Strange was the last to leave, so he was unaware. Once these officials walked out, they began whispering among themselves. You give me a glance, I respond with an expression, and soon the two were walking side by side.
Although it's worth discussing the new councilman who has become the Supreme Magician, his recent speech during the meeting is even more noteworthy. The skies of the interstellar council are likely to change.
Supreme Wisdom followed Strange inside and entered the office with him, then closed the door. Sitting down across from Strange, he said, "Councilman, I believe you misunderstand me..."
"I told you to call me Supreme Magician."
The robot surprisingly displayed a rather human-like expression of helplessness. But he still said, "Okay, Supreme Magician. What I want to say is, perhaps there are some minor conflicts and misunderstandings between our civilizations..."
"You call a large-scale assault on the Nine Major Kingdoms a minor conflict? Then maybe one day I could go to your capital to stir up some minor conflicts?"
"Sorry, Supreme Magician. But we are currently working at the interstellar council, and if we cannot abandon racial concepts, we won't be able to handle the interstellar council's affairs well."
Strange seemed genuinely shocked, saying, "So you handle interstellar affairs by abandoning racial concepts? That means you won't show favoritism to the Kree Empire? Then why did you want to be this secretary-general???"
In the behavior analysis module of Supreme Wisdom, it showed that Strange didn't deliberately say this; he was truly shocked and genuinely could not understand why anyone would want to serve in the interstellar council if not for personal benefit.
Supreme Wisdom was also taken aback. Where did this barbarian come from? Is such a thing okay to blatantly discuss?
"I don't know what you think, but I chose to be this councilman to benefit the human race. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have come, because if I didn't come, there's nothing you could do to me." Strange said earnestly, "I'm not going to abandon my racial identity; it's all I have. From now on, I'll only do what benefits humans; I couldn't care less about which other civilization is destroyed."
"You... you..." Even Supreme Wisdom couldn't quite process this. He said, "You're using your power for personal gain."
"That's not the case." Strange had another perspective, saying, "I'm not doing this for myself; it's for the civilization behind me. How can this be called using power for personal gain? If it were for me, I wouldn't have come; I don't want to be any damn councilman. This isn't using power for personal gain; it's clearly selfless fairness!"
This time, Supreme Wisdom's CPU was indeed overheating; how can someone be so shameless?
In fact, Strange wasn't deliberately provoking him; he genuinely didn't find anything wrong. Again, he's a typical American, and from the American elite class. People like him don't see any problem with a president suddenly acquiring more mansions and yachts and spending lavishly after taking office.
In their environment, it's complete plutocracy, where everything revolves around money. The wealthy excessively flaunting their wealth is not only acceptable, but it's seen as perfectly natural by others. Conversely, if the wealthy choose to stay low-key, people perceive them as pretentious and inauthentic.
Sometimes, people flaunt their wealth on social platforms and are even seen as providing welfare, because the display lets others glimpse into a wealthy lifestyle and offers material for their dreams, often receiving admiration and adulation.
For figures like presidents, there needs to be grandstanding even more. Even the staunch and traditional Old America sees no issue with presidential opulence. As for discussions of corruption, they simply don't exist. Everything's legal, and even if it weren't, it's still considered deserved.
"Power should be used to oppress others, wealth should be spent daily to flaunt before the less fortunate, and transitioning from a victim to an oppressor should be reciprocated double-fold," very few countries around the world recognize and promote that such actions are wrong publicly, and America is certainly not among them.
So Strange doesn't find anything wrong with his viewpoint. Enduring the tedious political rhetoric here is not for racial equality. Even if equality were sought, humans must be more equal than other races.
One man and one machine, staring at each other. Supreme Wisdom realized that persuading this person might be very difficult.
Previously, the councilmen elected, regardless of their civilization, once seated in this position, it meant their lives entered a new phase, as they're the foremost person in the interstellar scene, destined for history. Even if not expressed verbally, internally there's a sense of having entered new territory, holding a new identity, preparing to say goodbye to the past.
Once a person has such thoughts, manipulation will follow accordingly.
For instance, when someone joins a new company, many emphasize it's a new start in life, a new phase, often carrying out icebreaking activities to familiarize with new colleagues. What's the purpose behind this?
Most run companies to profit, meaning it's an eternally profit-oriented collective, incapable of holding lofty ideals and devotion. And such a profit-driven collective won't suddenly perform actions that consume resources without profitability.
Some companies' icebreaking actions aren't just simple dinners or games; they even go to team-building sites and spend a lot to help team members get acquainted. Why is this?
If the goal is to strengthen team integration and improve work efficiency, then diving right into work is actually the most important thing. No integration compares to integration during work, since most of their future interactions will be on the job, not at some team-building site.
The purpose of this is to make you sever ties with the past.
All these actions constantly remind people: you are in a new environment, surrounded by new people, facing new work, and all your past experiences and knowledge are useless; you need to relearn everything.
But is this really the case? If previous work experience was useless, the employer wouldn't have hired you in the first place. If you must emotionally depend on these newly met colleagues, then what about previous friends?
The company is merely using various means to make you feel that you must devote all your energy to adapt to and please this new environment, diligently learn their business processes, firmly establish relationships with new colleagues, and flatter the boss. Only by doing this is it most beneficial for the company.
To new employees entering the company, they clearly have no choice; they want the job and have already successfully obtained it, so they view the whole integration process as the final step and can't afford to give up now.
Once they have such thoughts, they find it hard to avoid being manipulated into fully investing in the new environment, even to the extent of compromising many things, crossing lines, changing principles, and altering their way of speaking and conduct.
Many people call this progress. Few realize that new employees have merely joined a new company; they have not flown away from Earth, have not gone to a new country, and may not even have changed cities or industries. The differences between companies are not so drastic as to require breaking limits or changing personality for adaptation; this doesn't really qualify as progress to a new environment.
To prevent newcomers from realizing this, companies do everything possible to create a sense of unfamiliarity, forcing you to change yourself for a place that is barely new. But actually, those changes offer no benefit to you, only convenience for them.
While it may appear that there's no choice for those who need the job, there's actually an invisible option, which is to choose to quit.
"Living in the past" is often seen as a classic symptom of regressive degeneration, but sometimes actively regressing is the best choice to combat these carefully placed traps in society.
At a new company, you can still use old methods, you don't have to know colleagues or get along well with them; you can just hang out with old friends, totally not integrating into the new environment. If the company deems you unqualified, they will naturally let you go.
But the fact is, most people can't do anything with those who live in the past; otherwise, there wouldn't be folks posting online to complain about big babies all the time. Regardless of others' comfort, the big baby certainly lives quite comfortably.
And currently, Strange is an eternal big baby living in the past. He didn't feel that becoming a Councilman marked a new stage in his life, nor did he feel he needed to adapt to a new environment.
He still considers himself the Supreme Mage of the human race, showing no awareness of being the interstellar number one, nor does he intend to take on duties like transforming interstellar society or racial equality. He merely expresses his own views, with no intention to listen to others or absorb experiences. Although seemingly trapped in the Councilman's office, his soul remains unbound.
Actually, this is Strange's advantage. Regardless of his arrogance, egocentricity, extremism, and paranoia, he's nearly free from mind manipulation. Or we can say that others find it hard to manipulate him precisely because of these flaws.
Many feel a bizarre fear and attraction when facing Shiller's manipulation, but Strange almost doesn't. Because at any time, he is a person who is hard to manipulate.
Even when Strange in many cosmos goes mad and does ludicrous things, it's not due to persuasion or influence but simply because he wants to. You might say his brain is having a cramp, but most decisions indeed derive largely from his own will, with little reference to others' advice in execution.
Seeing mind manipulation fail, Supreme Wisdom still doesn't plan to give up. He stood up, pressing both hands on the table, and said, "Your predecessor left some tasks needing your review and signature, have you finished reading them?"
Strange nodded and said, "I've signed everything that needed signing; take a look."
Now it was Supreme Wisdom's turn to be shocked. He raised his voice, asking, "You signed everything? Did you read them?!"
"I glanced over them," Strange waved his hand and said, "I signed those without issues and put those with objections in another folder."
Supreme Wisdom stopped paying attention to him, as he was online checking the files Strange had processed. The more he looked, the more astounded he became, glancing at the virtual panel before him, then at Strange, and back again, finally fixing his gaze on Strange.
What's the story here? Could this guy have built a stable mental defense while mastering unparalleled magical skills, conveniently being a genius at handling governance?