Extreme Cold Era: Shelter Don't Keep Waste-Chapter 515 - 485: The Banquet
After serious contemplation, Perfikot felt that everything she was doing was very meaningful.
She had the ability to help these people, so why should she stand by and watch? These people would indeed die when the doomsday winter arrived, but if she extended a helping hand, they could survive.
Faced with such a choice, Perfikot believed she couldn’t just watch others die.
So in response to Kallen’s answer, Perfikot just smiled softly: "Yes, I’ve saved many lives, and that makes it all meaningful! Letting me stand by and watch them die? Sorry, I can’t do that."
"Why do you have such a strange idea? Did someone say something to you?" Kallen asked curiously, because in her eyes, Perfikot was always a person with a strong sense of self, and she shouldn’t be wavering at a time like this.
Perfikot shook her head slightly and explained helplessly: "Some people think I just need to take care of the Northern Territory; neither the Empire nor the New Continent has anything to do with the life and death of the Northern Territory. On the contrary, they have become a ’burden’ to me, and I should abandon these unnecessary things.
They even think that you and your Revolutionary Army are a riot, and I should decisively use the Thermobaric Bomb to wipe out the Revolutionary Army from the map.
If only one or two people were saying this, I wouldn’t hesitate, but the problem is, I’ve met quite a few people who say this. They think I shouldn’t be saving those ’worthless people’ and shouldn’t interfere with building the Northern Territory or resisting the doomsday disaster."
"People like this... must all be so-called elites and nobles, right? It sounds like a very selfish statement!" Kallen hesitated for a moment before choosing a less aggressive word.
"Yes, being able to talk to me is obviously not something ordinary people can do, right?" Perfikot certainly wouldn’t really believe these people’s words, but hearing it often enough still left some impression: "These statements seem reasonable at first glance, but once you think about it, you can see the extremely selfish core behind it.
They urge me to abandon those ordinary people because they don’t consider themselves ordinary and don’t think they’ll be the ones to be abandoned.
But if those who are abandoned turned out to be them, they would immediately protest, demanding why I’m not saving them.
Ultimately, the reason people say such things is simply out of selfishness."
"But this kind of selfish statement is the most authentic reaction of the human heart, the most direct manifestation of a person’s inner desires." Kallen seemed to resonate with this, then remarked: "When you asked me to lead the workers’ movement to start a revolution, some people also asked why initiate war and turmoil. They seemed to think that the Workers’ Federation would be content once better conditions were negotiated with those factory owners and capitalists.
Some even went as far as being bought off by those factory owners, believing they could become managers, lording over ordinary workers...
They failed to see that more people were being exploited and oppressed. It was those still resisting who posed a threat to the capitalists, which is why they were willing to offer favorable conditions and treatment, going so far as to buy off those so-called ’opinion representatives.’
When the capitalists achieve their goals and no one stands up to resist, they will be like pigs raised for slaughter, waiting to be butchered."
In such situations, Perfikot didn’t even need to guess what was happening—it was simply someone unable to resist temptation and wavering.
Even this rhetoric could be considered simple and brutal; if Perfikot were the one handling it, she might even use words such as ’Now, facing the doomsday crisis, this is the time to lay down disagreements and unite against the apocalyptic disaster, rather than despise a revolutionary uprising and destroy the already fragile peace’ to persuade Kallen.
Knowing Kallen well, Perfikot understood she could genuinely see through such rhetoric.
After all, it was a fact that when disaster was imminent, they really should unite to face it.
Yet merely asking the working class to relinquish resistance and focus on unity, without mentioning what the bourgeoisie and aristocracy should do, remains double-standard and selfish.
However, this rhetoric is not as hard to accept and offers a so-called greater good as justification.
Perfikot dared to say that if someone truly presented such rhetoric or viewpoint, they would quickly gain a large following and support because it positioned itself on the moral high ground.
But compelling others through morality and righteousness, which presents as dignified, is in reality a means to exploit and compel others to comply with one’s will—this is truly shameless.
In comparison, even capitalists could be seen as kindly since at least their daggers are clearly out in the open.
"Those capitalists won’t wait kindly for you to completely lose the ability to resist before they start the slaughter. In fact, when you give up resistance, or when some people give up resistance to the extent that the cost for the capitalists to suppress you is acceptable, they will carry out a thorough reckoning." Perfikot sneered, her words filled with disdain.
Through this brief conversation with Kallen, Perfikot’s previously pent-up emotions were released, and her mood improved significantly.
