This society has countless opportunities and trends that drive countless poor people to madness, and then once they get carried away, they are ruthlessly harvested. Why do the poor go mad and then get harvested? Mr. Lu Xun's "Crawling and Bumping" embodies this point.
https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E7%88%AC%E5%92%8C%E6%92%9E
There are two paths for people at the bottom of society. Those who can make it out in today's society come from two types of people: one is the "Roll King," and the other is the "Wild Path." The Roll King, needless to say, is someone who is more excellent and works harder than you. They have been top scholars since childhood, hold various leadership positions in organizations, learn multiple languages, and are energetic and tireless. They are also imaginative, daring to think and act without fear of getting their hands dirty, and full of drive. Therefore, they can access higher-quality resources.
The other type is the Wild Path: using unscrupulous means to achieve the dream of sudden wealth.
Those who dare to harvest the leeks are big influencers and various self-media celebrities with all sorts of tricks. They often refer to everyone as "family," not realizing that "family" and "family" are just a word apart, yet they are worlds apart. They carve out bloody paths through the evils of human nature and the exploitation of others. Mr. Lu Xun had already articulated these two paths in his essay "Crawling and Bumping" in the previous era.
Regarding these two phenomena, Mr. Lu Xun said that this is a habit that has existed since ancient times in the old society, not subject to human will. The poor always have to crawl upwards, striving to reach the status of the wealthy. Slaves also strive to climb up to the status of their masters. But interestingly, although few can actually climb up, everyone believes that the ones who can are just like themselves.
Only by providing this false hope can everyone be content to plow the fields and collect manure. Nowadays, plowing the fields has been replaced by working overtime in a 996 schedule to exchange for houses and cars. But with so many people trying to climb, and only one path, it is inevitably very crowded. Honest people climb step by step according to the rules. Meanwhile, smart people start to push others aside, knocking them down, stepping on them, and kicking their shoulders and heads to climb up. Most people are still just climbing, convinced that their enemies are not above them. The real problem is that the common people are too lowly positioned to see the heights. Therefore, they do not blame those who build this heavenly ladder, but rather complain about those who are climbing alongside them, occupying their positions. So most people endure everything, trying to climb up step by step, only to be pushed down, and then climb up again, endlessly.
Climbing up is too hard, so what to do? Some people turn dark; some say behind your back: "Just bump." With legs still trembling, they bump forward. This is much easier than climbing; you don’t have to exert much effort. If you bump well, it’s 500,000 yuan, with money, power, and everything else; one move can change your fate. If you bump poorly, you just fall down a level, but what does that matter? They were already lying on the ground, and some people are just bumping for fun, not afraid of falling at all. Climb a bit, roll a bit, bump a bit, fight a bit. The wheels of the times roll forward; looking at technology and material, we have indeed changed a lot. Looking at thoughts and concepts, I personally feel that Mr. Lu Xun is still the same Lu Xun, writing with piercing precision and speaking with cruelty. "Crawling and Bumping" captures the bitterness of ordinary people at the bottom.