They say that the threshold for resistance among Chinese people is extremely high. It is not "rebelling when life is hard," but rather "only rebelling when all escape routes disappear." When structural problems cannot be changed, when the economy continues to decline without recovery, and when class contradictions cannot be reconciled. Chinese people exhibit characteristics of high endurance (seeing if they can hold on a little longer), high dispersion (blaming problems on various issues rather than systemic problems), and high risk awareness (very realistic estimates of the consequences of failure in rebellion). For individuals, they are constantly "trying to find ways": working at lower prices and competing, changing careers, lying flat, going overseas, relying on parents, shrinking desires, practicing "immortality" (self-cultivation). From certain perspectives, this phenomenon is indeed tragic, and it is a structural, slowly unfolding tragedy. The tragedy lies precisely in the fact that when the rational choices of the majority in a society accumulate, they produce an irrational overall result. When a society's main wisdom is used long-term to avoid the worst outcomes rather than to pursue better ones, it itself signals a deep tragedy.
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They say that the threshold for resistance among Chinese people is extremely high. It is not "rebelling when life is hard," but rather "only rebelling when all escape routes disappear." When structural problems cannot be changed, when the economy continues to decline without recovery, and when class contradictions cannot be reconciled. Chinese people exhibit characteristics of high endurance (seeing if they can hold on a little longer), high dispersion (blaming problems on various issues rather than systemic problems), and high risk awareness (very realistic estimates of the consequences of failure in rebellion). For individuals, they are constantly "trying to find ways": working at lower prices and competing, changing careers, lying flat, going overseas, relying on parents, shrinking desires, practicing "immortality" (self-cultivation). From certain perspectives, this phenomenon is indeed tragic, and it is a structural, slowly unfolding tragedy. The tragedy lies precisely in the fact that when the rational choices of the majority in a society accumulate, they produce an irrational overall result. When a society's main wisdom is used long-term to avoid the worst outcomes rather than to pursue better ones, it itself signals a deep tragedy.