When society judges a person to be “useless”, how should he deal with himself? In other words, who defines “useful”? If you think of “useful” and “useless” as two ends of a scale, you might as well take a look at the subtle dialogue they form at both ends of the scale.
The right end of the scale: society’s definition of “useful”
This is the heaviest end of the weight, representing the mainstream value system and the end that has the greatest constraints and influence on people.
Gregor in “The Metamorphosis”, his value is entirely based on his identity as a “traveling salesman”, who can make money for his family, which is a direct reflection of his value. Once he becomes a beetle and loses the core value of “labor”, he is immediately regarded as a “monster” and “burden” by the entire family and social system. His tragic ending is the inevitable result of being abandoned by this value system.
Are the little monsters in “Little Monsters of Langlang Mountain (Nobody)1” not like this? They are also caught in the internal struggles of the system. The core of their anxiety is precisely the fear that they are “useless”, such as their work performance is not good enough, they will not be appreciated by their leaders, and they will not be able to achieve the “KPI” of catching Tang Monk. All their troubles stem from the pursuit of becoming a “useful” elite social animal.
When you fully agree with society’s set of “useful” standards, your value depends on your output. Once output goes negative or ceases, your very existence can easily be negated.
The left end of the scale: the true “presence” of the individual
This is self-worth freed from the heavy weight of social judgment, even if the process of freedom is not easy.
It is undeniable that Zhuangzi’s thought of “uselessness” has a profound influence on me, and the story of that big tree is still vivid in my memory. A tree that was too crooked to be used as a beam was spared by carpenters and loggers, and eventually grew into a towering tree that shaded a piece of land. Zhuangzi’s “uselessness” refers to the uselessness of the social utilitarian system, but it is precisely this “uselessness” that has achieved its “great use” for one’s own life – living freely, long-term and completely.
Gregor and the beetle, its “tragic ending” is destined to be viewed only from the perspective of social value. What if you change the angle? What is the “value” of a beetle in itself? It just “exists”. If it could experience itself as a beetle rather than as a former good employee, would its pain be so profound?
The swing of the scale: the operation and dilemma of the value system
The core function of society’s “value evaluation system” is to “alienate” people into quantifiable parts. This is most extreme in “The Metamorphosis” – people’s “humanity” disappears and is completely replaced by instrumental value.
The Little Monster in Langlang Mountain vividly depicts our struggle before being “alienated” by this system. It has not completely turned into a beetle. It is still doubting and reflecting: “Who am I? What do I want?”
Zhuangzi directly provided the ultimate plan of “exiting the evaluation system”. We no longer compete for the evaluation system of “useful or useless”, but fundamentally question the evaluation system itself. The identity of society as a judge is directly questioned. The so-called “uselessness” is relative to that specific system. Once you break out of that system, “uselessness” becomes the greatest freedom.
Perhaps any standard of “value” set by external society is potentially violent. It uses the single dimension of “usefulness” to cover up and deny the colorful “existence” of life itself. The tragedy of life often begins with mistaking external “standards” for one’s own “truth.”
True wisdom and freedom begin with questioning this standard, then bravely finding or retreating to the true “uselessness” of one’s own life.
If “The Metamorphosis” is a painful warning, it shows the consequences of being swallowed up by social values. Then, “Little Monsters of Langlang Mountain” is a reflection of the present, recording our daily lives in which we struggle, get lost, and try to find an exit. Zhuangzi is a distant echo, providing the most fundamental and free “exit” button.
But is “quitting” the ultimate solution?
In the 1960s French movie “The Hole”, four prisoners in prison are far away from the social value system. Although they are not free to move, they can still survive. They don’t have to work hard or worry too much, just survive. This is a simple philosophy of existence, and it seems to be “useful”. Why do they try every possible means to escape there and return to society in the traditional sense?
When we can “exit the system” like Zhuangzi, or are forced to “exit the system” like the beetle, a new question arises: Will human beings be satisfied when they are really in a state of pure “existence” that is completely separated from social value evaluation?
The movie “The Hole” is the most calm and shocking visual answer to this question.
“Utopia” in prison: a false utopia
It is true that the prison dwelling does provide a minimum, almost “rustic” existence. There are no KPIs, no family responsibilities, and no social comparisons. From this perspective, it is very close to what Zhuangzi calls “uselessness” – useless to society, but useful to life itself.
However, this “use” is incomplete, temporary, and even an illusion. Zhuangzi’s “uselessness” is an active choice, a free mind, and a happy wandering in the vast world. The “uselessness” in prison is a forced “living” in which the body is imprisoned and deprived of all creativity and possibility.
The reason why the prisoners want to escape is precisely because they “are human beings.” Director Jacques Baker uses a calm, almost documentary lens to show this kind of instinct of “being human”.
Freedom is not “not having to work”, but “I can choose what to do”. Even if you have to face a more difficult existence and a lower social status after going out, the right to “choose” itself is the foundation of being a human being. A person who is free to fail is closer to the definition of “human” than a person who is safely imprisoned.
The pursuit of dignity is another characteristic of “being human”. In the prison system, they are all “numbered” and are the targets of punishment and discipline. Prison break is the most radical challenge to the system that denies their personality. “I want to prove that I can still escape.” This in itself is an action to regain dignity.
And hope for the future is even more of the precious quality of “being human”. Man is an animal that lives in “hope”. Although prison can ensure survival in the “now”, it completely kills the “future”. Even if there is an “unrecognized status” outside, it is a “future” that can be fought for, changed, and has an unknown tomorrow. Without a future, people are left “waiting to die”.
Although the ending of the movie is tragic, the escape plan failed at the last moment due to betrayal. However, the last line spoken by Roland, the most determined and experienced core character, to the camera – “Poor Gaspard.” – can be regarded as one of the most classic and chilling endings in film history.
Isn’t this kind of tragedy a kind of praise? Because it completes the most profound revelation of human nature at the artistic and philosophical level.
This is not a “good guys defeat the bad guys” fairy tale. What it shows is that even in the face of the most deadly betrayal (a tip-off from a new inmate), this group of people still chose to try, to act, to fight. They failed, but they acted. This kind of tragic heroism that knows it is impossible but does it has extremely high aesthetic and moral value. Of course, the little demons of Langlang Mountain should not dispute this. Even though the path they chose to learn the scriptures was full of thorns and the future was uncertain, it did not extinguish their inner pursuit of “doing justice for heaven, promoting good and eliminating evil”.
The betrayer Gaspard is precisely the person who wants to “return to society” the most, because he has a girlfriend waiting outside, and he is more eager than others to return to a normal life. Other long-term prisoners have become somewhat isolated from outside society. The movie does not criticize Gaspard, but presents a cruel fact: under extreme pressure, people’s desire for “freedom” and “future” may overwhelm loyalty to “companions” and “trust.” This is not simple good and evil, but a structural contradiction deep in human nature.
In fact, the movie also hints that the external society may also be a bigger “hole”. But even so, one still has to try. Just like Sisyphus pushing the stone up the mountain, his ultimate significance does not lie in fixing the stone on the top of the mountain, but in the process of pushing the stone up the mountain passionately even though he knows that he will fail.
Am I useful at this moment?
Whether it is being recognized by the boss, customers, family, or the person you like, the core is just to seek external affirmation of our inner value. Van Gogh was poor during his lifetime, and his works were not recognized by society. It was only after his death that his extraordinary value was discovered. “Across the Ocean to See You” is a song that is so touching that it has been sung for a long time. The creator Wawa (Jin Zhijuan) burst into tears several times while recording and singing, because she knew that behind every word, there were specific and bloody costs of missing and emotional ruins. The experience of loss has achieved greater value.
We often can truly understand the full weight and value of something not through “possession” but through “loss” or “missing”. The deep experience of value usually occurs when value is “absent” rather than “present”. Our “usefulness” or “uselessness” does not seem to be easy to judge easily under the situation we are in at that time.
When you are useful, you immerse yourself in functionality, responsibility, and accomplishment. “Value” back then was like air, everywhere, so you didn’t feel it, you just used it. When you are useless, your value disappears, and you feel suffocated as if the air was suddenly sucked out of you. This “suffocation feeling” is the most real and painful weight of value.
People in love experience “happiness” itself; while people who are out of love experience the meta-question “why happiness is so important”. The former is about experiencing movies personally, and the latter is about writing movie reviews. People who write film reviews, because they have lost the movie, think more thoroughly about the structure, details, and emotional context of the movie.
People who have never experienced love breakup will hear a beautiful, soulful, and slightly sad pop song. What they enjoy is aesthetic pleasure. For the lovelorn, this song directly penetrates the existential pain. The melody is just a carrier, what really makes them tremble is their own memories evoked by the lyrics. What they experienced was not only the pain in the song, but also the feeling of being understood and resonated with their own pain being accurately expressed by a stranger.
This is depth. People who have never been lovelorn understand the rhetoric of “sweet pain.” People who have been lovelorn understand “how sweetness can be transformed into an almost religious sense of solemnity due to loss that is more complex than pain.” Pure experience is chaotic. Only through the reflection brought about by “loss” can we “objectify” the chaotic experience, so as to observe it, analyze it and summarize it.
In love, you are like a “fish in the water”. You can only feel the water, but cannot describe it. After falling out of love, you are “thrown ashore” and for the first time you see clearly what water is, what fish is, and what the dependence between you and water is. This process of being “thrown ashore” is the birth of wisdom. The “deeper level of understanding” you gain is essentially a kind of hindsight, an insight into the nature of life that is paid for at a painful cost.
So, pain is the passport to understanding. Without broken love, there would be no song “Across the Ocean to See You”. Without “useless” experiences, we will never truly appreciate and criticize the “useful” system.
Falling in love is useful, falling in love is even more useful. It is valuable when it is valuable, and it is more valuable when it is not valuable.
Why are the little monsters in Langlang Mountain struggling so much, and why is Zhuangzi so detached?
The little monster is in “useful” water, so all it feels is stress and confusion. It has no opportunity to “lose,” so it cannot gain deeper knowledge.
Gregor was forced to “lose” his usefulness, but he did not have time to reflect because he lost his human mind, so his “loss” only led to destruction.
As for the prisoners in “The Hole”, they are in an extremely “useless” state of being “completely abandoned by society”. It is precisely because they lost everything that they most clearly heard their inner calling for “freedom” and “dignity.” Their escape operation itself is an ultimate reflection on the value of “usefulness/uselessness” written in life.
And Zhuangzi is already at the highest level. He doesn’t need to go through loss to foresee the pitfalls of “usefulness” and the value of “uselessness.” He didn’t write songs after falling out of love, but he had already seen through the essence of love while he was passionately in love. This is a kind of advanced, intuitive wisdom.
Pain is the soil for understanding, but there is no need to praise pain
Don’t judge those who have not experienced “loss” easily because they are in the garden. And don’t laugh at those who have experienced “loss” too profoundly because they have traveled through the desert.
This is also one of the most moving paradoxes in the human spiritual world. It explains why great art is often born out of pain, and why profound wisdom is often born out of frustration. But its purpose is not to let us pursue pain, but to make us understand that when pain inevitably comes, in addition to bringing sadness, it may also bring one of the most precious gifts of life. That is, a more thorough and compassionate understanding of “existence” itself.
So, when you are worried about your “value” in the workplace or society, can you think about the situation of these people?
Be wary of the Gregorian style of completely identifying with social values and completely losing yourself, which is a complete tragedy. Because after a person is forced to break away from social values, he will be completely abandoned and destroyed by the system. Don’t be a “Gregor” without a choice.
Recognizing that you are struggling like a little monster is normal and this is the beginning of awareness. Perhaps, we are also imprisoned in the “prison” of society or our own cognition at certain moments, because the external environment affects everyone all the time. And this is also the real situation of most people – we can neither completely escape like Zhuangzi, because we still long for love, dignity and the future, nor are we willing to be alienated like Gregor.
Finally, try to be like Zhuangzi, occasionally press the “pause” button in your heart, jump out of the circle, and ask yourself: Putting aside all external evaluations, at this moment, I only exist as “I”, what is the “big use” of this in itself? Finding this answer may be the real relief.
- Little Monsters of Langlang Mountain (Nobody)：[ Chinese：浪浪山小妖怪 ] ↩︎