"There are some traditions in Ross's village that you may find strange." Mrs. Elena continued: "Although they have the same habits of collective living and cooperative labor as the Legion Farm here, they are completely different in many aspects. different."
"The most typical thing is that they have so many festivals." She said: "Every year, there are dozens of fixed festivals. Some festivals last for more than one day. Therefore, the total number of various rest days can reach more than 200 days. . In other words, more than half of the days in a year are theoretically holidays.”
"Is it because it's too cold over there that I can't take a vacation?" Tuo Huan imagined.
"No." Mrs. Elena shook her head: "South of Moscow, there are only 200 days of farming in a year. But the area around Kiev, where the land is the most fertile and the climate is the best, has the most festivals. They There are more than 150 festivals every year. On the contrary, in the Novgorod region, there are not so many festivals.”
"It's just that you just don't want to work." Tuo Huan said with a smile: "In a fertile place, what you grow can feed yourself without much effort. So you stop working after a while?"
"The result is like this." Mrs. Elena nodded: "The atmosphere of the village community can be said to be anti-hardworking. In fact, if you want to work more during the holidays, others will not be happy - these extra works People who do this will be warned by the village community."
"Why is this?" Tuohuan really couldn't understand.
"Because the tradition of the village community requires absolute equality. This equality not only requires the equal distribution of the village community's fields, but also requires the efforts made during work and the harvest after work." Mrs. Elena explained : "They pursue this kind of equality to the point of being almost paranoid."
"How to describe it..." She thought for a while and said metaphorically: "Let's put it this way. Here in Dadu, I also listened to Mr. Serris's lectures. The ancient philosopher Confucius had a saying, 'No If you are worried about scarcity, you will be worried about inequality; if you are not worried about poverty, you will be worried about insecurity,' right?"
She said something in classical Chinese and looked at the crowd.
Tuo Huan, Guo Kang and others nodded.
"I asked my husband at that time, does this mean that it is better to have a lack of supplies and live in poverty than to maintain an average life? This sounds similar to the situation in Ross Village." Mrs. Elena continued: "But he Tell me, this is a misunderstanding."
"Before this sentence, there is a sentence called 'Those who have a country and a family should not worry about poverty but inequality'. Because this is a requirement for aristocratic rulers. The 'widows' here are not ordinary people who are short of money, but those who are in power. Their land and people are few and far between; equity does not mean property equality, but political equality, each getting its share."
"The meaning of the whole sentence is that the rulers should not worry about the territory being too small and the people under their control being too few, but should pay attention to allowing everyone to get the reward they deserve. When implementing policies, they should try to maintain fairness and equality."
"For example, some rich people pay less taxes, and the country's taxes fall on the poor. This kind of thing seems to happen often in Seris. This is called 'inequality'. They believe that what needs to be overcome is something like this phenomenon."
"That's true." Guo Kang nodded: "It's also meaningful to you."
"Well, in our... many places, we need to understand the taxes first." Mrs. Elena was a little embarrassed: "In many administrative areas, the rich are basically nobles, and they don't have to pay taxes in the first place; the poor … The tax system doesn’t make sense to them either.”
Guo Kang remembered their "tax" status and reacted.
"The situation there is very different from Seris and even Rome now. That's why I said that each place gives people a completely different feeling." Mrs. Elena continued.
"For example, the following sentence 'Don't worry about poverty but worry about insecurity', which means that those in power should not worry about being poor themselves, but should worry about the insecurity above and below."
"After these two sentences, there is another summary: 'Everyone has no poverty, harmony has no widows, and peace has no favors.' It means that if you govern fairly, you won't worry about poverty; if the upper and lower classes are in harmony with each other, you won't have to worry about poverty. We are worried that the population will be reduced; if we achieve social stability, we will not worry about the overthrow of the rule."
"Therefore, Serris's political wisdom pursues the ideal of a prosperous country and a strong people, but does not require poverty."
"Because it is completely opposite to my initial understanding and contrasts sharply with the situation in my hometown, I am very impressed by this incident." She finally said: "Hey, these are probably two completely different worlds."
"Does Ross Village really pursue equal poverty?" Tuo Huan asked.
"This is indeed the case in most places." Mrs. Irina nodded: "The tradition of village communities is against hard work. People who work more and are more efficient will not get more, but will be excluded and sanctioned. "
"My husband later told me that the Seris people also like to hold groups and are keen on collective work. There have been various associations in the countryside since ancient times. By the Yuan Dynasty, there were 'hoe societies' in the north and 'polder fields' in the south. It is an organization where villagers organize themselves to cooperate in farming in order to improve efficiency. Governments in the Han and Tang dynasties have always encouraged this behavior, and even came forward specifically to guarantee farming associations, making them semi-official organizations. It can be promoted more easily.”
"But you guys, look at it." She shook her head: "Although the models seem to be similar, emphasizing collective collaboration and pursuing equality, Ross Farm and Siris Farm are actually very different."
"Then why is this?" Tuo Huan asked.
"Because hard work is meaningless." Mrs. Elena said: "It is impossible for most villagers to accumulate wealth. Because if the harvest increases, the nobles will receive more. Hard work and savings cannot improve their situation. It is even less likely that there will be room to improve one’s status.”
"Even if the nobles are very reasonable, their hard work will not be rewarded, and taking it away will hurt the people around them." She gave an example: "For example, this piece of land can originally produce 20 poods of grain. During the tax collection process, 10 poods were taken away.”
“If someone works hard and improves technology to increase output to 30 poods, then the nobles who know the situation will try to increase the tax to 20 poods, still leaving him with only a share that can barely survive. "
"Furthermore, due to poor management, the nobles have no ability to make detailed distinctions. Taxes are generally paid by the entire village community. In other words, other villagers have to bear the tax increase together with this hard-working man. This pair of neighbors It is a completely unreasonable disaster for them, so of course they will oppose it, and even regard this person as a traitor and be hostile to him."
"There are some other factors." She gave an example: "For example, people with strong labor ability, after gaining more wealth, will tend to choose to leave the village community in order to get rid of their constraints. But the problem is that in the Ross area, the population The decrease in income is fatal to the village community. All the strong and smart people have run away, and the village community may be doomed next time they encounter tax collection. Therefore, they have set up various religious and moral restrictions to prevent this things happen."
"For these people, leaving the village community can certainly provide them with more opportunities, but the risks are also very high. Losing the protection of the village community will make them very vulnerable when facing the nobles. So unless those natural conditions are very In places where the management is good and the management is more open-minded, other people often choose to accept their fate and live with their fellow villagers in the village community."
"In the final analysis, this is forced by the local environment."
(End of chapter)
