In early November 2024, Taiwanese bourgeois actress Yi Nengjing launched a “luxury crystal array” priced at up to 6,999 yuan during a live broadcast, selling over 380 sets in one night, with sales exceeding 2.6 million yuan. Since then, various stars seeing the business opportunity have entered the scene, relying on live streaming to sell crystals and make a fortune. Their sales pitches are very similar, mostly incorporating a large amount of metaphysical elements, repeatedly mentioning “Ninth Purple Fire Year,” “Five Elements,” “Chakras,” or nonsense like “each crystal is unique, representing a person’s inner energy, a gift from the earth to humanity,” and that crystals can “eliminate interference from others’ magnetic fields, reduce negative energy.” A crystal with a chemical formula of SiO2, the same as glass and sand, is endowed with so many mysterious functions in the mouths of these hosts. These live stream sellers rely on deception and fraud for a living; using crystals to cheat is nothing new. However, in today’s era of “scientific enlightenment,” it is perplexing that some still believe these hosts and believe that crystals can “defy fate.” In reality, the popularity of various metaphysical crystals has deep social reasons.
As early as over a thousand years ago, Tang Dynasty politician and philosopher Liu Yuxi pointed out — when political policies are corrupt, talented people will be defeated by heaven; only when a tyrant is in power will people believe in the Mandate of Heaven. The current dark social and political situation under the rule of the Zhongxiu imperialism, with the broad masses of workers having no political rights and often unable to see their future, forms the social foundation for the prevalence of the Mandate of Heaven and metaphysics.
Liu Mou, who has been engaged in wholesale crystal business for 20 years, painted a picture of his customers: “The main buyers of crystals are young women.” “In the past, people bought crystals mainly to attract love and improve social relationships, but now many focus on women becoming self-reliant and relying on themselves. With the economy sluggish and fierce competition in the workplace, almost all customers hope to attract wealth and ward off petty villains.” In the middle-revision society, women from petty bourgeoisie and proletariat classes, under patriarchal oppression, have no freedom to choose their own life paths and can only end up as household slaves or male appendages. Due to the corruption of bourgeois culture and the instability of the petty bourgeoisie itself, they often become despondent when facing personal resistance failures and lack of escape routes. Because they do not understand Marxism, they have never found the correct path of resistance and can only place hope in the metaphysical and mysterious “metaphysics” and crystals.
But how many more people can be deceived by these crystals? Crystals cannot eliminate oppression nor help the broad petty bourgeoisie escape bankruptcy. As these superstitious crystals and petty bourgeoisie go bankrupt and join the proletariat, they will see that their own situation after buying crystals is no different from other bankrupt petty bourgeoisie, and no different from other exploited proletarians. Therefore, the lie that “metaphysical” crystals can change fate is self-defeating. However, mere emotional understanding cannot completely dispel superstition. Only by studying Marxism and truly understanding the reasons for the bankruptcy and oppression of the petty bourgeoisie can we thoroughly eliminate superstitions related to “metaphysical” crystals.