The documentary did not give any judgments, or even summarize the problems that the director wanted to describe. Thank you very much for the director's restraint. This is a documentary that really wants to guide readers to think and make efforts to bridge the conflict off the screen. Different people’s understandings are at different levels, but the director’s restraint and neutrality as much as possible, Cao Dewang’s enlightenment, the Obamas’ investment, and the sincerity of the characters have allowed me to reorganize my understanding and recognition of conflicts. Thank them.
The core driving force behind the development of "American Factory" is the interlaced "conflict". The most obvious pair of conflicting parties are two wishful thinking roles: Fuyao, who thinks that he can use his familiar organization to produce profit in the United States, and bankrupt workers who think he can return to the glory days of the middle class without making changes. Abstracting a group of people into an "individual" will lose many characteristics, but in the role of the two conflicting parties in this film, it is acceptable to use such abstraction to facilitate discussion. The film also started on this level. .
The relationship between the two parties is like a couple who hastily started a relationship without knowing each other. Passionate love begins, both sides are full of idealized imaginations about themselves and each other, and enjoy the joy that it brings. But the joy dissipated, and the cold differences in reality left both sides in disappointment and even dilemma.
Fuyao and the workers are not in the same direction, but they are actually doing the same thing: setting up what the other party should do, and dragging the other party into this setting to test every detail anytime and anywhere. When the other party does not meet their expectations, the contradiction is Started to unfold in every detail. From the orientation of the factory door, whether the ceiling should be set up, the conflict between two people in the workshop, to the conflict between the American worker group and the Chinese management group, they are all dissatisfaction and vents caused by the disillusionment of the beautiful vision. Contradiction was supposed to be the first step in asking and solving problems, but it was pushed to an escalation by the arrogance of everyone in it, and gradually encroached on everyone's attention. As the workshop supervisor said when resolving disputes, "They don't want to solve the problem, they just want to confirm that the other party is not themselves".
The specific connotations of "arrogance" of the two parties are not consistent. The bossy of the managers is rude, coercive, and coercive to expel and threaten the obedience of the employees; the bossy of the employees is non-cooperation, unchanged, and threats the factory to respond to their needs by causing losses. In countless large and small conflicts, almost everyone does not want to give in or at least understand the two sides from a higher level of perspective, at most they pretend to compromise, and then force their views to be promoted to the other side regardless of whether the other side agrees.
It's like less savvy lovers clash with each other and even cause real harm. But lovers can break up, and sooner or later all the pain will dissipate. Factories and workers cannot lose each other in the context of the documentary at this time, even if they are extremely dissatisfied with each other.
For both parties, the id, ego, and superego within the unilateral (I understand the specific "I" of both parties at the end of the article) already have a certain inward conflict, not to mention when the two groups collide with each other. When factories and workers need to accept each other and become "individuals," the values and psychological state will definitely impact, shatter and rebuild violently outwards. Under both internal and external pressures, both sides were very tortured.
When the American team came to Fuyao headquarters, the conflict broke out most violently. A completely different but well-functioning concept and lifestyle are presented to the American team without any concealment. The weird and bizarre scenes presented by the camera made me, as a local audience, deeply embarrassed and disturbed, not to mention the American team who had never touched all of this. When the members burst into tears and shed tears, my emotions are also very complicated: this is probably a kind of helplessness to the unfamiliar, which has long surpassed the instinctive discomfort and the arrogant impulse to transform caused by the difference between the two sides. At this time, American members have formed the most intuitive perception of the core of the conflict, "We are so different, but we are one, I don't know how to face all this, and I don't know how to accept and deal with all this." The instinct of "to face something different from me must eliminate the differences that caused my discomfort in the other person", in the face of such a strong and devastating cognitive dissonance, it was very naive and powerless and directly broken, but "I" did not find new The answer is that all I can face is the most instinctive helplessness, ignorance, incompetence, fear, despair, and loss.
Human beings have tried their best and exhausted all their efforts. It is impossible for human beings to truly understand each other. They will only be kept in the prison of their own cognition. This is how desperate it is. It is reasonable to be desperate to cry, and to be desperate to cry.
This is a very complex, deep, and subtle issue that can accurately express the director's exquisite settings and in-depth thinking.
However, the reality is so cold and cruel. When the concepts of the two parties conflict, they both use the methods they are most familiar with, but most of them will push the conflict to aggravation. These are two groups, which can never be reduced to two individuals. Two people can form understanding and tacit understanding through long-term communication, harmlessly make their conflicting concepts, and establish a common territory that can accommodate six selves (this is very difficult to achieve). But it's impossible for the two groups.
As a result, the efforts to dissolve the boundaries of oneself to accommodate each other have all failed. The flexibility and tacit understanding of the space between the two parties gradually collapsed, and the two parties with unbalanced power began to pursue more control.
Fuyao's efforts: "Do as the locals do", US leaders are responsible for FGA, no overtime, and wage increase efforts: Actively accept Chinese capital, accept Chinese management methods and education, and initially default to not accepting union requirements
Fuyao fights for control: monitors and pressures workers with union ideas, fires American leaders and replaces them with Chinese workers. Fights for control: forms a group of dissatisfied management opinions; begins to seek the union’s help and prosecute (not a comprehensive summary, just Example)
When the Chinese leader introduced the "overconfidence" of the American people to the Chinese employees, his gestures and expressions were repellent and rejected. Maybe it wasn't his intention, but he always followed the easy-to-understand method of the Chinese staff. When there is a difference between us and other groups, it will happen that "you are different from me, you are not us, you are external and rejected by us", or "we are one, I found you and me Different places, this makes our unity more interesting and diverse". It is a pity that most chose the former, or did not realize the existence of the latter at all. Many characteristics are not harmful, but interpretations from different starting points will lead to very different evaluations. Powerful materials can build deep consensus and deep prejudice. This is true for both parties.
The relativity of everything, the contradictions of social and interpersonal relationships, and the complexity and conflict of desires drive factories and workers to treat each other as enemies. Even if cooperation is beneficial to both parties, in this large prisoner’s dilemma, no positive example has ever been born in reality. This is our real life, an inescapable curse.
Unexpectedly, a new indifferent reality appeared at the end: the previous conflicts are no longer important. Robots have replaced low-speed and complex human resources. The integrated relationship between the factory and the workers is allowed to be broken. The factory can more efficiently and quickly build a space that only accommodates the "self" and one "me". The conflict has never disappeared, the conflict itself no longer exists. The factory and the workers will also be free to break up directly in the future, but it is only one-sided.
After experiencing violent conflict, the dumbness of broken concepts, and the despair that cannot be reconciled with certain cognitive dissonances, the dimensionality reduction blow of "technical progress" disappeared together with the questions and the answers. I feel another level of loss: don't worry about the existence of everywhere. The anxiety and discomfort caused by conflicts between people are gone. After some people have the ability to abandon others without hesitation, the latter have no option to try to change.
The entire documentary has accounted for narratives surrounding "conflict" at multiple levels, including: capital and labor, differences between China and the United States (not limited to their respective traditions, social organization methods, government management methods, and modern lifestyles), intergenerational Differences, conflicts between the educational qualities and personal experiences of different roles, the introverted conflicts between a few roles themselves and themselves, and even some abstract concepts (efficiency and democracy, fairness and freedom), etc. Therefore, the entire documentary presents a very diverse, complex, conflicting, and intertwined views. This is the biggest advantage of the film, and it is also the place where the director is most grateful. Each aspect can be discussed in detail and fully, but every detail reminds me of the core question: In the face of differences, can we only "cannot do anything, and finally eliminate each other indifferently and mechanically"?
The documentary did not give an answer, and I am so weak and ignorant myself, and my limited cognition is incapable of smoothing out such a grand and complicated conflict, and I am not qualified to judge myself for the sake of "being good for any party". As truth, let all perspectives accept it. "No answer" is probably the norm in human existence.
My understanding of the psychodynamics of both parties:
If you treat both parties as individuals: For Fuyao, the id: profitable self regardless of conditions: profit in the real world and meet the needs of employees. Superego: let everyone who has a relationship with the factory (customers, employees, owners) People) get self-satisfaction and self-realization. When the factory creates value for customers and wealth for employees and owners, everyone can get satisfaction
For workers, the id: to enjoy the self without paying: work in a good working environment and obtain a good income to realize the ideal of self-life. Superego: the realization of the individual, the profitability of the factory, and the development of the community are all in line with ethical requirements And has been fully realized
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