China crisis
As the UK pursues a more egalitarian education system, pretty much anyone can go on to further education; even if it is only to study breakfast cereal box design at the University of HoleInTheGround—previously the Polytechnic of HoleInTheGround, before polytechnics levelled-up to universities—or, worse, media and inclusivity at Bournemouth University. After years of study activism, they graduate fully qualified to flip burgers, deal drugs, or turn tricks.
And it's not just in the UK that anyone can obtain a degree that leads to no job prospects. China has recently had a surge in graduates who've studied hard for years, only to enter a job market that doesn't need them, or at least not as many of them.
Some of those disaffected graduates have invoked Lu Xun's 1919 story of Kong Yiji, a failed scholar who lived in poverty, to create memes of their plight on social media, reflect on social inequality—I thought everyone was supposed to be equal under communism—and criticise the system. None of this reflects well on the Chinese state.
So, how long will it take before Kong Yiji suffers the same fate as A.A. Milne's funny old bear?
Confucius say:
- Under communism, everyone is equal. But some are more equal than others.
- There are two classes of people under communism: those who're equal, and those who keep them that way.