Chapter 2776 - Lifer Factions (1/2)
Every state was rife with division. As long as humans were individuals, they always found ways to disagree with each other.
A dispute could revolve around something as trivial as the color of a uniform to something much more influential such as the prohibition against arming warsh.i.p.s!
No single human completely agreed with the stances of another human. It was impossible.
Billions and trillions of humans existed in a typical state. How could all of their relationsh.i.p.s possibly remain stable with each other when every single one of them represented a source of instability?
The reason why many societies hadn’t fallen apart was because a lot of rulers and governments had become quite good at manipulating their own people.
Nationalism, education and scapegoating were only a handful of the tools that officials used to unite different people and prevent them from clashing against each other.
Yet what happened if the people in charge disagreed with each other as well?
After all, the people at the top were no different when it came to disagreeing with each other.
In fact, their disputes were much more consequential and damaging due to the immense power and influence they possessed!
This was why political disputes were so troublesome and dangerous to people like Ves. The bystanders and people at the bottom could easily get entangled by a feud between two powerful factions that were willing to go through any means to advance their cause.
As someone who suffered quite a few times from political disagreements, Ves instantly became wary.
”Give me a rundown on the local politics according to your understanding.” He commented. ”Who do we need to watch out for? Who are the crazies who have already resorted to extremes in the past?”
Gavin expected to hear this question. He already prepared a small presentation. He waved his hand, causing a small diagram to pop up that showed some of the most influential factions in the LRA.
”The LRA is a technocracy in theory. This means that the person at the top should be the smartest and most respected scholar in the state. The issue with that is that the current Supreme Sage has always been in charge from the beginning. He’s a four-hundred year old fossil who doesn’t bother with any governance at all and usually engaged in extremely secretive high-level research.
Ves understood the feeling. At a certain point, being in charge was an annoyance. If not for the fact that giving up all of that authority opened up the possibility of betrayal, holding on to it was a necessary evil in order to ensure that resources kept flowing in without interruption.
”I take it the Supreme Sage is part of the conversative faction.” Ves guessed.
”You got it, boss. Due to the immense prestige of the highest leader of the LRA, the conservative faction has always been dominant. It’s just that different people who formed different thoughts emerged over the course of the LRA’s history. I’ve already mentioned the radicals. They are the second-most influential faction. They are mainly united by their d.e.s.i.r.e to overturn the cautious, restrained policies set by the conservatives and take on a more aggressive approach to promoting biotechnology.”
Ves grimaced. ”These folk are the ones who benefit the most if I am able to defeat Dr. Navarro in a design duel, right?”
”That’s correct.” Gavin slowed. ”In fact, we have already begun to receive messages that likely come from this faction. The individuals who contacted us have all offered to support you in various ways.”
”I don’t want or need their help. If there is one thing that I have learned, it’s that sticking our noses in a local dispute rarely benefits us in the end. We will only inherit the enemies of the people we get in bed with and increase the risk of getting screwed.”
”We are aware of that. We have always taken great care to project ourselves as neutral visitors who are merely merely interested in conducting transactions. It’s just that where there is a will, there is a way. As long as involving us benefits someone, it’s hard for us to avoid getting entangled. The best way is to project enough strength to deter improper actions, but we aren’t at that point yet. Our might is quite impressive when compared to other individual organizations, but in the face of factions that united hundreds if not thousands of different power players together, we are still small fry. Maybe the only consolation is that factions are usually rife with division as well.”
”Tell me about the other factions in the LRA. I doubt that this state is as orderly as it seems. Scientists and researchers all look calm and collected on the surface, but when it comes to their research interests, they can be quite fanatical about pushing their own views.”
Ves knew this quite well since he was one of them! Academics and engineers were supposed to view reality from an objective standpoint, but the reality was that no one was able to agree what objective reality was supposed to look like. This meant that even the skinniest nerds could turn into hulking barbarians when someone questioned their opinions!
Since the LRA was basically ruled by thousands of biotech experts, that meant that it was actually being run by lots of nerds who constantly tried to push their subjective truths against each other!
”The third-largest faction in the LRA are the combinants.”
Ves raised his eyebrow at the odd name. ”Combinants?”
”They’re basically a bunch of tech enthusiasts who want to embrace both biotechnology and classical technology.” Gavin elaborated. ”Before you ask, they do have something in common with the radicals. The combinants broke off from the original opposition group because they wanted to go much further. For example, they’re usually called cyborgs because they want to augment every Lifer with a combination of electronic and biological implants.”