The Fox of France

Chapter 515: Bribery

Overall, Professor Bobron's lecture was very successful. Of course, if Joseph had reviewed his speech beforehand, perhaps phrases like “The moment I step out the front door, I never plan to step back through it again” might have been added.

After this memorial service, the relationship between the North and South became even more antagonistic. In the past, the criticism of the so-called "inferior roots of pirate culture" was not the mainstream viewpoint in Northern newspapers. On the contrary, media outlets that opposed this viewpoint were not few, and the real mainstream public opinion in the North actually considered such views as nonsense, treating those who expressed them, like Fafnir and Gred, as mere clowns seeking attention.

However, after a series of events, these attention-seeking clowns became fighters and martyrs, and the previously ridiculed theories turned serious, deep, worth studying, and even worth learning.

The academic world, especially in social sciences, differs greatly from natural sciences. One major difference is the high cost and difficulty of experiments in social sciences.

In natural sciences, when there’s a debate, it’s simple: design one or a few experiments, test them, and it becomes clear who is right or wrong. No matter how well you debate or how high your status, even if you're titled a Grand Arcanist, a single failed experiment can blow your theories apart.

But social sciences don’t have this luxury. It's difficult to verify different social theories through experiments due to high costs. For example, if you propose that democracy is better than absolute monarchy, an experiment would require a revolution, which is far costlier than creating a simple paper model. If the experiment fails, the cost can be enormous.

Of course, if a single experiment could resolve the debate as in natural sciences, even if costly, it wouldn’t be entirely unacceptable. But social science experiments are hard to free from other interfering factors. Even if an experiment supports a hypothesis, opponents may still argue that the results are invalid due to uncontrollable variables.

History also proves this point to some extent. For example, the ultimate failure of the French Revolution and the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy under the protection of other European monarchies seemed to prove the experiment of republicanism wrong, suggesting monarchy was the correct choice according to social science. Until World War I, the world’s strongest nations were still monarchies, and even after the war when the United States rose in stature, the mainstream view still favored some form of monarchy, particularly constitutional over absolute.

Similarly, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, many thought communism had failed completely, even heralding the "end of history." However, soon they saw COVID-19 emerge from Shangluo Mountain, with chaos everywhere. On the other hand, the Jurchen of Jianzhou rose rapidly... Suddenly, the world faced a "once-in-a-century major upheaval."

Thus, it’s almost impossible to get a straightforward, indisputable result from social science experiments. These debates are often about interests, or more bluntly, about biases.

Many scholars, particularly in sociology, after thoroughly studying the theories of Professors Fafnir and Gred, found their theories too conveniently aligned with their interests.

According to their theory, the American people are deeply harmed by "English pirate culture" and need mental healing through the influence of superior continental European culture to free their souls from this "great serpent."

But who can undertake the role of a nation’s psychoanalyst? Undoubtedly, only they, the so-called "intelligentsia." If this theory were widely accepted across America, they would become the nation’s spiritual mentors. The interests involved here are obvious to anyone but a fool.

Ultimately, only shared interests can unite a large group of people. Thus, teachers of philosophy, literature, and arts at North American universities quickly rallied under the banner of "purging the toxins of English pirate culture," with one exception: the law departments. The reason is simple, because one of the “toxins” in purging English pirate culture is the maritime legal system.

“That...” Lucien hesitated, “That depends on your skills.”

“Alright,” Polina licked her lips, “I’ll show you how it’s done. Hmm, do you know what Alice likes the most?”

“Ah,” Lucien suddenly understood, “Polina, the ‘her’ you mentioned, is Alice?”

“Nonsense, who else but Alice has the means to bend Joseph to her will?” Polina retorted, “So, of course, the plan is to bribe Alice!”

At this, he glanced at Lucien again, detecting a regretful look on his face, and quickly added, “I warn you, don’t you dare go back on your word, or else, you can try... haha...” ʀA₦ȮBËᶊ

“A man of honor doesn’t go back on his word,” Lucien replied, “What’s this in comparison? Besides, although Joseph... Alice still likes you quite a bit. I have to guard against you poisoning her mind. Hmm, so, how did you bribe Alice?”

“I secretly bring her all sorts of delicious candies and ice creams.”

“Is that so? But... that’s no problem, right? If Joseph finds out, he’s sure to be angry.”

“If you don’t tell, and Alice doesn’t tell, how would Joseph know?”

...

Lucien, looking quite smug, summoned several of his reliable subordinates.

“We need to plant our people in the American legal community!” Lucien said straightforwardly.

“The American legal community is quite hostile to us now,” one subordinate noted.

“I’m well aware of that,” Lucien replied, “but that doesn’t mean we can’t win them over. They’re at a disadvantage in America right now. I refuse to believe there’s none willing to surrender first. After all, being the first to surrender often comes with many benefits. Moreover, their foreign trade is mainly with countries that practice continental law, so they themselves also need talents from continental law backgrounds. If some schools, some individuals start learning our legal system, they won’t worry about unemployment. Our influence in French universities far exceeds that of the Ministry of Public Security. We can encourage and assist some American schools to establish high-level continental law programs through friendly departments and faculties. Then... what can the Ministry of Public Security use to compete with us?”