Do Not Lament Over Declining Industries

Xuefeng

February 14, 2023

Facts tell us that death is inevitable for everyone, so there is no need to lament over it.

Since the ultimate end of life is death, is it necessary to feel sorrow or joy over the losses and gains along life’s journey? Absolutely not.

History tells us that everything in existence will eventually decline and disappear, so there is no need to get excited or invest too much time and energy into all these things.

With mobile phones becoming common, how many people still read newspapers and magazines? Printed newspapers and magazines belong to declining industries. These days, fewer people watch TV, so the television industry is also in decline. Cameras, flashlights, calculators, and landline phones, all once related to mobile phones, have also become declining industries—or we could call them dying industries. There is no reason to lament over this.

In Chinese history, there was the farce of the “Overthrow the Qing, Restore the Ming” movement. Those who participated were serious, but what was the result? Tragic sacrifices. Why did they meet such a tragic end? The fundamental reason is that they invested in a declining industry, in other words, a dying industry. Historically, those who exhausted their efforts and sacrificed their lives for the states of Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, and Wei (states from China’s Warring States period) eventually died with regret, their lives ending in tragedy. The reason is that defending the existence and continuation of a state itself was a declining industry. In the future, human society will inevitably become a unified society, one without nations. Therefore, all those who pledge loyalty to their country and sacrifice their lives for it, be they Americans, Russians, Germans, or Japanese, are working for declining industries. By doing so, they are creating personal tragedies.

Who else is tirelessly striving for declining industries and, in doing so, creating tragedies for their lives?

Over twenty years ago, when I was attending an Advanced International Trade Training Course at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, one of the subjects was how to send economic data and information using codes through telegrams. That course was quite demanding, and I put in a lot of effort to master it. Then fax machines appeared, and suddenly there was no need to send information using coded telegrams. All that knowledge became useless, and the time and energy spent on learning it were wasted. Looking back now, that course was clearly part of a declining industry. If we had known that fax machines would be available in a year or two, who would have bothered learning it?

Now, with the rise of ChatGPT, who would still want to spend years studying to become an accountant, lawyer, clerk, or bank employee? These are all declining professions, and investing time and money in them is setting oneself up for tragedy.

Are there still workers at gas stations who fill up vehicles? No. Not long ago, I visited a Walmart in Williams Lake. After buying my items and going to the checkout, I found no cashiers—everything was automated by machines. So, where did the cashiers go?

In fact, anyone who exhausts their efforts in pursuit of money, power, status, or fame is wasting their precious time on declining industries, creating their own tragedies. Nature is constantly and dramatically changing, and even whether you will see the sun tomorrow is uncertain. Everything you’ve worked for could vanish like a popped bubble in an instant.

So, are there industries that are not declining?

Yes, there are. The industries that bring you happiness, joy, freedom, and fulfillment are eternal industries. The industries that lead you from this world to heaven are the ones truly worth dedicating your life to.