Anti-formalism

Anyone who has studied political theory in high school, in the subject of Philosophy, is familiar with the pair of categories "Content and Form". Everyone knows that content and form are unified and linked together; content determines form; form has an impact on content,... and it is also easy to see that in many places, in many fields, we are often suffering from formalism. It even becomes a disease, a formalism.

Formality is a phenomenon in shopping, in work, in life, in working, focusing too much on the outside and forgetting the inner essence.

From ancient times until now, Vietnamese people have had a mentality of valuing appearance: "A beautiful betel leaf is beautiful in the hand holding it". Even though not rich, sometimes borrowing money, but when the family has a party, a death anniversary, or guests, it must be lavish, to look good in front of guests, in front of the neighbors, to be equal to the elders, to be equal to the younger ones, because it cannot be used up.wasteful. The place to live must be “high and wide”, sometimes when you can’t clean it all up, you will see that it is unreasonable. Cars and motorbikes are means of transportation for people, but people consider beautiful license plates as a distinction of “class” of power and luxury…

Illustration: baoquangnam.vn

Sadly, formalism has also infected some activities of the government apparatus. Many grand openings, groundbreakings, and ribbon-cutting ceremonies are organized very grandly. The more participants, the more big bosses who come to "attend and direct", the more luxurious it is. Preparations are carefully arranged, from young girls holding sunshades, shovels wrapped in green and red paper, famous singers coming to serve and welcome,... while the content is very simple, even cliché.

The disease of achievement is often manifested in construction and shopping. Every boss who takes power builds a new gate, improves the office, buys new furniture,... to suit feng shui. The more branded and "big" goods are upgraded, the more opportunities there are to be less judgment, exploitation, waste, and bureaucracy, more distant from the people.

In 1947, when writing the work“Change the way you work"President Ho Chi Minh called this "the disease of being in name but not in reality" with symptoms such as: "Doing little but making a report to look impressive but after careful examination it turns out to be empty", "hiding shortcomings, not mentioning them", "doing impractical work, not reporting honestly", "not considering practical, urgent results in anything, only focusing on external form, only wanting to show off for prestige".

According to Him, cadres and party members who suffer from this disease all have common characteristics such as: being greedy for status, showing off, liking others to flatter and praise them; boasting and being arrogant whenever they do something that is slightly successful, thinking that no one is as good as them; considering themselves heroes and great, sometimes because of that ambition they do things that are not worth doing; only wanting to be this chairman, that committee member, but not wanting to do practical work,...

Uncle Ho reminded cadres to "resolutely eradicate the disease of being fond of formalities". He was also a simple and frugal person. In 1961, when he visited Nghe An, the province prepared a convertible car, decorated with fabric and flowers around the car, and lined with white fabric inside,... to welcome Uncle Ho. Uncle Ho said: "You guys are making it too formal. I am going back to my hometown to visit my compatriots and my homeland. I am not a king. You guys just sit in this car, I won't sit anywhere".

Form is necessary, form “carries” content, is appropriate to the content, accurately reflects the content, has a positive impact on the content, but must be harmonious and reasonable. National level ceremonies, major events, foreign affairs, etc., with a sketchy form are unacceptable. We are continuing to implement the Central Resolution 4 (12th term) on strengthening Party building and rectification associated with studying and following the ideology, moral example and style of Ho Chi Minh. One of those contents is to fight against formalism.

The ancients did not have the concept of philosophy of form and content, but they told their children and grandchildren: "Good wood is better than good paint." In fact, we must know how to value the essence, the important, the decisive, the practical.