芸芸众生，不过一粟

我们生而为人，不过是芸芸众生中的一粟。每天清晨，我们踏入同样的节奏，奔波在单位、工地、办公室或车间，只为换来一份维持生计的薪水。宣传常常告诉我们，要热爱工作，把工作当成事业去发展。可冷静想想，这样的说辞更多是洗脑的手段，因为真正的利益分配，并不会因为我们的“热爱”而多给一分。正如加缪所言：“荒诞并不是生活的敌人，而是我们看清生活真相之后仍然继续前行。”
As human beings, we are but a grain among the multitudes. Each morning we step into the same rhythm, rushing to workplaces, factories, offices, or construction sites, simply to earn a wage that sustains us. Propaganda often tells us to love our work, to treat it as a lifelong career. But if we think calmly, such rhetoric is little more than a tool of indoctrination, for the true distribution of benefits will not increase just because of our “passion.” As Camus once said, “The absurd is not the enemy of life, but the condition of seeing life clearly and continuing nonetheless.”

在现实中，我们更多时候是“分母”，而不是“分子”。当会议上的口号一声高过一声，我们只能沉默着点头。很多要求与我们的切身利益无关：下载APP、关注公众号、填写调查问卷。这些与其说是工作，不如说是证明“服从”。在这套逻辑中，个体被简化成一串数据，一个勾选框，一个汇报材料。尼采提醒我们：“谁若失去了自我，就会被群体所吞没。”
In reality, we are more often the “denominator” rather than the “numerator.” While slogans echo in meetings, we can only nod in silence. Many of the demands have little to do with our real interests: downloading apps, following public accounts, filling out surveys. These are less about work and more about proving “obedience.” Within this logic, the individual is reduced to a data entry, a checkmark, a report. Nietzsche reminds us: “He who loses himself is swallowed by the herd.”

所谓“热爱工作”，在宣传中常常被包装成高尚的情怀。可对于普通人来说，这句话往往意味着加班的合理化，意味着牺牲个人生活的正当性。真正热爱的，往往不是工作本身，而是工作能带来的生存条件。人们之所以愿意坚持，并非因为热爱，而是因为没有退路。正如马克思指出的：“劳动本应是人自由自觉的生命表现，但在资本的压迫下，却变成了异化。”
The so-called “love for work” is often wrapped in noble sentiment in propaganda. Yet for ordinary people, this phrase often means the legitimization of overtime, the justification for sacrificing personal life. What we truly love is not the work itself, but the survival it enables. People persist not out of passion, but because there is no retreat. As Marx pointed out: “Labor should be the free, conscious expression of life, but under oppression it becomes alienation.”

当一个人被要求把工作视为人生的全部，其实就是在剥夺他作为独立个体的权利。因为真正属于我们的时间、情感、自由，都被慢慢压缩。那些喊着“事业无上光荣”的声音，从未关心过普通人的疲惫。洗脑的目的，就是让人们以为辛苦是应该的，以为牺牲是值得的。康德曾经强调：“人永远不能只是手段，而必须始终被视为目的。”
When a person is asked to see work as the entirety of life, it is in fact a deprivation of his rights as an independent being. For the time, emotions, and freedom that truly belong to us are slowly compressed. Those who proclaim that “career is supreme glory” have never cared about the exhaustion of ordinary people. The purpose of indoctrination is to make people believe that hardship is natural, that sacrifice is worthwhile. Kant once emphasized: “Man must never be merely a means, but always an end.”

可人生的价值，并不应被局限在岗位与任务中。真正的意义，往往存在于那些与考核无关的地方：陪伴家人的时光，阅读一本书的宁静，散步时的微风。宣传让我们以为只有在岗位上燃烧才算有意义，但哲学提醒我们：人是目的，而不是工具。加缪说过：“在寒冷的冬天，我终于明白，内心深处有一个不可战胜的夏天。”
Yet the value of life should not be confined to posts and tasks. True meaning often lies in places unrelated to assessments: time with family, the quiet of reading a book, the breeze during a walk. Propaganda makes us believe that only burning ourselves at work counts as meaningful, but philosophy reminds us: a human being is an end in themselves, not a tool. Camus once said: “In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.”

普通人也许无法改变体制，但可以保持内心的清醒。我们可以选择在表面的任务之外，保存一份独立思考的能力，不被所谓“事业”吞没。即便是身为“分母”，我们也能在自己的生活里，活得真实而清醒。真正的尊严，不是盲目的热爱，而是明白何为值得。托尔斯泰写道：“生活不是用来妥协的，而是用来理解与热爱的。”
Ordinary people may not be able to change the system, but they can keep clarity in their hearts. We can choose to preserve independent thought beyond superficial tasks, refusing to be swallowed by so-called “career.” Even as the “denominator,” we can live authentically and consciously in our own lives. True dignity is not blind devotion, but knowing what is truly worth it. Tolstoy wrote: “Life is not meant for compromise, but for understanding and for love.”

芸芸众生，不过一粟。既然无法决定身在何处，我们至少可以决定：不让洗脑成为我们灵魂的枷锁。热爱生活，而非盲目热爱工作；发展自我，而不是被迫发展所谓“事业”。当个体觉醒，才可能让未来不再被虚假的口号所左右。
Among the multitudes, we are but a grain. Since we cannot decide where we stand, we can at least decide this: not to let indoctrination become the shackle of our soul. Love life, not blindly love work; develop the self, not be forced to develop a so-called “career.” Only when individuals awaken can the future be freed from hollow slogans.