How College and Secondary School Students Can Respond to Meritocracy

My earlier piece, “The Fundamental Contradictions Facing University Students,” received 23,000 likes on Xiaohongshu. Quite a few readers agreed with it, demonstrating the practical value of analyzing contradictions, dialectics, and historical materialism, which can clearly guide our worldview, outlook on life, values, and philosophy of living.

One passage reads: III. The Contradictions of Involution, 2. Contradictions Involving Those Around Us: The people around us are both people like us, in the same circumstances and on the same path, and competitors in involution, vanity, peer comparison, and meritocracy. They are others who affect our sense of superiority and uniqueness, creating inner contradictions in our relationships. At the same time, we project outward our inner contradictions, such as self-doubt and self-criticism.

A reader asked:

How do we deal with “contradictions involving those around us” and meritocracy? I habitually compare myself with others and become anxious when people around me excel. I clearly recognize the pain this mindset causes, but I don’t know how to resolve it.

Su Huoyi:

That is a very good observation. Recognizing this already gets you halfway toward resolving it. And this is a matter of social pressure, rather than personal cultivation. For this particular issue, you could look at works that depict ordinary lives in a plain, unvarnished way, such as *My Students at a Second-Tier University* and *We Were Smart*.

1. You can make friends with classmates who have a deeper understanding, empathy, and wisdom, discuss how to resist meritocracy, and build a humanistic alliance against involution.

1. You can seek out younger students you know and help them work through the pressures they face. This is both an act of compassion and a way to gain awareness from an observer’s perspective.

1. You can go online and learn about children in impoverished areas and elderly women facing hardship, or watch *Tan Talks Traffic*: tears amid laughter, finding joy amid hardship. This can help cultivate a more diverse set of values.

1. Learn some Marxist history and stories of the revolutionary struggles of ordinary workers and peasants, people of conscience, and martyrs.

1. Start with being yourself and loving yourself, gently nurturing your inner core.

1. A systematic general education. “A General Education Reading List for University Students and Working People.”