How does the CCP respond to the jouissance of slacking?
From the Axios AM/PM newsletter today:
Rejecting China's work culture, some young people are embracing a loafing movement that includes traveling and living off savings — "lying flat" (tangping in Mandarin)
This, in and of itself is not that interesting. However, when the Chinese Communist Party responds the way it has things get interesting!
The Communist Party, wary of any form of social instability, has targeted "lying flat" as a threat to stability: Censors deleted a tangping group on Douban, a popular internet forum. Authorities barred posts on another tangping forum with more than 200,000 members. [...] "The state news media has called tangping 'shameful,' and a newspaper warned against 'lying flat before getting rich.'"
Why is this interesting? Because, there is jouissance in slacking off, it seems that there might even be more jouissanvpcw to slacking off in China than there is in the US.
What happens when something that has jouissance in it because it is transgressive or excessive is made even more off limits by the powers that be? It becomes even more jouissanceish! (I made up a word!)
I think the CCP's reaction to the young people having a great time slacking off just might make said slacking off even more appealing to many young people.
Wouldn’t it just be both hilarious and amazing if this was the thing that actually started to get people in China to stand up to the CCP’s rampant authoritarianism?