Rule Consciousness
Primary school, middle school, high school, and even university education all keep sending one subconscious message: as long as you are obedient, you will succeed.
If a primary school student does not do homework, their grades are “bad”; if a middle school student does not listen to the teacher, they will get into all kinds of trouble; if a high school student does not follow arrangements or attend evening self-study, they will be seen as a bad student, and may even be predicted to fail the gaokao. By university, if a student is not obedient enough, they may lose points in comprehensive evaluations. And students who cannot get scholarships are very likely to receive little approval from teachers.
In fact, “obedience” has always been an attribute society wants.
The stable output of society does not rely only on science and technology. It also depends on the stability brought by obedience. For a huge system, stability is often placed above everything else.
In a system that is operating normally, if someone actively proposes improvements to managers, they will probably not be encouraged immediately. Instead, they may first be criticized or rejected. The manager’s first reaction is often: you have ideas, which means you are not obedient. Whether the suggestion itself has value becomes something to consider only later.
This long-term subconscious training has seriously harmed the way Chinese people, especially students, think, as well as their ability to try to succeed.
Even now, in university, I still see many students doing completely meaningless things for only one reason: the counselor told them to.
Also, a person needs to find their real teachers. I have never believed that the teachers in university are naturally my real teachers. During working hours, they teach some theoretical knowledge, and that certainly has value. But beyond that, many of the things they say do not seem very nutritious to me, and sometimes even feel absurd.
How can a group of people who have never truly entered society for work, and who have stayed in school for half their lives, reliably give advice about society and work?
Real teachers are everywhere. Classmates around you, creators on Bilibili, YouTube creators, strangers on forums: as long as someone says something valuable and makes you suddenly understand, that person can become your teacher.
A teacher is not an identity. A teacher is someone who enlightens you.