Lin Sizhi paused slightly and continued, "Let me ask you, suppose an all-controlling dictator claims he has no personal property, just like an emperor declaring his frugality, ’wearing only eight sets of clothes throughout the four seasons,’ would you find it touching or ridiculous?"
Qin Yao thought for a moment, "I’d find it ridiculous.
"Because for a dictator, he doesn’t need any personal property, the entire country is his personal property.
"Power is more precious than wealth. After already grasping absolute power, whether to obtain wealth only depends on whether he wants to or not."
Lin Sizhi nodded approvingly, "Mm? Not bad, you’re a bit smarter than I imagined."
Qin Yao was somewhat angry, "I wasn’t that stupid to begin with!
"But this is a completely different situation from our community, right?
"Fu Chen and Li Renshu, from any angle, are very far from being dictators or emperors, right? You can’t use such extreme cases to argue, that’s a slippery slope fallacy."
Lin Sizhi explained, "Yes, these two differ in degree and cannot be compared.
Qin Yao frowned deeply, "I understand they have influence, but where is the power?
"They can propose motions, but ultimately they still need voting to implement them.
"If it infringes on the interests of the majority, then the majority would definitely vote against it, and the proposal wouldn’t be implemented.
"Not only that, once they propose motions that infringe on the majority’s interests, everyone would see their true colors and they’d be universally condemned like rats crossing the street.
"At that time, all the influence they’ve accumulated would vanish into thin air. Wouldn’t that be working for nothing?"
Lin Sizhi nodded, "That’s right, there is that possibility you mentioned. But actually, this problem is more complex than you imagine.
"How would a smart politician make such a basic mistake?
"They would use natural, unnoticeable methods to effortlessly influence most people’s thoughts and naturally promote what they want to do.
"You must understand, obtaining power isn’t going directly from 0 to 1, but has intermediate states.
"Similarly, a person going from a nobody with no influence to a dictator who can determine everyone’s fate doesn’t jump directly from 0 to 1 either, but accumulates bit by bit.
"Saying it this way, you might find it hard to understand. Let me give a more specific example.
"This morning, if we had directly voted to choose a new member, how many people do you think would have unhesitatingly voted in favor of a ’young male doctor’?"
Qin Yao recalled seriously, "Probably... at most three or four votes. At that time, some people clearly opposed this proposal, and there were many other options, like chef, nurse, female doctor, etc. Even when I mentioned special forces, two or three people nodded.
"Most people couldn’t say they opposed the ’young male doctor’ option, but they couldn’t say they particularly agreed either.
"So if we voted directly, these people might subconsciously vote against first to reject this proposal, then discuss slowly."
Lin Sizhi paused and continued, "But by evening, the vote count became 9.
"Could it be that from morning to evening, everyone independently thought and suddenly coincidentally unified their thoughts, all believing young male doctors were better?"
This question somewhat stumped Qin Yao.
Because from intuitive feeling, that’s exactly what seemed to happen.
Clearly in the morning, everyone was speaking freely and expressing different views, but in the evening, without much argument, it smoothly passed with nine votes.
"Lawyer Lin, you mean that from morning to evening, many small groups I didn’t know about discussed privately and had already unified their thoughts? The evening meeting was just going through the motions?"
Lin Sizhi shook his head repeatedly, "No, no, no, you’re completely wrong.
"The kind of private coordination by small groups you mentioned is possible, but not right now.
"Because such coordination would only coordinate two or three different options, triggering bigger controversies, and unlikely to form unified opinions.
"The evening proposals proceeded so smoothly precisely because our community currently only has one highly organized small group, which is Li Renshu’s.
Qin Yao was even more puzzled, "But this small group is at most three to five people, right? Where did the other four votes come from?"
Lin Sizhi smiled, "Very good, we’re finally getting to the key issue.
"These four votes can originally be seen as ’swing votes,’ meaning they weren’t sure which option to vote for. They might think older male doctors were good, or female nurses or even chefs were acceptable.
"But when voting, they no longer swing.
"To make them change doesn’t require private persuasion at all, that would be too deliberate and might trigger wariness.
"You just need slight guidance during the meeting to make them change their minds.
"They might even feel that choosing a young male doctor is their own inner thought.
"And this kind of influence can also be understood as power, which is the hidden income that our community’s organizers obtain through discussing proposals repeatedly."
Qin Yao felt her brain was getting dizzy, "Sorry, Lawyer Lin, I still don’t understand. I didn’t feel there was anything wrong with the process when Li Renshu was moderating the discussion?"
Lin Sizhi explained, "The proposal of motions, the choice of proposals, the order of discussion, these seemingly unimportant aspects can actually influence the results of discussion.
"A simple question: why put three proposals together for discussion?
"Li Renshu’s explanation was to save time, but actually we have plenty of time.
"Only the recruitment topic needs to be decided before tomorrow morning, while the Community Protection Fund supplementary rules and medical supplies rules could be implemented five or ten days later without any impact.
"But bundling these three proposals together for discussion creates additional effects:
"The first two proposals are very comprehensive and serve the interests of the vast majority in the community. You could say there’s absolutely no room for opposition, and they would very likely pass unanimously.
"While discussing these two proposals, because no one opposes them, Li Renshu can establish a kind of ’temporary authority,’ making people feel she has considered all aspects of various situations, and that her words and choices are optimal solutions.
"In this atmosphere, we began discussing the third proposal.
"Li Renshu added a third reason on top of Cai Zhiyuan’s original two reasons, saying we must also consider this new member’s moral level, and that young doctors naturally have higher moral standards.
"Combined with her previous authority, it appeared particularly convincing.
"But think about it now, is it really a statistically supported fact that older doctors are more likely to have medical ethics and moral character problems? Even if it were fact, is this probability deviation large enough that we must take it into consideration?
"Of course, I’m not saying older doctors would definitely be better choices. All discussions are just about hypothetical possibilities. I’m just emphasizing the personnel selection criteria issue.
"Is this a single standard or a multiple standard?
"If it’s multiple standards, who decides the weight between different standards?
"Li Renshu’s words certainly had elements of ’going with the flow,’ generally conforming to most people’s demands, but these demands actually have large ambiguous spaces.
"In other words, if Li Renshu now wanted an older doctor, could she possibly achieve 7 votes of agreement and implementation by changing certain rhetoric?"