The thing about Yang (and Miriam) that REALLY gives me the creeps is their kind of ... eerie charisma. I listen to their quotes and find myself yearning to hear more, even though I disagree with both their philosophies.
He is truly an exceptional being. He was able to warp the results of the mental tests to get on board. He's convinced everyone can do this. And that's where the trouble starts.
@@stonem0013 the wrong people have already done this....really makes you think about why yah of the Torah warned against it...nothing new under the sun.
sheng-ji yang is definitely not "communist" (thats foreman domai's niche) and he is not totalitarian in the 20th century sense either. he's much more hardcore than that. for him things like happiness, suffering & self is a fleeting illusion anyway and individualism is a treacherous idea for the survival of humanity in such a hostile environment. the evolution of the species is the only thing that matters for him and he will do anything to secure it. the hive is foucault's "biopower" gone mad.
I’d call it ‘Centralized Hypercommunialism,’ myself. That way you can actually use the same terminology talking about eusocial organisms as one does when talking about this particularly inspired nightmare.
It could be called Hyper-collectivism with Unitarian-transhumanism characteristic. Much like Xeelee's Human Coalition, only there is no endless war with another alien race.
If our society seems more nihilistic than that of previous eras, perhaps this is simply a sign of our maturity as a sentient species. As our collective consciousness expands beyond a crucial point, we are at last ready to accept life's fundamental truth: that life's only purpose is life itself. Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Looking God in the Eye" seems legit.
This is actually one of the few quotes of his I can sorta understand. Even agree with. I am not a nihilist but I am an existentialist. I believe there is no set meaning to life except the one we create. But otherwise he is hard to find sympathetic
"One does not simply take sand from the beach, and produce a data-probe. We use crude tools to fashion better tools, and then our better tools to fashion more precise tools, and so on. Each minor refinement is a step in the process, and each step must be taken." Chairman Sheng-ji Yang: "Looking God in the Eye."
this is so incredibly wise, and it reminds me of Douglas Adams' last complete work, Mostly Harmless, when his protagonist, Arthur Dent, finds himself stranded on a primitive planet with an agrarian, pre-industrial civilization. He realizes, with some surprise and horror, that he has nothing to offer them. He is of no use to them and survives entirely off of their charity. While he knows how to use a computer and a microwave and a VCR, he couldn't possible begin teach them how to make something as basic as a light bulb from scratch, or even help them build a simple artesian well. He can just about assemble a decent sandwich, and that's the extent of his usefulness in the end. Every step must be taken, indeed.
I tell you that every man is an accident, a twig on the tree of life, an animal which can barely be called sentient or self-aware. If our lives have any meaning, it is as part of the greater whole, which existed long before us and will exist long after we are gone. Those of us who are aware of this fact must step forward, to guide those who remain snugly wrapped in their illusions. - Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Looking God in the Eye"' (from GURPS Alpha Centauri supplement)
he's basically a modern technocrat many of the ideas and philosophies he espouses are very popular amongst todays leadership caste. Also very popular in China. and Silicon Valley.
Yang was supposed to be representative of a political/social philosophy without making it unambiguously evil. Whether you percieve any faction leader as evil or good has more to do with what you think would be an ideal society than the writters pinning the villain tag on them. That makes SMAC very awesome compared to all those "Civ" games where the civs are all pretty much the same. PS: University and Spartan Federation rule :p
I'm a Gaian through and through, but I'm trying to write a concept album on each faction's ideologies and therefore trying my hardest to enter the mindset of Yang, Miriam, Morgan, etc.
All the leaders hold a piece of the truth. The truth is broken and confused by language, like the Tower of Babel, when the Unity split into 7 factions. Language warps the matrix through which we perceive the world.
+Yang Xiao Long It is not the name that makes the man great, it is the man that makes the name great.If you want your name to be associeated with something better then this you must do something great.
+Fignal Forest I don't Yang has too worry too much about with his hyper tyrannical fictional counterpart, Alpha Centauri is known by probably a quite narrow subset of geeks.
The year 2160 is still reachable for you, you'd be around the same age as Sheng-ji Yang if you are about 18 or so today. If you find yourself an enthusiast about shovels, underground cities and building walled defenses and notice you prefer quantity over quality, I think your destiny awaits.
He sounds to me more of a very serious Zen master than a legalism master, His citizens(The way it was meant to be anyway) don't do the things he consider wrong because there exists no valid reason to do so, not because they are afraid, a society built on fear is destroyed instantly when the fear runs out, Yang is smarter and wiser than that, and nihilism and zen is different, nihilism holds that stuff have no value, but zen sees stuff the way they really are, which to normal eye, looks like nihi
yeah and he can just manufacture genejacks to do all the heavy lifting. he's the socialist hive. Lal and the United Nations are more about legalism, I'm sure Mwabudike is into legalism but also corporate fascistic legalism as he hates Lals more democratic views, but Lal is a scumbag at the same time. They're all like that. very well written and concieved leaders. Its what Beyond Earth completely lacked.
Ah Chairman Yang, remember when we used to rule Alpha Centauri, what about those times where we crushed the decadent Morganites, good times, my friend, good times.
Pure brilliance. The writing is extraordinary. I got shivers listening to all these very insightful quotes, and this is from a FKN video game!?!? this game is a classic and should be remade, but with the same sound quotes.
Look at these comments. This is what happens when developers in the past dared to flatter the players intelligence by simply taking for granted that they would understand and grasp the subject matter at hand, without dumbing it down to accomodate 4 year olds. Oh how i miss this. Oh how i loathe the new MTV-style games developers whose peak in depth and intelligent dialogue results in "Yo dawg, i blast yo head off HEADSHOT. look a COMMIE!! DEFEND FREEDOM!" So fucking shallow, these days.
It's not just that they are shallow, but in many cases they are just plain incapable of good writing/chossing proper actors. Take Age of Wonders: Planetfall, for example. They obviously tried to reproduce the style of SMAC's quotes, but both the text and the voice acting is souless, boring and sometimes downright annoying.
@@btonasse That's a really interesting take! I've heard others say that the quotes are more camp, and that the game 'doesn't take itself seriously', and is therefore more fun
@@Whatsuppbuddies that proves that it only accommodates 4 year olds. a kid doesnt want to take any part of the game seriously. they just want to run and gun. they hate being forced to think like this and really hate coming to terms with that fact that our reality is actually a really shitty one. sure they can tolerate joking about reality being shitty. but they dont want to go deep into things
My college botany instructor sounded exactly like Sheng, his name was even Ji Yang. Though I don't think he dreams of being a totalitarian dictator, or is a sociopath.
*Be me, 9 years old, a victim of domestic abuse* *Escape reality through video games* *Build the Virtual World* *WhatdoIcareforyoursuffering.wav* Damn Yang, you got me good tho
Handing Yang the quote for stuff like Monopolar Magnets (the yin/yang dualism one) is a really wonderful demonstration of the philosophical underpinnings of science, and the multidisciplinary perspective of the makers of this masterpiece
I don't think that view of Legalism really fits the snapshot we see of Shen-ji Yang's philosophy in the game. His subjects are not meant to be afraid of violating the law, they are meant to be genetically tailored to follow biological imperatives and instincts that are compatible with a code of laws. Like his quote about the Gene Jack not being oppressed because he is created with the desire to work and live as he does without urges that would contradict his role.
It's legalism, just a bit reinforced (originally, fear was the only possible way to block evil of individual freedom, and in that century, more efficient methods happened) It's like saying it's not legalism because he cares about science and energy production instead of grain and army, while science and energy production ARE grain and army of modern time
Tarik360 Ah, but in the context of everything else he says, I think he's saying in a roundabout metaphorical way that the same is true of humanity and society. Take it down to zero things agreed with?
Yang is the embodiment of logic. He has overcome the primal demands of the body and set aside the illusions of morality to focus on the goals of the collective, and his only expectation is that his people follow his example. With that in mind, can Yang truly be called evil?
@@marsneedstowels Pravin Lal is a hypocrite. He harps on about freedom and human rights, right up until he stabs you in the back just because your base was too close to his. At least Yang is honest about being an asshole.
Reddit ideology is individualist. They see themselves as rebels going against the established order (despite agreeing with 90% of what this established order supports)
***** " where Plato arrives to the conclusion that we should cut our brain in order to live better as a society." Does he not pre-establish things like justice platonically, that is not open for discourse? " Plato recognized what Yang seems to deny, the soul or something close to it." I don't know of a coherent definition of the first, let alone the later that's suppose to be close to it.
***** The Brave New World genetic engineering Yang does is quite similar to Plato's idea of bronzes, silvers, and golds and the caste system tied to it. Plato argued for the abolition of the family in favor of the state, and in Yang's case the state is the family and decides who is born and who dies. The individual and his liberty are subsumed before the state. Yang is the Philosopher-King with absolute authority. It is true that Plato sought his morals not from physical reality but through a metaphysical logos, but Yang also draws from Taoism, cynicism, and other ascetic, non-materialist philosophies despite grounding human behavior and the "soul" entirely through mechanistic processes. You could say that Yang tries to harmonize the physical world with the Platonic logos.
Yang actually wants to create a utopia for the entire human race but he cant do that untill every other faction has been eradicated,hence is extreme aggresion towards other factions and willingness to commit attrocities in favor of the goals of group (human race) in the long run. in my opinion while he is machiavellian in nature he is more intrested in philosophy then power.
Indeed, Marx's vision of society's evolution to Communism was quite slow: Primitivism->Feudalism->Industrial Capitalism->Advanced Capitalism->Social Democracy->Socialism->Communism. Mao and Stalin tried to compress what should have been decades of development into five years, and it didn't end well. Marx would not have believed that states like the USSR and China could have had a chance at success,
I mean, the states had destroyed the possibility of communism by their mere existence. The idea of state and so class society is in opposition to communism. Although all Marxist-Leninist states could be called dictatorships of the proletariat, calling them dictatorships of the party is more accurate. As much, the relation between state and the rest of society was often antagonistic, the state taking the role of the ruling class, the party taking power over the state. As such, with Stalin's inability to understand Marxist economics to allow for commodity production (capitalist production in essence, there's more to it of course) and his lack of understanding to undermine the dictatorship of the party. As such, the party and state were the capitalist and antagonistic force of society. The proletariat were as they always were, although the state was more socially minded than most at the time.
@@Saya-vk9dr I just want to add that it was heavily acknowledged in Lenin's times that the Russian revolution would not follow the structure Marx had envisioned. It is a well known part of communist theory that a geographic area/society has to go through a period at least resembling capitalism in order to build up the means of production. Only after this period of growth can the people shift into a communist mode of production and finally lead good lives. The Russian vanguard were trying to take a society from a feudal mode of production to the end goal of a communistic one, and so an intermediary period of quasi-capitalism enforced by the state had to be mandated. IIRC this was also used as an excuse by the CCP when they reformed their economy in the 70's. I honestly can't tell if this is the right way or not. Does the human suffering during these periods of quasi-capitalism justify the meteoric growth of both the Soviet union and China? Communism has sometimes been called the ideology of industry/machines and I have to agree with this view, right now communism has the best plan for how to deal with the impending 'crisis' of automation.
Lies. Marx never advocated for social democracy (this is just capitalism with some bribes to the working class to stop them from going communist). Marx was a revolutionary through and through
@Lordofthedonut its important to remember that yang falls back on mind cotnrol only because of the circumstances. in a world where the other factions will take any chance they can to invade and dismantel the hive. mind control would most likley be used ina emergancy situattions Ex) being attacked by a mass of spartan impact rovers, and then the people have riot at the same time another example could be putting down a drown riot in a city completing a major project vital to the hives survival .
Inequality between individuals may indeed be vaguely "deserved", but when those of "subordinate" class stand together as a group the group should be equal if not greater in power to the elite-that is the fundamental idea to democracy. Totalitarian and tyrannical societies-whether they be Communist, Capitalist, Randian, or whatever else-fail to meet this foundation of democracy.
Subordination only applies within skill ranks of a profession. A lawyer, a doctor, a plumber, and a particle physicist that have all developed their skills at equal levels stand as equals because who is decide which skill is greater than the other? A society could need lawyers above all one day, doctors the next, plumbers, particle physicists and so on. Even low-skill workers as a group stand as equals to their employers by unionization.
@Abelol also to clear things up when i say mind control im reffering to the the constant nerve stapeling a plethera of the factions leaders take part in as well the methods they use later on ( after discovering later technologys)
Ernest Lewicki I suppose you could interpret "willpower" as being the will to do what is necessary and pragmatic, despite your distaste for it. It's a bit of a stretch, but it does follow Yang's general reasoning.
This is the thing. He is an exceptional person.(He was able to trick the psyche tests to get aboard) He honestly believes that anyone can get to his level with sufficient work.
@Lordofthedonut also when he does finally take over chrion (if) mind control would probbally be a rarity even during riots because it would be less of a risk to national security of hive
@Abelol if im not mistaken every faction ( except for the peace keepers and gaians most of the time lol ) end up using mind control quite often im going under the assumption (accurate or not ) that yang wont branch of from the original plan for the hive and become ever more obsessed with power to the point where he disregards the "greater good" as he puts it. And if he does go down that road even with the tight control he has over the hive i doubt he will stay in power to long
Once that happens the division of labour will disappear, with class distinctions along with it. That means that although its the working class are the ones who carry out the task it is the whole of humanity that is liberated because the basis of exploitative society is abolished. This human community is plainly not this upside-down pyramid, it is in actuality an individual reconciled with the social subject, the community. Without this reconciliation he can only ever be atomised and alienated.
@logicpwnsemotion USSR's communism was supposed to be a temporal phase before disbanding means of control and forming a socialist state. History tells again and again that the target doesn't justify the means. Even if given ideal conditions Yang would never give up power, he would reason that the planet is not ready yet, the people still needs his guidance and leadership and that there are enemies within the state. Justifying mind control in any situation is just ridiculous.
Those times are long gone. You might get lucky here and there with small studios. For example, Battle Brothers game. They are about to launch a new game set in space
I think that Yang main goal is not spreading communism idea at all. In my opinion he seems to be 'enlighted' man wich threat life as it is in the reality not as we wanted to be - as I read about zazen mediation, 'enlightment' idea there seems similar to me to Yang perspective of view. - sorry for english ;)
From all the leaders from SMAC, I found Sheng-ji Yang to be the msot terrifying of all: collectivism and materialism taken to their horrifying ultimate consequence. Its something so extreme that fascism or communism seem to be outright soft and benign in comparison, whiley those ideologies still try to make some effort into pretending they care about human happiness and fulfillment, Sehng-ji Yang make no such excuses or pretences, it is the mere amorality (which, in turns, become aimmorality) of someone who can brook no transcendence, no meaning beyond the collective. Its unrelentingly evil, cruel, sociopathic. Its terrifying.
It's beyond good and evil. Those inside his society can feel neither happiness nor pain. It's terrifying to you because you are attached to your way of living and thinking
@@alfredredl326 Ah yes, ataraxia (greek for "tranquility") certainly does seem attractive to someone who is too afraid of living and not merely subsisting as a subsumed will, merely following the motions and never experiencing what life has to offer. But what kind of life is that? for both suffering and pleasure are necessary parts of a meaningful whole we call life, this includes individuality and free-will. To deny this to a sentient being is morally abhorrent, it is evil, plain and simple.
@@MyriadColorsCM meaning, pleasure, pain and even free will are perception just as anything is to man since without perception we are nothing. The lives of the citizens of yang's society are much more meaningful since they are programed to be, their free will is as real as ours since they follow the directives of their will and they can't help it just as we can't . Theirs are programed by the hive ours by nature but they are as free as we are. By calling it evil or cowardly you are saying it's so abhorrent to your values that you'll close your eyes to it. You are emotionally attached to your values and thinking.
@@alfredredl326 I agree that, if we accept Schopenhauer´s injunction that Will and World are one and the same, such that ontology is reduced to mere perception, we cannot hold that moral values has any more meaning than the fact we perceive the sky to be blue. However it is nowhere near as obvious to me, as it seems to be to you, that he was right and such nihilistic idealism is correct, so far a metaphysics goes. To be programmed to serve a fixed and predetermined teleology in society is, I argue, a fate worse than death, for at least in death one can rest unmolested, rather than to be violated to the ultimate degree, it is to have even your humanity denied. This is evil in its final stage: when it considers itself above even the concept of morality itself. But, isn´t transcending morality (and thus becoming its source) the realm of a God itself? Does Yang not see himself as a godlike being, orchestrating hi perfect society? Consider the fact that, without Yang, his great society-like machine, becomes entirely meaningless and directionless. And that, this fact is the ultimate point of Yang´s ideology: it is not about the betterment of the life of his drone, but the aggrandizement of Yang´s existence. Despite Yang´s claim that the individual is meaningless, he is the ultimate individualist, in the end, for he is so insecure and cowardly to share the world with others, that he feels that, unless his own individuality can no longer be threatened by the fact that any other will exist in his world, he cannot fully self-actualize.
What are basing you your observations on? Because it's certainly not from Marx. You seem to be referring to the dictatorship of the proletariat, in which the workers take control of their means of production, and the state, and abolish the previously existing dictatorship of the bourgeoise. However the DotP is only a temporary and transitionary thing, it is in the class' best interest to abolish said state apparatus, which only exist to maintain their separation under capital.
I don't think you have a consistent definition of rule of law. In modern society, law is the written, authentic, public system of rights and sanctions enforceable by the state. The law can only sustain itself through violence while maintaining that it is the does so due to general will, this means law can only codify rights embedded in the existing state and in particular the interests of the ruling class in society- maintaining a balance of force so authority can apear to stand above society.
@logicpwnsemotion Then how is that a utopia? Mind control is hardly ideal. There has to be free will. But I do like some of the things the Chairman is saying. Very interesting.
@DaveElectric I'm not so sure that he's full of shit. His thoughts just seem very alien to us. In reality he's no worse than any of the other SMAC factions except perhaps Lal's Peacekeepers.
I despise people crying around "they should publish X", while The factions are derived from the very existing social ideologies. Hive and Sheng-ji Yang are based on China and Chairman Mao, in the western popular perception, of course.
Inspired by, perhaps. But Yang's philosophy is very very different from Chairman Mao when taken as a whole. He's Mao flavored, but not the same substance.
Socialism is a seperate ideology from communism, most of Europe adopted socialism following the world wars, including England, and they still follow those ideas today. That does not mean any of them are communist.
I think you've made a mistake by implying that FPS games are inherently shallow and stupid. There's plenty that have made clever statements about society and other games. Bioshock and Spec Ops are the two most obvious examples, both having interesting things to say about how players interact with the games they play, but they're only two of many intelligent modern games. I do agree that the CoD audience is idiotic, but you should remember that games in the 90s weren't all like Alpha Centauri.
Law is created when the class system begins, however there is no such thing as workers' law, only the dismantling of capitalist law as society transitions from capitalism into communism. The rule of law is not neutral, it is tied into political economy, just as exploitation cannot be class neutral, nor can law. Both institutions must be abolished otherwise the proletarian movement will be crushed.
You probably play Uni, Morgan, or Lal dont you? Nothing more satisfying than rolling up on you weenies earlygame as Miriam or Yang and skullfucking your lunch money out of you.
@@lemurpotatoes7988 If you take the version of her given in the quotes and backstory, sure. But her behavior in SMAC gameplay is utterly insane, like straight-up Inquisition. And she's a complete loon in the books.
![Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang quotes [Alpha Centauri]](/img/1.gif)
I wish I could read "Looking God in the eye".
You'll probably be fine with Nietzsche and Mao's Little Red Book
Nah, judt Yang's, thanks.
Come to think about it, a lot of the leaders come off as having memoirs worth reading
They say, if you want to read a book but can't find it. You should write it. Just saying...
The thing about Yang (and Miriam) that REALLY gives me the creeps is their kind of ... eerie charisma. I listen to their quotes and find myself yearning to hear more, even though I disagree with both their philosophies.
He is truly an exceptional being. He was able to warp the results of the mental tests to get on board.
He's convinced everyone can do this. And that's where the trouble starts.
@Magni56 until you find out there is a non physical aspect to reality
@@Bloodlyshiva he is correct that everyone can do this. The problem is, at what cost?
@@stonem0013 the wrong people have already done this....really makes you think about why yah of the Torah warned against it...nothing new under the sun.
@@KiddPrime not interested in low IQ religious babbling, sorry
sheng-ji yang is definitely not "communist" (thats foreman domai's niche) and he is not totalitarian in the 20th century sense either. he's much more hardcore than that. for him things like happiness, suffering & self is a fleeting illusion anyway and individualism is a treacherous idea for the survival of humanity in such a hostile environment. the evolution of the species is the only thing that matters for him and he will do anything to secure it. the hive is foucault's "biopower" gone mad.
Indeed, his society is what it is named... the Human 'Hive'.
I’d call it ‘Centralized Hypercommunialism,’ myself. That way you can actually use the same terminology talking about eusocial organisms as one does when talking about this particularly inspired nightmare.
Bio-Leninism
It could be called Hyper-collectivism with Unitarian-transhumanism characteristic. Much like Xeelee's Human Coalition, only there is no endless war with another alien race.
He's better described as an Absolute Collectivist
Yang definitely has the most fascinating philosophy in the game. His quotes video is the one that has been most commented on.
If our society seems more nihilistic than that of previous eras, perhaps this is simply a sign of our maturity as a sentient species. As our collective consciousness expands beyond a crucial point, we are at last ready to accept life's fundamental truth: that life's only purpose is life itself.
Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Looking God in the Eye"
seems legit.
disturbing
This is actually one of the few quotes of his I can sorta understand. Even agree with. I am not a nihilist but I am an existentialist. I believe there is no set meaning to life except the one we create. But otherwise he is hard to find sympathetic
@@athenasyren1862Yangs a hypocrite: he’s in charge of a society of slaves.
"it is every citizen's final duty to go into da tanks...and to become one with all da people"
Bernie Sanders,
"Looking Conglomerates in the Eye"
"Looking God in the eye" sounds like one hell of a book. I almost wish it was real.
There is so much genius in the writing of this game.
His logic is perversion. A horrid concept of the self.
"One does not simply take sand from the beach, and produce a data-probe. We use crude tools to fashion better tools, and then our better tools to fashion more precise tools, and so on. Each minor refinement is a step in the process, and each step must be taken."
Chairman Sheng-ji Yang: "Looking God in the Eye."
this is so incredibly wise, and it reminds me of Douglas Adams' last complete work, Mostly Harmless, when his protagonist, Arthur Dent, finds himself stranded on a primitive planet with an agrarian, pre-industrial civilization. He realizes, with some surprise and horror, that he has nothing to offer them. He is of no use to them and survives entirely off of their charity. While he knows how to use a computer and a microwave and a VCR, he couldn't possible begin teach them how to make something as basic as a light bulb from scratch, or even help them build a simple artesian well. He can just about assemble a decent sandwich, and that's the extent of his usefulness in the end. Every step must be taken, indeed.
I tell you that every man is an accident, a twig on the tree of life, an animal which can barely be called sentient or self-aware. If our lives have any meaning, it is as part of the greater whole, which existed long before us and will exist long after we are gone. Those of us who are aware of this fact must step forward, to guide those who remain snugly wrapped in their illusions.
- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Looking God in the Eye"' (from GURPS Alpha Centauri supplement)
I wouldn't want to be part of the hive, but he has hands down the best quotes in the game
Amen.
I don't think I would mind to much.
@@SpaceRaptor510 You would be engineered not to
@@arik_dev That was what I was trying to imply
he's basically a modern technocrat many of the ideas and philosophies he espouses are very popular amongst todays leadership caste. Also very popular in China. and Silicon Valley.
Yang was supposed to be representative of a political/social philosophy without making it unambiguously evil. Whether you percieve any faction leader as evil or good has more to do with what you think would be an ideal society than the writters pinning the villain tag on them. That makes SMAC very awesome compared to all those "Civ" games where the civs are all pretty much the same.
PS: University and Spartan Federation rule :p
I'm a Gaian through and through, but I'm trying to write a concept album on each faction's ideologies and therefore trying my hardest to enter the mindset of Yang, Miriam, Morgan, etc.
@@seosamh.forbes Miriam's the most easy to understand considering she's basically saying "maybe we should slow down before we go to far".
@@seosamh.forbes May I hear any of your albums? Interested. Thank you.
@@vincegalila7211 honestly whenever I play a new game my main goal is to wipe out Miriam because I despise Christianity
@@ladyhm.6748 Look up Naturewalk on Spotify or RUclips
Allow me to enter the tanks, chairman. In your name!
Bro kept yang profile picture all these years, respect
Yang is Truth. Yang is the Way.
All the leaders hold a piece of the truth. The truth is broken and confused by language, like the Tower of Babel, when the Unity split into 7 factions. Language warps the matrix through which we perceive the world.
Yikes, I'm never typing my name into RUclips again. This guy is fucking crazy.
+Yang Xiao Long It is not the name that makes the man great, it is the man that makes the name great.If you want your name to be associeated with something better then this you must do something great.
+Fignal Forest I don't Yang has too worry too much about with his hyper tyrannical fictional counterpart, Alpha Centauri is known by probably a quite narrow subset of geeks.
+ElectricChaplain correction: I don't think Yang has to worry*
Damn you alcohol.
+ElectricChaplain Devil's mouthwash, eh?
The year 2160 is still reachable for you, you'd be around the same age as Sheng-ji Yang if you are about 18 or so today.
If you find yourself an enthusiast about shovels, underground cities and building walled defenses and notice you prefer quantity over quality, I think your destiny awaits.
He sounds to me more of a very serious Zen master than a legalism master,
His citizens(The way it was meant to be anyway) don't do the things he consider wrong because there exists no valid reason to do so, not because they are afraid, a society built on fear is destroyed instantly when the fear runs out, Yang is smarter and wiser than that, and nihilism and zen is different, nihilism holds that stuff have no value, but zen sees stuff the way they really are, which to normal eye, looks like nihi
I see it as a cruel and inhuman perversion of Zen
yeah and he can just manufacture genejacks to do all the heavy lifting. he's the socialist hive. Lal and the United Nations are more about legalism, I'm sure Mwabudike is into legalism but also corporate fascistic legalism as he hates Lals more democratic views, but Lal is a scumbag at the same time. They're all like that. very well written and concieved leaders. Its what Beyond Earth completely lacked.
Ah Chairman Yang, remember when we used to rule Alpha Centauri, what about those times where we crushed the decadent Morganites, good times, my friend, good times.
Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded.
With God everything is permitted.
No everything is not permitted with God.
Pure brilliance. The writing is extraordinary. I got shivers listening to all these very insightful quotes, and this is from a FKN video game!?!? this game is a classic and should be remade, but with the same sound quotes.
Look at these comments. This is what happens when developers in the past dared to flatter the players intelligence by simply taking for granted that they would understand and grasp the subject matter at hand, without dumbing it down to accomodate 4 year olds.
Oh how i miss this. Oh how i loathe the new MTV-style games developers whose peak in depth and intelligent dialogue results in "Yo dawg, i blast yo head off HEADSHOT. look a COMMIE!! DEFEND FREEDOM!"
So fucking shallow, these days.
It's not just that they are shallow, but in many cases they are just plain incapable of good writing/chossing proper actors. Take Age of Wonders: Planetfall, for example. They obviously tried to reproduce the style of SMAC's quotes, but both the text and the voice acting is souless, boring and sometimes downright annoying.
@@btonasse That's a really interesting take! I've heard others say that the quotes are more camp, and that the game 'doesn't take itself seriously', and is therefore more fun
@@Whatsuppbuddies that proves that it only accommodates 4 year olds. a kid doesnt want to take any part of the game seriously. they just want to run and gun. they hate being forced to think like this and really hate coming to terms with that fact that our reality is actually a really shitty one. sure they can tolerate joking about reality being shitty. but they dont want to go deep into things
@@stevenmugnaini2938 okay boomer
My college botany instructor sounded exactly like Sheng, his name was even Ji Yang. Though I don't think he dreams of being a totalitarian dictator, or is a sociopath.
You didn't check?
@@tamlandipper29 Wrong job track for subjugation.
That moment in the quote about how science is an iterative process where you realize he isn't talking about inanimate tools...
3:18 I always remembered this quote when people talk about how people are not "believing in anything".
*Be me, 9 years old, a victim of domestic abuse*
*Escape reality through video games*
*Build the Virtual World*
*WhatdoIcareforyoursuffering.wav*
Damn Yang, you got me good tho
This guy always scared the shit out of me - and still does.
Handing Yang the quote for stuff like Monopolar Magnets (the yin/yang dualism one) is a really wonderful demonstration of the philosophical underpinnings of science, and the multidisciplinary perspective of the makers of this masterpiece
Post-humanism, egalitarianism, and authoritarianism. MMmmmm. . . I wish I could vote for Chairman Yang.
Authoritarianism? Guess I found the Trump supporter.
Hey, have you read Deleuze and Nick Land?
nah, he votes for you. And looking by the result, he voted for you to be in the tank
He's the closest I've ever found to my ideology
hallerd Ah, so you'd orefer corporations have the power then
Based
I love this game with a passion. 0:35 quite well sums up the Hive. :)
Yang is brilliant.
I don't think that view of Legalism really fits the snapshot we see of Shen-ji Yang's philosophy in the game. His subjects are not meant to be afraid of violating the law, they are meant to be genetically tailored to follow biological imperatives and instincts that are compatible with a code of laws. Like his quote about the Gene Jack not being oppressed because he is created with the desire to work and live as he does without urges that would contradict his role.
It's legalism, just a bit reinforced (originally, fear was the only possible way to block evil of individual freedom, and in that century, more efficient methods happened)
It's like saying it's not legalism because he cares about science and energy production instead of grain and army, while science and energy production ARE grain and army of modern time
0:36 the most memorable quote, perhaps through repetition.
2:30 May be one of the only things he said I can agree with.
Tarik360
Ah, but in the context of everything else he says, I think he's saying in a roundabout metaphorical way that the same is true of humanity and society. Take it down to zero things agreed with?
Yang is the embodiment of logic. He has overcome the primal demands of the body and set aside the illusions of morality to focus on the goals of the collective, and his only expectation is that his people follow his example.
With that in mind, can Yang truly be called evil?
Pravin Lal: ಠ_ಠ
@@marsneedstowels Pravin Lal is a hypocrite. He harps on about freedom and human rights, right up until he stabs you in the back just because your base was too close to his. At least Yang is honest about being an asshole.
I wish they skipped the cheesy Chinese zither music in the background. So incongrous with what this guy is about.
Yeah, something more industrial and ominous would fit the tyrannical bastard better.
Brave New World.
#YangGang2020
average reddit science enthusiast
I think you’re looking for zakharov
Reddit ideology is individualist. They see themselves as rebels going against the established order (despite agreeing with 90% of what this established order supports)
There needs to be a graphical remaster of this game. Improve the AI and reanimate the secret project videos, but otherwise change nothing.
Me encanta su voz y manera de hablar.
Yang is the embodiment of Plato's Republic.
***** " where Plato arrives to the conclusion that we should cut our brain in order to live better as a society."
Does he not pre-establish things like justice platonically, that is not open for discourse?
" Plato recognized what Yang seems to deny, the soul or something close to it."
I don't know of a coherent definition of the first, let alone the later that's suppose to be close to it.
***** The Brave New World genetic engineering Yang does is quite similar to Plato's idea of bronzes, silvers, and golds and the caste system tied to it. Plato argued for the abolition of the family in favor of the state, and in Yang's case the state is the family and decides who is born and who dies. The individual and his liberty are subsumed before the state. Yang is the Philosopher-King with absolute authority. It is true that Plato sought his morals not from physical reality but through a metaphysical logos, but Yang also draws from Taoism, cynicism, and other ascetic, non-materialist philosophies despite grounding human behavior and the "soul" entirely through mechanistic processes. You could say that Yang tries to harmonize the physical world with the Platonic logos.
Chinese Legalism
Yang actually wants to create a utopia for the entire human race but he cant do that untill every other faction has been eradicated,hence is extreme aggresion towards other factions and willingness to commit attrocities in favor of the goals of group (human race) in the long run. in my opinion while he is machiavellian in nature he is more intrested in philosophy then power.
so many happy moments with u as my puppet Mr. Yang
I notice you're not going into the tanks yourself there, buddy.
The tanks are recycling tanks after the person has died
Yang can live forever, a few thousand years, or even 500.
*OFF TO THE TANKS WITH YOU*
0:35 You're welcome
Indeed, Marx's vision of society's evolution to Communism was quite slow:
Primitivism->Feudalism->Industrial Capitalism->Advanced Capitalism->Social Democracy->Socialism->Communism. Mao and Stalin tried to compress what should have been decades of development into five years, and it didn't end well.
Marx would not have believed that states like the USSR and China could have had a chance at success,
I mean, the states had destroyed the possibility of communism by their mere existence. The idea of state and so class society is in opposition to communism. Although all Marxist-Leninist states could be called dictatorships of the proletariat, calling them dictatorships of the party is more accurate. As much, the relation between state and the rest of society was often antagonistic, the state taking the role of the ruling class, the party taking power over the state. As such, with Stalin's inability to understand Marxist economics to allow for commodity production (capitalist production in essence, there's more to it of course) and his lack of understanding to undermine the dictatorship of the party. As such, the party and state were the capitalist and antagonistic force of society. The proletariat were as they always were, although the state was more socially minded than most at the time.
@@Saya-vk9dr I just want to add that it was heavily acknowledged in Lenin's times that the Russian revolution would not follow the structure Marx had envisioned. It is a well known part of communist theory that a geographic area/society has to go through a period at least resembling capitalism in order to build up the means of production. Only after this period of growth can the people shift into a communist mode of production and finally lead good lives. The Russian vanguard were trying to take a society from a feudal mode of production to the end goal of a communistic one, and so an intermediary period of quasi-capitalism enforced by the state had to be mandated. IIRC this was also used as an excuse by the CCP when they reformed their economy in the 70's.
I honestly can't tell if this is the right way or not. Does the human suffering during these periods of quasi-capitalism justify the meteoric growth of both the Soviet union and China?
Communism has sometimes been called the ideology of industry/machines and I have to agree with this view, right now communism has the best plan for how to deal with the impending 'crisis' of automation.
Lies. Marx never advocated for social democracy (this is just capitalism with some bribes to the working class to stop them from going communist). Marx was a revolutionary through and through
@Lordofthedonut its important to remember that yang falls back on mind cotnrol only because of the circumstances. in a world where the other factions will take any chance they can to invade and dismantel the hive. mind control would most likley be used ina emergancy situattions Ex) being attacked by a mass of spartan impact rovers, and then the people have riot at the same time another example could be putting down a drown riot in a city completing a major project vital to the hives survival .
Inequality between individuals may indeed be vaguely "deserved", but when those of "subordinate" class stand together as a group the group should be equal if not greater in power to the elite-that is the fundamental idea to democracy. Totalitarian and tyrannical societies-whether they be Communist, Capitalist, Randian, or whatever else-fail to meet this foundation of democracy.
I'd prefer an Admiral Yang over a Chairman Yang
Liberty stands for freedom.
Subordination only applies within skill ranks of a profession. A lawyer, a doctor, a plumber, and a particle physicist that have all developed their skills at equal levels stand as equals because who is decide which skill is greater than the other? A society could need lawyers above all one day, doctors the next, plumbers, particle physicists and so on. Even low-skill workers as a group stand as equals to their employers by unionization.
And if you didn't understand they encouraged you to find out and learn for yourself as well :)
I wish I could go into the tanks..
You will. don't worry
@Abelol also to clear things up when i say mind control im reffering to the the constant nerve stapeling a plethera of the factions leaders take part in as well the methods they use later on ( after discovering later technologys)
Andrew Yang 2020
Xi Jinping Philosophy xDD
Yang is the ultimate Legalist and, ironically, Stoic.
They made Yang sound stupid when they put in his mouth that "enlightement is a matter of willpower". I refuse to accept it's authentic.
Ernest Lewicki I suppose you could interpret "willpower" as being the will to do what is necessary and pragmatic, despite your distaste for it. It's a bit of a stretch, but it does follow Yang's general reasoning.
+Ernest Lewicki It's just Nietzsche lol
This is the thing. He is an exceptional person.(He was able to trick the psyche tests to get aboard) He honestly believes that anyone can get to his level with sufficient work.
@@Bloodlyshiva I better get started!
how did you isolate the vocals from the video?? its really good!
@Lordofthedonut also when he does finally take over chrion (if) mind control would probbally be a rarity even during riots because it would be less of a risk to national security of hive
@Abelol if im not mistaken every faction ( except for the peace keepers and gaians most of the time lol )
end up using mind control quite often im going under the assumption (accurate or not ) that yang wont branch of from the original plan for the hive and become ever more obsessed with power to the point where he disregards the "greater good" as he puts it. And if he does go down that road even with the tight control he has over the hive i doubt he will stay in power to long
Once that happens the division of labour will disappear, with class distinctions along with it. That means that although its the working class are the ones who carry out the task it is the whole of humanity that is liberated because the basis of exploitative society is abolished. This human community is plainly not this upside-down pyramid, it is in actuality an individual reconciled with the social subject, the community. Without this reconciliation he can only ever be atomised and alienated.
"Looking God in the Eye" would be a best seller on Amazon
@logicpwnsemotion
USSR's communism was supposed to be a temporal phase before disbanding means of control and forming a socialist state.
History tells again and again that the target doesn't justify the means.
Even if given ideal conditions Yang would never give up power, he would reason that the planet is not ready yet, the people still needs his guidance and leadership and that there are enemies within the state.
Justifying mind control in any situation is just ridiculous.
Say what you like about Yang but once you're aware of his background you know he practices what he preaches
chairman yang is my brothers hero
@Abelol sadly though i have never had a chance to read the alpha centauri books to find out if yang ends up going down the path i described earlier
Spartans best faction
@Erdeezet Utopia through mind control perhaps. but utopia non the less
Game studios need to spend less on hyper realistic graphics, and more on writing and research
Those times are long gone. You might get lucky here and there with small studios. For example, Battle Brothers game. They are about to launch a new game set in space
I think that Yang main goal is not spreading communism idea at all. In my opinion he seems to be 'enlighted' man wich threat life as it is in the reality not as we wanted to be - as I read about zazen mediation, 'enlightment' idea there seems similar to me to Yang perspective of view. - sorry for english ;)
I’d either go with human hive or Spartans
is there a database or transcript of all the quotes? from this and any other faction and project?
All faction leaders in this game are more or less arrogant and self-sufficient.
Maybe not Deirdre or Lal.
Did you miss the part about abolishing the division of labour?
From all the leaders from SMAC, I found Sheng-ji Yang to be the msot terrifying of all: collectivism and materialism taken to their horrifying ultimate consequence. Its something so extreme that fascism or communism seem to be outright soft and benign in comparison, whiley those ideologies still try to make some effort into pretending they care about human happiness and fulfillment, Sehng-ji Yang make no such excuses or pretences, it is the mere amorality (which, in turns, become aimmorality) of someone who can brook no transcendence, no meaning beyond the collective. Its unrelentingly evil, cruel, sociopathic.
Its terrifying.
What’s interesting is that yang benefits the most from eudamonia, the most utopian future society
It's beyond good and evil. Those inside his society can feel neither happiness nor pain. It's terrifying to you because you are attached to your way of living and thinking
@@alfredredl326 Ah yes, ataraxia (greek for "tranquility") certainly does seem attractive to someone who is too afraid of living and not merely subsisting as a subsumed will, merely following the motions and never experiencing what life has to offer.
But what kind of life is that? for both suffering and pleasure are necessary parts of a meaningful whole we call life, this includes individuality and free-will.
To deny this to a sentient being is morally abhorrent, it is evil, plain and simple.
@@MyriadColorsCM meaning, pleasure, pain and even free will are perception just as anything is to man since without perception we are nothing. The lives of the citizens of yang's society are much more meaningful since they are programed to be, their free will is as real as ours since they follow the directives of their will and they can't help it just as we can't . Theirs are programed by the hive ours by nature but they are as free as we are. By calling it evil or cowardly you are saying it's so abhorrent to your values that you'll close your eyes to it. You are emotionally attached to your values and thinking.
@@alfredredl326
I agree that, if we accept Schopenhauer´s injunction that Will and World are one and the same, such that ontology is reduced to mere perception, we cannot hold that moral values has any more meaning than the fact we perceive the sky to be blue.
However it is nowhere near as obvious to me, as it seems to be to you, that he was right and such nihilistic idealism is correct, so far a metaphysics goes.
To be programmed to serve a fixed and predetermined teleology in society is, I argue, a fate worse than death, for at least in death one can rest unmolested, rather than to be violated to the ultimate degree, it is to have even your humanity denied.
This is evil in its final stage: when it considers itself above even the concept of morality itself. But, isn´t transcending morality (and thus becoming its source) the realm of a God itself? Does Yang not see himself as a godlike being, orchestrating hi perfect society? Consider the fact that, without Yang, his great society-like machine, becomes entirely meaningless and directionless.
And that, this fact is the ultimate point of Yang´s ideology: it is not about the betterment of the life of his drone, but the aggrandizement of Yang´s existence.
Despite Yang´s claim that the individual is meaningless, he is the ultimate individualist, in the end, for he is so insecure and cowardly to share the world with others, that he feels that, unless his own individuality can no longer be threatened by the fact that any other will exist in his world, he cannot fully self-actualize.
Space Buddhist
i know im awesome
0:51 Sorry to Bother You
Chairman Yang 2020, fund our NEETBUX with genetically engineered slaves
Actualy social democracy does fit under socialism.
Deidre forever.
Mind worm fuck? No thanks.
What are basing you your observations on? Because it's certainly not from Marx. You seem to be referring to the dictatorship of the proletariat, in which the workers take control of their means of production, and the state, and abolish the previously existing dictatorship of the bourgeoise. However the DotP is only a temporary and transitionary thing, it is in the class' best interest to abolish said state apparatus, which only exist to maintain their separation under capital.
I don't think you have a consistent definition of rule of law. In modern society, law is the written, authentic, public system of rights and sanctions enforceable by the state. The law can only sustain itself through violence while maintaining that it is the does so due to general will, this means law can only codify rights embedded in the existing state and in particular the interests of the ruling class in society- maintaining a balance of force so authority can apear to stand above society.
@Abelol by the sides im not trying to justify Political views im simply stating my opnion on how i feel yang (TRIES) to run the hive
@logicpwnsemotion Then how is that a utopia? Mind control is hardly ideal. There has to be free will. But I do like some of the things the Chairman is saying. Very interesting.
@logicpwnsemotion Utopia through mind control... No thanks.
He's pretty much the opposite of a communist, Communism is more the Free Drones bag.
@DaveElectric
I'm not so sure that he's full of shit. His thoughts just seem very alien to us. In reality he's no worse than any of the other SMAC factions except perhaps Lal's Peacekeepers.
Sheng ji yang>jesus
im probably gonna flaged for that :-/
Social democracy is merely the stage before socialism.
I despise people crying around "they should publish X", while The factions are derived from the very existing social ideologies. Hive and Sheng-ji Yang are based on China and Chairman Mao, in the western popular perception, of course.
Inspired by, perhaps. But Yang's philosophy is very very different from Chairman Mao when taken as a whole. He's Mao flavored, but not the same substance.
@@saradanhoff6539 Thats why he said "western popular preception"
Socialism is a seperate ideology from communism, most of Europe adopted socialism following the world wars, including England, and they still follow those ideas today. That does not mean any of them are communist.
I think you've made a mistake by implying that FPS games are inherently shallow and stupid. There's plenty that have made clever statements about society and other games. Bioshock and Spec Ops are the two most obvious examples, both having interesting things to say about how players interact with the games they play, but they're only two of many intelligent modern games.
I do agree that the CoD audience is idiotic, but you should remember that games in the 90s weren't all like Alpha Centauri.
Law is created when the class system begins, however there is no such thing as workers' law, only the dismantling of capitalist law as society transitions from capitalism into communism. The rule of law is not neutral, it is tied into political economy, just as exploitation cannot be class neutral, nor can law. Both institutions must be abolished otherwise the proletarian movement will be crushed.
The second most hated faction for me--only Miriam is worse.
You probably play Uni, Morgan, or Lal dont you? Nothing more satisfying than rolling up on you weenies earlygame as Miriam or Yang and skullfucking your lunch money out of you.
Miriam is the most human faction leader
@@lemurpotatoes7988 If you take the version of her given in the quotes and backstory, sure. But her behavior in SMAC gameplay is utterly insane, like straight-up Inquisition. And she's a complete loon in the books.
Marxist-Leninism? Lol he never talks about class.
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