I casually picked up a 100-year-old classic, *The Richest Man of Babylon*, and pondered its financial advice for a while. Suddenly, I realized the most important advice wasn't in the text, but on the cover: "The Richest Man of Babylon—To become rich, you must first go to Babylon."
Why? In Chapter Two, Babylon is depicted as financially impoverished, government spending stretched thin, and the king, looking distressed, consults his vizier. The vizier then suggests consulting Arkad, the richest man in the city, to teach his subjects about wealth, leading to the subsequent grand discourse.
Do you see the problem? When I read this passage, I felt a strong sense of unreality. I didn't think about it at the time, but after putting the book down, the problem became clear. This king, this vizier—your country is so poor, shouldn't you immediately grab your guns, follow me, mobilize the masses to deceive, raid, and overthrow Arkad, seizing his wealth for yourselves? You're going to host banquets, do embroidery, write essays, and practice gentleness, courtesy, frugality, and humility—where's the semblance of an emperor or general? It's truly womanly compassion, utterly depraved! I don't know if Babylon had such emperors and generals who disgraced the ruler's dignity, but in China's 3,700-year history, there has absolutely never been one.
So, think about it the other way around: to become an Arkad, you must first go to Babylon. If you're not in Babylon but pursuing great wealth and power, not only will you fail, but if you do succeed, it'll be like a five-year-old child carrying gold through the market—bringing disaster upon yourself.
Actually, Babylon isn't necessarily a single place; it could also be a period of time. This book was published in 1926, during America's "Roaring Twenties"—a time of economic prosperity, turbulent times, and everywhere in Manhattan felt like Babylon, everyone a Great Gatsby. But just three to five years later, the Great Depression arrived, the Chaotic Era began, the League of Nations became a mere figurehead, the United States waged trade wars and seized gold and silver worldwide, Hitler led the German national revival, Stalin purged the Red Army and the Supreme Soviet, and simultaneously coveted Finland, a territory considered sacred and inviolable since ancient times. The world descended into chaos. I imagine that George Clason, the author of this book, who lived to see the 1930s and 1940s, would have lamented that his Babylon was nothing but a fleeting dream.
A century after the book's publication, we seem to have just lost our own Babylonian time. I don't need to elaborate on how similar today's world is to that of 90 years ago. Yet most people seem to be trying to pretend everything is normal, pretending they are still in Babylon, dreaming of becoming Arkad. I must say, if you can't find your Babylon, blindly striving is meaningless. The Trisolarans were right, this is a Chaotic Era, what are you even trying to achieve?
It's not easy to write a long post, so don't be too pessimistic. Disappointment is as much akin to delusion as hope. After all, with AI and crypto in this era, perhaps we don't need to go to Mars to find a Babylon in some virtual place. However, I can say with certainty that those who hoard physical gold will absolutely be doing all the work for others in times of chaos.
