一
The "Daily Mail" once reported that psychologists at the University of Waterloo in Canada recently conducted an experiment. Experimental results found that people who frequently publish, write and read inspiring quotes or chicken soup for the soul on social networking sites are more likely to believe in religion, conspiracy theories and supernatural phenomena, and to believe in things that extraordinary people can do, but their intelligence level and cognitive abilities Their intellectual level is generally low, and they tend to look at things emotionally rather than analyze things rationally.
Baidu Encyclopedia says: Chicken Soup for the Soul is "words full of knowledge and emotions". It is soft, warm and full of positive energy. It is a kind of placebo, which can be used as a comfort food or as a snack for reading; In times of empathy, frustration, and depression, the therapeutic effect is almost like "beating the blood of chickens." They have popular tastes, inspirational packaging, emotional sentiments, and fast-food texts that can open up the reader's mind without having to think deeply. In today's fast-paced life and ubiquitous pressure, we occasionally need this kind of motivational "language art therapy".
Yes, we occasionally need to drink a bowl to achieve some indescribable spiritual healing, so as to encourage ourselves to conquer the world, marry Bai Fumei, become a domineering president, and embark on our own path. The pinnacle of life. But is this possible?
It has to be said that Chicken Soup for the Soul accurately captures the inner needs of those who are emotionally fragile and relatively irrational. It uses a story to make people feel passionate, such as in the workplace, Entrepreneurship, or difficulties in relationships. However, it does not encourage people to look at, analyze and solve problems rationally, but uses the spiritual victory method to incite people's emotions and regard negative things as positive, giving people a false sense of power.
II
However, most chicken soup articles are generally very superficial and pretentious, scratching the surface, using a few points to cover the whole, and trying to simplify and model complex things. Why? Because on the contrary to those who have real life experience, most chicken soup articles come from an incomplete, irrational, self-centered Ah Q-type soul. Behind their words are all attempts to use words to repair their own hearts and worlds. After conflicts and conflicts, they repair and balance themselves, and they think that this bowl of chicken soup also has the possibility of repairing and balancing the world. However, they overestimate their right to moral occupation, right to discover the truth, and right to feel superior. They think they see a leaf falling. They think that winter is really coming. They think that through a small thing in life, they can get a glimpse of the true meaning of the entire long life.
The core elements of a chicken soup article are story telling, positive viewpoints, cries of excitement, irrational insights, one or two golden sentences and a pretentious ending. The writers of chicken soup articles try to use the mechanical writing mode of "story fabrication + emotional content + true point of view" to arouse people's emotions, arouse screams of excitement, and then make readers have the feeling that "I can do it, I can do it too" Illusion, although most people tend to just look at problems from another angle, but they don't care whether they need to rigorously analyze and solve actual problems.
They continue to practice spiritual dogmatism triggered by trivial writings and trivial matters, and forget that real writing is "efforts beyond poetry" and forget that the depth of writing lies in society and the world, not in life. Inside, they live in their own life scenes. But sometimes, they still sell the "three rules, five models" writing dogma everywhere, but never tell you what real writing is and what truly valuable writing is. Their seemingly independent thinking feelings and triggers actually cover up the narrowness and tastelessness in the writer's life. In short, they are looking for "trigger" inspiration day and night, trying their best to gain insights into things, but they all talk nonsense in the article!
Each of them is like a life mentor for our readers, Like eminent monks and Zen masters who have seen through the world, tell us what you should do in life to be happy. If not, what will happen to you? . This kind of writers have a huge sense of self-identity and fully believe that their own life is a perfect life, and their own values ????and worldview are extremely correct.
What they give is specious and vague spiritual enlightenment, but they want to write it down, share it, and guide others, "Look! I am so philosophical! If you do this, you will be very happy as well." While they are extremely eager to accept the worship and praise of fans, they are also eager to "trigger" and copy and adapt everywhere.
They break the rigor of logical reasoning and use specious stories to make up for their lack of understanding of life and life. Some of them are taken out of context or deliberately guided fallacies. They intercept fragments and incomplete little things in life and rhetorically include them. Life stories are not about profound self-understanding, and then expanded to educate or teach others.
Three
The chicken soup article is poisonous cartilage powder that has been deliberately processed, modified and packaged in written language. It only gives the reader a temporary mood boost, lasting three to five minutes. After that, I completely forgot about it. On the one hand, the writer intentionally ignores the arduous process, hides the truth of the incident, and directly displays the beautiful results, so it instills a single world view into readers. Although this world view looks very "great and upright" on the surface, readers are very confused when they see these stories. It is easy to ignore objective and rigorous methodological principles and become simple-minded.
They try to obscure the real cause-and-effect relationship and key core of the matter, and put their personal energy to unlimited extent. Sometimes it is written in such a way that it seems that the angle is very novel, but in fact, the concept is changed to arrive at a so-called unique result, but the process has no real logic at all. After they hide, delete or modify the key elements of the story, they use soft and dependable words to mislead readers into believing their own perceptions, and then give a completely different answer to the answer the misled readers got. This completely different answer The answer was also given by the writer as a correct and reasonable reason, "You see, life is like this, life should be like this" and so on.
They warm up the real and cruel life, aestheticize the complex and cold world, like to oppose "I" to the whole world, like to disguise "I" as a wise man in life, and create a kind of or A tragic, inspiring or sobering feeling, and then through someone or something in life, I was suddenly inspired and enlightened. However, these emotional personal conclusions exactly speak of the escapist nature of the human nature of the writers. Dare to face the cowardice of life, using masturbation or sentimental words to complete another version of Ah Q's perfect interpretation of the spirit.
IV
According to statistics, readers who like to read and share chicken soup articles are often people with empty and fragile souls. They are certain types of spiritual and material weaklings in society. When they encounter difficulties and confusion in life and work, they do not seek the correct method or find a solution from the inside out, but they will drink a bowl of chicken soup for the soul to find comfort and release.
Regarding this anti-intellectual psychological phenomenon, Stephen Bryers, a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, said in the book "Unreliable Pseudopsychology: Cracking the Myths of Psychological Rumbling" that in the face of complex modern In society, people have found inspirational psychology - Chicken Soup for the Soul, a simple and simplified method. It blurs the boundaries between opinions, consciousness and reliable facts in an understated way, giving readers a powerful self-comfort.
However, chicken soup articles cannot solve any of their practical and psychological problems. Its method is only to make people look at the problem from a different angle, thereby making people feel temporarily relaxed and numb. Life will inevitably have its ups and downs. When encountering difficulties, we should face the problem head-on and solve it. This is the correct attitude and method. Avoiding is never a good way.
“Chicken soup for the soul is sometimes a placebo for self-protection for the weak, but if you indulge in it for a long time, it will form a self-reinforcing vicious cycle and spiritual opium, completely destroying your thinking ability, action ability and quality of life. "Current affairs commentator Tong Dahuan once said.
V
The emergence and popularity of chicken soup articles clearly reflect the most impetuous people in our era, and also reflect the fact that the pressure of life has doubled. It not only reflects the reader's deficiencies in reading ability, but also reflects the writer's own intentions and commercialization. In other words, chicken soup articles cater to people's lazy nature. They do not make reliable and rigorous rational analysis. They first use a story to make you a bowl of chicken for the soul, and then directly give you a stupid result. Right or wrong is no longer important. The important thing is that you feel "deeply sympathetic" after reading it, even if the truth or conclusion has not been scrutinized, even if it is scrutinized, it is simply speechless.
Some people have pointedly pointed out that the so-called clickbait-style chicken soup articles are just a bunch of useless shit that looks like the truth or philosophy of life but is written with the spice of sentiment added.
They try to move and inspire readers, but there is no sincerity at all. They try to teach you to "abandon material shackles to pursue a noble soul" and "throw away worldly views to understand the philosophy of life." What they pursue is enlightenment and touching. Rather than analyzing and solving.
Therefore, the essence of chicken soup articles is: delusion to collapse the real world of reason and logic, and trying to save suffering sentient beings with a kind of self-perception that sees the big from the small. This is the narcissism of a narcissist. It is the cries of the coward, the anti-intellectual view of the three righteousnesses, and the irrational theory of sensibility. After raping the world with his own will, he tries to elevate truth, goodness and beauty to an incredible height, and then uses various rhetorical techniques to enhance the article. Contagious, thinking that in this way I can build a self-consistent new world and new life on paper.