The contest of willpower

Linh presented to the conference on the crime situation in the provinces and cities over the previous three years. The charts showed figures rising and falling at different times and in different localities. When he finished presenting, Linh asked whether anyone had comments, and almost all the delegates raised the very same question: why had the crime rate in Province B dropped almost vertically over the past two years? Was there some special secret of the security police there?

Linh smiled and said:

• Thank you, comrades. I expected you would ask this question. I was myself surprised by the extremely successful reduction of the crime rate in Province B, so I spent three months looking into it closely. The person responsible for bringing the crime rate in Province B down almost vertically on the chart is Colonel Hoan, the provincial police chief, who unfortunately is not present at today's conference, so allow me to give an objective analysis of this remarkable chief.
  Chief Hoan was in my class at the security academy, so we know each other rather well. Hoan graduated second, after me as top student (applause), but once at work Hoan succeeded far more than I did. Hoan's characteristic is great determination: whatever he does, he does thoroughly and never gives up halfway. I did a little better than Hoan at study, probably because my IQ was higher than his; however, once at work, Hoan's Willpower came into its own. Hoan's outstanding achievements led to his appointment as the youngest provincial police chief in the country.
  I asked Hoan what lay behind such extraordinary results in the fight against crime. Hoan replied: Determination. He said that a characteristic of criminals is very high determination. Every wrongdoer carries a belly full of greed and cruelty. Those two states of mind, greed and cruelty, create very strong drive, making them concentrate intensely on plotting and committing crimes. The criminal world has discipline a hundred times harsher and more brutal than our lawful society. Anyone who wants to live outside the law falls into the criminal world, where punishment is extremely savage. So they have great discipline, great determination and great strength.
  By contrast, the world of gentle people who are not greedy, not cruel and not seeking advantage also means little motive to strive. That is the crux of why the fight against crime always lags a few steps behind the activity of criminals.
  Now the officers and soldiers charged with preventing crime must be equipped with more Determination, more Willpower, more drive to hunt down criminals to the very depths of their lairs, to the very depths of their minds, before they can fight crime effectively.
  Hoan told me how he sought the Ministry's approval for measures to build Determination in his officers, which was very interesting: both material conditions and stronger ideals of love for the country, for compatriots and for comrades. From then on, when the officers had solved a case and the court had tried it, the investigating force still was not finished; they had to hunt for the remaining lairs and for the criminals' hidden mentalities in order to fight the problem to the end.
  It is precisely because the determination to keep fighting continued after the court had tried the case and the sentence had been carried out that Province B has stopped gangs and broken up those that were still hiding somewhere. Then the prisoners continued to have their psychology studied and were educated in prison by ethics and psychology counsellors, so that the Will to commit crime gradually died away. The motives of greed and cruelty were attacked deep within the criminals' minds until they faded and dwindled. That is the reason for Province B's success.

The whole conference applauded thunderously for a very long time. ☠

People have drive to live and toil hard because of the survival instinct, because of greed for enjoyment, because of hatred and cruelty, and because of pursuing false illusions. That drive gives people determination. Criminals have a great deal of the determination of greed, hatred, arrogance and ego, so their determination is very high. Meanwhile the knights who protect the innocent, protect what is good and protect what is right have little to gain, no greed or hatred, so they do as much as they happen to do.

In the family, too, parents stop dealing with the matter once they have scolded and punished a child who did wrong, without understanding that the tendency to do wrong remains intact in the child's mind. The parents' will to educate is weaker than the child's Will to do wrong and make trouble, which is why education in the family fails.