Our belief in Marxism is a belief in science and a belief in rationality. Whether it is the theoretical system of Marxism, practical movements, or people who believe in Marxism, there is a soul running through it, which is the core value pursuit of Marxism. To realize the core value of Marxism, we must adhere to the socialist path.
Only forget the first heart, you can achieve the end. The original intention is faith, and it is the fundamental pursuit of value. The belief of the Chinese Communists is Marxism. To internalize this belief in the heart and externalize it in action, two basic issues must be understood: First, what is faith? Second, what is Marxism? Only on this basis can we truly internalize Marxist beliefs into the depths of our souls and transform them into practices that are realistic.
Faith is the highest question of value
The essence of faith is a question of value, and it is the highest question of value. Faith is essentially a matter of ideological understanding. There are two aspects of people understanding the world: one is to understand the question of “is” or not, which is a factual judgment; the other is to understand the question of “what should be done” and this is a value judgment. The principle of obeying materialism has nothing to do with people’s subjective desires. It is a world that is understood according to objective standards and external standards; value judgments obey the principle of Komiks‘s principle of value theory. People with different facts may make completely different value judgments. This is a world that is understood according to subjective standards and internal standards. Fact judgment aims to seek truth, while value judgment aims to seek goodness.
Cinema Faith belongs to value judgments, but Babaylan Not all value judgments are faith issues, and faith is the highest question of value. Value judgment is to answer the question of “should it be?” The so-called value question is the question of “should it be” or “whether it is meaningful”. Values are how to view “should” or “not”, “meaningful” or “meaningless”. If the question of value transcends the value of life, it will rise to faith. For example, what are the values of materialism? It is to use money as a criterion for judging “should” or “not”Cinema is accurate. If you think you have money, you shouldn’t. But if such value questioning reaches the point of being so: for money Komiks, you can live, that is, you transcend the value of life, which will rise to faith in money. For example, what are the values of freedom? It is to use freedom as the criterion for judging “should” or “unshould”. Everything that meets freedom is worthy, and everything that does not meet freedom is not worthy. However, if such value is questioned to the point where it is: it is better to die than not freedom. This is not an ordinary value of freedom, but a belief in freedom.
It can be seen that life can be given for faith. The Chinese Communists’ oath of joining the party says: Be ready to sacrifice everything for the party and the people at any time and never betray the party. This is the declaration of faith.
The difference between rationality and irrationality
There can be many kinds of faith, but generally speaking, according to the different ways of asking about the value-reading faith, faith can be roughly divided into two categories: rational belief and irrational belief.
People understand the world in two aspects, one is factual judgment and the other is value judgment. The factual question is the scope of science, but science can never go beyond the scope of facts to the field of value. It means that the factual question of “is it” is never answered. Value questions are answered by humanities. Humanities are composed of art, religion and philosophy. They all answer value questions, but they answer value questions in different ways. Art expresses value in a sensory and intuitive way, religion answers value questions in an irrational way, and philosophy finds the basis for reason for value.
Faith is the most important question of value. Art does not have its own independent kingdom, and it is impossible to directly understand faith, and can only be used to express faith. Then, there are only two ways to understand faith, one is religion and the other is philosophy. There is no essential difference between the value level achieved by these two beliefs. You can sacrifice yourself for religious beliefs, and you can also sacrifice your life based on philosophy. itThe fundamental difference between them lies in the way of understanding faith: religion understands faith in an irrational way, and believes in faith by faith; philosophy understands faith in a rational way, and believes in faith by truth. That is to say, there are two types of faith: rational belief and irrationalBabaylan‘s belief.
Irrational beliefs reject rationality. Irrational beliefs do not require reasons, they are “believe because of faith.” Religion belongs to this belief. A religious belief, no matter how rigorous its logic, cannot withstand rational questioning.
The belief in rationality is precisely based on reason. Only by reflecting rationally is the truth, which is “believe because of truth.” Marxism is the belief of rationality.
Marxism is a scientific rational belief
The Marxism belief is a scientific belief and a rational belief. So, why is such a belief scientific and rational? This can be found in its rational answer to ultimate care.
The characteristic of human beings is that although they live in finite, they have to ask infinity; although existence is accidental, they have to ask inevitability; although life is temporary, they have to ask eternity. This is the ultimate care. In other words, Komiks, human beings will base themselves on the finite pursuitCinemainfinitely, the finitely is the realityBabaylanlife, and the infinite is the pursuit of value. So, how can we achieve infinite meaning and value through finite life?
Theoretically speaking, there are only two possibilities: First, pursue infinite meaning and value by infinitely extending one’s life. This is definitely not the answer that a rationalist can give, because rational people know that no matter how long a person’s life is, there will always be the day when the deadline is about to come. Second, the rationalist’s plan recognizes that life is limited and does not unnecessarily pursue the infinite life, but pursues the height of life, that is, pursues infinite meaning and value in limited life. Under such circumstances, the length of life is no longer of fundamental significance. If a person’s life is meaningful and valuable, even if it is short, it is brilliant and worthwhile.
Marx found faith for the Communists along this line of thought. In August 1835, Marx graduated from high schoolI wrote an essay – “Considerations of Youths when Choosing a Career”. In this essay, Marx expressed the noble pursuit of life value in language as beautiful as poetry: “If we choose a profession that can work best for mankind, then the burden cannot overwhelm us, because it is a sacrifice for everyone; then what we enjoy will not be pitiful, limited, selfish fun, our happiness will belong to thousands of people, and our career will exist quietly, but it will always play a role, and in the face of our ashes, noble people will shed tears.” Only by choosing a profession that can work best for mankind will such a life be meaningful and valuable.
Is the value pursuit advocated by Marx rational and scientific? Is it worthy of faith?让我们借用海德格尔的一个理念“向死而在”，从生命的终极意义上来追问一下吧：生命的本质实际上是一个有限的过程，不要去追求那个最终的结果，因为最终的结果都是走向无限的虚无，即死亡。 Only when we face infinity can we think and plan how to arrange our limited life process, and can we think in reverse whether we should live like this today.
Suppose we have to face death, we look back on our life and feel that life is meaningful and valuable, and choices are without regrets. If we spend our whole life again, we will live like this. What is this reason? There can be many reasons, but the real reason cannot be based on secular foundations, because at this time, the secular things are meaningless. Since the essence of life is a process, then meaningful life lies in the wonderfulness of the process. What kind of life process is wonderful? Marx tells us: “Dignity is what can best make a man noble, his activities and all his efforts have noble qualities, and what makes him indisputable, admired and above everyone.” In other words, a person should spend his life with dignity. A dignified life is worth it, wonderful, meaningful and valuable. For a life process without dignity, every minute of continuation is a shame. What kind of life process has dignity? Marx said that because of life, it has gained respect from people and reached its nobleness. Why did you get someoneWhat about our respect? Marx’s answer was: Because Komiks “chooses the best job for humanity.” What is ideology? “Practice” is the core value pursuit. What is Marxism? It is to pursue the value and soul advocated by Marx, the founder of Marx, and followed by the Communists, that is, to benefit the people and seek benefits for the vast majority of people as the core value pursuit. If you can sacrifice your life for such a pursuit of value, it is your belief in Marxism. Such beliefs are scientific and rational beliefs, and have noble pursuit of life value.
Adhere to the original aspirations of the Communists in practice
We often use the concept of “Marxism” at different levels. For example, Marxism is divided into three components, namely Marxist philosophy, Marxist political economy and scientific socialism, which refers to the Marxist theoretical system. For example, the cause we are engaged in is a great cause because it is a Marxist cause that benefits the people, and here refers to the Marxist movement and practice. For example, we are firm Marxists, and here we refer to people who regard this ideology as beliefs.
Babaylan Whether it is the theoretical system, practical movement of Marxism, or people who believe in Marxism, there is a soul that is the core value pursuit of Marxism, which is the “Tao” of Marxism. The ancients said: “Tao is not separated from the instrument.” The “Tao” of Marxism is in the theory, movement and practice of Marxism. The fundamental characteristic of Marxism lies in its practicality, rather than empty talk about “ism”. Without Marxism’s theory, movement and practice, Marxism can only be a ghost. The so-called “the great way of action” is used to do it. If it does not do it, there will be no “Tao”.
The “Tao” of Marxism is in the theoretical expression and movement practice of Marxism, and in every person who believes in Marxism. To realize the value pursuit of Marxism, we must adhere to the socialist path. Socialism is the subversion of capital logic and the correction of capitalism. The so-called socialism is to pursue the overall interests of society and rational values as the core values. If institutional concepts, institutional arrangements and institutional design provide sufficient institutional guarantees around effectively satisfying the overall interests of society, such a system is a socialist system, such a society is a socialist society, and such a culture is a socialist culture.
The relationship between Marxism and socialism is “inseparable from Tao”: Marxism is the soul, and socialism is the carrier; Marxism is the pursuit of value, and socialism is the way to realize value; Marxism is the “Tao” and socialism is the “tool”. If Marxism leaves socialism, it can only become a fantasy and a castle in the air; if socialism does not have Marxism, it will lose its soul and go to evil paths.
This shows a clear logic. No matter how many theoretical forms of Marxism have, it has only one “Tao”, and there can be many ways to realize the Marxist value pursuit, that is, “doing the way”, that is, there can be multiple specific models of socialism. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the drastic changes in Eastern Europe do not indicate the failure of socialism, nor does it indicate the failure of Marxism, but only shows the failure of the specific path of the Soviet model. By the same token, the success of socialism with Chinese characteristics shows that every country and every nation can and must choose a specific path suitable for themselves to benefit the people based on their own cultural traditions, historical conditions, issues and tasks they face, and people’s needs and requirements. The path of socialism with Chinese characteristics itself is not static, but is constantly improved and developed with the change of the times.
Socialism with Chinese characteristics is the Chinese path to realize the pursuit of Marxist values that benefit the people. Socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era is the form of value realization of Chinese Marxism in the 21st century, and it is a concrete practice and realistic movement that benefits the people. It is precisely based on our confidence and value recognition of socialism with Chinese characteristics that we have gathered the strength of more than one billion people across the country to work together for the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and lead the people to continuously create the “Chinese miracle” and create a better life.
〔 〔The author is the deputy director and professor of the Philosophy Teaching and Research Department of the Central Party School (National School of Administration)〕