“why am i doing this research, why am i studying, why should i work for something that i would perhaps not do in my free time?”
note that this is slightly egoistic! you can also see work and study as a way to provide for your environment, to be with your surroundings, because you also profit from it. this is your home, society is a place you live in, so sometimes it demands things. if you can provide something that also matches with what you like, that can be quite liberating to stop thinking about what you want but also about what you are doing relative to your surroundings. im researching this topic which allows me to be in this university, have a home provided by the government and in turn i can be of use by bringing new thoughts into society. society as their ways, i have my ways, and all these different ways of being and thinking interact. i dont have to keep my way, i dont have to fight their way. i can fight their way if i believe its right. whatever happens, let the natural thing happen.
also, maybe, accept that, yes, you and others might very well be blinded by “false profiting”, like thinking youre rich but not actually being happy, or thinking youre happy but not actually being conscious. its not easy to be mindful and to be with the tao. if you let confusion and misbelief arise and not fight it, it will also go like that i guess. its confusing. however, you dont need to fight a system. you dont need to go with the system. just respond.