PFC Chapter 805 The Banality of Evil
Chapter 805 The Banality of Evil
Chapter 805 The Banality of Evil
"This is actually the result of our discussion."
Qi Niya immediately came out to support Fu Qinghai:
"Let Qingshan finish speaking first."
The pheromone succubus spoke, and all the Vladimir turned their heads, looking like they were listening intently.
"Excuse my bluntness, but your previous terrorist attacks were completely pointless and did nothing to improve the living conditions and social status of the Fratix people. On the contrary, your actions actually helped your enemies!"
Fu Qinghai also criticized without reservation:
"First, you need to clarify one question: who is your true enemy? Is it all of humanity? No, humanity is your ally! You have only one true enemy—Shiv Palpatine, and the entire Imperial government he represents, who exploit and oppress both humanity and alien races throughout the galaxy. Don't do anything that makes you an enemy of all humanity; instead, be clear about your target and strike accordingly!"
Fu Qinghai began his long speech.
Analysis and critique of terrorism.
He wasn't sure if these insect-headed people could grasp what he was trying to say. The "united front" was not a simple, mindless way of pulling everyone into one's own camp. First, one needed to have a materialist dialectical mindset, to distinguish between primary and secondary contradictions, and to understand who could be won over and who had to be cut off. Only then could one achieve the seemingly simple goal of "making as many friends as possible and as few enemies as possible."
"Did you understand?"
Since the insects didn't have muscles to control facial expressions, Fu Qinghai couldn't tell from the expressions of these Flatix people whether they understood him, so he had to ask them himself.
"I agree with your point of view."
Ashen's tone was unusually serious and earnest:
"So what should we do next?"
Whether it was the effect of pheromones or Fu Qinghai's persuasive power, or perhaps both, after their conversation, Ashen seemed to completely agree with Fu Qinghai's analysis and judgment.
"I have a plan."
Fu Qinghai surveyed the insects in the cave:
"This plan could cause enormous damage to the Galactic Empire, far exceeding the minor incident of the 'Bakta Box Contamination Incident.' But before implementing this plan, I need to ensure that you trust me completely and are willing to execute all my instructions without any discount or questioning."
Fu Qinghai stared straight at Ashen:
Tell me, can you do it?
"If we could liberate all the Fratix people."
Ashen nodded his head vigorously:
"Of course we can do it."
"Then I need you to make some sacrifices first."
There was a hint of coldness in Fu Qinghai's eyes.
"We are not afraid of any sacrifice."
Ashen appeared fearless.
“That former Imperial Governor who fled to escape punishment, Kyle Ransom, I suppose he’s in your hands, isn’t he?”
Fu Qinghai spoke in a low, somber tone.
……
The process of subduing Black Claw went more smoothly than expected.
Fu Qinghai always has a backup plan.
If Zinya's pheromones fail to work on the Vladimirians, then his backup plan is to completely destroy the organization and eliminate a liability.
Fortunately, the Zeltros pheromones were indeed as good as their reputation suggested. These insects were so infatuated with her that they almost obeyed her every word. The ideal situation had occurred, and Fu Qinghai was able to carry out his original plan.
This plan has a certain time span and may even need to span several major plot events, like planting a time bomb that can only be detonated at a critical moment.
Therefore, Fu Qinghai divided the plan into three stages.
Phase One: Hibernation and Sacrifice.
"From this moment forward, Black Talon shall cease all terrorist activities that are still being planned or carried out. Furthermore, you must ensure that other Flatix people do not commit similar terrorist attacks. Can you do that?"
Fu Qinghai looked at Ashen with a serious expression.
"We...can!"
After a moment's hesitation, Ashen nodded.
The difficulty of this requirement lies in the fact that not only must the Black Talon themselves refrain from terrorist attacks, but they must also suppress other exploited Vladimir people from doing so. This is quite challenging and a considerable test for them.
"Then I need you to create the illusion that I single-handedly stormed this place, destroyed the entire Talon headquarters, and killed a large number of Flatix people, including the leaders, including you—that's how you'll explain why you've stopped all your terrorist activities."
Fu Qinghai then made a second request.
Ashen was stunned after hearing the request.
"One person destroyed our entire lair? How could the Imperial military possibly believe something so absurd?"
Ashen said incredulously.
Even now, this Fratix man still believes that Fu Qinghai is a fake imperial hero, and that all his achievements were fabricated by the imperial authorities for propaganda purposes.
Fu Qinghai was too lazy to explain to it.
"They will definitely believe it."
That's all Fu Qinghai said.
Ashen sensed the certainty in Fu Qinghai's tone, gradually realized what was happening, and pointed at him with sudden understanding:
"So all those records of yours are real?"
Fu Qinghai did not explain but asked:
"So, is it difficult to implement this? There must be compromising factions and surrender factions within the Fratix people, right?"
Before Fu Qinghai arrived, his adjutant, Lieutenant Jasha, had told him that one of the reasons the Black Claw terrorist organization was notorious was that it not only attacked the two major medical giants and the Imperial Army, but also those Fratix who chose to cooperate with the Empire, and its methods of dealing with traitors were even more ruthless.
Fu Qinghai's words were quite suggestive, and Ashen, as a terrorist leader, understood them instantly.
“No problem. We have underground lairs all over Sephira. We can abandon this outpost and arrange it as you wish. As for the corpses…”
Ashen let out that cold, mocking laugh again:
"Just find a few imperial lackeys to blacken it up."
"Put more care into the site setup and don't let anyone discover any flaws. My suggestion is to just blow it up with a large amount of explosives."
Fu Qinghai also offered some suggestions.
"Ok."
Ashen readily accepted the suggestion.
"Finally, there's Kyle Ransom."
Fu Qinghai composed himself and said in a deep voice:
Where did you hide him?
"Do we really have to hand him over?"
Ashen's tone was clearly very reluctant:
"He is a hero of us Fratix people."
"Once the arrow is released, there's no turning back."
Fu Qinghai insisted firmly:
"If you're going to do it, go all the way!"
Ashen lowered his head and fell silent.
I still can't face this difficult choice.
"Ashen".
At this moment, Zinya spoke up:
"You can take us to see him first."
……
Fu Qinghai had heard of the so-called "darkness under the lamp" principle, which states that the most dangerous place is often the safest place.
According to Lieutenant Jasha, after Kyle Ransom fled to escape punishment, the Imperial Security Service spent a great deal of effort and resources searching for him throughout the galaxy. At the time, all sorts of outrageous rumors circulated, with some saying he was on a desolate planet in the Outer Ring, and others even saying he had gone to an unknown space outside the galaxy.
In reality, Kyle Ransen never left Sephira and remained hidden under the protection of the Fratix, practically right under the Empire's nose.
Fu Qinghai and his two companions followed Ashen as they traveled through the tunnels, sometimes even needing to use small railcars, demonstrating just how complex the city's tunnel network was—the empire had never truly ruled this place.
This is likely the highest-ranking official to have defected from the Galactic Empire so far—a sector governor, with the next highest level being the Tarkin senior sector governor.
Just how much does the Empire hate Kyle Ransom?
Fu Qinghai didn't know.
However, two facts can indirectly confirm this:
First, he had never heard of this person's name in any official holographic news. It wasn't until he arrived in Sephira that he learned of this "fugitive" imperial governor. Clearly, the imperial authorities had erased his name from all media.
Second, the bounty on the name Kyle Ransom in the Bounty Hunters network is 900,000 credits.
On the one hand, his name is not allowed to appear in any news media controlled by the authorities, and on the other hand, a high bounty is offered by the Bounty Hunters Guild. These two points combined speak volumes—the Empire hates him to the core.
Lieutenant Jasha told Fu Qinghai that the key issue in the "Bakta box contamination incident" was that former Sector Governor Kyle Ransen had accepted bribes from the Fratix, which allowed Black Talon to tamper with a batch of Bakta boxes destined for Coruscant.
However, if Kyle Ransom did this simply because he accepted a bribe, then he deserved to be exposed, and the Fratix people had no reason to regard him as a hero, much less hide or protect him.
Therefore, Lieutenant Jasha's statement was clearly just the official line the Empire was willing to give, and did not represent the true situation. So what is the real situation?
A lush meadow in the middle of a dense forest.
Suddenly, a round cover was lifted in the middle.
Fu Qinghai and the other two followed Ashen out of the cave. They turned around and looked at the unfamiliar surroundings. The clear chirping of insects and birds in the air proved that they were far from the city.
There is a wooden cabin in the forest.
Ashen pushed open the door of the small house, and the three followed him inside. They saw an ordinary-looking middle-aged man with short hair sitting inside, quietly reading a book.
"Lord Lanson."
Ashen greeted her respectfully.
The middle-aged man seemed engrossed in his reading. Hearing the sound, he looked up in surprise and his gaze fell upon the three strangers.
"Uh, who are you?"
"Hello, Governor Kyle Ransom."
After Fu Qinghai finished speaking, he sat down:
"We are allies of the rebels."
The two women also sat down.
"The rebel alliance? Oh, I remember now."
Kyle Ransom suddenly realized and said:
"Those are the rebels, right..."
After he finished speaking, he suddenly realized something was wrong.
"Excuse me, I've been here so long that I'm not used to talking to people anymore. I don't mean to insult you. Strictly speaking, I'm a rebel myself now."
Kyle Ransom said with an apologetic self-deprecating tone.
"No need to apologize, Lord Ransen, you are not wrong."
Fu Qinghai waved his hand to indicate that he didn't care:
"We are indeed rebels."
"So why did you come to find me?"
Kyle Ransom asked with some curiosity.
"I'll lend you my head to replace someone else's."
Fu Qinghai explained very politely.
……
According to Ashen, Kyle Ransen was a good man who, as a boy, witnessed the suffering of the Flatix while overseeing the Zaltin Corporation's Araragi breeding program. He vowed to help the Flatix when he grew up, until he became the Imperial Governor of this sector.
Bribery was not the real reason. Kyle Ransen condoned the Bakta box contamination incident out of sympathy and support for the Fratix people, even though he was unaware that the allergic reactions caused by the contamination would be so deadly, and felt sorry for the deaths of millions of people that he had indirectly caused.
"So, you want to kill me just to make me a part of your achievements, so that you can rise to a higher position in the imperial bureaucracy faster? Am I right?"
Kyle Ransen blinked and looked at Fu Qinghai.
"Yes, that's exactly what I mean."
Fu Qinghai frankly admitted it without any attempt to conceal it.
Don't you think you're being a little selfish?
Kyle Ransom asked out of sheer curiosity.
"Believe it or not, I have no interest in imperial positions. I am doing this only to overthrow the empire better and faster, not to exchange your head for wealth and power."
Fu Qinghai said in a very calm tone.
"Just to satisfy your own sense of morality and compassion, you're going to kill millions of Coruscant people. Don't you think you're being a little selfish, Lord Ransen?"
Wei Ran stared coldly at Kyle Ransen and said.
"To be honest, during these long days of hiding here, I have indeed been seriously thinking about this issue."
Kyle Ransom immediately composed himself upon hearing this.
“I’m trying to look at this from a higher perspective. You think the people of Coruscant are innocent, and that it is the Imperial government and the two major medical giants that exploit and oppress the Fratix. But why was Palpatine able to become Speaker and eventually be crowned Emperor? Wasn’t it because of the support of the people of Coruscant?”
Kellanson spread his hands and asked in return:
"The Fratix could, of course, argue: Although the Imperial Army was the one carrying out the suppression, wasn't the consumption of Bakta boxes by the people of Coruscant also a form of exploitation and oppression of the Fratix? Aren't your enlistment in the army, production, and taxation also a form of support for the Imperial Army and the Imperial Government? What's wrong with terrorist attacks targeting you?"
Faced with this question.
Wei Ran was speechless for a moment.
Fu Qinghai couldn't help but laugh.
He knew what Kyle Ransom was trying to say.
The theory of "banality of evil".
The term, coined by political philosopher Hannah Arendt, refers to the behavior of individuals who abandon independent thinking due to obedience to an authoritative system, resulting in a lack of moral responsibility. Arendt argues that ordinary people can become perpetrators of evil by mechanically following instructions, and that the root cause lies in the voluntary abandonment of personal value judgments.
This is a highly controversial theory because it would greatly increase the joint liability and moral burden of ordinary people.
The traditional Chinese belief is that "every wrong has its perpetrator, and every debt its debtor," meaning revenge should be directed at a specific target. To give an imperfect analogy: if someone feels the weights and levies system is unfair, they should seek redress from the system, not take revenge on society in a kindergarten—this is a generally accepted notion.
This traditional logic also applies to major international events: the Nuremberg Trials only convicted 23 German war criminals, and many high-ranking German Wehrmacht officers who were merely carrying out combat orders and did not participate in the Holocaust were not even convicted, let alone ordinary German citizens.
But from another perspective, don't those engineers who designed tanks for Germany, those workers who built fighter planes for Japan... bear any responsibility at all?
Are there any innocent souls killed under the atomic bomb?
Everyone knows that not every ordinary citizen living in the Axis powers longed to launch a war to invade other countries; they simply needed to work to support their families and survive. However, their work and labor themselves became cannonballs, providing the material basis for acts of aggression.
Theoretically, if every worker in Germany, Japan, and Italy refused to produce weapons for the Soviet Union, and every farmer refused to provide food for the Soviet Union, the Axis war machine could not have been started, and the invasion could not have occurred. But in reality, this assumption simply could not be realized.
The US government invaded the Middle East, but the passenger plane crash into the Twin Towers harmed ordinary American citizens. This doesn't conform to the simple logic of "the guilty party should be held accountable." However, according to the theory of "the banality of evil," aren't government officials elected by the people themselves? Wasn't the money used for the invasion paid by the people's taxes?
"There's no point in discussing these things, Lord Ransen."
Fu Qinghai smiled slightly and said calmly:
"We're not here to engage in philosophical debate with you."
“I can sense your inner struggle and remorse. During your time in hiding, you have been constantly tormented by your morality and conscience. That’s why you are so eager to put together a set of logic to convince yourself that your words are just self-comfort. Your heart is far less hardened than you appear.”
Fu Qinghai's indifferent gaze seemed to pierce through him:
"If you ask me for my opinion, it's pointless for you to plan this terrorist attack, not because it's right or wrong, but because you simply cannot achieve your true goal—the liberation of the Fratix people of Sefila—through this act. Your efforts to prove whether your actions are just or evil are futile. As I am speaking, the Fratix people are still suffering from exploitation and oppression—and you have changed nothing."
Kyle Ransen was stunned.
Fu Qinghai's tone was calm, without any agitated accusations or loud roars. However, his words were like a sharp knife, smoothly and fluently cutting into Kyle Ransom's heart, dissecting and displaying in a bloody manner the things he was unwilling to face or admit in his subconscious.
"The Fratix people regard you as a hero."
Fu Qinghai continued to calmly deliver the final blow:
"But you know in your heart that you are not."
Kyle Ransom lowered his head deeply.
He seemed to have aged ten years in an instant.
"You don't care about right or wrong, justice or evil."
Kyle Ransom looked up at Fu Qinghai:
"You are a consequentialist and a realist."
"you're right."
Fu Qinghai nodded approvingly.
"If I were to be given to you..."
At this moment, the former imperial governor, with sunken eyes and drooping eye bags, looked extremely tired, and said in a hoarse voice:
"Can I become a hero of the Fratix?"
"of course."
Fu Qinghai nodded again:
"This is my promise to you."
"Ok."
Kyle Ransom leaned back in his wicker recliner, took a blaster pistol from under the coffee table, and placed it on the table:
"Go ahead and do it."
Fu Qinghai didn't say anything more. He picked up his pistol, released the safety, pointed it at Kyle Ransom's chest, and calmly said:
"Believe me, this is the best outcome. If I deliver you alive to the Imperial Security Bureau, you'll confess everything."
A gunshot rang out.
The former Imperial Governor collapsed onto his deck chair.
Ashen embraced the triangular head in grief.
Silently watching Kyle Ransom's body.
Fu Qinghai actually had one more thing he didn't say.
Whether Ransen himself agreed or not, his fate was sealed from the moment he met him.
Yes, Fu Qinghai did reach a deep cooperation agreement with Ashen, but he could still break the agreement at any time, forcibly kill Lansen, and take his body away.
Fu Qinghai's side consisted of three Jedi Knights. There was nothing on this planet that could stop them, whether they were facing the Imperial army or the Vladimirians.
This is the real result and reality.
…………