Intellectuals are a social class made up of intellectual
workers, not an independent class. In the five thousand years of private
exploitation, intellectuals were always subordinate to and served the ruling
class of the time. With the establishment of a communal socialist system,
intellectuals had to fundamentally change their stance, and there was a
question of the transformation of their world view.
In May
1967, Chairman Mao mentioned in his "speech when receiving the Albanian
military delegation" that:
"Originally I wanted to
train some successors among the intellectuals, but now it seems very
unsatisfactory" (The Chronicles of Mao Zedong, Vol. VI, p. 89). Why? The
Chairman believed that:
"The intellectuals,
including the young intellectuals still being educated in schools, still have a
basically bourgeois worldview, from inside the Party to outside. ......
Intellectuals who want a revolution must reform their worldview well at the
crucial stage of the struggle between the two classes, the two roads and the
two lines, or else they will go to the opposite side of the revolution."
So, how can intellectuals who want a
revolution transform their worldview? The author believes that the problem of
"passing three hurdles" must be solved.
The first is to pass the family
influence barrier.
"In class society everyone lives as a member of a particular
class, and every kind of thinking, without exception, is stamped with the brand
of a class." (Mao Zedong: On Practice)
Family education is the initiation
of life and has far-reaching consequences. The saying "A dragon gives
birth to a dragon, a phoenix gives birth to a phoenix, a thief gives birth to a
son who digs a hole in the wall" is a bit excessive, but not without truth.
It goes without saying that most
intellectuals come from exploiting families, and very few come from
working-class families. In a privately owned society, the children of the
exploiting classes are the ones who have the means to receive a good education,
to acquire more knowledge and to become intellectuals. As such, most
intellectuals were inevitably imbued with the ideology of the exploiting class
from an early age. After the establishment of New China, many "landlord, capitalist,
bad elements and right-wing" people emerged from exploiting families and
suffered the consequences. If intellectuals who wanted to make a revolution
could not draw a clear line with their families and break through the
"family influence barrier", they were bound to be out of step with
everything in the new society, and how could they talk about reforming their
worldview?
To get past the family influence
of the exploiting class, one must change one's original class position and
really stand up for the workers and peasants. One must think in terms of the
interests, likes and dislikes of the country, the nation and the majority of
the people. If one cannot get rid of the influence of the exploiting class
families, it is impossible to carry out a transformation of the world view.
Secondly, pass the traditional
concepts.
The "traditional concept"
refers to the "private" outlook formed in people's minds by the
5,000-year private exploitation system. This has given rise to concepts such as
"if people don't do it for themselves, they will be punished by heaven and
earth", "if you suffer hardship, you will become a man of the
world", and "those who work hard will rule over others”. The
Communist Manifesto clearly proclaims:
"The communist revolution is
the most complete break with traditional relations of ownership, and not
surprisingly, in the course of its own development, it has to make the most
complete break with traditional ideas".
Socialism advocates the word
"public", which is incompatible with the traditional concept. A
communal society gives priority to the collective interest, ensuring that the
interests of the individual are achieved within the collective interest, while
the traditional concept gives priority to the word "private",
allowing the collective interest to be usurped for one's own selfish purposes.
Today, 26 rich people can account for half of the world's wealth, while 70% of the
world's population is unable to secure a basic living! This is the reason why
capitalist countries today are generally caught in a general crisis of
capitalism due to polarisation and extremism.
Five thousand years of private
exploitation have created a "pyramidal" social structure: the upper
and middle classes are the bureaucrats, the exploiting classes and the
intellectual class who are dependent on them; the workers and peasants, who
make up the vast majority of the population, are pushed down to the lowest
level. Those who have climbed to the middle and upper strata no longer want to
share the fate of the lower working and peasant masses. Communism is the demand
for equality and justice, the elimination of exploitation and oppression, and
the liberation of all mankind. Only by liberating themselves from the confines
of the traditional "pyramidal" social structure, by making a complete
"break" with traditional ideas, and by mingling with the lower
classes, could revolutionary intellectuals complete the transformation of their
worldview.
Thirdly, it is about the private
sector of knowledge.
When an intellectual possesses
knowledge, he always thinks that it is the result of his own efforts, and this
creates the concept of "private ownership of knowledge". As a result,
intellectuals often fall into the stink of being out of touch with workers and
peasants, proud and arrogant, and contemptuous of literati.
In fact, in addition to their own
efforts, intellectuals acquire knowledge mainly through the accumulation of
knowledge from their predecessors (all knowledge is inherited and created by
generations of predecessors) and the conditions provided by contemporary
society (such as farmers' farming, workers' labour, and the educational
environment provided by society, etc.). It should be said that individual
effort is only a small part of the equation. If this were recognised, knowledge
would not be regarded as the private property of the individual, but as a common
social good.
However, under private ownership,
the 'private ownership of knowledge' is taken for granted. Under socialism, the
notion of 'private knowledge' will inevitably contradict the notion of public
ownership, resulting in the knowledge possessed by individuals not being fully
utilised. The only way for intellectuals to change their world view is to break
with the concept of "private ownership of knowledge", just as Qian
Xuesen did, and to give their knowledge to the people selflessly, in order to
become revolutionary intellectuals.
Only when intellectuals have gone
through the test of "passing the three hurdles" can they solve the
problem of reforming their worldview.
Chairman Mao said.
"China needs the services of as many intellectuals as possible
for the colossal task of building socialism. We should trust those who are really willing to serve the cause of socialism and should
radically improve our relations with them and help them solve the problems
requiring solution, so that they can give full play to their talents."
Of course, "intellectuals must continue to remould themselves,
gradually shed their bourgeois world outlook and acquire the proletarian,
communist world outlook". (On the Correct Handling of Contradictions
Among the People)
Only in this way will intellectuals be able to play their full due role in history.
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