Recently, I’ve been thinking about a question over and over again:
Are we really living at the “bottom” of society?
Many people answer without hesitation:
“Of course. I squeeze onto the subway every day, earn a tiny salary, eat oily takeout, and live in a cramped rental. If I’m not bottom-tier, who is?”
But the truth is—
this belief is still too “wealthy.”
In fact, to put it bluntly:
Anyone who can read this article is not at the bottom.
You’re not even close.
1. What Is the Real “Bottom” of Society?
We often think delivery workers, security guards, and cleaners are the bottom.
Yes—they belong to the lower layers, but they are still the upper layer of the bottom.
Further down are people like the “Sanhe drifters”—working one day, gaming for three, mortgaging tomorrow to feed today.
But the true bottom?
Those you never see in daylight.
They only appear quietly in the middle of the night, picking through the scraps of life left behind by the city.
The true bottom includes:
- The homeless
- Elderly people completely abandoned
- People with no legal identity or social connection
- Severely disabled or mentally ill individuals who cannot care for themselves
These people hide in the city’s cracks like cockroaches.
Most “ordinary” folks have no idea they even exist.
2. Why Are We So Unfamiliar With the Actual Bottom?
Because we’ve never really “gone down” far enough.
Our understanding relies on imagination—softened, abstract, and even romanticized.
But in a society that is steadily declining, something is changing rapidly:
- More people can no longer hold on to a stable life
- The middle class and lower-middle class are falling like dumplings
- Everyone is being pushed closer to the bottom
If we remain clueless about what the bottom really looks like, it’s no longer just a cognitive blind spot—
it becomes dangerous.
So today, let’s talk about what the “bottom” truly is.
3. The Bottom Is Not a Group—It Is a System
To understand the bottom, you must first accept:
The bottom is not a profession, not a social category—it is an entire system.
A hidden structure of survival and ideology that most people never perceive.
I’ve seen it up close since childhood.
1) My childhood in a lawless zone—the bottom in its rawest form
I grew up near Kunming’s Nanyao Railway Station—
A place outsiders called a “no-go zone.”
- Fights happened almost every day
- Adults fought, students fought, knives flashed regularly
- During my middle school years, someone was injured almost weekly in the surrounding area
In that environment, the idols of young people were characters like “Brother Ho-Nam” from Young and Dangerous.
If someone liked Dennis Rodman, they were considered “educated”—because most couldn’t even read the three letters “NBA.”
2) Violence and chaos weren’t exceptions—they were the default
To avoid getting bullied, I almost turned myself into a street kid.
I wasn’t gifted, nor truly ruthless, but I’d seen enough—and done enough—to understand that world well.
When I grew up and left that environment, I thought I could finally live like a civilized person:
- Handle conflict with words
- Not resort to violence
- Stop hiding knives in my backpack
I thought civilization would last forever.
Until recent years, when I suddenly heard a familiar sentence from The Three-Body Problem echo in my mind:
“In this era, we rough-skinned barbarians are useful again.”
4. The Civilized World Is Crumbling
In the past few years, I’ve watched many well-educated, polite, rule-abiding people rapidly break down.
They keep asking:
- “Why can the government owe money without shame?”
- “Why does a tiny conflict lead to violence?”
- “Why do authorities ignore what matters? Why do they bully the weak?”
- “Why are even monks visiting brothels now?”
They are shocked, confused, angry, helpless—
because they believed the world was orderly, moral, and rule-based.
But now, that structure is fracturing—piece by piece.
5. A Deep Shift Is Happening: Society Is Bottomizing
I call this transformation:
“Societal Bottomization.”
It doesn’t mean everyone will be homeless tomorrow.
It means:
The entire operating logic of society—people’s mindset and behavior—is drifting toward bottom-tier survival mode.
This is a slow but unstoppable slide.
Why?
Because the bottom survives according to only three principles:
- Scarcity
- Despair
- Disorder
These forces are rising from below, spreading upward.
6. Bottom-Tier Mutual Harm Is Not About Morality—It’s About Survival
Many think the bottom hurts each other because they lack morality.
This is a misunderstanding.
The truth is:
The moral gap between the bottom, middle, and top is far smaller than people imagine.
There is only one root cause:
Extreme scarcity.
If you take one bite, I lose one.
If you grab an opportunity, I get eliminated.
Bottom-tier competition is not “playing chess,”
it’s grabbing a life preserver on a sinking ship.
- No rules
- No dignity
- No silent observers
- No second chance
For the bottom, competition is not strategy—
it’s survival.
7. The Conditions for Bottomization Are Fully Mature: Shrinking Resources + Retreating Order
When the economic pie stops growing, everyone must drop their pretense and fight over scraps.
Everyone is deprived.
Everyone is desperate.
So bottom logic begins to climb upward.
At the same time, order is retreating:
- Authorities withdrawing from public welfare
- Fiscal strain
- Trust collapsing
- Some even turning predatory
When order steps back,
the jungle steps forward.
8. A Real Example: The Moment Civilization’s Shell Tore Open
A few years ago, a child was run over and killed on the street.
The grieving mother endured public cruelty and eventually jumped to her death.
A police officer told her:
“Don’t cause trouble.”
Her child died—
and it was called causing trouble.
That is what bottomization looks like:
The institutions meant to protect you begin abandoning you.
9. When Civilized Logic Fails, Civilized People Collapse First
Educated people are accustomed to reasoning, rules, and order.
But when society slides into barbarism,
civilized logic becomes useless—
and people break down mentally long before the environment finishes collapsing.
This is not one person’s failure.
It’s a structural one.
A conflict between civilizational logic
and survival logic.
10. The Harsh Reality: We Are All Being Forced Into Collective De-Evolution
Like primitive survival:
You’ll eat raw food.
Sleep in caves.
Not because you want to—
but because the environment leaves no choice.
Barbarians aren’t superior.
They’re just more adapted to chaos.
Civilized people, meanwhile, are being pushed—
painfully—
back into a raw form of survival.
Conclusion: From Mocking the Bottom, to Understanding the Bottom, to Becoming the Bottom
Bottomization isn’t a prediction.
It’s happening now.
And we must confront one urgent question:
How do we survive in a society that is becoming bottom-tier?
We’ll talk about that in the next article.
原文
当文明的外壳剥落之后，我们将面对怎样的世界？
最近这段时间，我一直在反复思考一个问题：
我们到底是不是处在社会的“底层”？
很多朋友会毫不犹豫地回答：“当然是。我每天挤地铁打工，拿着微薄的工资，吃着油腻的外卖，住在狭小的出租屋。我不底层谁底层？”
但我只能说——这种想法，仍然太“富有”了。
甚至可以直白地说：
凡是能在观看到这期内容的人，都不是底层。甚至离真正的底层，都还有相当的距离。
一、什么是真正的“底层”？
我们常认为外卖员、保安、清洁工是社会底层。
是，他们确实属于底层，但只是 底层的上层。
再往下一层，是“三和大神”这种做一天玩三天、把明天抵押给今天的人。
但底层的最深处是什么？
那些你在白天永远看不到的人。
只有在深夜时分，他们才会悄悄出现，捡拾一点生活的残渣。
那是真正意义上的底层，包括：
- 无家可归的流浪汉
- 被遗弃的老人
- 与社会断裂、无身份的人
- 身体或精神严重障碍、无法自理的失能者……
这些人像蟑螂一样隐匿在城市缝隙里，绝大多数“正常生活”的人对他们一无所知。
二、为什么我们对底层如此陌生？
因为我们几乎从未真正“走下去”过。
我们的认知只能靠想象，而这种想象往往是温和的、抽象的，甚至是浪漫化的。
但在一个 稳步向下的社会里，情况正在发生剧烈变化：
- 守不住生活的人越来越多
- 中产、中下层像下饺子一样跌落
- 每个人都会逐渐与底层越来越近
如果我们还对底层一无所知，那问题就不仅是认知偏差，而可能是致命的。
所以，这篇文章，我们就来聊聊：“底层”到底是什么。
三、底层不是一个群体，而是一种“系统”
要理解底层，必须先接受一个前提：
底层不是某一类人，也不是某几个职业，而是一套完整的系统。
是一种存在于大多数人认知之外的 意识形态与生存结构。
而我不是站在安全距离外观察，而是从小就直面过那种暴力与无序。
1. 童年的三不管地带，就是“底层的真实形态”
我成长的那片区域——昆明南窑火车站，在外人眼里就是“三不管地区”,。
- 群架几乎每天上演
- 不仅社会人动手，学生也刀光剑影
- 我念初中那三年，学校周边每周都会有打群架的，甚至打伤的
在那样的环境里，被年轻人崇拜的都是“浩南大哥”这种角色。
如果有人喜欢罗德曼，那都是“有文化”的表现——因为没几个人读得顺 NBA 三个字母。
2. 暴力与无序，不是例外，而是常态
为了不被欺负，我差点把自己变成一个混混。
没有天赋，也不算狠，但大大小小的事做过不少，见过更多。
长大以后脱离那个环境，我以为自己终于过上了文明人的生活：
遇事讲道理、冲突不动手、不再从书包里偷偷塞刀。
我以为文明会一直持续下去——
直到最近几年，我突然发现自己又听到了“三体”里的那句话：
“在这个时代，我们这些皮实的野蛮人，又有用了。”
四、文明人的世界正在坍塌
最近几年，我身边很多受过良好教育、礼貌、温和、守规则的文明人，心态在快速崩塌。
他们开始频繁问：
- “为什么政府欠钱不还还理直气壮？”
- “为什么一点小矛盾对方就要动手？”
- “为什么公权力不管事？为什么欺软怕硬？”
- “为什么连和尚都开始嫖娼了？”
他们震惊、困惑、愤怒、无力——
因为他们一直以为世界是有秩序、有底线、有规则的。
但现在，那些规则正在一点点碎掉。
五、时代正在发生一个深刻变化：全社会底层化
我给它起了一个名字：
“全社会底层化”
这并不意味着明天大家都要去捡垃圾、住桥洞。
而是：
整个社会的运行逻辑、人的心态与行为方式，都在向底层的生存模式靠拢。
这是一种缓慢但不可避免的滑落。
为什么会这样？
因为底层生存的核心逻辑只有三个关键字：
- 匮乏
- 绝望
- 无序
这三样东西，正在从下往上蔓延。
六、底层互害：不是道德问题，而是“极端生存策略”
很多人认为底层互害是因为底层没道德。
这是误解。
事实上——
底层与中层上层的道德差距，并没有大家想象的那么大。
真正的原因只有一个：
资源极度稀缺。
你拿一口，我就少一口。
你抢到机会，我就被淘汰。
底层博弈不是“下棋”，
而是 沉船时抢救生圈。
- 没有规则
- 没有体面
- 没有观棋不语
- 更没有“下次再来一局”
对底层来说，博弈不是策略，而是求生。
七、底层化的条件已成熟：资源缩小 + 秩序退潮
当经济蛋糕不再变大，所有人都不得不放下体面，去抢那点残羹剩饭。
人人都匮乏，人人都绝望。
于是——
底层的生存逻辑开始向上蔓延。
同时，秩序也在退潮：
- 公权力在民生领域收缩
- 财政吃紧
- 信用坍塌
- 有的甚至主动作恶
当秩序往后退一步，
世界就向前走一步——
朝向丛林法则。
八、一个真实的例子：文明被撕开的那一瞬
前几年，一个小学生被汽车当场碾死。
母亲在痛失爱子后，又承受四面八方的恶意，最终绝望跳楼。
更令人心寒的是，有警察对她说：
“别搞事。”
孩子死了，叫“搞事”？
底层化，就是文明秩序的根基被掀开——
所有原本该保护你的力量，都开始从你身边撤退。
九、当文明逻辑失效，文明人最先崩溃
受过教育的人习惯用文明、理性、规则来理解世界。
但当社会向野蛮滑落时，文明逻辑突然失效——
人往往先于现实崩塌。
这不是某个人的问题，
而是整个社会的问题。
这是文明逻辑与生存逻辑的冲突。
十、最终的现实：我们都在被迫经历一次集体的退化
就像野外求生——
你会吃生肉，会睡山洞，
但这不代表你喜欢这样。
野蛮人不是更高级，
只是在面对无序时更适应。
而文明人，则正在被迫经历一次痛苦的“退化”与重建。
结语：从嘲笑底层，到理解底层，再到成为底层
底层化不是未来的预测，而是正在发生的现实。
我们必须认真面对一个问题：
在一个不断底层化的社会里，如何生存？
