The Real Enemy of Civilization

Yicheng Commonweal has written over a hundred articles, aiming to awaken the public’s fundamental understanding of goodness, virtue, civilization, ignorance, love, and progress. We originally thought that many misunderstandings and indifference stemmed from a lack of awareness. However, after engaging with more people, we discovered that for some, their evil is intentional, a disguise crafted under the guise of refined egoism.

Introduction

The development of civilization has never been smooth. Rather, it has always been shaped through a series of conflicts and power struggles that adjust its course.

At every stage, it is often those who are unwilling to accept the status quo, who hold ideals, and who take action that drive civilization forward. However, there is also always a group of “vampires” and “parasites” who excel at exploiting, attaching themselves, and draining resources, obstructing the advancement of civilization.

This conflict is not just a clash of values and interests. More profoundly, it reflects the struggle between humanity’s inner spiritual pursuits and the external societal systems.

While this struggle is fraught with challenges, it is also a crucial driving force for the evolution and purification of civilization.

The public needs to clearly recognize who is laying the foundation for civilization and who is eroding its roots.

I. The Craftsmen and Builders of Civilization: The Backbone of an Era

Civilization builders are those groups who fight for the public good and long-term values.

They can be scientists, educators, engineers, doctors, farmers, workers, or even reformers, system designers, and intellectual pioneers.

They build cities with their hands, design systems with their wisdom, uphold justice with their passion, and inspire faith with their souls.

From the mudbrick builders of ancient Babylon to the craftsmen of the Han and Tang dynasties, the thinkers of the Renaissance, and today’s practitioners working on the frontlines of research and infrastructure, these individuals are the driving force of civilization. They are the true authors of human history.

Their contributions are often invisible, but without them, civilization would be nothing more than a house of cards.

However, their contributions often go unrewarded and are frequently overlooked. They are most commonly labeled as the “silent majority,” quietly working away without seeking power or personal gain.

While they are the ones who build systems, they are not always the ones who control them. In practice, they are often marginalized, and their value is rarely acknowledged or addressed within the existing frameworks.

II. Social Exploiters and Parasites in the Cracks of the System

In contrast to civilization builders, there is a group of system opportunists. They excel at extracting excess profits from the gaps in the system, yet rarely contribute directly to the core values of civilization’s progress.

These groups may come from privileged capital, nepotistic networks, financial speculation, or they may disguise their self-interests under the guise of public welfare or freedom while engaging in hidden exchanges of benefits.

Their strength lies not in building, but in navigating the gray areas of the rules. They are skilled at packaging “injustice” as “legitimacy” and using public discourse to suppress true creators.

In the narratives they control, “efficiency” is often used to overshadow fairness, “profit-seeking” is presented as “human nature,” and the pursuit of short-term returns becomes the direction encouraged by the system.

Meanwhile, those who create long-term value often struggle to secure the resources and platform they deserve. As a result, power is concentrated in the hands of a few, while the social returns drift further away from the true value creators.

When social resources are excessively concentrated among these structural profiteers, the fairness of the incentive system is eroded, and the wisdom and efforts of builders go unrecognized and unrewarded. This damages the very foundation of civilization’s development.

III. The Struggle of Civilization: A Tug-of-War Between Progress and Regression

The relationship between builders and exploiters is not a static, binary opposition, but rather a dynamic tension within the evolving social structure. At certain historical moments, the constructive forces take the lead, driving institutional innovation and societal progress.

For instance, the formation of modern nation-states, the legal reforms spurred by the Industrial Revolution, and the establishment of representative democracy and welfare systems are all products of the builders’ dominance.

However, history also reveals another cyclical pattern: once certain groups accumulate dominant resources within the system, they may lean toward using institutionalized methods to protect their interests, ultimately suppressing reform.

This phenomenon is especially clear during the end of feudal dynasties, the resource exploitation in the colonial era, and in some stages of extreme financial liberalization. In these situations, the system becomes a tool that protects the interests of a small group, leading to concentrated resources, misaligned power, and reduced social mobility.

Therefore, the development of civilization is not a straight path forward. Instead, it is a process where builders continuously try to break through fixed structures and reshape society.

At the same time, those who benefit from the current system and unbalanced structures do not act as revolutionaries. Instead, they enter the system as “protectors,” “experts,” “elites,” or “stabilizing forces.”

Their actions, though cloaked in the name of legality, may gradually weaken the openness and sustainability of the system.

This is the deeper logic behind the tragedy of civilization: parasites do not create civilization, yet they can define it; they do not build the rules, yet they control the interpretation of those rules; they do not work to solve problems, yet they shape the distribution structure.

In the struggle of civilization, the most dangerous moments are often not when violent external enemies attack, but when there is a slow internal erosion. It is the process by which civilization gradually drifts away from its core values—a form of “self-denial of inner civilization.”

This does not immediately lead to war or revolution, but it continuously distorts social values, weakens institutional credibility, and erodes public trust, until the entire civilization loses its sense of direction and ability to regenerate.

1. “Hollowing Out” Civilization: From Plundering Material Wealth to Controlling the Mind

In the early stages, exploiters focused on the plundering of material wealth—land monopolies, tax exploitation, and resource control. However, in modern society, their tactics have shifted towards the “soft control” of culture, institutions, and human hearts.

• They reshape educational systems and social evaluation standards to encourage young people to pursue short-term gains and glorify superficial achievements, while undervaluing practice, patience, and social responsibility.
• By influencing the media and public discourse, they create information chaos, marginalizing serious discussions and rational public thought. This in turn makes emotional manipulation and division become the mainstream strategy for spreading ideas.
• Through lobbying and institutional design, they gradually adjust legal frameworks to favor the interests of specific groups.
• Even in traditional areas that carry the public spirit—such as religion, philosophy, and public welfare—they “industrialize” moral discourse through symbolic packaging and capital operations.

As this trend develops, the core systems of civilization—its language, value structures, and power mechanisms—may experience a phenomenon of being “softly taken over.” The system continues to operate, but its direction has quietly shifted.

At this point, those truly committed to knowledge production, technological progress, and ethical maintenance—the “builders”—are often gradually marginalized.

Their language seems “out of fashion” and does not align with “trends.” Their beliefs are mocked as “idealism,” and their actions are seen as “inefficient” or even “unrealistic.”

Meanwhile, a deep paradox quietly takes shape in society: those who work hardest to push society forward are the ones who receive the least recognition and support. On the other hand, those most skilled at avoiding responsibility, manipulating systems, and extracting public resources are increasingly seen as “success models,” and they dominate the direction of social values.

2. The Turn-Based Fate of Civilization: The Craftsman Phase vs. The Parasitic Phase

Throughout history, civilization often follows a “turn-based” rhythm: one phase is led by the “craftsman spirit of civilization,” where innovation, hard work, fairness, and progress become the mainstream values of society.

However, when the achievements of the system accumulate to a certain point, parasites swarm in, attaching themselves to it, cashing in on its value, and disrupting its balance.

We can observe two relatively typical cyclical trends:

The construction phase of civilization: This phase is usually characterized by high investment and a strong focus on public ideals. During this time, the system encourages innovation and collaboration, and society recognizes those who invest in the future, such as scientists, engineers, and institutional reformers. Historical examples include the Renaissance, the early stages of the Industrial Revolution, and the formation of democratic states.

The decline or solidification phase of civilization: This phase often sees excessive resource concentration and distorted systems, with vested interests maintaining their advantage through structural arrangements, causing the overall vitality of society to gradually decrease. Examples of this include the late stages of feudal dynasties, the end of colonial empire expansions, or modern stages of highly financialized capitalism, where “inefficiency and concentrated power” are common characteristics.

Between the “construction phase” and the “parasitic phase,” there often emerges a critical stage known as the “structural decline window.” The typical characteristics of this period are:

• The economy appears to grow on the surface, but innovation capacity stagnates.
• The institutional framework remains intact, but public trust significantly declines.
• Material conditions are relatively abundant, yet societal anxiety and insecurity increase.
• Public discourse becomes more active, but consensus on spiritual and value-based matters gradually dissolves.

During this transitional period, the direction of civilization’s development often faces a critical choice:
Either, constructive forces come together again, driving new institutional reforms and a rebuilding of values, leading society into a new upward cycle.
Or, entrenched interest structures become further solidified, triggering a prolonged systemic decline, ultimately resulting in social fragmentation, governance failure, and even the erosion of the very foundation of civilization.

3. Who will end the parasitism: the need for institutional reconstruction and spiritual reboot

To break the cycle of parasitism in civilization, two profound reforms must be carried out simultaneously:

• First, a systemic reconstruction at the institutional level: This means fundamentally improving the mechanisms of power operation and resource distribution, minimizing the space for institutional abuse.
• Second, a cultural update at the value level: This involves rebuilding society’s respect for honesty, creativity, responsibility, and dedication, making the “builder spirit” the core societal value once again. This requires not only a deepening of educational content and the reshaping of public culture but also a profound awakening of public consciousness—recognizing that what truly weakens the vitality of civilization is not technological backwardness or resource scarcity, but systemic parasites.

When society collectively realizes: Those who do not create value should not control society; those who do not put in effort should not hold power.

When the true craftsmen and builders of civilization stop being silent and instead actively speak out, organize, and take action, civilization may finally break free from the endless cycle of being parasitized, and enter a truly autonomous and sustainable development phase.

IV. The modern dilemma: Who is building, and who is exploiting?

As humanity enters the 21st century, civilization stands at an unprecedented height—frequent technological breakthroughs, fast information transmission, and close global interconnectedness. However, behind the light of civilization, new shadows are cast.

The polarization of social structures has not narrowed with the spread of knowledge and institutional progress. Instead, it has become more structured and harder to change.

In this era, the question of “who is building and who is exploiting” is no longer just a matter of class division, but a functional differentiation within a complex system. It represents a new struggle between labor and exploitation, creation and speculation, public spirit and private self-interest.

Technological achievements should be a shared benefit for humanity, but at the intermediary level of capital and institutional design, their distribution is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few, even turning into a tool for “secondary exploitation of creators.”

For example, many startups, after being acquired, see their core ideas shelved or destroyed, leaving behind only profits from capital operations. In the platform economy, algorithms exploit millions of workers, while data and profits are controlled by a handful of major platform operators.

1. The New Form of Parasites: The Institutional Architects of Legalized Exploitation

Contemporary social parasites, unlike the historical exploiters who relied on violence, privilege, or family identity, are more “modernized.” Cloaked in the guise of “entrepreneurs,” “market experts,” and “public opinion leaders,” they use systems like law, finance, media, think tanks, and education to legitimize their extraction mechanisms.

These parasites have several distinct characteristics:

• Mastering the Definition of “Success”: By controlling the media and educational systems, they shape the narrative that success equals “capital gain” and “social status,” making hard workers and creators appear as “failures.”
• Expert at Systemic Arbitrage: By mastering the intricacies of systems, they exploit legal loopholes to avoid taxes, cash out, and engage in insider trading, thereby accumulating disproportionate wealth.
• Control of Resource Gateways: They control key resource distribution rights, such as land approvals, financial permits, and public project resources, turning them into long-term power benefits.
• Self-Legitimization Through Philanthropy: They use tools like establishing foundations, think tanks, and multinational cooperative programs to beautify their actions, covering up their erosion of institutional and societal values.

This group is not overtly anti-social; in fact, they actively seek to “fit in”—appearing at charitable events, donating to academic causes, and speaking out on environmental issues.

However, it is precisely these individuals who “alienate” the essence of civilization: no longer is it a collective effort to build a shared future for the public, but rather a mere preservation of vested interests in its formal sense.

2. The Marginalized Builders: The Silent Backbone of Society

Compared to the highly visible and influential parasites, the true builders of civilization—philosophers, teachers, engineers, grassroots doctors, entrepreneurs, social workers—are often marginalized. They are “underestimated,” “underpaid,” and “disrespected,” yet they perform functions that are indispensable to the operation of the system.

In many countries, the most crucial public professions are also the ones with the weakest bargaining power. A scientist might spend a decade developing a breakthrough material, only to find it overshadowed by the profit of a viral product. A primary school educator bears the weight of shaping the next generation’s spirit, but struggles just to make a living.

The neglect of the builder class is not only a matter of distribution, but also a matter of symbolism: it symbolizes a shift in the spiritual center of civilization, where the system no longer honors creation but instead rewards manipulation.

3. Systemic Parasitism from a Global Perspective: From Nation-States to Super-Capital Entities

Globalization has not yet led to the balanced structure of a shared human destiny as initially envisioned. Instead, in many instances, it has evolved into a new form of colonial system—not through military occupation but via capital control, debt chains, and data dominance.

• Countries in the “Global South” are now placed on low-price positions within the raw materials chain, while high-value-added products and financial systems are firmly controlled by the “Global North.”
  The intellectual property system increasingly serves to suppress innovation rather than promote it, with tech giants monopolizing global digital rights.
• The intellectual property system increasingly serves to suppress innovation rather than promote it, with tech giants monopolizing global digital rights.
• Multinational corporations have become “super parasites,” feeding off the world while avoiding taxes in their home countries, exploiting weaker nations, and lobbying for political systems that favor their own interests.

This represents a new issue for global civilization: it is not a conflict between different civilizations, but a clash between global parasitic mechanisms and global constructive efforts. The former is invisible yet powerful, while the latter is tangible but isolated.

V. Reconstructing the Future of Civilization: Ending the Parasitic Mechanism

The history of civilization should not be a continuous tragic cycle: construction, parasitism, corruption, collapse, and reconstruction, followed by more parasitism. If, with all the advanced knowledge, information technology, and governance tools available in the 21st century, humanity continues to repeat these old patterns, it will be a self-betrayal that history cannot forgive.

What we need is not just reform, but a complete reconstruction of civilization. This requires severing the roots of parasitic structures at the institutional level and awakening the builders’ mindset to once again become the guiding force of society. Only then can the “craftsmen of civilization” truly become the heart of society, rather than remaining as invisible gears in the machinery.

1. Establishing Anti-Parasitic Institutional Mechanisms: Transparency, Accountability, and Anti-Incentives

First and foremost, we need to establish systematic “anti-parasitic mechanisms” at the institutional level. These mechanisms should deprive parasitic behaviors in society of their fertile ground and create continuous institutional disincentives for parasites.

• Complete Transparency in Resource Distribution: Key resources such as public finance, land approval, project bidding, and research funding should be governed by real-time, publicly accessible tracking systems. This will close any loopholes in the system that might enable rent-seeking and prevent resources from being siphoned off by a few.
• Reconstructing the “Legitimacy of Wealth” Review System: Wealth should no longer be presumed to be legitimate simply because it is owned. Instead, we must trace the public contributions made during the accumulation of wealth, and impose high “anti-system use taxes” on wealth derived from institutional manipulation.
• Introducing a “Civilizational Liability Balance Sheet” Mechanism: This mechanism should not only assess the economic contributions of businesses and individuals but also evaluate their systemic impacts on social ethics, ecology, labor relations, and other sectors. Parasites in this system will find it impossible to get credits or resource support.

True institutional justice is not about the illusion of equal distribution, but about distinguishing between “value creation” and “systemic extraction” in evaluations and using this distinction to guide rewards and penalties.

2. Rebuilding Public Spirit: Cultural and Educational Value Realignment

While institutional reform is crucial, without the internalization of public spirit, it will eventually degenerate into formalized “paper policies.” Therefore, the cultural and educational systems must be the core support for the reconstruction of civilization.

Rebuilding Education’s Mission with the “Public Builder Spirit”

The core of education should no longer focus on “success” defined by fame and profit, but instead, it should return to cultivating a sense of responsibility, honesty, creativity, and civic awareness. The “creators of public value”—whether they are teachers, researchers, grassroots engineers—should be held up as societal role models, replacing the individual hero narrative of the “winner-takes-all” mentality.

Cultural Resources Shifting Toward Practicality and Creativity

Through policy support and platform guidance, mainstream culture should encourage positive narratives around craftsmanship, scientific exploration, and grassroots laborers. These individuals should gain the respect and visibility they deserve in film, media, and public discourse, rather than being marginalized as the “silent majority” or mere “functional tools.”

Rebuilding an Independent and Rational Public Cultural Ecosystem

Breaking the dominance of cultural capital-driven single-narrative frameworks, we must support the development of public media, independent publishing, and knowledge-based communities, granting more space for diverse voices to be heard. This will help detach culture from excessive commercialization and return it to rational discourse, making it the “engine of thought” that drives social consensus and institutional advancement.

Without a cultural layer of “social civilization re-education,” parasitic structures will merely disguise themselves in new, more sophisticated forms and continue to counterattack.

3. Reshaping Social Structure: Resource Redistribution Centered on Constructive Functions

Rebuilding the structure of civilization is not about simply “redistributing the cake,” but about designing the flow of resources based on the creativity and sustainability of social functions. In other words—those who contribute to society’s sustainable development should be the ones who receive more support.

• Establish a “civilizational-supporting professions” system of security: for fields like education, healthcare, basic research, environmental protection, and public services, set up long-term investment and institutional incentive systems to prevent these professions from being marginalized under the commercial return-oriented model. These careers may not produce immediate results, but they are the foundation of long-term societal stability and the leap toward a higher civilization.
• Encourage long-term investment capital: promote the shift of the capital market toward “patient capital,” offering tax and policy incentives to those investing in long-term research and foundational industries, and creating a priority system for “social construction investors.”
• Use the “social production function” instead of “market pricing” as the standard for distribution: introduce public economic indicators and social welfare functions into resource decision-making, to prevent market signals from misleading the social structure systematically.

The essence of structure does not lie in the concentration of wealth, but in whether the flow of resources serves public construction and the welfare of the people.

4. A Global Framework for Civilizational Collaboration

In the context of globalization, the reconstruction of civilization cannot be limited to a single country, as the parasitic mechanisms will continue to expand in more covert transnational forms. A global system of collaboration to confront these issues must be established:

• Reconstruct the global governance power structure: Break the control of a few powerful nations over discourse and institutional rules. Create a global “builders’ alliance” platform for discourse, and push for developing countries to have more leadership in resource design and technological cooperation.
• Establish a “Global Anti-Parasitism Treaty”: Through international agreements, limit the systematic exploitation of labor and resources by multinational corporations, and curb the global spread of “legally unjust” practices.
• Promote cross-cultural integration of constructive values: Foster mutual understanding and co-building of values among different civilizations, creating a “shared construction ethics” that transcends ideology.

Only by exposing “global parasites” and enabling “global civilization builders” to work in unison, can humanity truly enter a future of co-construction and shared prosperity.

5. Activating Social Construction Organizations: From the Silent Majority to an Actionable Community

Lastly, and most fundamentally, is the need to activate the self-organizing power of civilization builders. If these builders remain silent, fragmented, and isolated, no matter how just the systems and values may be, they will struggle to form substantial checks and balances against parasitic mechanisms.

• Build a Civilization Builders’ Alliance and Artisan Citizens’ Community: Connect the practical, creative, and responsible individuals across various fields to form a new public discourse and collective organizational capacity. In fact, “Yicheng Commonweal” is such an organization.
• Support Anti-Parasitism Citizen Movements: Encourage the use of legal, peaceful, and sustainable methods to expose and confront parasitic structures, promoting gradual institutional change rather than violent rupture.
• Create Builder-Led Digital Spaces and Financial Systems: Build decentralized collaboration platforms and distributed financing systems to break the parasitic control over platforms and credit.

The fate of civilization ultimately does not rest in the hands of the “rulers,” but in the hands of the countless grounded, hard-working artisans.

Conclusion: Who Owns Civilization? Who Determines the Future?

“What does civilization belong to?” This is not just a philosophical question; it is the fundamental choice regarding the future of civilization.

Civilization should belong to those who work quietly, who stay grounded, bear responsibility, and ignite hope—those who, even in the gaps of the system, persist in goodness, uphold justice, and are not swayed by profit. These are the builders of society.

However, the reality is often the opposite. Power over discourse and distribution lies in the hands of a few who excel at manipulating systems and exploiting outcomes. The parasites do not create, yet they define order; they do not contribute, yet they control the rules.

This is a regression of civilization and a significant risk to the human spirit.

Today, we face not only technological and ecological challenges but also the disarray of values and systems. In a world dominated by attention and capital manipulation, the builders have grown silent, and the foundation of civilization is quietly eroding.

But the course of history is never merely a matter of fate—it is also a matter of choice.

The future does not belong to the manipulators but to the builders. The direction of civilization should be written by those who create.

Let us return “the key to civilization” to those who truly deserve it.