The so-called money worship is the thought and behavior of blindly worshipping money, taking the value of money as the highest value, and all values should be subordinate to the value of money. Money worship is manifested in China's current economic, political and cultural fields.
In the economic field, since the reform and opening up, China's social productive forces have developed rapidly and people's living standards have been greatly improved, which is inseparable from our good economic order, honest labor and legal operation of the vast number of employees. However, it is undeniable that money worship has also grown and even spread with the economic development. For example, some people separate economic benefits from social benefits and pursue economic benefits unilaterally; Some regions and departments sacrifice the overall interests and long-term interests of the country and the nation for the benefit of departments and units. What's more, chasing money and interests by hook or by crook not only ignores social morality, tramples on market norms, but even endangers the lives of others, such as fraud and black-box operation in the field of financial securities; Fake and shoddy products in food, medicine, real estate, building materials and other fields ...
In the political field, most party member cadres have good work style, ideological style and life style. However, it must be noted that with the changes in the domestic and international environment and the ranks of party member, money worship has gradually grown among some leading cadres in party member. A few leading cadres regard the power in their hands as a means to seek money, which leads to many corrupt phenomena, such as corruption and bribery, trading power and money, running away from officials and selling them. For example, some abuse power for personal gain, compete with the people for profits, put the interests of small groups, departments and units above the interests of the masses, collect fees at random, raise funds indiscriminately, apportion funds indiscriminately, infringe on the interests of the masses, and even enrich themselves; Some people covet enjoyment, eat and drink, live in luxury, squander people's wealth, and even degenerate ... These behaviors directly contribute to the proliferation of money worship.
In the field of culture, we persist in taking Marxism as the guidance, persist in carrying forward the main theme, advocate diversity, vigorously develop cultural industries and various cultural undertakings, and have made remarkable achievements. But money worship has also penetrated into this pure land, mainly in the following aspects: (1) some cultural activities are purely commercialized; Some cultural workers lack social responsibility; Some media blindly cater to vulgar tastes for the so-called market share, and even condone the wrong things to March in the market; Some scholars write books just to evaluate professional titles, gain capital and strive for fame and fortune, and some even make money with certain capital and are willing to speak for it. ...
The origin, essence and harm of money worship
The spread of money worship has both ideological roots and social and historical roots.
The emergence of money worship is related to the long-term influence of feudal culture in China. Generally speaking, the mainstream of China's traditional culture is to despise interests and be ashamed of money. In the choice between justice and benefit, justice is always the first, and it advocates giving up one's life for justice and killing people for life. However, China's traditional culture has another side. Some people openly advocate egoism and hedonism, such as Yang Zhu in the Spring and Autumn Period, who publicly preached that "pulling out a dime is beneficial to the world, not to the world". There are also folk sayings that "people die for wealth, birds die for food", "people don't do it for themselves, and the devil takes the hindmost" and "money makes the mare go". These ideas have always been believed by the ruling class in the real life of feudal society. It must be noted that these decadent, declining and negative thoughts did not completely disappear after the founding of New China. With the reform and opening up and the development of market economy, they resurfaced and were sought after by some people.
Money worship came into being in feudal society, and it really became popular after capitalism came into being. Capitalism and money worship are like twin sisters, or money worship is an indelible cancer attached to capitalism. The reason why money worship prevails in capitalism is because the nature of the bourgeoisie (actually the nature of capital) is to accumulate wealth endlessly and pursue the appreciation of capital; It is money, as the embodiment of wealth, which can control everything in capitalist society. It should be said that some people of insight in the west have long recognized the harm of money worship and criticized it, but it has not been eliminated and it is impossible to eliminate it. After the reform and opening up, with the opening of the country, these decadent ideas were also introduced while introducing capital, technology and excellent cultural achievements.
From the social and historical roots, the breeding of money worship is related to the imperfect rules of market economy. Establishing a socialist market economic system is the only way for China's economic development and social progress, which is conducive to further exerting the superiority of socialism. But at the same time, the weaknesses and negatives of the market economy itself will also be reflected in the spiritual life. Market economy has its own operating rules: first, market subjects should follow the principle of equivalent exchange in economic activities; Second, market players should pursue the maximization of interests or profits in economic activities. At the same time, the market economy is a kind of "consumption economy", which relies on consumers to guide production and consumption to stimulate the economy. The results are as follows: on the one hand, material interests and material wealth play a prominent role in promoting economic and social development, which may induce people's pursuit of interests and stimulate people's desire for things or money, thus breeding excessive worship of money and leading to "everything depends on money"; On the other hand, "everything is money-oriented" is generalized from the economic field to all fields of social life, and everything should be exchanged at equal value. All interpersonal and social relationships are regarded as monetary benefits. For example, if someone falls into the water, weigh the pros and cons and then save people; When you see a gangster robbing, you should first negotiate the price before arresting the gangster, and so on. In addition, the reason why money worship is easy to occur under the condition of market economy is also related to the symbolization of wealth and economic activities. Market economy is inseparable from commodity exchange, and commodity exchange is inseparable from currency. As an intermediary, money has become the embodiment of wealth and commodities and the representative of universal values. With money, it seems that you can buy everything and have everything. This is easy to make people have the illusion that money can do everything, make people worship money, and induce unlimited pursuit and possession of money, thus leading to money worship.
Judging from the emergence of money worship, money worship is ostensibly a worship of money, but behind this worship is hedonism and extreme individualism. A hedonistic and extremely selfish person is bound to show money worship under the condition of market economy.
Money worship is very harmful. From the perspective of human development, money worship deviates from people's all-round development, deprives people of the richness of their essence, and makes people slaves of money; From the social point of view, the society where money worship prevails must be a society with materialistic desires, indifference, intrigue and self-fear, and a society with moral decay and lack of faith. If money worship is rampant in the economic field, it will make the economic order fall into chaos, lose credibility, make honest work unrewarded, and make swindlers and blackmailers popular; If money worship prevails in the political field, our party and government will lose the trust and support of the broad masses of the people, and our political power will be in danger of losing; If money is paramount in the cultural field, the whole society will have no spiritual support and cohesion, and social development will lose its significance and value.
Ways to eliminate money worship
In the process of reform, opening up and developing the socialist market economy, we can and should do something against money worship.
Scientific Outlook on Development must be established and implemented. Judging from the emergence of money worship, money worship is the product of the development of human society to a certain stage and the product of the development of productive forces to a certain level and stage. Therefore, to fundamentally eliminate money worship, we must persist in taking economic construction as the center and vigorously develop productive forces. However, the fundamental purpose of developing productive forces is to improve people's living standards and promote people's all-round development, which requires us to firmly establish and fully implement the Scientific Outlook on Development and make it clear that development is not a unilateral increase in economic indicators, but a comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development.
We must vigorously strengthen the construction of political civilization. To eliminate money worship, we must first eliminate money worship among leading cadres in party member. The power of example is infinite. Leading cadres in party member should be practitioners of advanced morality and leaders of social moral progress. The style of leading cadres in party member determines the party style, which in turn affects the whole social atmosphere. If our leading cadres in party member firmly establish Marxist world outlook, outlook on life and values, adhere to the purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly, and be honest in politics, the whole social atmosphere will gradually improve. To eliminate the concept of money worship among leading cadres, it is necessary not only to carry out ideological and moral education, but also to eradicate the soil where money worship arises from the system
We must vigorously strengthen the construction of spiritual civilization. Money worship is a decadent idea. To eliminate it, we must establish a noble pursuit of value in the whole society and vigorously strengthen the construction of spiritual civilization. The news media should adhere to the direction of "two ones" and the policy of "letting a hundred flowers blossom", carry forward the main theme and advocate diversification. Can't be kitsch, can't cater to low tastes. It is necessary to publicize positive, healthy and upward thoughts and behaviors, and to publicize thoughts and behaviors that are conducive to building a well-off society in an all-round way; We should have a strong sense of social responsibility and mission, be brave and good at criticizing those decadent world outlook, outlook on life and values, and purify the social air and living environment.