From values to cultural norms in contemporary society

Therefore, the standard is what is chosen as the basis for comparison, evaluation, so that people can do it correctly and at the same time is chosen as a model for measurement. The standard is the concretization of values and also the way to arrange the values in order suitable for the object, as a basis for evaluating the quality and cultural level of that object.

From experience to practice

It is necessary to build cultural standards for specific subjects on the basis of determining basic standards, such as: Political cultural standards, ethical cultural standards, aesthetic cultural standards... When these standards are specified for subjects, they will become self-regulating capacity in human life. This makes cultural standards both support the law and have the power to influence, self-regulate and impact issues arising in life that the law is not yet able to cover.

Let me cite an experience of our ancestors in the past to see the social regulating power of culture. That is the village conventions in rural Vietnam in the past, most of which have become cultural standards voluntarily followed by the community, many of which have truly become important regulatory systems in many aspects of rural life.

From that valuable experience, selecting good cultural standards that are suitable for contemporary life, in the process of building new rural areas in our country in recent years, new village covenants and conventions have been born and operated in new conditions. Those village covenants are not contrary to the law, "present" and used in cases where the law has not reached or goes beyond the framework of the law. Village covenants are always standards to "resolve" collisions, even contradictions and conflicts that occur.

That reconciliation is the capacity to regulate society through culture . The appearance and effective operation of "reconciliation groups" in some rural areas, perhaps, is the result of the simultaneous application of both legal regulations and the provisions in the village covenant, but the depth and sustainability of the results of that reconciliation and regulation belong to the cultural norms in the village covenant that have been voluntarily and democratically approved by the community.

Thus, it can be determined that the most important thing is to nurture, educate, and build in people and in the community an awareness of cultural values and norms so that they can self-orient and self-regulate all thoughts, behaviors, and actions consciously.

That is a prominent and important feature of the social regulation function of culture. That is completely opposite to the tendency to use power and imposition. There was a time when we used power and voluntarism to impose ideology and lifestyle, cultural life, even brutally interfering in personal interests and cultural activities, making people feel constrained, limiting their freedom to develop and create, causing many people to react, either secretly or openly.

Culture does not accept the imposition of power. Power is only to control those who are anti-cultural, but power cannot create cultural values and standards in personality. Therefore, many times, President Ho Chi Minh emphasized how to let culture permeate all areas of social life. Culture must eliminate corruption, laziness, vanity and luxury (Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works, ibid , vol. 1, p. XXVI).

To resolutely fight corruption, we must use the power of the law to "burn the furnace", that is extremely necessary, but to "eliminate" corruption, we need cultural power so that people have the ability to restrain their greed, know how to stop between the boundaries of beauty and ugliness, good and evil, conscience and unscrupulousness, contentment and greed...

The whole process takes place in human cognition, emotions, and orientation of action. It is the regulation of cultural values and norms in humans. Ultimately, without doing that, it is impossible to “eliminate” the root cause of corruption.

To clarify this issue, let me quote a very profound argument of VI Lenin. When pointing out the weaknesses in the Soviet state apparatus after the October Revolution (1917), Lenin said that it was "very bad" and thought "how to overcome it". He affirmed: "Only what has become deeply ingrained in cultural life, in customs and habits, can be considered to have been implemented" (VI Lenin: Complete Works , National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, 2006, vol. 45, p. 443).

Perhaps, we often stop at conclusions, political, economic, social orientations... considering it the final point of thinking, but have not thought about what to do, how to transfer it into cultural values , "deeply rooted in cultural life". From micro to macro, many things we do halfway or leave unfinished, or hastily consider as completed, perhaps stem from the above deep cause, which VI Lenin discovered about 100 years ago.

Some issues on the regulatory function of culture

As presented in the above sections, scientific research on culture has achieved many positive results, especially general theoretical issues. Those results serve as the basis for formulating the Party's viewpoints, policies, and guidelines, and the State's policies and laws on culture over the periods, especially since our country implemented the renovation process (1986) until now.

Along with the development of theory, the task of summarizing cultural practices is also given attention. The policies on building cultural villages, cultural environments, and new rural areas have been proposed and implemented with encouraging results.

However, besides those successes, the work of cultural theory research is showing clear limitations, that is, it is starting to stagnate, repeating, lacking new explorations to approach the trend of theoretical modernization. On the other hand, the summary of cultural practices has not reached a development that helps to determine the policies and guidelines for building culture in the new period or that summary has not been applied to practical direction and organization.

For example, scientists who study cultural history such as Professor Tran Quoc Vuong and Professor Ngo Duc Thinh have devoted much effort to studying cultural geography and from there identifying cultural regions and regional cultures in our country. Opinions may differ, but the results of that research need to be applied in leadership, direction and cultural management. However, the results of that application are still vague, so the strengths and characteristics of each cultural region have not been promoted and have not created complementarities between cultural regions. This is associated with the need to deeply understand history and cultural traditions.

Regarding the role, the regulatory function of culture is also in this situation. Many times, some cultural scholars have proposed to identify regulation as one of the important and specific functions, but it has not been included in legal documents and has not been applied and used in the process of directing, managing and promoting the role of culture.

In 2014-2015, in preparation for the 12th Party Congress, the Central Theoretical Council deployed the national-level Project: "Orientation for cultural development - the nation's endogenous strength in the conditions of market economy and international integration". In part V of the Project "Proposing to perfect the guiding viewpoints, goals, tasks and solutions for cultural development to serve the country's sustainable development in the new period", the authors of the project proposed to perfect a viewpoint in the Resolution of the 9th Central Conference, Session XI. The Resolution stated the viewpoint: "Culture is the spiritual foundation of society, the goal and driving force for sustainable development of the country. Culture must be placed on par with economics, politics and society".

The above scientific topic proposes as follows: “To have a full and comprehensive understanding of the role and position of culture, it is necessary to perfect this viewpoint as follows : Culture is the sum of material and spiritual values created by the community of Vietnamese ethnic groups, forming the overall strength of the nation. Culture crystallizes the qualities, intelligence, soul, spirit and character of the nation, is the spiritual foundation and regulatory system of society , the driving force and important endogenous resources of the country's sustainable development. Culture must be placed on par with and closely linked with economics, politics, society and the environment ” (Prof. Dr. Phung Huu Phu, editor: Cultural development - the endogenous strength of the nation in the conditions of market economy and international integration , National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, 2016, p.337).

It is very gratifying that many of the above proposals have been accepted. However, the role and function of culture as a “social regulatory system” has not been included in any legal document. Perhaps, therefore, those participating in this topic with a very new requirement of “researching culture in terms of regulating social development”, along with trying to clarify the scientific basis of the research problem, need to initially summarize the practice - identifying the regulatory function from within the practice of cultural history ...

(To be continued)

Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/van-hoa/tu-gia-tri-den-chuan-muc-van-hoa-trong-xa-hoi-duong-dai-185885.html