Poll and stories

The story of Ximena and the bees (Affection route) was one I wanted to write for a long time. I had a blueprint in my mind and had written the summary. For one, because it is a story that is as old as time. As one walks through the countryside, old villages receding, temples with only one monk left or two. How does small ecosystems, thriving and alive suddenly realize, after decades or centuries of decay that: it is too late. Clinging to that false hope that new fresh air will be brought in and suddenly revive things to be as of old. And sometimes, it does happen! A stranger arrives in the midst and suddenly breathes in new air. The very strangers that were seen as a threat is what is needed. In biology it is the very simple principle of homogeneity vs heterogeneity. On one side, the bees are too homogeneous, they only know what they know and are unable to see or seek beyond what they know slowly losing one after the other. Desperately needing something new yet thinking that if they do the same thing every time, maybe one day it will be different. The same applies here: if we make a statue or this landmark then tourists will come, money will come and the children that left for the city will come back. The tourists come, they leave and you are alone, empty again. They buy summer houses maybe and rarely come, you are still empty and alone. How hard is it to make new friends, real friends, new neighbours, new children and nurture an ecosystem that is viable and adapting to new times!

On the other hand, the hostility route is the contrary, excess of heterogeneity, an entire new system takes over, leaving nothing for those left behind. A conglomerate buys a company, takes 30-35% of all profits for five years then crashes/burns the company and sells it as "debt". We often tend to blame the "big corporation", yet the company who did poorly their research, accepted a quick sum of cash, without looking ahead to the future and lost everything in the process: work culture, work ethics, customers, relations, organisational structures, workflows and such.

It is both sad and comical to some extent, for example in Japan, to see so many villages and temples decay and yet when asking what the solutions is, the locals answer: continue to do the same thing as always and one day the younger ones will return or tourism is the answer. I am sure it is often the case in the West too, countries declining, living in a memory of an era of greater glory, blaming all sorts of extraneous circumstances, yet not taking the steps required to actually solve sustainably the impending crisis.

It is nonetheless a beautiful moment, and I sincerely wish to you all to experience once in your life, when a decaying homogeneous system suddenly has that moment: all is not lost. Life is sprouting again. Where they get to witness that influx of life and see, that all was not in vain and the assistance they so desperately needed has arrived.

One such example was in a region in the West, a man of darker complexion, from African or Carribean descent (a long ago article, cannot remember) arrived in a small town and immediately fell in love with it. All locals were Caucasian catholic fishermen or part of a declining tourist industry. The man in question poured his love and passion, fought tooth and nail to be part of the community and eventually started working to give a new life to the region. He was part of a larger movement, bringing new energy and hope into a system that was just turning a wheel day in day out with no obvious outcome.

Inversely, there is also great beauty when a system that was overtaken finds a way to strive through the conflicts and find their core essence anew, rather than devolve into blame games, give up or abandon all hope, when they find a way to work with the changes. It is easy to blame everybody else and take no responsibility. It is so much more difficult, in both cases to recognize the problem, sit down, think, talk and find a long-term solution.

I digress, maybe next time, we talk about the guiding psychological and philosophical guidelines behind the affection and hostile arcs.

For now, we have two dates in the game: Priya and Mina. Which character you would like to go on dates with next? (multiple choices)

P.S. the concept in the hostile route is extractive process. Should it be of interest, greatly recommend "Why nations fail" The basis of that book is what received economic nobel prize. Riveting work of economics, history, politics and more.