This society is probably just like the title suggests—evil and beyond control. Yet in such an environment, most people still hold ideals about society, fantasies about their dreams, and grand ambitions for the world. They believe that if they endure enough suffering, they will definitely succeed, or that if they work quietly, the company will surely notice, or that if they give silently, the other person will definitely understand their sincerity. So they go about quietly, without saying a word. Then when it's time to seize an opportunity, you don't reach out in time, and the opportunity slips away before your eyes. By the time you regret it and want to grasp the next one tightly, you discover that every opportunity you hold is obtained by trampling on others. No matter what it is, no matter how big or small, no matter whether you're aware of it or not, believe me, it's all gained by stepping on everything others possess.
So, in order to conform to this society's values and obtain what you want, I'm sorry—stop living in ideals, stop living in utopia. Sometimes you simply have to give up kindness. But sometimes you can also choose to be kind; it's just that the one being trampled on will be yourself.
Around August, I participated in a cross-strait journalist training program with many university students, some perhaps only in their first or second year. They were full of ideals about society, believing journalism is a noble profession dedicated to pursuing truth. Honestly, they weren't wrong. But in the process of pursuing truth, it's often not just a sense of justice that gets you the truth and responses you're looking for. Instead, you have to set time limits, asking the other party to respond by a specific time; you have to tell them they must respond by a certain hour, or else you won't include their statement; you have to use a serious tone and ask when they can resolve the issue. But these timeframes are usually only half an hour, an hour, etc.—very short indeed.
Are you driven by a sense of justice? Or are you demanding these responses because you don't want to be fined or because there's no two-sided statement? Perhaps the interviewee does have an obligation to respond, but due to media operations (whether it's exclusivity demands or time constraints), the respondent's reply deadline is indeed compressed, limiting their time to gather sufficient information. You might think that's their problem, but this journalistic constraint actually originates from the media itself. If the reporter can't get a response, the boss will investigate. So the reporter becomes a tool, and what choice do they have but to demand responses from PR people or corporations?
Take other job examples. When vendors collaborate, Vendor A won't know your cost price, so they pay you more than market rate for your service. But perhaps some tasks you can't do yourself, so you outsource to downstream vendors. However, the money you give those downstream vendors might be only 1% of what you received, and you pocket the rest as profit. The downstream vendors won't even know they're receiving an unfair price. It sounds unjust, but this is how business operates—this is the actual method of operation. When running a business, of course you need to keep surviving for profit. So under seemingly reasonable circumstances, satisfying the other party's needs while ensuring your own profit is the correct approach. Maybe you'd think, "Why don't they share some of those profits with me?" But why should others help you without compensation? If you have the ability to build a system and create passive income, then do it yourself. This world has never obligated anyone to help you.
No matter what you want to do, even if your starting point is well-intentioned, as you integrate into this society, you must remember: no matter what decision you make, no matter how much you want to protect yourself, no matter how much you want to maintain an air of innocence, someone will inevitably be hurt. But to keep improving, you can't stop and stare at the damage you've caused. You can only let it go and move forward, finding better ways to avoid repeating the same mistakes. Through this process, you'll gradually understand yourself better—not just accommodating others, not becoming that confused and ignorant person. You'll only polish yourself into a better version through each abandonment, each filtering decision.
