Chinese National Language Monitoring and Research Center unveiled the top 10 media buzzwords of 2020 on December 4, “involution” being one of them.
What is involution? A simple example can be drawn from writing a term paper. Suppose the word count requirement was 5000. By the submission deadline, most students handed in a composition of around 5000 words except Jane, who had written 10000, overfulfilling the task. Naturally, Jane secured a “Distinction” grade. Inspired by Jane’s success, more and more students have come to follow her, doubling or even tripling the lowest standard in order to get a higher grade. Such phenomenon is essentially a big rat race with an academic name: involution.
Involution has already stirred up a lot of controversy. Some people hail it as a lasting booster for personal improvement and population quality, quoting the classical saying “pressure is power”. But others point out that involution is a hundred harm, for it does nothing but adds to people’s anxiety. Weighing the views of both sides, I am inclined to agree with the latter.
In the first place, involution is a torture for all physically and mentally. It is like in a large theatre, where audience should sit quietly watching a drama. But when someone suddenly stands up so as to see more clearly, the audience behind him, blocked from sight, just arise one after another. In consequence, no one’s vision becomes any better, and, from sitting comfortably to standing, everyone feels exhausted. Hence, the involvement in such a fierce and irrational competition for scarce social advantages only leads to unnecessary consumption and waste of energy. There is no need in going to all that trouble.
In the second place, involution results in rampant crimes and social instability. In a society of pervasive rat race, people build their happiness on outmatching their competitors at all costs. For example, to grab customers’ attention, merchandisers continually bad-mouth each other on the sly. Worse still, some of them even resort to the much disreputable business—cheating—to gain a competitive edge. In extreme cases, violent crimes are committed for nothing but eradicating their counterparts. All these reveal the distortion of social values, which makes our human world a gruesome hell.
In summary, involution is never a sustainable mode of personal and social development. We had better say no to this trend and return to the normal track.
