Building values and combating negativity in the era of integration.

New ideas in building and combating negativity.

We can find this in the content and tasks of building and developing culture presented in the Party's 13th National Congress Document. A new feature in the way cultural tasks are defined in this document is the simultaneous presentation of pairs of cultural categories between construction and combating , thus requiring the capacity for dialectical and harmonious handling. Analyzing three pairs of categories in the document can clearly illustrate this:

Firstly , on the one hand , the document affirms the need to "strengthen education in patriotism, national pride, national traditions and history..." and on the other hand , it advocates "implementing breakthrough solutions to effectively prevent the degradation of morality and lifestyle, and to combat social negativity and social evils." This is the best solution, if implemented in practice, utilizing and promoting the regulatory function of culture in the face of the many pressing and complex issues facing society today.

Secondly , on the one hand , the document affirms "protecting and promoting the enduring good values in Vietnamese cultural traditions," and on the other hand , it soberly points out the task of "gradually overcoming the limitations of the Vietnamese people" to achieve the goal of "building a new-era Vietnamese person, closely and harmoniously linking traditional and modern values" ( Communist Party of Vietnam : Documents of the 13th National Congress, op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 148).

Pointing out both aspects in the process of building and combating, both "protecting and promoting" and "overcoming," is a new idea of the Party. Previously, we tended to only talk about the positive aspects of the Vietnamese people, avoiding mentioning the limitations and negative aspects left behind by history, the unpredictable and complex changes and transformations we are undergoing as we enter a transitional period of social change, especially the negative impacts of the downsides of the market economy , and the weaknesses, inadequacies, and outdatedness in leadership, guidance, and management of culture and society.

At this time, the regulatory role of culture becomes very important. Cultural norms, if truly ingrained in character, will guide both leaders, managers, and citizens to make wise choices, adjusting their thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and relationships. People will fall into evil, wickedness, baseness, greed, selfishness, envy, and indifference if they lack the ability, or even the capacity, to adjust, control, and overcome themselves. The increasing number of vices, bad habits, and dark aspects in recent years, and the degeneration, corruption, and misconduct of many officials in positions of power, clearly demonstrate this.

Thirdly , on the one hand , "selectively absorbing the finest aspects of human culture in accordance with Vietnamese reality," and on the other hand , "at the same time, proactively enhancing the resistance of all strata of the people, especially youth, to harmful foreign cultural products" (Communist Party of Vietnam: Documents of the 13th National Congress, op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 147). This is a very fundamental and urgent task in the current situation, which still presents many problems, where the reception of foreign culture is increasingly chaotic and deviant, and where the cultural resistance of a significant portion of the population, especially the younger generation, is still weak.

In the current context of international integration, along with the extremely rapid development of science and technology, information and communication, and legal and technological solutions, building and nurturing cultural resilience and enhancing the capacity for cultural selection becomes extremely important for harmoniously resolving cultural relations. The regulatory role of culture is profoundly and clearly demonstrated here.

The role of culture in regulating development in certain areas of social life.

In the previous section, when discussing the regulatory role in the major relationships of social development, we attempted to relate that role to several specific and important areas. To further clarify this, we will only emphasize some specific aspects of that role in relation to the everyday economic, political, and cultural lives of people; that is, this section will not analyze the role of culture in general, but will focus on its regulatory function with its specific characteristics in relation to certain areas.

In economics , the first sign is growth. Without growth, it is impossible to improve people's living standards and material well-being. The direct factors creating growth are labor, productive forces, science, technology, and the capacity for organizing production... So where does culture stand? From this, a trend has emerged where everything is for growth, the economy solves society's problems on its own, and economic pragmatism has appeared, disregarding cultural development.

In response to the question: “What values are significant for the economic development of the country?”, the following cultural values were selected and highly rated: Solidarity (64.4%), building trust (61.3%), creativity (58.8%), national spirit (58.2%), integration (57%), law enforcement (53.1%), and honesty (51.1%) (See Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Duy Duc, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vu Thi Phuong Hau, co-editors: Culture in Politics and Culture in Economics in Vietnam - Some Theoretical and Practical Issues , National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2019, p. 373).

Thus, it is clear that the above cultural values and norms (each representing over 50% of respondents) clearly demonstrate the regulatory role of culture in the economy, directly impacting manufacturing and business enterprises. This means that, if implemented according to this understanding, economic activity will move in the right direction, achieving both growth and development. Conversely, growth without development is possible, because the meaning of "development" encompasses both growth and progress, qualitative advancements in society, values, qualities, and human happiness. The inevitable consequence here is that culture is not separate from the economy; culture is not only a result of development but also a crucial regulatory system for the economy, thereby ensuring sustainable development.

For our country, the socialist goal is to build a nation that is "prosperous, strong, democratic, just, and civilized," and the socialist orientation is the value orientation in the operation of a market economy. This means that the socialist orientation is inherent in the process of operating and developing a market economy. In that sense, the socialist orientation becomes a regulatory system for the market economy in our country. This assessment is not at all an arbitrary interpretation, but a requirement of Vietnam's market economy. Without this orientation, injustice, inequality, widening wealth inequality, and social division will occur, similar to the "neoliberal" market economy in the United States today.

The issue of building a cultural environment in the economy, seemingly separate from economic activity, actually demonstrates that a healthy, clean, and humane cultural environment has the power to regulate economic activities and relationships between people, and between people and the economic community. We completely agree with the statement that: "Building corporate culture, entrepreneurial culture, and commercial civilization is building tools to regulate economic development through and for culture" (Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Duy Duc, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vu Thi Phuong Hau, co-editors: Culture in Politics and Culture in Economics in Vietnam - Some Theoretical and Practical Issues, op. cit. , p. 386).

In politics , if we understand politics as the concentration of interests of a class, then this concept itself does not carry any cultural meaning because it can be right or wrong, progressive or reactionary, truthful or false, good or evil... In reality, political trends around the world have fundamentally proven this. Of course, politics is an entity that is both static and dynamic, so it always has a fundamental core that plays a static role in controlling its dynamism and adjustment. This static, fundamental core is often called the ideological foundation of a political trend or school of thought. The overarching characteristic of culture is its permeation into all areas of life, and in this way, it reflects and expresses the qualitative development of those areas according to the cultural standards of truth, goodness, and beauty.

Perhaps it is because of this characteristic that in recent years, more and more new phrases have emerged in which "culture" is a noun preceding a word from various fields of life to indicate the correctness, cultural value, and aesthetic value of fields that seem "unfamiliar" to culture, such as political culture, traffic culture, culinary culture, behavioral culture, school culture, business culture, military culture, office culture, reading culture, foreign relations culture, tourism culture, family culture, legal culture, etc.

In this sense, the term "political culture" encompasses a new understanding of politics; it transcends the concept of politics to emphasize the cultural quality within politics, demanding that politics and political activities follow the direction of cultural standards: truth, goodness, and beauty. ("Culture within politics" and "political culture" essentially share this content).

(To be continued)

Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/van-hoa/xay-gia-tri-chong-tieu-cuc-trong-thoi-ky-hoi-nhap-189273.html