为什么15分钟速读一本书毫无收获？为什么明知短剧、短视频没有营养，却依然难以自拔？我们沉迷“奶头乐”，失去了什么？我们变得越来越蠢，这种文化现象又如何关联被刻意隐瞒的社会结构？学者齐泽克就上述问题发表观点文章，分享了他的观察和思考。张弛恩对其文章进行了翻译校对。
译者张驰恩，书评人，文化博主。长期追踪阅读、可持续发展、泛社会科学类话题。他于加拿大渥太华大学、英国伦敦政治经济学院获得学位，曾任职于德勤和大型国际组织。
BECOMING STUPID: KINDNESS VIDEOS, BLINKIST, DUANJU
变蠢：温情视频、BLINKIST、短剧
Surfing the web to distract myself from tiredness, I stumbled upon one of the so-called "kindness videos": short, 10–20-minute narratives with real actors depicting random acts of kindness. I looked at some more—the titles tell it all: A Single Father Went to Repair His Neighbour's Fence, Unaware That She Owned Half the Town… / Single Dad Veteran Gave Up 1st-Class Seat for Burned Woman—Next Day Marine One Landed at His Cabin / Paralysed CEO's Daughter Sat Alone on Her Birthday—Then a Single Dad Walked Over / My Boss Caught Me on a Blind Date. And She Said, "Why Didn't You Try Asking Me Out on a Date?" / "Sir, can we eat the leftovers?" a poor girl asks, not knowing he's a millionaire / A Millionaire Fires His Maid for Stealing Small Pieces of Food, But When He Follows Her to Her Home, He Bursts into Tears…
为了缓解疲劳，我刷着网页，偶然发现了一类叫“温情视频”的视频。这类视频时长很短，只有10-20分钟，由真人出演，讲述人们突发的善举。
我看了几个，这些视频的标题相当直白，足以说明一切：一名单亲父亲帮助女邻居修理围栏，他不知道其实半个小镇都是她的；一名退伍的单身父亲把头等舱座位让给了一名烧伤女子。转天，海军陆战队一号（直升机）降临他的小屋；CEO瘫痪的女儿独自一人过生日，直到一名单亲父亲朝她走去；我外出约会被老板抓包，她却问我为何不曾约她出去；贫困的小女孩问先生：“您的剩饭能给我们吃吗？”她不知道对方竟是百万富翁；女佣因偷了一点食物被百万富翁炒了鱿鱼，但当富翁跟踪女佣到她家后，他竟突然哭了起来...
I must confess that, after seeing a kindness video, I myself—a hardened cynic—felt a deep emotional satisfaction in such a depiction of a small victory of good-heartedness in an otherwise brutal world: sexual and economic exploitation, the pursuit of profit, and everyday violence remain, but their efficiency is suspended for a short moment. We find ourselves in a world where individuals talk and interact as persons, heart to heart, while fully retaining their privileged or underprivileged social status. If the term "ideology" has any meaning today, this is ideology at its purest: kindness videos quite literally make us dumb, since their sentimental effect compels us to ignore the hierarchical social background—or, even worse, to take it as something natural.
必须承认，即使是头铁如我的犬儒主义者，在看完了一个温情视频后，也在情绪上获得了深深满足感，我满足于在本就残酷的世界中，善心获得了小小的胜利。
性与经济的剥削、对利润的追求、日常的暴力即使依旧存在，它们也在很短的时间里被按下了效率的暂停键。我们好像置身于这样的世界之中：个体像人一样去交流和互动，彼此真诚，即使在双方社会地位的高低没有任何改变的情况下。
如果“意识形态”这个词在今天还意味着什么，这便是意识形态最纯粹的样子：温情视频让我们变蠢，这么说毫不过分。它自带煽情效果，使我们忽视了社会中存在的等级制度，甚至让我们将其视为理所当然，这比忽视更加糟糕。
The short form also matters, leaving us no time for slow, attentive viewing. This brings us to the second instrument of making us dumb: the widespread use, even among people who consider themselves intellectuals, of 15-minute summaries of fiction and, above all, non-fiction books. The most popular is Blinkist—here is its self-presentation: "Learn something new every day. Get the key ideas from the top books, podcasts, and experts in 15 minutes with the Blinkist app. Understand key ideas in 15 minutes." Then there is Bookster ("Read 100 books a year in 15 minutes a day"), DivByZero, AI Book Review, etc., etc.
“短”这种形式也值得关注，它不给我们慢下来专注观看的时间。这就不得不提让我们变蠢的第二个工具：15分钟读完一本书。对虚构和非虚构书籍的快速总结已经相当广泛，以至于在自诩为知识分子的人群中也屡见不鲜。
这类App中最受欢迎的当属 Blinkist，这是该App的自我介绍：“每天学点新东西。只需15分钟，即可获得来自顶尖书籍、播客和专家的核心观点。”除Blinkist之外还有Bookster（“每天15分钟，一年读100本书”）、DivByZero, AI书评等等等等。
The horror is that such a summary has to ignore the texture of the book: its most interesting moments, where the author says more than he or she intended to say; the details that give a specific spin to an otherwise generally known idea. Or, to put it in an even more precise way, the summary necessarily misses what is inscribed into a text only negatively, as a specific form of what is absent from the text or negated by it.
这种总结的可怕之处在于它势必会忽略一本书的神韵：那些最有趣的、作者畅所欲言的瞬间，或那些赋予某个众所周知的观点以独特诠释的细节。或用更准确的方式来说，摘要必然会错过那些以否定性方式铭刻在文本中的东西，表现为文本中缺失的内容，或被文本所否定的内容。
Let us take the first example that comes to mind. In his Philosophy of Right, Hegel wrote: "In extreme danger and in conflict with the rightful property of someone else, this life may claim (as a right, not a mercy) a right of distress [Notrecht], because in such a situation there is, on the one hand, an infinite injury to a man's existence." Can we universalise this "right of distress," extending it to an entire social class and its acts against the property of another class? Although Hegel does not directly address this question, a positive answer imposes itself from Hegel's description of the "rabble" as a group or class whose exclusion from the domain of social recognition is systematic: "Against nature man can claim no right, but once society is established, poverty immediately takes the form of a wrong done to one class by another." Do we not get here a Hegel justifying class struggle through Notrecht? This absolutely crucial implication would surely be missing in a 15-minute summary.
让我们举一个最先浮现在脑海中的例子。黑格尔曾在《法哲学原理》中写道：“当生命身处极端危险之中，且与他人的合法财产权发生冲突时，它可以主张紧急避难权（Notrecht）。这是一种权利，而非一种恩赐。因为在这种情况下，一方面，人的生存受到了无限的损害。”
我们能否将这种“紧急避难权”一般化，将其适用范围扩展至整个社会阶级，使该社会阶级有权采取行动去侵害另一个阶级的财产？尽管黑格尔没有直接探讨这个问题，但他在对“群氓”的描述中，一个肯定的答案呼之欲出。
他将“群氓”描述为被系统性地排除在社会认可领域之外的群体或阶级：“人不能向自然主张任何权利，但一旦社会被建构起来了，贫困便立即呈现为一个阶级对另一个阶级所施加的不公。”在此，一个借助紧急避难权为阶级斗争（的合法性）辩护的黑格尔形象，还不够明显吗？而这一相当重要的启示，若是在“15分钟读完一本书”中，一定会被忽略。
The same holds for a visual summary of a movie in two or three minutes—these are also available on the web. What can it do other than provide a short summary of the movie's narrative, perhaps adding general descriptions such as "strange camera angles, brutal music" or vague non-narrative points such as "a confused chain of subjective associations"? Think of Hitchcock's Psycho: what can such a description render of the tremendous impact of the second murder—Arbogast's—its shocking cuts and changes of camera angle? Like many other great directors, Hitchcock often conveys, through his formal procedures, a message that undermines the official narrative line.
三分钟看完一部电影也是同理——这类影视总结在网上同样屡见不鲜。除了对电影叙事进行简短的总结，或者偶尔加上诸如“古怪的镜头角度、粗野的音乐”等笼统的描述，抑或再加上一些诸如“一团混乱的主观联想”等模糊的、非叙事性观点之外，它还能做到什么呢？
想想希区柯克电影《惊魂记》中的第二场谋杀案吧（即阿波加斯特之死），想想那震撼的剪辑与镜头角度的变换，三分钟看完一部电影能展现出那场戏巨大的冲击力吗？像许多伟大导演一样，希区柯克常常通过形式手法传递一些信息，（即使）这些信息会侵蚀影片的故事线。
This brings us to the third and final form of making us dumb: why merely summarise a movie when we can produce movies that are already, in themselves, extra-short? This phenomenon already exists. "Duanju," sometimes called in English "microdrama," "short drama," "vertical drama," "vertical minidrama," "vertical series," or "mobile drama," is a type of short-form web or television series that originated in China in 2022. The series typically feature one- to two-minute episodes and consist of 20 to 100 episodes, resulting in a total runtime comparable, in some cases, to that of one or two feature films. Produced specifically for smartphone viewing, many are shot in vertical format and optimised for fragmented, bite-sized consumption on platforms such as Douyin. Some titles are further adapted into interactive, film-style mobile games.
这就引出了第三种、也是最后一种让我们变蠢的形式：当我们可以直接制作那些本身就超短的电影时，又怎么会满足于仅仅去总结电影呢？这种现象已经存在。“短剧”（有时在英文中称为microdrama、short drama、vertical drama、vertical minidrama、vertical series或mobile drama）是一种于2022年、在中国兴起的短网络或电视连续剧。
短剧每集通常只有一两分钟，一部短剧包含20-100集不等，因此某些短剧的总时长可与一两部长片故事电影相当。短剧制作专门为了方便观众在智能手机上观看，很多短剧采用竖屏的拍摄格式，并不断优化以满足抖音等平台碎片化、快餐式的消费特点。有一些剧甚至被进一步改编为可互动的、有电影风格的手机游戏。
Duanju is characterised by fast-paced plots and heightened melodrama, with common themes including revenge, organised crime, wealth and status, and romantic relationships. The most popular genres include romance—particularly stories involving billionaires or CEOs—revenge narratives, identity-reveal plots, drama, and family drama. In the American market, the audience skews heavily towards women aged 30 to 60, who gravitate particularly towards romance, CEO storylines, and revenge-driven narratives.
短剧以“快节奏”和“高度戏剧化”为主要特点，常见的主题包括复仇、有组织的犯罪、财富与社会地位，以及亲密关系。最受欢迎的类别包括言情类（尤其是涉及到亿万富翁或首席执行官、霸道总裁的短剧）、复仇叙事类、身份揭晓类、戏剧类以及家庭伦理剧。在美国市场，短剧观众多为30至60岁的女性。她们尤其偏爱爱情故事、围绕首席执行官、霸道总裁展开的情节，以及由复仇驱动的叙事。
In 2020, the Chinese National Radio and Television Administration formally recognised duanju as a distinct genre of online audiovisual content. Between 2020 and 2022, the format became increasingly professionalised, with standardised vertical 9:16 shooting, fast production cycles—often under two weeks—and monetisation through freemium or pay-per-episode models. Duanju expanded into South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan, as well as the US, France, and Germany. The industry experienced explosive growth from 2022 onward. By the end of 2024, domestic viewership had reached approximately 662 million, and the market generated more than 50 billion yuan—approximately US$7 billion. By 2025, this figure had grown to an estimated RMB 63–65 billion in direct-content market revenue, with the free, ad-driven model displacing paid episode unlocks as the dominant monetisation structure. The sector is also estimated to have created more than 600,000 jobs. Duanju has thus become one of the fastest-growing sectors of the Chinese entertainment industry; however, with digitally produced narratives in which not only the background but also the main characters are created by AI, the number of jobs has radically fallen.[i]
2020年，中国国家广播电视总局正式将短剧确立为一种独立的网络视听内容门类。2020至2022年间，这一形式变得越来越专业化，形成了标准化的9:16竖屏拍摄，实现了快速的生产周期（通常不到两周），以及免费增值或单集付费的变现模式。
短剧已拓展至韩国、中国台湾地区和日本，以及美国、法国和德国。自2022年起，该行业经历了爆发式增长。截至2024年底，中国国内观影人数已达到约6.62亿人，市场规模突破500亿元人民币（约合70亿美元）。
到2025年，直接内容市场收入估计已增长至630亿至650亿元人民币，免费广告驱动模式取代单集付费解锁模式，成为主流的变现结构。据估计，该行业还创造了超过60万个就业岗位。因此，短剧已成为中国娱乐产业中增长最快的领域之一。然而，随着数字生成叙事（不仅是背景、连主角均也是由AI生成的）的出现，相关就业岗位数量已快速下滑。
What really matters about duanju is the kind of consumer it targets. It is primarily made for smartphone viewing, which in itself indicates that its ideal consumer is a busy man or woman who never has enough time to sit down and calmly watch a movie. It can be watched while someone waits in a queue, sits on the toilet, eats a quick lunch during a break from an intense job, delivers food and catches a free moment between two deliveries, drives for Uber, or works as a carer while their patient takes a nap. In short, duanju is primarily made for people who no longer have free time proper. It is a product to be consumed by those who do not even have proper time to relax and consume, whose daily life is a permanent state of engagement.
关于短剧，真正关键的是它的受众。它主要是为了在智能手机上观看而制作的，这本身就表明它假想的受众是那些忙到没有足够时间坐下来安静看完一部电影的男男女女。
人们可以在排队时、上厕所时、紧张工作的间隙扒拉一口午饭时、外卖两单之间的空档时、开网约车时，或是护工照看的病人在打盹时观看短剧。简而言之，短剧主要是为那些没有真正意义上的自由时间的人们准备的，这些人日常的生活处于一种永久的忙碌状态，短剧为这些甚至没有时间放松和消费的人们提供了可消费的产品。
The widespread use of duanju thus reflects the paradox of our societies, in which the lack of permanent employment is supplemented by the permanent work of those who are happy to get a precarious job—those who have no fixed working day and work when they choose to, while this freedom turns into pressure to work more and more in order to survive. This is why duanju makes us dumb: what remains of culture is a short, stupid piece of melodrama by means of which we escape the brief moments of loneliness in which we could experience the meaninglessness of our lives.
因此，短剧的广泛流行反映出我们社会的悖论：一方面缺少稳定的工作，而另一方面又不缺少乐于从事不稳定工作的人去持续地填补劳动力的短缺。他们没有固定工作日，可以自主选择工作时间，可这份自由，也转化成一种为了生存而不得不越干越多的压力。
这正是短剧让我们变蠢的原因：文化残存的是一则短小、愚蠢的情景剧。我们借此逃离那些短暂的孤独时刻，而在这些时刻中，我们本可体会到生活缺乏意义。
翻校：张弛恩
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