Fang Yun glanced at the pairs of curious eyes and continued speaking.
"In fact, different ethnic groups, different cultures, and different civilizations have different moral concepts. Some ethnic groups have extremely low moral standards, or even no morals at all, such as the monsters. Some ethnic groups have relatively average moral standards, such as some barbaric humans. However, the moral standards of the human race in our Shengyuan Continent are relatively high."
"A high moral standard can make the ethnic group more stable internally and less aggressive externally, because this ethnic group is more virtuous and prefers to treat foreigners with gentleness rather than fierce means. Only when it is absolutely necessary will it use fierce force. This is the principle of using courtesy before force."
"However, ethnic groups with low moral standards have strong aggressiveness from the moment they are born. Such ethnic groups have one thing in common, that is, a considerable number of people engage in activities such as robbery, killing, and plundering. For example, the barbarians are all robbers. On the other hand, except for a few cases, we restrict soldiers from robbing and plundering. This is a very interesting phenomenon."
"We simply call these two groups the kind group and the bandit group."
"The human race is currently a kind race that has developed to a very high level. There are some concepts in our laws that are native to our race, and many criminal laws are actually retaliatory laws. Why do most of us humans prefer severe punishments for severe crimes and are unwilling to abolish the death penalty? The reason is what I said before. First, we all have selfish desires, and second, our human race has a high moral level. Our laws tend to 'protect victims.' Why do we tend to protect victims in a selfish way? Because we think we will not commit crimes, so we don't care about criminals, and we can punish crimes to the maximum extent without mercy, curb criminals, and prevent them from committing crimes."
"When we humans see a heinous criminal being sentenced to death, we feel genuine joy because we think there is one less person who might harm us. If we see a heinous criminal being given a light sentence or even being let go, we will be particularly angry because we worry that the criminal or someone like him will harm us."
"This hatred for cruel criminals has been passed down through generations of blood and culture, and has continuously influenced us, and has even become an instinct for kind people. I know that some people think that this will not become an instinct. I gave some suggestions to the Medical Palace a long time ago to study all aspects of the human race. One of the studies was very interesting. Among the animals that our race hates the most, snakes rank first."
"I was very surprised at first. In fact, many of the people we surveyed grew up in cities, and quite a few of them were very familiar with snakes. They had never been attacked by snakes, or even seen snakes. Their knowledge of snakes was limited to books and pictures. Moreover, the number of modern humans killed by snake venom is even less than that killed by mad horses and cows, and the number of people killed by hippos is far more than that of snakes. Obviously, this is not an acquired experience, but may be a shared instinct."
"When our human ancestors were born, it was impossible for them to naturally develop an instinct to specifically target snakes. Our ancestors should only be afraid of things that can hurt us, not specific things. So why do we humans hate snakes so much now?"
"If we go back to primitive society and regard ourselves as primitive people, what would our living environment be like? There might be dense forests or grasslands. In short, there would not be large, safe areas like cities around us, and we would be in a very complex environment. We would have to pick wild fruits in the bushes and hunt animals in dense woods or grasslands. We would encounter many aggressive animals, such as tigers, snakes, mosquitoes, hippos, elephants, poisonous insects, wolves, and so on."
"So, if we were primitive people, what animal would we be most afraid of? We would use the process of elimination and eliminate them one by one."
"Are we more afraid of animals that cause more harm, or animals that cause less harm? Well, mosquitoes and flies are ruled out."
"Are we more afraid of carnivores or herbivores? Obviously, elephants are excluded, and hippos are omnivores, but they mainly feed on grass. They will only eat meat when grass is scarce. So we will exclude them too."
"Are we more afraid of big, easy-to-see animals, or are we more afraid of animals that are not easy to see? Then lions, tigers and wolves are out as well."
"Are we more afraid of the easy ones or the difficult ones? Venomous insects are obviously very scary, but we only need a straw sandal to kill them and they will be eliminated."
"In the end, what do we have left? Yes, snakes. Snakes are poisonous and harmful, they eat meat, they are not easy to be found, and they are not easy to deal with without tools. They almost combine all the elements that threaten humans. This is the root of our ancestors' fear of snakes."
"This fear of snakes has been passed down from generation to generation. Therefore, even though the human race today has not personally experienced the danger of snakes, they still hate snakes the most."
"That's what I mean. What we inherited from our ancestors is not only the appearance, but also some instincts. Fear of snakes is just one of them."
"Our ancestors were relatively kind and had relatively high moral standards. We inherited this instinct, so we humans instinctively want to severely punish criminals, and we want to protect or compensate victims as much as possible."
“So, the good people will make just laws.”
"After thinking this through, let's think about it again. What about the evil tribes?"
“In my Political History, I listed many ethnic groups or countries, and two types of countries were particularly prominent.”
"The first type of country is what we call a bandit tribe. They are called Vikings. Their ancestors were a group of pirates who made a living by plundering. The natural environment they lived in was relatively harsh. In order to survive, they would not and could not have a high moral standard. However, when the Vikings completed primitive accumulation through bloody means and gained powerful strength, their lives became rich. They found that they could survive without selling slaves, robbing merchant ships, extorting money, etc. Therefore, in order to maintain the stability of the tribe, they must formulate laws and must stop the previous banditry."
"The second type of country is a branch of the bandit tribe. We call them exiles. These people committed various crimes and were exiled to Oshu by their ancestors. Then, in order to occupy Oshu, they united with their own people and carried out an inhumane massacre of the indigenous people of Oshu, and finally gained control of this big island. Like the Vikings, after completing their bloody primitive accumulation, they also had to maintain the stability of the tribe, formulate laws, and inevitably prohibit brutal means."