Young Farmer Pauses World-Weariness Episode 01: Why Are Young Farmers World-Weary?
Young Farmer: Pausing World-Weariness | 01 Why World-Weary
World-wearyis not a term that only emerged in recent years *1; here, I would like to briefly discuss the definition currently in vogue:
Low wages cause young people to lose their lives under economic pressure, living a life of being chased by money, becoming the world-weary generation, unable to see their future, and even falling into the poor class with no way to move upward again.| The News Lens Special Report on the World-Weary Generation
Long before the term "world-weary" conquered our phone screens and late-night conversations with bitter, sour-faced workplace rookies, its mighty force had already spread across the reading desks lit by midnight oil, like overworked cells, mutating tirelessly day and night, mutating again, biding their time, ultimately becoming a cancer that terrifies everyone at the mere mention of its name. If what Eileen Chang called life is a gorgeous robe crawling with fleas, then we of the world-weary generation are -- in the prime of our budding youth, like extinguished cigarette butts, illegally tossed into a stinking ditch.
When society is swept up in world-weariness, the hourglass of light finally focuses on the young, piling onto the backs of those newborn calvesspecks of light and dust. For the first time, we are pushed onto a stage where we can stridently accuse this world; one "plaintiff" after another crosses the boundary between reality and virtuality like warriors brandishing swords, waging endless battles across different forums; on IG, black humor tags like #worldwearyface, or even packaging it as traffic and business opportunities.
If poverty is the chief culprit, where do we go to arrest it? Search among numbers like a mountain of knives and a cauldron of boiling oil?
The indifferent stateGDP, frozen salaries, soaring prices, high vacancy rates contrasted with astronomical down payments for home purchases, stealthily rising rents, pay slips that show overtime without overtime pay, student loans that mean debt upon graduation, and so on.
Regarding the above issues, undercapitalism*2 andglobalization*3's Invisible Structures*4, the solution recognized by the general public might be:economic development, that is,make money! Make money! Make money!Yet paradoxically, "globalization" has had a tendency to pour fuel on the fire for theM-shaped society-- that is, the poor get poorer and the rich get richer; and I suspect that you, currently gnawing through this article, are not one of those lucky chosen ones -- the new rich.
Stop thinking that as long as you grit your teeth and endure, the good days will come back. You may have already fallen from the middle class into the "lower society" without even knowing it.| Kenichi Ohmae
Underconsumerism, which favors capital accumulation, people attempt to throw more money-bought things into the void of their souls, their demands boundless, terrifying to the extreme -- like during the Vietnam War, fighter jets indiscriminately dropping napalm on Vietnamese villages. You ask, isn't this just human nature? Yes, and no, because ultimately we cannot see whoseinvisible hand。it is that traps you under the Five Finger Mountain of society, and where is Tang Sanzang?
We can be world-weary; we must be world-weary.
Be angry! Anger is part of the fight. You must learn to control it.| FilmWhale Rider
Beyond anger, learn to understand "why world-weary"; if seeking outward still yields no answer, then look inward, and think about what change we can make; do not underestimate the power of a single cent, because in the world-weary generation, it is "the most powerful ballot”。
Postscript
A friend told me the article's information is too cluttered and hard to digest. The author apologizes deeply here, because my logic is a bit poor, my daily conversations often jump around, and on top of that I'm quite greedy, so let me add a supplementary note (laughs).
First, the word "why" in [Why World-Weary] has two meanings: one is to explorewhat world-weariness is, and the other is to analyzewhy we are world-weary. I hope that through my naked exposition of the above two points, readers can gain a close-up understanding of mysubjectiveview of this society, while also indirectly explaining why I -- a child raised under exam-oriented education -- took the path of a farmer.
Finally, I believe that among the readers of this article, there must be some who think my views are wildly wrong, but that's okay :) Irespectyour difference from me; because everyone's definition of happiness or success is inherently different, and I hope you can share your views with me.
About [Young Farmer: Pausing World-Weariness]
I am 23 years old this year. I have decided to farm using friendly cultivation methods, living with my back bent.
Since dropping out of school in 2015, I have embarked on one journey after another escaping from Taiwan, China and from myself; in the process, cliché as it sounds, like countless backpacker influencers: "I found a lifestyle and belief I love (three views)." Due to my stubborn care for the land and life, torn between the world and myself, pain arises, and then world-weariness; however, in 2017, I went to Southeast Asia, to the land where the mother river flows, and exchanged and lived with many young farmers averaging 25 years old (series of articles), and only then did I realize: "It is precisely because we are young that it is all the more worthwhile to tread our time into the soil beneath our feet, nourishing all things," and the thought of taking root was thus born.
World-weariness is because I still have expectations for this world; and farming is my way of pressing pause on the state of world-weariness, and also my way of recovering the ability to answer candidly "what are people born for."
Here, I will record the path of farming, perhaps full of twists and turns, but having started, it's always a good thing.
Labor lóo-lat.
Extended reading and videos:
*1 Young people, please feel at ease being world-weary！Because world-weariness a hundred years ago was actually quite positive | Chen Jian-shou, History Kumquat Shop
*2 "Capitalism You Don't Know"| PTS, Youtube, 6 episodes total
*3 Globalization Globalization I| Crash Course World History, Youtube (Chinese subtitles)
*4 Permaculture’s Invisible Structures: The Economic Dimension| Aline Van Moerbeke, Medium (English)
*5 The nightmare of farmland development rises again! Zhudong farmers' thirty years of bloody struggle, county government restarts Zhuke Phase 3 development plan| Liu Yi-hsin, News & Market
*6 Exploring the truth behind world food: the war of markets, power, and the food system| Jiang Hong-ru, Tao Zhong-lin, Liu Nai-hua, Social Enterprise Insights
*7-1 The New Era of Mixed Living -- The Inclusive Challenge of Social Housing| Chang Tzu-wu, The Reporter
*7-2 Luxury homes left empty with no one living in them, and the Dutch people can actually "legally occupy" them? Vacant houses must be offered to those in need for lodging!| HouseFun News, Storm Media
*8 What does "inherited poverty" have to do with "bullying"? It turns out both are dilemmas "about moving up"| Wu Chi-yin, Alley Mouth Sociology