Crooked Brain | Xueba Mao’s “Chinese Characteristics of Mind, Body and Soul Capitalism”: The magic that allows young people who don’t want to work hard to transform into “ladies” with just one click

This article was first published in Crooked Brain: "Xueba Mao's "Chinese Characteristics of Mind, Body and Soul Capitalism": The magic that allows young people who don't want to work hard to transform into "ladies" with one click"

A New Weekly report focused on the chaos in the mind-body and soul industry , "After joining spiritual cultivation, they went from being naked to being in debt worth millions" , which made the "Xuebamao", a mind-body and soul mentor who leads students to make crazy money, out of the circle. Click on Xueba Maomao’s Weibo , and what you can see is a 360-degree template of perfect happiness with no blind spots. The life she creates in her daily pictures and texts almost brings together everything that is envied by this society. Elements of Desire:

The article is full of eating, drinking and having fun, selfies of different costumes, food and wine, luxury goods, luxury cars, travel scenery, five-star hotels, high-end restaurants; the people she associates with are all social elites and "successful people", Qing Qing She is a top student from Beijing and Fuzhou, an American Ph.D., a brand executive, an entrepreneur, a venture capitalist, and no matter how good she is, she is also an employee of a big technology company. She always attends dinners, banquets and social events one after another, showing that she is well-connected and well-connected; She attaches great importance to health, often does yoga, shares the "Anthony Diet" she adheres to, drinks celery juice and eats fruits and vegetables every morning; in addition, Xuebamao does not forget to highlight her academic qualifications and knowledge - she graduated He still wore the title of "Zhejiang University" for ten years, and from time to time posted books and mentioned that he wanted to engage in research and academics. In each of her short essays that record life insights, she conveys positive, positive, relaxed and joyful emotions. The keywords are nothing more than elegance, gratitude, gentleness, tolerance, fun, ease, goodwill, love, beauty, and harmony. , full of energy...

In Xue Maomao's own words, she studied "lady's studies", the basis of which is "eating, drinking tea, banquets, buying vegetables, buying jewelry, washing cars, doing SPA...these are all aspects that have to be paid attention to and implemented." As long as these foundations are stable, people can take care of themselves better and better. This energy field will also allow the family (life) and everyone (work) to operate harmoniously."

The essence of "Lady" is "win big with little effort". In other words, the past hard-working success narrative based on "working hard to create value" is despised. What is emphasized here is that sometimes things must happen in life. Following the logic of the academic cat, becoming a "noble lady" is the "manifestation" result of her "zero limit cleaning method" - by continuously cleaning up her fear, anxiety, tension and "sense of lack", You will be able to naturally relax, be positive, confident, and powerful, and have abundant tolerance and "energy field", thereby attracting more "energy" - that is, health, money, love and good luck. Living the life of a lady and developing the mentality of a lady will help you open up and expand your "energy".

Although she will try to clarify that health, money, love and good luck are not the purpose of practicing the "Zero Limit Cleaning Method", but are just the by-products of this "magic" - the so-called correct concept of life and methodology. , "It doesn't matter if you have it or not." However, for the audience, health, money, love and "good luck" that means a huge profit, a small gain or even something for nothing are the driving forces that attract them to pay for the "Zero Limit Cleaning Method" and the Academic Cat. Its purpose. Academic Cat knows this very well, so she named her “Knowledge Planet” (a paid community operation platform) “School Cat·Hogwarts Lady Branch”.

The art of marketing and the patterns behind scams in the mind-body industry

Jess, a former friend of Xuebamao and a blogger who has been working in the field of mind, body and soul for a long time, recorded a podcast "Krypton Money, Cults and Narcissism - The Toxic Awards of the Mind, Body and Soul Industry" to expose her scam. It is mentioned at the beginning that Xuebamao targets the topics that everyone cares about, which is "get rich, get laid, don't die", which means "get rich" and "get laid" (referring to love). , Intimacy) and "Don't Die" (referring to health), "As long as these three topics are covered, any product or content you make will be bought by people, will be popular, and will make money."

However, if Xuebamao nakedly connects consumption and consumer goods, the audience will start to think about the efficiency of input and output. If she tells you, "Just give me money, you can have the same life as me," you will immediately think she is a liar. But when she shows "I have mastered a secret in life, through which I get everything I want, and you can too," the audience will not only believe that this may be true, but they will do it at all costs.

This is the art of marketing. Except for daily necessities, who is still selling things honestly now? What makes the middle class and the rich obediently pay is the various and extravagant added value. As a result, merchants switched from selling the goods themselves to selling lifestyles, ideals and feelings, the meaning of life and spiritual pursuits, and even morality and social justice. This made consumption less like consumption, but in the end they all returned to consumerism. .

This kind of marketing is especially rampant in the field of mind, body and spirit. In other words, this is the advantage of the mind, body and spirit industry - the value charm created by metaphysics is not only very huge (it can easily rise to all things and the universe), but it is also difficult to be falsified and deconstructed. A consumer cannot rationally estimate how much she should pay for this type of service, especially when the amount or ability to pay is directly related to its "cultivation results", "manifestation effects" and even "karma" (the so-called "merits"). ") when hooked up, she is more inclined to ignore the cost - even in the theory of Xuebamao, "care about the cost" means austerity, scarcity, and small structure. These are the obstacles that prevent people from expanding their energy, and they need to be cleared first. .

I once had a friend in the cryptocurrency industry who made a lot of money and was also very keen on metaphysics. When she returned to China, she went to a temple to find a master who was said to be very effective to tell fortunes and practices. She felt that the other person’s predictions were inaccurate and the experience was very poor. The process was hasty. But when the master asked for 5,000 yuan for "merit", she paid it obediently, and the thought of bargaining was out of the question. I was very surprised at the time, thinking to myself, wasn’t this someone who had been taken advantage of? But for my friends who earn millions every year, I think that I am too small. She didn't care at all whether she was cheated or not. She just threw away the five thousand yuan and gave it to someone who wanted it. It was a good deed.

Xuebamao even openly praises waste, saying: "Comfort is all wasted", "Through waste, you expand your mind", "People improve their wealth by consciously doing wasteful things" Feeling", "The bosses and rich people around you are all masters of waste, so he rushes forward, relaxes and opens up"...

To a certain extent, she has some insight into the emptiness and absurdity of the group of people who occupy excess resources in a capitalist society with severe uneven distribution - manifested in their misuse of money and completely irresponsible consumption methods. As a "top student" with an ordinary background who has experienced entrepreneurial failure in China's post-reform and opening era, why she yearns to be one of them is very thought-provoking.

In short, the name "lady" has accurately conveyed a desire for class advancement. She persuaded herself and the audience, adhering to the famous saying of "fake it until you make it" (fake it until you make it) as a "transgressor", by consuming the status symbols of dignitaries (fancy clothes, luxury cars, brand-name bags , five-star hotels), imitating their way of being in the world, desperately giving themselves leverage to integrate into the circle of the "upper class", starting from sharing symbols, concepts and words, and finally sharing resources with them.

Strip away the packaging of metaphysics. In a capitalist society, is there any day when such a story is not happening? Just to mention two characters who are familiar to the world - Elizabeth Holmes in "Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies of a Silicon Valley Titan". She concocted revolutionary blood testing technology by creating her own genius persona. , deceived countless business leaders and created the largest business scam in Silicon Valley. The original character of "Making Anna", Anna Sorokin, was originally an ordinary German girl born in Russia, but she pretended to be a wealthy daughter with a multi-million family trust fund to build her own "Anna Deville Foundation" (a collective In the name of a high-end club for art, culture, and fashion), he swindled in New York's upper class circles and even successfully obtained bank loans.

These are just two examples of scams that were exposed and received widespread attention. In fact, I think there are quite a few people who have achieved success through such "hidden rules", otherwise Silicon Valley would not have had the entrepreneurial culture of "fake it until you make it". Capitalism rewards most those refined egoists who seize resources as much as possible to invest in themselves, and even encourages those Machiavellians and narcissistic personality disorders who do whatever it takes to achieve their goals and have no ability to empathize with others. In an era where individual desires and private interests are maximally legalized, failure is not shameful, and most of the time no one cares about it. But as long as you succeed, the rewards you can get are so high that all means and costs can be washed away.

As Jess said, "Body, mind and soul are not a paradise-like idea and system that transcends capitalism. It has always been a trend of thought that is wrapped and intertwined under capitalism and neoliberalism." She said that body, mind and soul like to be separated from history. The context tells things as if universal truth should not have a time limit. But in fact, as long as you have a little understanding of its history, you will understand that the body, mind and soul have always been the product of the times and the social environment - the so-called "nothing new under the sun", the "zero limit" performed by Xuebamao, but It is a replica of the once-bad "Law of Attraction".

However, from these scam models, we can at least summarize some "truths": First, any "advanced" scam relies on the establishment of a myth (or "myth"). Sometimes this is Revolutionary science and technology, sometimes it is an exciting entrepreneurial dream, sometimes it is a hero who defeats the devil, sometimes it is a system that can eliminate social injustice in one fell swoop; sometimes, it is a system that can overcome failure, loneliness, and anxiety. The "unique secret" that will completely save you from depression, poverty, and deprivation, and allow you to embark on the road of being a winner in life - that is, the "magic" that Academic Cat and its audience always talk about.

Secondly, whether it is myths, myths and magic, it is enough to deceive young people who are not familiar with the world. Why can these middle-class and upper-class people, these investors, executives, and intellectuals with rich social experience, be able to deceive them? Do you all believe it? The presupposition of this question may be wrong - it is not why the advanced "players" in this society do this, but the more advanced players are, the more likely they are to do this. Speaking more broadly, the lack of a sense of meaning and value is a common problem in modern society. In this era of rationality as the primary productive force and material excess, people lack spiritual and emotional satisfaction. Therefore, they long for the dramatic, intense, and rich emotional experience that myth brings, and they also long for the transcendence that it brings. This is especially true for "the best among men".

Third, the chain of trust formed through personal relationships in the circle is the key to letting people off guard. Many people have mentioned that the reason why they came into contact with and had a good impression of Xueba Mao was because she participated in the word-of-mouth podcast "Being Happy", and its host Zhang Xiaoyu respected and recognized her very much. Obviously, the podcasting circle is an elite circle, and the endorsement of these opinion leaders has contributed a lot of credibility to Xuebamao.

I don’t know Zhang Xiaoyu. Judging from his resume, he is a typical social elite who came from a prestigious school and a large factory and has made great achievements in the investment world. The audience commented that he is “smart”, “lucky” and “successful”. In his podcast, Xuebamao made a famous "violent comment": A girl encountered a male boss who sexually assaulted her at work because of her inner inferiority and victim mentality. "Many girls have not experienced such a situation." Because they are very confident and self-reliant, and the men they meet respect and appreciate them very much"; including those who complained about their experiences during the epidemic, they also have a victim mentality at work, "I should do nucleic acid, do nucleic acid, Closed off, I continued to maintain my life. The same thing, in the end, is what I cultivate in my heart."

A listener also mentioned that she once left a message on the official account of Xuebamao, saying: "The recent news in Shanghai made me very sad, and I got caught up in it. I felt very annoyed at this time. How do you usually deal with social news? Where are your emotions?" Xuebamao replied to her: "What do these things with turbid energy do?"

Under this podcast, all the highly praised comments are criticizing Xuebamao’s speech, which shows that there are many people with common sense, and it is not difficult to judge right from wrong. But when Zhang Xiaoyu heard such remarks, he accepted them all without expressing any uneasiness, doubts or objections. It can only be said that the degradation of the elite is the degradation of the collective, and he chose to go with the flow. In other words, it is precisely because he has been following the trend that he and Xuebamao came together and resonated with the body, mind and soul's way of life.

Women have become the main force in physical, mental and spiritual consumption, reflecting the "failure" of feminism

What needs to be clarified is that just because people seek medical treatment in a hurry, believe in "magic", or even go astray does not mean that the difficulties they encounter are fake. From the accounts of many people who have experienced it, we can see that most people entered the community of academic cats when they were most painful, confused, and vulnerable. These pain points are real, extremely painful, and cannot be resolved, so they are manipulated and exploited by some false gods who are good at creating myths.

The New Weekly report said: "There are thousands of people in this physical and mental community, and more than 70% of them are women. Not only girls like Yuzi, but also women who start businesses, women who have been laid off, women who have been hurt, women who have been... East Asian education suppresses women who grow up... They are all attracted by some kind of magic that solves life difficulties, or in other words, many people have no choice but to enter here."

Why are women more likely to fall into physical, mental and spiritual traps? Analyze from a feminist perspective: Women have been objectified in society for a long time, lack participation experience as subjects, and find it difficult to fully develop. They are more dependent on external labels, symbols and opinions, and their perception of reality is more likely to be distorted; We have encountered too much pressure, restriction and judgment while growing up, and we need more self-love, recognition and unconditional acceptance. Including some human temperaments defined as "feminine qualities", such as sensibility, care, sympathy, selflessness, tenderness, equality, etc., cannot be realized in the patriarchal and capitalist mechanisms, and are always exploited, and a person who can A safe space for placement.

A friend of mine from the north of Guangdong commented: "The body-mind community can actually be seen as a city of escape in the modern capitalist division of labor society. After the good positions in the former universe were monopolized by men, the oppressed had no choice but to travel to the latter universe if they wanted to start over. universe, mainly because it can’t travel through other universes.”

Xueba Mao tried to provide answers to these women. She wrote in her public account article: "Guifei Xue, in essence, is love and belief in love. Growing up, I have seen too many family quarrels. After a miserable life, I made a firm choice in my heart... This is a desire from the bottom of my heart. The seeds of the birth of the Noble Lady School were not in Hermès or Taikoo Li, but in the world of fireworks and small streets. Lane is in every ordinary family. It is the anger of the father, the tears of the mother, the grievance and helplessness of being a child. It is these emotional, real experiences and pain that give rise to a kind of courage in people's hearts. A belief. There must be a better way to live in life. Family must be a place full of happiness, tenderness and love, where people can be infinitely nourished."

The miraculous effect of such rhetoric on "modern women" can completely reflect the "failure" of feminism. Although feminism has made women more and more aware of problems, there are no solutions to these problems in reality. Just like what Jess observed in the planet of the academic cat, many people there like to follow her and chant the slogan: "Believe in love, believe in men." The background is that a large number of women are afraid of marriage and childbearing. They realize that "men are not good" and do not want to find someone to make do with. However, they are very disappointed with women's rights, because women's rights cannot make women become ladies, nor can they give women the rights to The answer is "happiness".

"There is no solution to the relationship between men and women, and Xuebamao has grasped the unsolvable pain points of this era. She tells you that if you cultivate yourself and live your own life as a lady, you can attract a man who matches your status. Get a happy and wealthy marriage.”

Of course, the "failure" of feminism can be divided into two aspects. On the one hand, the powerful criticism of feminism makes women more and more aware and painful. Because once people start to question, then all problems will lead to bigger problems, and women will not be able to return to that self-consistent bubble-this "failure" is exactly where its value lies. But on the other hand, feminism has also fallen into its own bubble, creating its own closed, self-consistent, certain, once and for all narrative. For example, the "extreme feminist" anti-marriage and anti-childbearing theory, including the discriminatory and divisive discourses such as "marriage donkey" and "boy mother" developed from it, actually rejects the experience of all married women and gives up public opinion. sexual perspective. This returns to the level of "cultivating oneself" in the same way as the body, mind and soul, and will naturally push women facing these issues into the realm of body, mind and soul - the latter at least fully recognizes and accepts their traumas and desires.

The views expressed by Xuebamao sometimes overlap with feminism. She places great emphasis on women's subjective initiative and believes that society often dwarfs women in the name of "love" and "care". Women are more accustomed to accepting a setting that "women are weaker" or need to prove their abilities. She believes that if women focus on the "core power of life" and focus on achieving what they want, then women and men "are the same" and "both are very powerful."

This is a typical elitist, neoliberal discourse—the belief that women can achieve “self-reliance” independent of gender-inequitable environments. In the dimension of elitism, women's rights and body, mind and soul have merged, and finally found a way to solve problems for modern women. To put it nicely, this is called "empowerment", but to put it worse, it is called refinement and self-interest. For elitists, women's rights, body and soul, are all tools to legitimize excess desires and achieve success defined by "having everything".

Treat the mind, body and spirit as a way to manage the mind, face it and make good use of it

I have been exposed to both religions and spirituality, but I have never been recruited by them. Fundamentally, the underlying logic of "looking within" upheld by the spiritual world runs counter to my interest in exploring and transforming the world. I realized very early that the solution to many self-problems does not lie in "self", but needs to go outward to connect with others and society. In this process, self-problems are often solved, or even do not become a problem at all. It’s not that I don’t pay attention to myself, but I believe that a person’s self and self-understanding are shaped and deepened through collision and interaction with the outside world. My value lies more in creating value for others, and the "meaning of existence" I pursue is born in the process of establishing relationships with others, society, and various things. That's why I went public, to liberalism, feminism, civic action and journalism.

When I was struggling on this road, my body, mind and soul gave me a lot of help, and many activists and friends who care about social justice around me also benefited from it. Especially during the epidemic, when both public and private life were severely affected, and I fell into the lowest point of my life and was deeply depressed and unable to extricate myself, I found relief and healing through some spiritual theories and practices. Spiritual wisdom taught me how to be grounded in mind and body and pay attention to the present moment, how to prevent excessive criticism and internal friction of thinking, and how to protect myself from out-of-control negative emotions.

As a method of managing the soul, mind-body-spirit has its own limitations and uniqueness. It does not need to be deified but does not need to be demonized either. Chinese people generally have no tradition of religious belief, never pay attention to spiritual life, and rarely receive life education. It is easy to drift with the tide and lose direction in the muddy material world - thinking that the emptiness of the soul and the lack of love can be filled by constantly filling their own. Desire, possessing more material, possessing greater power and becoming "strong" make up for it; and when encountering a major blow, it is easy for the three views to collapse and turn into darkness. This is where mind, body, and spirit can help us solve problems and even think critically. If used properly, not only will we not be "brainwashed", but it will help us see the truth more clearly.

On the one hand, the heavy protections of modern society make us forget about human fragility and the uncontrollability of destiny. On the other hand, the profit-seeking nature of capitalism, the predatory nature of power politics, and the instrumental rationality of the technology industry—many of the sufferings of modern people are born out of these value-oriented reward and punishment mechanisms. Religion, body, mind, and soul cannot change reality. They can only adjust the way people understand reality, or open an alternative refuge to avoid the destruction of "humanity." Their teachings are originally very simple, nothing more than teaching people to "see through" and "let go", to be strong without desire, and to stay away from the coercion of various worldly labels, scrutiny and judgments, so as to lead inner peace and integrity, and restore the dignity of human beings. .

It can be seen from this that Xuebamao is a fake and shoddy person even in the physical, mental and spiritual fields. What she did actually had nothing to do with the body, mind or soul. She was just another "smart person" who found the password to wealth. She took advantage of her ability to create narratives and played an opportunistic and old-fashioned leek-cutting game on this land.

What helped the student bully cat rise to the top was the narcissism projected on her by the audience.

When referring to those students who are desperately trying to earn money on her planet and even bear huge debts, some comments believe that they are accomplices in the scam: "One slap can't make a difference", "One is willing to be beaten, and the other is willing to suffer", "People want to Lie to yourself, and then you meet someone you can cheat with." Although they are victims, it is obvious that the public really cannot find any empathy.

Shortly after the podcast where Jess accused Academic Cat was aired, Academic Cat said on her planet that Jess was committing a "suicide attack" and mocked Jess's career and life failures. A student commented below: "It's very simple to choose a mentor. Look at their living conditions. Do you want to live like that?" - This is exactly what he said. The person who promoted Xuebamao to the position of mentor is exactly the same. It is the narcissism, greed and hypocrisy that these audiences project onto her.

What angered me the most was the words of an interviewee named Yuzi. She likes writing, but she cannot overcome her low self-esteem and always avoids the effort required for writing. Finally, she said: "Anyway, I allow myself not to write or to write even worse. People can get money, recognition and love without hard work, hard work, and excellence."

I cannot accept authors who have no requirements for their own writing, precisely because I know how difficult it is to write even a qualified article, and how much training and effort it takes. Opposing "involution" vicious competition and the capitalist utilitarian evaluation system does not mean that people do not need to make efforts to do better. In fact, the treasures that everyone longs for in life, whether it is a healthy intimate relationship, a prosperous career, clean wealth, or an epoch-making masterpiece, all require a lot of time and energy to establish and maintain; Even if a person tries his best throughout his life, he may not be able to grasp one or two of them.

But unfortunately, some young people no longer believe in long-term investment and delayed gratification. Their inflated ambitions and desires, and their sense of disillusionment after being suppressed and frustrated by reality, collide and form a strange narcissism. This kind of narcissism must be understood in the specific field and era of China's post-reform and opening era - it is a deformed environment characterized by economic austerity, lack of public life, emasculation of multiculturalism, and severe depoliticization. Here, a deformed collective personality was born. Of course they reject the road to "success" that is full of oppression and exploitation, but they also reject the "failure" life of low material desires and marginalization. Compared with everything they claim to want to improve in real life, what matters most to them is to return to embracing themselves and "accepting themselves in a closed loop." Therefore, only "mind, body and soul capitalism with Chinese characteristics" like Xuebamao can meet its needs.

Weibo blogger Lan Xi interpreted this demand as “using consumerism to oppose consumerism”: “The set of rules of delayed gratification in the era of growth can no longer be pushed back. … The so-called using consumerism to oppose consumerism: What is opposed Consumerism is the normative path of not daring to lose your job after taking on a mortgage, worrying about your children’s educational resources, and saving money for your own retirement in advance. And the consumerism used for revenge is the freedom of milk tea, the freedom to watch TV series, the freedom to go wherever you want. Just the freedom to leave. To put it simply, it means hating and not believing in long-term returns, tearing up the contract of 'living like this for thirty years', and not thinking about the future, so there will be no anxiety."

Of course, how can consumerism of the "freedom of milk tea, freedom of binge-watching TV series, and freedom of leaving whenever you want" be compared with "eliminating the sense of money scarcity through millions of debts"? The former can at least afford it. Since we deny the way of living in the era of growth and no longer believe that hard work will be rewarded, why do we still believe that all debts can be paid off? When the solution you adopt is more serious than the consequences of your problem, what else can you expect to happen other than deceiving yourself and others, giving up on yourself, and bringing disaster to your loved ones?

Only the academic cat is the winner of this game. What’s ridiculous is that this is the new generation of “opinion leaders” emerging from our society, an industry “role model” with public visibility. These elites who take advantage of the pain points of the times and people's hearts, shamelessly display desires, grab benefits, and be arrogant, use "life can never go wrong" as a fig leaf to package themselves as a human being with sincere, profound life experience and universal love. The savior instigates the middle class to be selfish and do whatever they want, and encourages the disadvantaged groups to "do it for themselves", surrender and accept their fate. How can anyone with a little reflective ability get along with this?

At the end of her podcast, Jess stated that she decided to leave the field because "the mind has become dulled in the big bubble of body, mind and soul." She said she wanted to wake up from it, understand news and politics, and "live again." As a friend of a friend, I have actually known her for many years, but because she chose different paths, we have never been connected, and I never thought that one day we would reach the same destination through different paths.

"Everything is unstable and riddled with holes. Stable and firmly believed illusions will collapse, but that is what we need more, something that lives in reality. When adults feel the existential sense "You can't rely on anything", people will not be so narcissistic. You may have a lot of sadness, but this sadness is a kind of compassion. Then you will naturally care about others and the environment..."

I am reminded of a similar saying by Luo Xiang: "When refined self-interest becomes a natural life choice, only a strong sense of the contingency of fate can inspire a certain kind of humility, and humility is the antidote to the social Darwinism of the jungle."

Perhaps, as a social "elite" with the right to speak, we should remove the poison of elitism from ourselves; and as ordinary people affected by these words, we should remove the poison cast by these "elites" in our era. A true spiritual practice.