Original link: https://onojyun.com/2022/07/20/6383/
△ 201｜Contentment, dissatisfaction and lack of knowledge
There is a very magical “advice” in China. Its magic power is the same as that of “diligence can make up for one’s selfishness”, and “the contented person is always happy” is also such a magical admonition. You can get so-called happiness. This is probably the most unbelievable “fuck talk” I’ve ever heard when I was a child, but it seems that this is how adults educate children, or they form some kind of magic spell to hug each other and comfort each other.
This is the same as seeing a work and thinking that it has a certain sense of sexual innuendo. If people didn’t first see the “details” in the original works that could arouse their sexual desire, they would turn those obscure works in the past. Put on the high hat of “pornography” – another example that everyone knows about recently, like Xuan Kejiong’s “forbidden poem”, because people read between the lines what they can think of It is “disrespectful”, which is why it is regarded as a forbidden poem full of political metaphors. Here is the joy of “contented people are always happy” – because people can’t get it, and when they are not satisfied, they will paralyze themselves in the way of self-sufficiency and always happy, thus reaching the “state of contentment and always happy” “.
Although in my life dictionary, there is also self-consolation such as “if you can’t get it, don’t force it”, but its purpose is not to let me get a “happy ending”, but to avoid falling into the sadness of not getting what you want. So for me, I don’t know if contentment will make you happy, but discontentment will make people fall into endless despair.
After all, in Chinese education, right and wrong are an absolute way of education. Since dissatisfaction will lead to unhappiness, so inference, contentment must be always happy – that’s why this “magic” has been passed down to this day. . But I believe that those who claim that they are “contented and happy”, if they don’t really let go of their discontentment, they are trying to avoid falling into the pain of discontentment, paralyzing themselves with contentment and happiness, sooner or later One day they will find that if they can’t get it, they can’t get it, and it is impossible to be content with nothing to bring happiness in any sense.
For example, when I was in elementary school, everyone liked to compare stationery boxes. Some people’s stationery boxes are ordinary iron boxes, while others are multi-layered stationery boxes with “organs” everywhere. Of course, when I was a child, I also wished to have such a stationery box, but at that time, such a stationery box was simply a luxury. At that time, although I didn’t understand the magic of contentment, it seemed that I had also found the essence – I began to play a very Ah Q’s logic in my heart, that is, to slander those who have this kind of multi-layered stationery box , In a very specific situation, they want to quickly find the pen that has been urgently needed and will die immediately when it is not needed. They appear to be less “advanced”.
However, this kind of “special situation” naturally won’t happen so easily, so I don’t quite believe my own self-persuasion – but it is useful at the moment, at least against these “nobles” who have multi-layered stationery boxes , has a certain self-soothing effect.
When I do have a multi-layered stationery box, I can’t fill it with enough stationery of different styles and functions. This is another kind of “dissatisfaction”, and it begins to mean “unsatisfied desires”. When I have the stationery box, I will start to think about how to fill it up. When I start to pursue its satisfaction, I will start again. Focus on its inner function, style and function – in fact, there are only a few stationery that I have been able to use from start to finish.
Later, I will experience a process of “simplification”. In order to distinguish the rules of “I have”, the fun of minimalism is that it can well hide the defects of “can’t have” and use “I think this is the way to go”. Enough is enough” to conceal his own desires and ambitions. But at this time, I found that instead of persuading myself to be content with being content because of my dissatisfaction, I used the method of “knowing my insufficiency” to warn myself that some things were “unnecessary”.
This is probably the “middle-aged mentality” that gradually develops after adulthood. It is no longer unhappy because of dissatisfaction, but happiness because of contentment because of knowing insufficiency. Of course, if these things were said at my age, it would be somewhat didactic to the “young people”.
Some time ago, there was a couple of “house slaves” on social media. They bought an off-plan house with the expectation of a happy future. As a result, the house was unfinished. The video they originally posted on social media was still taking a walk to see the new house after a while, looking forward to building their own floor. Now they are on social media, and their eyes have lost the light. And they are no longer expecting a happy future, but praying that “the country will never abandon itself”.
To be honest, this kind of plot can’t evoke my empathy too much, because its occurrence is no longer a “black swan”, but a normal “ending” that should be predicted. Are they content – or should they ask, what can they do now but be content? They themselves revealed on social media that they can decide in one go for a house of millions, but they have to think twice about fried chicken that costs tens of dollars. However, discussing other people’s choices and contentment as an outsider is somewhat hypocritical of “why not eat minced meat”. But after all, this is their own choice, and in this society that is constantly challenging the lower limit of cognition, everything is full of possibilities-then all they can use in the end is “contented people are always happy”.
Dissatisfied, so let yourself learn to be content, and it will not solve the problem, but knowing insufficiency, so don’t let yourself be dissatisfied, it is indeed a kind of ability to survive.
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