There's nothing more for Shiller to say; what else could Supreme Wisdom add?
If he continues to stress the slow advancement of environmental work, he's essentially preventing his colleagues from achieving success, forcing them to avoid taking responsibility for building the Interstellar Society. If he continues to emphasize emotional issues, he might have to invite Shiller to come over as a psychiatrist. And if he agrees, the environmental work will have to be implemented regardless. Moreover, as the Councilman's Executive Secretary, it's up to him to carry it out. Everyone knows he represents the Three Great Empires. If he starts working on it, won't those opportunistic people have to immerse themselves deeply in the work, relentlessly?
Essentially, Shiller has blocked all possible excuses. Whether it's the rise of great powers or the dignity of common people; whether it's the Interstellar Society or the interstellar council, it seems there's no longer any excuse to prevent the implementation of environmental work.
"Alright," Supreme Wisdom said, "I'll go make arrangements."
After saying that, he left. Strange sneered dismissively: "Is that all he's capable of?"
Then suddenly it occurred to him, the plan might just be a pitfall for him, so he pounded the table in dissatisfaction, saying, "Is that all he's capable of?!"
"Do you think he'll truly go obediently to work?"
"What else could he do?" Strange asked, "Although I've never dealt with politics, I still understand. He can use a variety of methods to persuade me; he can delay or make excuses, but he can't truly oppose me. Because to some extent, we are a community of interests. Just like he said, we are part of the same department."
"The Councilman's loss of authority doesn't benefit the Executive Secretary at all, and if the Councilman and the Executive Secretary clash, it will significantly reduce the interstellar council's prestige, which is not something the Three Great Empires want to see. So regardless, he'll have to make a semblance of effort."
"That's where the problem lies. How do you carry out work you don't want to do?" Shiller asked.
Strange gave it real thought and said, "I will delay as much as possible, until I can't delay any longer."
"But when you can't delay anymore, won't you still have to do it?"
"It's work, after all," Strange said, "No matter how much I don't want to do it, in the end, I'll have to. Maybe by delaying until there's not enough time, I can just go through the motions, which could be a small bit of revenge against being forced to do this work."
"This is what most people think," Shiller nodded and said, "Many people do the same. This is actually not bad, but there is a better way."
"Such as?"
"The more you don't want to do something, the more you should go all in and do it vigorously. Start by shouting slogans loudly, until everyone is annoyed by them. This is to reduce everyone's sensitivity."
"Sensitivity?"
"Yes. When you hear a term for the first time, you'll think about its meaning, but if you hear it repeatedly, it turns into a symbol. Its origin and the meaning it intended to convey are diluted, becoming an imagery."
"I'm a bit lost," Strange said.
"Have you used emoji packages?"
"You mean meme pictures?" Strange thought for a moment and said, "I usually only use the yellow face emoji, but my interns especially love to send these online meme pictures in the group chat. Recently, a cat has become quite famous, and when I opened the group, I thought it was a pet care chatroom."
"Do you know the cat's name? Do you know who the owner is? Do you know why the owner took this picture?"
Strange shook his head and said, "Of course not, I don't care about those things."
"Alright, then do you remember the cat's pose? The general condition? Is it long-haired or short-haired? What was it doing when the picture was taken?"
"Come on, those images are all edited so much. Some have that cat wearing helmets, others make its eyes shoot lasers, and there are a big circle of spinning text. How could I remember what the cat actually looks like?"
"That's what I'm saying. When something is repeated overwhelmingly, people's sensory perception diminishes, creating a specific symbol. Your impression of the cat meme is no longer the breed, appearance, personality people are most concerned about when getting to know a cat, but 'the recent popular meme cat,' isn't it?"
"Are you suggesting Supreme Wisdom will repeat the environmental work until people begin to abandon its original meaning, turning it into a symbol?"
"Exactly, if possible, he will also bind environmental work to you, promoting it as a slogan spearheaded by the Councilman. So, when people mention environmental work, they'll only think of 'one of the three fires of the newly appointed Councilman,' rather than why we need environmental work and how to conduct environmental work."
Strange scratched his head and said, "What should we do then?"
"Don't rush, this is just the first step. Just shouting slogans is not enough. After all, due to the pressure from us, actual work is still needed, and the first thing to do in actual work is to drag everyone into it."
"What do you mean?"
"When a matter involves more people, spans across more departments, and the responsibilities are distributed more ambiguously, it becomes even harder to implement. So if you don't want to do this job, you must involve more people in the task, and preferably a lot of unrelated people."
"For example, if it involves budget approval, you must drag all the finance people into it, such as the treasurer, accountant, finance; and as long as money is involved, there will definitely be issues of legality and security, so you can then involve the legal department and the security department; once the funds are approved, get the bank and other companies' financial department personnel involved. Just in the financial aspect alone, you can pull in at least seven or eight departments and dozens of people."
"In this situation, even if everyone is highly dedicated and has no complaints, not afraid to take responsibility or intentionally make things difficult, flawlessly completes their work, the commotion will still make other departments think it's a fuss over nothing, and it might even make the leaders of other departments think the leader who assigned this work is out of their mind."
"What if your leader comes to question you?"
"You're just being diligent and responsible. After all, when it comes to money matters, it's naturally important to be extra cautious."
"I see, isn't this just over-correcting?"
"No, over-correcting emphasizes depth, whereas doing this emphasizes breadth. If it were truly over-correcting, you'd find some connections and then harass them with this work every day, forcing them to constantly deepen the task until they get annoyed and naturally go to the leader."
"Luckily we don't have connections here," Strange said, "so what's next?"
"Ordinary work stops here. Involving so many departments and people, you find me, I find you, no one can handle anyone, yet everyone can affect each other, and the result is a mess, a total chaos. Because of poor execution, if the leader forces it, they will lose their prestige, and most likely will halt the work."
"What if we persist and don't stop?"
"Then you have to create some troubles. Doing this has risks, because if anything goes wrong, you may also need to take responsibility, but if the completion of this task harms them more, they're sure to do this."
Strange actually wants Supreme Wisdom to do this, as this complete set of operations can delay for a few days without issue. But now that Shiller has seen through it, he will definitely take measures and won't let Supreme Wisdom slack off, and probably won't be delayed for long.
"What should we do then?" Strange subtly tried to ask Shiller's countermeasures, hoping it might even reveal something to Supreme Wisdom.
"We don't need to do anything," Shiller said.
Strange frowned but couldn't fathom why Shiller would say that. Fortunately, Shiller quickly explained.
"To be precise, we've already dealt with it. Didn't you clearly express your dissatisfaction with the Three Great Empires in the morning meeting, asking people to take sides?"
"Uh, is that considered a countermeasure?"
"Of course. The premise of dragging everyone down and making a matter chaotic is that nobody wants to do this thankless job. But what if there's a ringleader among them?"
"You're saying..."
"You've clearly expressed an attitude of cutting ties with the Three Great Empires, and because of your status as the Supreme Magician, the cosmos's foremost wizard, there will certainly be those who choose to stand on your side. For those on the side of the Three Great Empires and Supreme Wisdom, a job they avoid like the plague is a perfect stage for those people to make achievements."
"They seek favors from you, desperately trying to show their loyalty, but lacking opportunities to display it. At this time, Supreme Wisdom, in order to prevent the job from progressing, involves everyone, even arranging work for irrelevant departments, ensuring that no one who wants to express loyalty is left out—this is a godsend opportunity."
"So these people will work diligently?"
"Not only will they diligently complete their work, they will spontaneously form factions and confront the faction of the Three Great Empires. Once a confrontation arises, the Three Great Empires side will find it hard to slack off, as their opponents will certainly report them, seizing upon their flaws, nitpicking, and making a big deal out of small issues just to undermine their prestige."
"At this point, you can stand up and support them, because no matter what, not completing the work properly is wrong. As long as the evidence is strong enough, you can even dismiss a few, setting an example; and if you can seize upon their wrongdoing, you can take the opportunity to publicize the Dark Matter outbreak, causing public panic, and then show them the ugly faces of the Three Great Empires. After all, they consume the most cosmos resources, yet they are the least willing to do environmental work; they refuse to clean up their own mess and want the cosmos to go down with them—no matter how you look at it, this is quite shameless, isn't it?"
Strange almost wanted to applaud Shiller. Even though he understood this series of plans might lead to his own downfall, he couldn't help but admire this brilliant and smooth strategy.
The method of rallying one faction and attacking another is classic, yet it remains highly effective. As a leader, you may know nothing else, but must know how to vertically divide your subordinates, ensuring there's always a faction in your grasp, a blade in your hand to cut away unwanted parts. If you can make everyone vie to be your blade, then even if you know nothing, you're sure to be a successful leader.
Strange pondered deeply. Truthfully, he was a bit swayed now; although letting Shiller continue might result in taking the blame, he could learn a lot from it.
Strange knew his biggest weakness was not coming from an influential family. Although climbing up from the bottom gave him a firmer will and more life experience, he was inevitably lacking in high-level political insights and some strategic methods. Becoming the Councilman this time could just help him make up for these deficiencies.
Strange raised his eyes, just meeting Shiller's grey gaze, like snow under the moonlight, carrying a non-human, cold, eerie look, as if it had already seen through everything. In them, he saw Greed, and he saw his own greed.
Strange quickly withdrew his gaze, took a deep breath, lowered his head and looked at the list Shiller had given him earlier, and said, "I need to personally contact those who have leaned towards me, help me inform them."
"Yes, Supreme Magician."