Class struggle, the term has faded out of today's China and most countries in the world for many years. But class differences and conflicts are everywhere and everywhere. The high-ranking, middle-class, working-class, and people at the bottom of society generally have their own circles, make friends of their own class within their own class, and live in the same type of villa area (or residential area, shanty town) as people in their own class. ), eating breakfast and lunch at a similar price, or sitting on a swivel chair behind a mahogany square table, or sitting in a cubicle, or sweating profusely on construction sites and assembly lines at workplaces with different floors but similar work nature and status. Or in front of the trash can. Of course, people of different classes often work or live in a small "personal circle" environment. Their relationships, or superiors and subordinates, such as bosses and migrant workers, leaders and staff, or employers and nanny, or other various A relationship of domination and being dominated. In this relationship, class contradictions are very common, and the forms and contents of contradictions are very diverse, but most of them are also very common. So what if a higher-class member "reduces" to a lower-class member? What will happen?
There is an old Chinese saying, "Tigers fall and Pingyang is bullied by dogs." It seems that the situation of those who fall from this class can be estimated. However, Jasmine in the movie is not a tiger, and the various characters she meets after coming to her sister Ginger's hometown are not dogs. to evaluate her experience. She is not a tiger, what is it? Professor Qian Liqun's name for a class of people can basically describe her appropriately: "exquisite egoist".
The so-called exquisite, in short, is the appearance of decent temperament, polite words and deeds, enviable status and knowledge, and generous life and communication. "Exquisite" can also be extended to a good quality of life, a kind of happiness accompanied by vanity and selfishness, material abundance and great personal freedom. Needless to say, Jasmine was "sophisticated" when she was wealthy. After she was down, she was destitute and needed to borrow money. She still had to fly in first class, and even called herself an "anthropologist" when chatting with her neighbors to satisfy her vanity; she also insisted on dressing up every day. Maintain your temperament, insist on finding a decent job when your ability is limited, and dislike and reject the vulgar entertainment of the "hanging silk" around you. And self-interest, from her encouraging her sister and her husband to invest but failing to help after losing everything, to finally trying to deceive a diplomat to marry a diplomat, pervades the film throughout. Of course, "exquisite" itself has a kind of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy allows one to respectfully self-interest, and self-interest needs hypocrisy to cover up. The two are dialectically unified.
If she has been in front of the rich businessman's husband's wife in the luxurious villa, a delicate egoist like her may live peacefully forever. However, when she was impoverished and had to depend on her non-biological sister who had a poor family background, and she was surrounded by low-level survivors, she gradually understood that without the barriers of money, status and living environment, "exquisiteness" became It has become an obstacle for her to earn a living, and it has become a magnet and catalyst for the attacks of the broad masses of people at the bottom who are not able to live a high-quality life and who resent, envy and even hate members of the higher classes. Not only is she no longer as "delicate" as before, the remaining delicacy is no longer a symbol of nobility and has become a scourge of harassment, isolation, and rejection. Different classes have different discourse systems and different moral standards, and they also despise the systems and standards of another class. For the commoners in the neighborhood where Jasmine is located, rude, straightforward, and vulgar entertainment are symbols of congenial tastes. Outsiders, new-borns, and "degraded" people like Jasmine can only passively adapt. There is no right or qualification to point out its shortcomings, nor the qualification to make them "not disturb" others, even if Jasmine has to study, insomnia, anxiety, and full of pain. They sometimes show sympathy for a former noblewoman like Jasmine who was once a high-class woman and now lives under the same roof with them, but there is no doubt also contempt and disgust. Because many of them are also at the mercy of their own bosses, leaders, employers and other people who have advantages in power and money over them. All kinds of related injustices, oppression and exploitation, and all kinds of events in this world, we only have the right to passively adapt to the various events in this world, and we have no right or "qualification" to point out its shortcomings, and also "have no qualifications" to prevent the ruling class. And the privileged do not violate their interests, do not "disturb" their lives.
For those in the higher classes, in addition to real weapons, their weapons for safeguarding interests, dignity, and stable lives also include various types of weapons such as power, money, connections, laws, influence, and mobilization. When it is enough to ensure their vested interests, they are not too stingy with their civility and politeness, and do some graceful, praiseworthy, knowledgeable, and loving things with sufficient material foundation and education level. For many low-level civilians, low-level thick and black, stealing and cheating, taking advantage of petty, vulgar, exploiting, vicious, sleek, selfish and united... These are all necessary means for them to gain more benefits from life , use them to alleviate their own material shortages and cope with a hostile environment. These methods are sometimes used to deal with or deceive the high class, and more often they are used among the people at the bottom, for those who suffer from the same disease and hate each other. And Jasmine, when she lost the weapons possessed by the high class, but did not learn the various means to survive at the bottom, she has no future and no possibility of survival. This is why the middle class in some countries, even though they feel that their rights are limited, are still willing to unite with the privileged class to jointly resist the claims of the bottom class, because they are afraid of being brutal, afraid of being rough, and they will despise but avoid another than they will play tricks. , A social group parallel to them that is less bottom-line, less reasonable or even unreasonable than them, less sympathetic, and more unscrupulous.
Of course, "refined egoists" are not completely self-interested, and the commoners, including the people at the bottom, are not lacking in sympathy and kindness. When Jasmine told her sister's children that she should have social responsibility as a rich person and do more charity, she was not hypocritical but true; when she went to see her stepson who was working in a dilapidated store because of her report, her guilt was also From the heart. Her sister Ginger took her in after she lost all of her investment because of her suggestion, and has been helping her rebuild her life as much as possible. Isn't it a display of family affection from the commoners? The common people she met also had more sympathy than disgust towards her. Even the very wretched and vulgar repairman was very enthusiastic and sincere to help Jasmine at the beginning, even with some unreasonable attempts.
In medieval Europe, there was a clear distinction between nobles and commoners. The nobles have various privileges and are in a superior position in terms of status, power, and material life. But on the other hand, nobles also have more moral constraints and social responsibilities than commoners. Helping the weak and helping the poor, punishing evil and promoting good, charging ahead, and being a gentleman are all special requirements for nobles. The commoners are in a ruled position, subject to management and exploitation, and are poor in material, but they bear less responsibilities than nobles, and their moral requirements are relatively less strict and complicated. Of course, due to the unequal status of the two parties in this system, there is no mandatory binding on the nobility's responsibility requirements, and the commoners have to suffer more serious exploitation and oppression than the formal feudal laws of European countries under the coercion and control of the nobility. . This unequal medieval system has been destroyed since the French Revolution, but class differences have never disappeared. The dedication and sacrifice of the traditional European aristocracy and their selfishness coexist today, and the goodness, justice and brutality of the common people also continue to the contemporary era. Different classes have different living standards, different responsibilities, and different inferiority. Not just in Europe, but all over the world.
The class differences and Jasmine's confrontation with adversity presented in this film are two interactive ribbons, intertwined. Jasmine has been struggling with her life, trying to escape from an environment she hates. When she picked up the textbook and wanted to return to the top student status of her student days, she found that she no longer had the intelligence and memory of the year; after becoming a dental clinic employee, she was full of expectations that she could temporarily settle down in her life to make progress. But she was sexually harassed within a few days; faced with all kinds of trivial things in life, such as being interrupted by noise, answering appointment calls, etc., she was in a hurry, overwhelmed, and unable to cope; she tried her best to lie and pretend to deceive the trust of diplomats, and it seemed that she finally got rid of it. When he was in a sea of hardships, he was destroyed by a chance encounter with his old man. When the desperate Jasmine came home and saw her sister and her boyfriend frolicking happily, she was even more stimulated. After hysterical self-deprecation, she had a complete mental breakdown. At the end of the film, she sat on the bench and said to herself, blaming herself. , in regret, but also deeply unwilling. The contrast between the former happiness and the desolation of reality, coupled with the failure of her desperate efforts to change the status quo, this mixed spiritual poison has destroyed her spirit and her body will become ashes. Not just Jasmine , there are thousands of people in this world who are struggling, trying to get out of their predicament but ultimately failing and ruining (of course most of them/their specific motivations, experiences and goals are not the same as Jasmine, they/ Most of them are not self-inflicted like Jasmine). In the face of the system, the crowd, the environment, and the world, individuals are too fragile, especially those who want to maintain an independent personality and physical and mental freedom, but have no rights and lack of money, and are unwilling to follow the crowd and obey the surrounding majority and join the collective. , itself as fragile as the reed grass in the wind. Even if you are a thinking reed, it will only add to the pain. The wind, frost, rain, snow and fire will not sympathize with you because of your "thought", and will even torture you even more. Jasmine is painful. Many people who are fighting against fate and the environment are painful. He (she) is miserable and painful, but there is a more terrible situation, which is more common in some countries than the former: people live in Feeling numb from the pain, like walking with corpses, no feeling of losing power or feeling dull and weakened; accustomed to all kinds of unreasonable management and control, not being "guided" by others, but feeling that life has lost its direction and can't continue. Or live happily in pain, use Ah Q-style self-comforting spiritual victory to escape real pain, cover up real interests and damage with distorted tolerance poured in chicken soup for the soul, and brainwash oneself and oneself in the outside world. Psychological evasion admits and even praises an unfair society; what's more, it transfers this pain to the weaker, and uses the pleasure of the perpetrator to offset the pain of the victim's soul.
Jasmine is a poor man, and even more hateful. But in the final analysis, she is still a person, a person of flesh and blood, with guilt, anxiety, and unwillingness, numbness, and resignation. Although her guilt can't restore her sister's investment and marriage, it can't offset her knowing that her husband is a liar and a criminal for a long time, but she has let it go for a long time, using these ill-gotten gains to enjoy the sin. But she was uneasy after all. She is unwilling to the status quo, and pays attention to the taste of luxury when she is rich and poor, excludes and hates the people at the bottom, and uses deceit to hope to escape back to the upper class, which is a typical selfishness. However, everyone should ask themselves, who is not selfish? Who doesn't want to enjoy a good material life and have a free, independent and comfortable way of life? It's just that some people express this kind of attempt clearly, while some people think secretly and do it in a curved manner. Isn't the inner driving force of human progress and development plainly people's ever-increasing and ever-improving desire for their own needs? As for those who live in poverty and brainwashing, and have lost the confidence and motivation to pursue a better life, isn't it even sadder? Jia Zhangke said: "Ignorance is not knowing that there are other possibilities beyond the scope of one's own experience." In an environment that seems to have progressed and opened up but is still conservative and closed, under the empty, narrow and distorted education, how many people have no idea of the importance of freedom? How many people no longer feel that fairness and justice should be taken for granted? How many people see individualism as completely negative? How many people have taken empathy and "acceptance of death" as obstacles to success?
A person who is purely self-interested is repugnant compared to an individualist who cares about the interests of others and who is zealous for the public good; a person who harms others to meet his own needs is even more repulsive than a person who is purely self-interested; and Compared with people who are purely selfish and selfish, but they are still the same in appearance and inside, they talk about collectivism, family harmony, unit unity, and the overall situation every day, but in fact they use double standards of morality on themselves and others, cheating and cheating. Shouldn't people who are dark and cunning, coquettish and bully, bully the weak, and those who share the same party and cut down on differences, be more hated? In theory, of course, this should be the case, but in reality it is often not the case. On the contrary, many people rely on these behaviors to not only gain more benefits, but also have more people's attachment and envy, and get all kinds of good reviews from colleagues, family members, neighbors, and neighbors, as long as such people are skilled enough to do these things. , is concealed enough, clever enough, and the benefits, status, and money obtained are enough to "grace" to more people. Moreover, it has gradually become a social ethos, accumulated over time and recognized by all, and gradually it will replace fairness and justice, freedom and equality, truth and honesty, restraining the strong and supporting the weak, rational and friendly love, and it will become a normal and reasonable value. Together with the hierarchical order, the three principles and the five constants, obedience and obedience, distinction between inside and outside, tolerance and generosity, etc., and the loyalty, filial piety, righteousness, etiquette, honesty, and shame that are used to decorate it, it constitutes the mainstream value of society, and those who deny it, Those who do not obey it will become "heretics" instead, and will be eliminated by the "evolution" of "survival of the fittest" in life, and the "fire" of life will slowly burn the body and burn the soul.
Julien in "Red and Black", in front of the legal bench of the French court in the 18th century, before the moral judge bench of millions of people in that era, proudly looked at the judge of his actions, thoughts and even his soul. Yes, he is guilty, but among the thousands of judges, how many are innocent? Relative to all, his sins may be heavier than some people, lighter than others, but he is more honest, sincere, and contempt for filth rather than silence than most people. There are those who judges do not have. But wake up and not fly camp dog Gou. Jasmine in the 21st century is very different from Julien's life course, but they are both people who are struggling in the big world. They have selfish concepts and behaviors, but they are not numb and cold. Sincere feelings, primitive desire to pursue a better life, and refusal to follow the crowd. Both he and she are living towards destruction, but human nature has not completely fallen. Jasmine, in her desperation, did not do anything that could survive on her terms but lose her last dignity. She is crazy, but precisely because she has emotions, thoughts, shame, and soul. If a person does bad deeds but has no regrets, harms others but benefits himself but has a sense of peace of mind, breaks through the bottom line of social morality but is not ashamed, insidious and cunning, but regards this as his ability, takes pride in it, and lives a solid and happy life, isn’t it better than spirituality? A hundred times more terrifying?
By the time the movie ends, Jasmine's life seems to have come to an end, and it must be a tragic one. So does human history have an end? If so, were the people great back then? Or sinful? If not, how far would humans "evolve"? It took human beings millions of years to evolve from a primitive society that drank blood to "exquisite egoism", "exquisite darkness" and "exquisite barbarism"; what if it took millions of years from now? Is good triumphing over evil? Or will good and evil continue to be intertwined and indistinguishable? Will the human characteristics such as love, kindness, reason, seeking truth, and freedom and justice developed since the birth of mankind flourish or disappear? Future history will prove it all, but we can't see that.
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