MOST of us have just survived an extended stretch of epic traffic jams, heaps of trash, sight-seeking crowds, and fatal accidents, in a record-long holiday that at one time would have been a time for restfulness.

Cheer up - the next such long holiday is 38 years away.

As we have heard, the groans produced by a billion newly anointed consumers hell-bent on vacating the city were even greater than the groans they managed while working.

There are comments in overseas media that the Chinese people have not yet known the pleasures of "staycations" or "nearcations." As a matter of fact, vacationing in the sense of traveling around in search of pleasure, knowledge and new experience was a Western concept. In light of this concept, much of the enjoyment of vacationing lies in the ability to name a fancy tourist destination.

So this "Golden Week" became a week of horrors. A line of cars extended more than 20 kilometers on a highway leading to Lushan Mountain, a famous summer retreat in Jiangxi Province. At midnight on October 2, a tourist still stranded atop Huashan Mountain, Shaanxi Province, demanded a refund for his ticket, and was stabbed nine times for being so bold.

During the eight-day holiday, nationwide 794 people were killed in 68,422 traffic accidents, and that was cause for celebration, because these figures were much lower than those for the same period last year.

All these shining figures gave a timely boost to the flagging GDP, if we refrain from delving deeper into the underlying causes for this national migration and restlessness.

Michel de Montaigne (1553-1592) wrote, "The mind that has no fixed aim loses itself, for, as they say, to be everywhere is to be nowhere."

We also have good reasons to believe the mass media and the state have played a vital role in fueling this national restlessness. Chinese people used to take pride in their resourcefulness in seeking contentment in what they have. So the real significance of all this hustle and bustle is that at the end of the holiday, the media can report glowingly the latest tourist revenues figures.

Revealingly, the Chinese people not only contribute to GDP in their work hours, they also know how to do so in their leisure time. Media willingly become the handmaiden of business, not realizing they have more important roles to play.

In his article "Media responsibility in education in the age of sound, light and colors" (Wenhui Daily, October 8), commentator Lu Yiran points to the pernicious effect of "dazzling colors and light" on the moral fiber of the younger generation. In Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching, he observed, "The five colors confuse the eye, the five sounds dull the ear, the five tastes spoil the palate. Excess of hunting and chasing makes minds go mad."

Lu cited a recent survey involving 508 students in primary and elementary schools in Shanghai, which found that about 48.7 percent of those surveyed consider entertainment stars as their role models. This is followed by politicians, at 9.8 percent, and sports stars, at 7.7 percent. Only 1.2 percent choose icons known for their moral stature, and this percentage is neatly matched by those who idolize Adolf Hitler and Nazi general, Erwin Rommel. In the choice of their future professions, considerations of income and status come to the fore, with only 0.6 percent desiring to be workers.

Polluted minds

Yu Yi, a veteran Chinese language teacher in Shanghai, in reviewing these findings, points out that in this age when money rules and fakes dominate, choosing a profitable career (not necessarily a meaningful one) has become a priority that pollutes the minds of young students.

An officially published development program for Chinese children states that "moral education should be administered every step of the way in school instruction, and should be the concern of not just schools, but families and the society at large as well."

Unfortunately, in this Internet age, whatever well-intentioned instruction pales into insignificance compared with the dominating influences of the Internet, TV dramas and materialistic society at large. "The influence exerted by society and the media is achieved via the media of sound, light, and colors, thus it's more appealing to children so susceptible in their formative years," Yu said.

It is no exaggeration that years of education can be easily neutralized by a few days of social or media exposure. A recently online video illustrates the damage.

The video from a surveillance camera in a camera shop in Chongqing shows how on September 24 a young woman posing as a customer successfully shoplifted a camera with the help of her 3-year-old son. The star was actually the child who exhibited skills that would "outshine the most consummate thief," according to one sarcastic comment.

I consider this example to be the most tragic case under the sun. The toddler could take the camera from behind the counter and give it to his mother with such aplomb because he has total trust in his mother.

I was reminded of a recent reported incident that took place in a massage room in Beijing. Yes, when police stormed in, they caught a prostitute having sex with a client. But even the police were surprised to find a 6-year-old boy sound asleep in the adjacent room. He was the woman's son.

Many have similar trust in the media. I still hear some people say "I got that from the radio" or "television," trying to make their gossip credible. My 9-year-old son used to have a good friend surnamed Zhang, but my boy recently told me with disappointment that Zhang is now "a grown up boy." He added that his old friend had been watching with gusto every episode of a sitcom about love, and his parents did not intervene. The boy Zhang used to be very vocal and outgoing, but lately he has become withdrawn, brooding a lot and showing little inclination for outdoor activities.

Through market-oriented incentives, TV is flourishing, having morphed into a star-making, fashion-dictating machine competing for ever lower tastes. But what is on television is quite tame compared with what is available on the Internet. Today even the most correct Internet portals know the value of pictures or videos of skimpily clad women.

The melamine-tainted milk scandal that erupted in 2008 sent the whole nation into a panic, but we tend to perceive similarly poisonous spiritual fare as "vigorous" and "flourishing."