War had been an inescapable topic throughout the development of human society.
In most people's eyes, war was distant and cruel. It brought only suffering and death, so antiwar sentiment had become society's mainstream.
But that was merely a judgment made from the perspective of an individual within society. Their horizons were always limited.
Xi Yan had always looked down on the democratic governments in Stellaris. Those ignorant aliens worked nine to five at their posts every day, never leaving home their entire lives. They could not see an empire as a whole, and their only understanding of politics came from the news and group chats.
How could people like that handle politics well just by gathering together? Did they know how an empire operated? All they did was ignorantly elect equally ignorant councilors, then let those vermin, who knew nothing about interstellar politics or imperial administration, make a complete mess of an alien empire.
Xi Yan was different. He knew exactly what his people were capable of. Every one of them was a diligent, loyal worker, and he had absolutely no concerns about entrusting the empire's resource production to them. But if they were asked to govern an empire, their own horizons and ways of thinking were not up to the task.
The Empire Core's system of Extreme Authoritarianism had emerged in response. Xi Yan could put knowledgeable, well-read talents in charge of the empire, ensuring that its administration would not make disastrous decisions.
He had already seen far too many alien empires make mistaken or outright disastrous decisions because of internal political obstruction and compromise, ultimately leading to their destruction.
That was true of interstellar politics, and equally true of interstellar war. Of course, I was talking about Stellaris.
For a Paradox Interactive player, war was always a