What is "petty bourgeoisie"?

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The original meaning of petty bourgeoisie is the petty bourgeoisie. Mao Zedong's "Analysis of the Various Classes in Chinese Society" written on December 1, 1925, initially defined the petty bourgeoisie as including owner-peasants, small businessmen, handicraft owners and small intellectuals, between the semi-proletariat and the middle class. . Due to many reasons of social changes and historical discourse power, the evolution of the petty bourgeoisie ultimately refers to the intellectual class between the middle class and the proletariat. The current discourse of petty bourgeoisie is restored to the "petty intellectual class", which is in line with the prototype of Western petty bourgeoisie discourse.

Petty bourgeoisie, also known as petty bourgeoisie. Money-grabbing was mistakenly written as money-grubbing and "bourgeois" became a synonym for the business class, which led to the concept of petite bourgeoisie. The Left Bank of the Seine in the Latin Quarter of Paris has traditionally been a gathering place for the petite bourgeoisie, but nowadays, romantic Paris is full of "little bourgeoisie".

Shanghai, historically known as the "Paris of the East", has become the current bridgehead of China's petty bourgeoisie, showing historical continuity. Shanghai has historically contributed to petty bourgeoisie spiritual products such as Fei Mu's films (such as "Spring in a Small Town", a classic in Chinese film history), Zhang Ailing's novels, etc. The nostalgia of Shanghai's petty bourgeoisie also points directly to the luxurious and decadent glory of the past.

At present, there is no precise definition of petty bourgeoisie in China because its composition is complicated. The narrow interpretation refers to people with the characteristics of small intellectuals among the "little bourgeois". The broad interpretation refers to the young people currently living in big cities, mainly composed of people born in the 1970s.

The petty bourgeoisie phenomenon is historical and global. Here we will analyze the current petty bourgeoisie phenomenon in China to the level of socialism.

It is difficult to classify petty bourgeoisie. Each category has different characteristics. Here we analyze some representative characteristics from a systematic perspective rather than covering everything.

Petit bourgeoisism pursues personalized life, and elegant and calm life is its constant theme. Petty bourgeoisie opposes things that lack cultural connotation and individuality. The focus language is: "like a farmer." In other words, if we want to find an antonym for "petty bourgeoisie", "peasant" is the most appropriate one. Petty bourgeoisie is anti-traditional.

The most obvious feature of petty bourgeoisie’s anti-tradition is the spontaneous concept of freedom under individualism. The collectivist concepts formed by China's traditional social structure are being dismantled by petty bourgeoisie's individualism. At the same time, petty bourgeoisie have also formed spontaneous sprouts of free thought. This is also a destruction of China's long-standing feudalism. Grandpa Mao and Grandpa Deng took a clear-cut stance against feudal ideas. In this sense, the emergence of petty bourgeoisie is historical progress. Marx believed that the condition for the all-round development of all people is the all-round development of individuals. In China, which is in the primary stage of socialism, the widespread germination of anti-feudal individualistic free thoughts is also a historical progress.

Although petty bourgeoisism has very obvious flaws, the positive significance of petty bourgeoisism also deserves recognition, because human development obeys the objective law of spiral upward.

Petty bourgeoisie has inherited the restraint of traditional culture, and the spiritual core of personalized life is the traditional elitism of Confucianism. Unlike Confucianism, petty bourgeoisism is completely restrained and lacks the Confucian ideal of benefiting the world. The complete restraint of petty bourgeoisie comes from the construction of individualism rather than collectivism. It also inherits traditional elitism, which determines the non-inclusive characteristics of petty bourgeoisie. Petty bourgeoisism is a closed spiritual structure and lacks the diffusion of Confucian spirit. This is a brand-new development of Confucian spirit.

The poet of the Qing Dynasty wrote angrily: "Every generation has talented people, but each has suffered for decades." This is not an angry accusation against thousands of years of Confucian tradition. Without the New Confucian petty bourgeois path of benefiting the world, it will not have a destructive impact on society. This is an effective counterbalance to the destiny of revolution in Chinese history.

Petit bourgeoisism does not have the broad tolerance of the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, but has more characteristics of a doomsday carnival that refers to Hangzhou as Bianzhou. The ideal life of the petty bourgeoisie is based on personal efforts. This kind of carnival exudes decadence due to its introverted characteristics. Fromm's social psychology believes that human nature, desires and worries are all cultural products. If we criticize the decadence of petty bourgeoisie here, we will also criticize China's social culture. Behind the pathological social phenomenon, there is always a pathological society. Fortunately, after further research, I no longer have to do this kind of work. "Doomsday Carnival" was a misjudgment.

A carnival constructed through personal effort is inherently healthy. The doomsday carnival has the characteristics of collectivism, which is a collective identity in social psychology. Starting from individualism, it is also possible to produce collectivist fantasies, which is determined by the strength of society's suppression of individualism. Even if restrained individualism is suppressed by society, it is not diffuse. Even if there is a doomsday carnival, it is an individual choice and does not have the characteristics of collectivism. The wide variety of petty bourgeoisie categories and the difficulty of classification indicate the diversification of the petty bourgeoisie phenomenon.

"Depression" is the petty bourgeoisie's mantra. Young impulse and introverted repression produce a carnival of human nature. Whether it is the luxury consumption of youth or the superficial taste of happiness, it completely deconstructs China's feudal culture. The authoritarian tradition of human nature. Carnival is a liberation of human nature, a reaction and release of the suppression of human nature. This liberation of human nature is spontaneously formed, and it is based on modern consumerism and conforms to the law of the impact of commodity society on people.

If this kind of carnival is unhealthy, it would be better to say that commodity society inherently lacks health.

The completely introverted petty bourgeois resistance to social repression not only introverted traditional tolerance, but also for the first time showed the discourse deconstruction of postmodern characteristics in its resistance. Foucault wrote in "Madness and Civilization": "The world tries to evaluate madness and identify its rationality through psychology, but in the end it must first prove its own rationality in the face of madness, because the world is full of struggle and pain. This is the conclusion drawn based on the above. "

Releasing personal pain through carnival effectively reduces the possibility of destructive resistance to society. After releasing psychological pressure, petty bourgeoisie devotes their energy to personal struggle. Carnival may also produce decadence, and once society gives the petty bourgeoisie space for personal efforts, the petty bourgeoisie will abandon its decadent style, and the elitist desire to isolate others will dominate.

The complete restraint of petty bourgeoisie and the dual psychological structure of elitism produce the appearance of petty bourgeoisie’s diversity.

Compromise and the pursuit of individuality constitute another contradictory aspect of petty bourgeoisie. The inheritance of tradition and the lack of personal power and the material ideal of striving for the middle class together form the moral bottom line of petty bourgeoisie. Personal effort is the moral way for petty bourgeoisie to maintain its dignity. The inheritance of tradition is the impact of petty bourgeoisie on social morality. Compliance and compromise without strength are petty bourgeois's calm observation of the future of the country and society, and preparations to shoulder future social responsibilities.

The nostalgia of petty bourgeoisie has its profound historical significance. Mao Zedong wrote in "Analysis of All Classes in Chinese Society": "This kind of people feel greater spiritual pain than all other people, because They have an opposite comparison between the past and the present. "When the petty bourgeoisie began to feel overwhelming nostalgia because of their restrained compromise, the petty bourgeoisie became the most mentally painful group of people in today's society. This is worse than the pain of the laid-off people, because the main group of petty bourgeoisie is composed of people born in the 1970s, who are experiencing pain in the rising stage of life, and the comparable past is only childhood and school life. This kind of spiritual escape is directly a social flaw. The first choice of young people is to revel in youth instead of nostalgia. Therefore, the salvation of petty bourgeoisie is its own salvation and does not have the potential to spread. The construction of an ideal environment by petty bourgeoisie is not to force others to make choices, but is the soil for the growth of identity.

Petit bourgeoisism also has the budding characteristics of free thought, originating from personal choice and respect for history. The diversified choices of petty bourgeoisie come from the inheritance of traditional modernism, which is a brand-new force that has truly grown in China.

After a certain degree of development, the diversified characteristics of petty bourgeoisie will disintegrate the current petty bourgeoisie groups and form social forces with various characteristics. The concept of petty bourgeoisie may be compressed and the number may be reduced, but it will not disappear.