In this era of rapid information change, if a person always seriously believes in the mainstream narrative, their mental state is likely to become problematic. This is because the mainstream narrative is never stable. Instead, it is a performance that shifts with the wind and is strategically staged in phases. The evaluation of a person or an event can often undergo a 180-degree change in a short period. True "trust" comes with emotional costs. If you invest your faith, you must endure repeated betrayals and reversals. The result is that the more seriously one takes the mainstream narrative, the more easily they get hurt; the more one wants to sincerely believe, the more likely they are to be slapped in the face.
Therefore, many people have learned to "perform," showcasing the "correct value stance" in public while their hearts are already hollow, doubtful, and even numb. Typical figures like Sima Nan and Zong Qinghou are just parts of this pseudo-moral performance system. Now, genuine trust between people can often only be maintained in small private groups. Public morality is often just a tool and a protective cover. Many sensitive and honest ordinary people live particularly painfully in such an environment. They are always trying to maintain inner order but are repeatedly shattered by external narratives, falling into intense internal strife and mental fragmentation.
This is very similar to our school days, where the most anxious and painful experiences often do not come from the worst or best students, but from those in the middle who are neither here nor there, still holding hope for the future yet constantly facing setbacks. The same goes for society. When beliefs are repeatedly overturned, ordinary people fall into a state of continuous cognitive disorder. This is also why many people long for the past during turmoil. Traditional values, despite various problems, are usually stable. They can penetrate generations, providing individuals with psychological order and a sense of belonging. Even if they contain biases or backwardness, their certainty brings mental stability. Many people go through life without ever escaping their biases, but these biases do not disrupt their mental balance.
However, the current mainstream narrative often contradicts and negates itself. For example, a person born in the 1950s has heard the main theme change so many times in their life that it could shatter the mental bottom line of many who try to "live seriously." Yesterday, Japan was an enemy; how did it suddenly become a close neighbor in a honeymoon period, and now it's again the evil little Japan? In the future, to counter the United States, Japan might again become a friend, a friend since the Tang Dynasty. Yesterday, the U.S. was imperialist; today, the U.S. president is a guest of honor, and now it has become an enemy again; yesterday, masks were indispensable, today, fully lifting restrictions seems taken for granted. The repeated and drastic swings in values make the entire societal value foundation unreliable and unsustainable.
When society loses stable values, people lose their "life narrative." But people need a "life narrative"; we need an internally consistent value system that can explain the past and future. When the mainstream narrative changes frequently and society cannot provide continuous value support, everyone can only rely on themselves. Many people have become Machiavellians, indifferent to morality or immorality, but rather amoral. All morality becomes form and tool. They no longer care about what is right or wrong; they do not care about who is a good person or who is a bad person; everything turns into performance, calculation, and obedience. They shout slogans but have long since given up on trust.
Trust between people gradually disintegrates, and trust in institutions completely collapses. What remains is only pretense and performance, the "illusion of order" maintained under group pressure. In this era, stable values are no longer provided by the official, nor conveyed by mainstream media; they must be constructed by ourselves. We need to establish "value coordinates" for ourselves amid the storm of fluctuating information. We must relearn to observe the world, understand things, and build trust, rather than passively accept the flips and manipulations of narratives.
We must also carefully choose friends we can trust long-term, forming real and stable small communities that preserve humanity and conscience. If a society lacks a set of values that can be continuously validated and passed down through generations, it can ultimately only rely on forced indoctrination, performative actions, and group pressure to maintain order. Beneath the surface of "stability" lies an increasingly accumulating mental fragmentation and collapse of trust. In a fractured era, we must gradually rebuild for ourselves. Only then can we avoid numbness or mental imbalance.