Book review of "Legend of the Galactic Heroes" written before.
In terms of the complexity of political life, there is no work in popular literature that describes it in more detail and contradiction than "Legend of the Galactic Heroes". The heroes depicted in this novel have their own comments on right and wrong, but what I am more concerned about is: what role did the tens of trillions of people in the galaxy, who serve as the background, play in history?
In the era envisioned by the work, civic spirit has already declined. The question here is: what is civic spirit? How is it generated? And how can it decline?
As common knowledge, I don't need to analyze it in too much detail here. In short, civic spirit is the awareness of the rights and responsibilities of citizens to participate in political life, as well as the corresponding recognition of legitimate procedures. Civic spirit originated from the democratic politics of the ancient Greek city-state, combined with the protection of private rights under Roman law, the individual equality consciousness of Stoicism and Christianity, the struggle of cities and nobles to maintain autonomy, the awakening of individual spirit during the Enlightenment movement, and the victories in the struggles against imperial power and religious authority, forming a citizen state based on national identity. The paths formed by France, Britain, and the United States are different, and cannot be detailed here.
Civic spirit is a strange compound. On the one hand, it requires citizens to have a sense of political responsibility and equal rights, and to maintain an active spirit of participating in political life. On the other hand, it requires citizens to follow appropriate procedures and respect the authority of the government they have chosen. This balance is difficult to maintain. Even in countries where a tradition of civic spirit has already formed, there are times when there is a lack of interest in politics and the government does as it pleases, times when street movements distrust legitimate political procedures, and times when legitimate political channels fail. In times of crisis such as war, people are easily prone to permanently losing their rights. Various democratic crises have occurred multiple times in history, and will inevitably occur again in the future. There is no optimistic expectation of inevitability in the future.
There are two famous descriptions of the loss of civic spirit. One is described in works like "Brave New World" and "Amusing Ourselves to Death", where the masses remain in shallow sensory pleasures and lose interest in political life. The other is described in "1984", where in totalitarian politics, the Leviathan controls everything and the people lose their ability to act and think. Both to a certain extent correspond to reality. Long periods of peace will face a crisis of democracy, and times of war and turmoil will also face a crisis of democracy. Democracy is not a one-time permanent system, but requires the efforts of each generation. The corrupt democratic system depicted in "Legend of the Galactic Heroes" may become a reality, such as in the case of the United Kingdom, where the two parties have become a parliamentary performance, and the United States has elected someone like Trump who undermines the system.
Once democracy declines, rebuilding it is not something that can be done by a few generations. It is likely to be a long night ahead. Because the cultivation of civic spirit requires a suitable environment. When civic spirit declines, people forget the dignity of citizens, and perhaps they feel more comfortable being slaves because they have shed their responsibilities. In such a dilemma, the awakening minority can only be helpless.
Politics is a practical way of life, not an idealized spirit. Therefore, although Yang Wenli is willing to sacrifice his life for the ideal of democratic spirit, he has also sacrificed countless lives in the process. But the victory of democracy over authoritarianism is not a simple fairy tale of justice triumphing over evil. Therefore, his contradiction between rigid adherence to democratic procedures and extreme freedom of spirit, his praise for Reinhard's actions but saying "nothing destroys democratic rule more than enlightened monarchic rule", all indicate that he does not care about victory in this life, but only seeks to maintain a spark of democracy, a symbolic spirit. This forms a kind of irony, where a system that requires equality for all needs a person to become an idol in order to survive in spirit.
Although the author describes a large number of famous and distinctive heroic characters, their number is far less than the silent billions of people who serve as the background. Why does this strange contradiction exist? Because it is the minority who drive history. Tens of trillions of people form the curtain of darkness, and in the galaxy that serves as the background of the novel, it is extremely difficult to promote the awakening of civic spirit for each individual. No matter how dark the night is, it cannot be compared to blindness. It would be best if Reinhard and his successors could realize that this system is not sustainable and gradually make institutional changes. If this is not possible, as awakened individuals and inheritors of Yang Wenli, they should defend the value of individual life, independence, bravery, justice, tolerance, compassion... Unfortunately, as dissatisfied individuals with the old system, some people are filled with hatred towards the old system, but do not know how to establish a new system; some people fall into refined selfishness and skepticism, or believe that there must be some spontaneous order that will save them. The road ahead is long, with no light in sight. Perhaps, like Asimov's Foundation, it will take thousands of years. In this long night, it requires generations of Yuliens to keep the flame alive. (The population of the galaxy is more than tens of trillions, not calculated when writing.)