In this era of rapidly changing information, if a person always seriously believes in the mainstream narrative, then their mental state is likely to encounter problems. This is because the mainstream narrative is never stable. Instead, it is a strategic performance that shifts with the wind. The evaluation of a person or an event can often undergo a 180-degree change in a short period. True "trust" comes with emotional costs. If you invest your faith, you must endure repeated betrayals and reversals. The result is that the more seriously one takes the mainstream narrative, the more easily they get hurt; the more an individual wants to sincerely believe, the more likely they are to be slapped in the face.
Thus, many people have learned to "perform," displaying the "correct value stance" in public while their hearts are already hollow, doubtful, and even numb. Typical figures like Sima Nan and Zong Qinghou are just part of this pseudo-moral performance system. Now, genuine trust between people can often only be maintained in small private groups. Public morality is often just a tool and a protective cover. Many sensitive and honest ordinary people live particularly painfully in such an environment. They are constantly trying to maintain internal order, yet are repeatedly shattered by external narratives, falling into intense internal conflict and mental fragmentation.
This is very similar to our school days, where the most anxious and painful individuals were often not the best or worst students, but those in the middle who still held hope for the future yet were always frustrated. The same goes for society. When beliefs are repeatedly overturned, ordinary people fall into a state of continuous cognitive disorder. This is also why many people, in times of turmoil, tend to reminisce about the past. Traditional values, despite their various problems, are usually stable. They can penetrate through generations, providing individuals with psychological order and a sense of belonging. Even if they contain biases or backwardness, their certainty brings mental stability. Many people go through life without ever escaping their biases, but these biases do not disrupt their mental balance.
However, the current mainstream narrative often contradicts and negates itself. For example, a person born in the 1950s has heard the main theme change so many times in their life that it could shatter the mental bottom line of many who try to "live seriously." Yesterday, Japan was an enemy; how did it suddenly become a close friend, only to turn back into the "evil little Japan," and in the future, possibly become a friend again to counter the United States? Yesterday, the U.S. was imperialistic; today, the U.S. president is a guest of honor, and now it has become an enemy again; yesterday, masks were indispensable, and today, a full reopening seems taken for granted. The repeated and drastic swings in values make the entire social value foundation unreliable and unsustainable.
When society loses stable values, people lose their "life narrative." But people need a "life narrative"; we need an internally consistent value system that can explain the past and the future. When the mainstream narrative changes frequently and society cannot provide continuous value support, everyone can only rely on themselves. Many people have become Machiavellians, indifferent to morality and immorality, viewing everything as amoral. All morality becomes a form and a tool. They no longer care about what is right or wrong; they do not care about who is a good person or who is a bad person; everything turns into performance, calculation, and obedience. They shout slogans but have long since given up on trust.
Trust between people gradually disintegrates, and trust in institutions completely collapses. What remains is only pretense and performance, the "illusion of order" maintained under group pressure. In this era, stable values are no longer provided by the official, nor conveyed by mainstream media; they must be constructed by ourselves. We need to establish our own "value coordinates" amid the storm of fluctuating information. We must relearn to observe the world, understand things, and build trust, rather than passively accepting narrative reversals and manipulations.
We must also carefully select friends we can trust long-term, forming real and stable small communities that preserve humanity and conscience. If a society lacks a set of values that can be continuously verified and passed down through generations, it can ultimately only rely on forced indoctrination, performative displays, and group pressure to maintain order. Beneath the surface of "stability" lies an increasingly accumulating mental fragmentation and collapse of trust. In a fractured era, we must gradually rebuild for ourselves. Only then can we avoid numbness or mental imbalance.