct was excellent, but he needed to teach them to distribute based on actual necessity, rather than just splitting everything equally.

If everything was just divided equally, it was no different from a strict military rationing system.

“Professor Sean, we still have a lot of public education to do here,” Jason said.

“Evan, you’ll be in charge of selecting the right personnel for the Department of Public Relations.”

Sean, Evan, and the rest of the Department of Public Relations were bracing for a long campaign. This kind of ideological shift couldn’t be achieved in a day or two; it required years of steady, cumulative effort.

There were no empty political slogans or lofty declarations. The department simply used the motto “One Big Family” to gently persuade the public to embrace the shared resource system.

Fifty thousand people needed to act like a warm, cohesive family, each taking what they needed and fulfilling their duties, using shared resources without hesitation or guilt, just like they had during the doomsday dinner years ago.

It was like a husband and wife cooking a pot of stew. If the portion was a little small, the wife might serve herself first. Seeing there wasn’t much, she would deliberately take less, leaving the rest for her husband. Even if neither was completely full, both would feel satisfied with the arrangement.

If they had a growing son, making it three people, they would cook a slightly larger pot. Recognizing the boy needed nourishment to grow, the parents would give him a larger portion and split the rest between themselves, ensuring no one went hungry. It was an intuitive, fair distribution that no one resented.

If you added a fourth person, you just cooked a bigger pot. To avoid conflict, the total amount of available food just had to increase.

For a family of four, finding a fair way to share was easy. By the same logic, as long as the total “pot” of resources was large enough, a massive family of fifty thousand people could find a reasonable way to distribute it without causing friction.

But putting this into practice was incredibly difficult, requiring a fundamental shift in human mindset and long-term, unspoken cooperation.

While the sociological initiatives were underway, kindergartens and other educational institutions began to follow suit. This educational overhaul had been in preparation for over six months; textbook revisions, teacher selection, and training were finally nearing completion.

The oldest children born were just getting ready to start kindergarten.

Children were the continuation of their civilization, and education played a critical role in their development.

Human knowledge and talent are not innate; even walking upright and speaking are not born instincts. They are the products of societal practice and education.

The period from birth to primary school is a critical window for a person’s physical and mental development. During this time, a child’s worldview and core values are formed, and once solidified, they are incredibly difficult to change.

In 1920, in the remote forests of Midnapore, locals often reported seeing strange creatures. At night, two human-like “monsters” walking on all fours were seen trailing behind a pack of wolves.

When hunters eventually killed the wolves and investigated the den, they found the two “monsters”—they were two feral, naked human girls.

These were textbook cases of “feral children.” Infants who lived with wolves for extended periods subconsciously identified as wolves, adopting their exact lifestyle. Even after being reintegrated into human society and receiving intense psychological therapy, it was nearly impossible for them to ever fully adapt to normal life.

This phenomenon proved the absolute plasticity of human infants. If a human baby was raised by animals, they became an animal.

If a human infant were given to the Viridians to raise, their ideology and lifestyle would perfectly mirror the Viridian Civilization. When that child grew up, they would use the alien “Honor Code” as their strict behavioral guide, viewing it as completely natural without any ideological friction.

Similarly, if an infant grew up in a perfectly egalitarian, harmonious society, they would naturally assume that this was how the universe was supposed to work that people should be equal and free, and that everyone should pursue their own ideals and goals.

Although human genetics inherently carried negative traits like selfishness and laziness, these primal desires could be heavily suppressed and modified by a structured society.

This was Jason’s true endgame: if the current generation couldn’t be entirely reformed, then they would reform the next generation, and the one after that, until the baseline moral quality of their civilization improved permanently.

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