Chapter 1574

This is not to encourage mutual attacks, but to allow all members to dispel concerns, open their minds, and be frank with one another, so as to achieve understanding, speak the truth, and see real results.

In fact, as early as the Study Group period, Xia Duo encouraged group members to speak their minds, and the same method was applied to the governance of the Territory, specifically the "recollecting bitterness and thinking of sweetness" segment in the Territory's New Life Movement.

As for the formal proposal of the "criticism and self-criticism" principle, it only came after the establishment of the Progress Society; Xia Duo believes that truth becomes clearer the more it is debated, and at the same time, this is an important means to strengthen and standardize the internal atmosphere of the Progress Society.

For the time being, Xia Duo has not yet created a formal process similar to "democratic life meetings," but this principle is reflected in every aspect of the daily life of the Progress Society.

Its most significant manifestation lies in—speaking one's mind, under the premise of adhering to ideals and beliefs and adhering to the basic line.

……

"For the final agenda item, due to the increasing number of members in the Progress Society, the current system is no longer able to adapt to the current situation in the handling of internal affairs, and therefore a more efficient organizational structure needs to be established.

"Here, I propose electing a Five-Member Committee to be responsible for the daily decision-making of the Progress Society; of course, important issues will still be discussed by everyone together at collective meetings."

This agenda item listed Dien as the initiator in the agenda catalog sent to the attendees, but in reality, it came from the hand of Xia Duo.

This is also because Xia Duo did not want to interfere with everyone's judgment because of himself; the current him is increasingly understanding some things in the history of his hometown.

However, Dien has served as Xia Duo's spokesperson for many years, and his proposals are largely seen as Xia Duo's intentions, so on this issue, even though Dien mentioned "speaking one's mind" many times, there were very few final speakers.

Part of the reason for this is that the Progress Society already has a de facto daily decision-making group, and proposing this now is merely making that daily decision-making group more legitimate.

But more of it is probably because of Xia Duo.

This makes Xia Duo feel a bit disappointed; he hopes that every member of the Progress Society will not be superstitious about authority and will have the Courage to break through authority, but he also knows that in any system, authority is inevitably produced, it just happened to fall on him.

"Sigh—"

Without a doubt, this agenda item was passed unanimously.

As for the subsequent election of the Five-Member Committee, it indeed did not exceed Xia Duo's expectations; the final Five-Member Committee is more or less the current daily decision-making group—

Dien, Sami, Dewan, Aideliqi.

It just has one more person, Tilake.

As for Daiwei, his ability and reputation are not bad, and he was nominated this time, but within the Progress Society, his seniority is still far behind Tilake.

Moreover, Daiwei is devoted to his own Research Lab, and his level of attention to the internal affairs of the Progress Society is far less than Tilake's; his final failure to be elected can be considered a true manifestation of "the eyes of the masses are discerning."

As for Xia Duo, as the president of the Progress Society, he is not in the Five-Member Committee.

The so-called "Five-Member Committee" is just a common name; the formal name should be the "Progress Society Daily Affairs Decision-Making Committee." Xia Duo is not responsible for daily affairs management, so naturally, he is not among them.

But the "Five-Member Committee" will directly follow his Indication; this institutional reform actually clarified Xia Duo's direct leadership over the Progress Society.

In the past, although Xia Duo was named president, the organizational form of the Progress Society did not change much from the Study Group period; only adjustments were made to the membership rules, and there was no essential difference in terms of member Permission Level.

This made the Progress Society more like a loose interest group, and Xia Duo's leadership and Indication toward the Progress Society, and the listening and following of others, were more because of the authority of Xia Duo as the founder.

And now it has been clarified in the form of a system, which must be said to be a major step forward.

From now on, the Progress Society can be considered a formal political group.

……

After the Five-Member Committee was elected, the agenda segment of this collective meeting was considered over; from the initial review of the past to the handling of the present in the agenda segment, the next step was the final segment of the meeting—

Looking to the future.

In this segment, everyone spoke their minds, constantly describing various possible changes in the future—good, bad, and neither good nor bad; as long as they thought of it, they could say it.

Some of these statements were based on the future ideal kingdom scenario that Xia Duo had previously constructed for them, some were deduced based on Reality, and others were entirely out of their own imagination.

For example, one member proposed a conjecture that a fortress-like Floating City might appear in the future, the reason being that the destructiveness of Magic is easier to obtain, and living on the Surface is actually not as safe as living in the sky.

This almost coincided with Xia Duo's idea of building a Floating City.

Another member suggested that perhaps everyone's thinking could be connected through some kind of Magic, which would save a lot of unnecessary internal friction.

Xia Duo had also thought of this idea, but the one proposed by this member was more radical; he believed that as long as everyone's thinking was transparent, there would be no darkness, and an unparalleled combined force could be formed.

And this idea of his was recognized by many, and of course, it was also opposed by many.

Xia Duo listened to everyone's discussions and even debates with great interest, occasionally recording on paper some ideas that even he considered very important.

The reason for writing it on paper is to remind himself; after all, the premise of Memory Retrospection is being able to think that such a thing exists.

If one cannot think of it, then one will only be touched when happening to trace the relevant memory, thereby deepening the memory, which is not as good as selecting it from the beginning.

This is also a method of deepening memory.

Before integrating all the subconscious and Conscious Mind, Xia Duo still could not ignore the difference between consciousness and memory, as well as the difference between short-term memory and long-term memory.

……

After the meeting ended, the time had almost reached night; early the next morning, Xia Duo called Dien to his original residence on the sixth floor.

In the Reception Room, Dien was a bit restrained; Xia Duo sighed slightly in his heart, took the initiative to brew a cup of tea for Dien, and only then asked about the second agenda item from yesterday:

"What is your opinion on developing the Progress Society into the Territory? I saw that you cast an abstention vote yesterday; let's have a private exchange."

"Xia Duo, I—"

Dien made a move to stand up, but was pressed down by Xia Duo, "I still hope to see the Dien who talked freely with me under the apple tree in the Arcane Garden, not the distant Dien now. Official business has its official ways, but this does not change our private friendship."

Dien was silent for a moment, then nodded and expressed his own thoughts: "Regarding developing the Progress Society into the Territory, I have no opinion on Daxia Territory because I have been there myself; it is simply the best hotbed for the Progress Society's ideology, but Savile Territory will not work; there is no foundation in Reality, and pushing it hard will be counterproductive."

"Just this?" Xia Duo was speechless for a moment.

Could it be that because it was not clearly stated which Territory it was, many people thought it was both Territories proceeding at the same time, which is why they cast abstention votes.

Then this is too much of a blunder!

"It is just because of this; I believe that many of those who cast abstention votes also have the same view as I do."

In his words, Dien also implicitly expressed his dissatisfaction with those radicals and conservatives, which actually allowed Xia Duo to see a more real Dien.