Criticism and self-criticism
Speech at the Seven Thousand People Congress - On the Party’s Democratic Centralism
📌 Criticism and self-criticism are a method, the only method, to resolve contradictions within the people. There is no other method.
💠Resorting to methods such as silencing questioners, drowning out their voices with other noises, or blocking their questions is a way to deal with enemies, not a method to resolve internal contradictions.
📌 If you don’t explain the situation to the masses and cadres, if you don’t open up and let them express their opinions, if they still feel afraid and are unable to speak up, it will be impossible to mobilize their enthusiasm.
💠This further reflects an elitist ideology. The origin of this elitist ideology lies in incomplete self-awareness and is manifested as an unwillingness to admit mistakes and a fear of possible failure, leading to resistance against self-criticism.
📌 Freedom is the understanding of necessity and the transformation of the objective world.
💠Freedom is built upon an understanding of necessity. Combining Isaiah Berlin’s concept of positive freedom and negative freedom, my interpretation is that negative freedom corresponds to an insufficient understanding of necessity. It manifests as absolute freedom, which inevitably relies on oppressing marginalized groups. Positive freedom is built upon an understanding of necessity and represents relative freedom - a thorough understanding of the objective world that enables active transformation.