Recognizing and combating narrow-mindedness

There is a folk saying: "What is yours, keep it to yourself/ What is other people's, let the cows eat" to mock people with a narrow lifestyle.

In life, we often meet people with narrow-minded lifestyles.Narrowmeans not being generous, being picky in the way of seeing, the way of treating, only thinking about oneself or one's own department. Ordinary people or cadres, party members who do not hold any position but are narrow-minded have caused difficulties, troubles, and disadvantages to others. The higher the position, if narrow-minded, the impact is more complicated, more multi-dimensional, and more significant.

When the country was invaded by foreign enemies, the spirit of patriotism united the entire Party, the entire people, the entire army, including our compatriots abroad. Narrow-mindedness was pushed back and dissipated to focus on carrying out great resistance wars to defend the country. During those years, all thoughts and actions were filled with the spirit of "Rather sacrifice everything than lose the country, never become slaves". Not afraid of hardship and sacrifice, people volunteered to go to the front line, pioneering in difficult tasks. Our countrymen were once famous for the slogan: "If the car has not passed, the house is not spared",... Without that spirit and will, how could we have achieved victories of historical and epochal significance.

In the cause of building and defending the Fatherland today, there are many examples of cadres, party members, and people silently sacrificing and contributing, always putting the overall interests, the interests of the Party, and the interests of the country above all else. Without such sacrifices and contributions, how could we have the foundation we have today!

When foreign invaders were wiped out, narrow-mindedness – the remnants of feudal and petty peasant ideology – rose again. The more we move towards a market economy, the more dangerous this disease becomes, it creeps into every comrade, teammate, and countryman. But the most dangerous thing is that it reigns even among those with high positions in the political system.

Illustration: Internet

Narrow-mindedness is expressed in the small things in material distribution. They are always picky so that they and their department get more and better. In the division of work, they want their work to be easier, more favorable, and "more colorful and lucky". When they have power, in promotions, rewards, travel, etc., they give priority to relatives, "compatible" people, and those who are good at "running"; in the distribution of programs and projects, they give priority to their hometowns and the areas they are in charge of. People with high positions who are narrow-minded are very dangerous. Everyone knows but does not dare to fight. If they open their mouths, they are accused of being narrow-minded, not "open-minded", causing internal disunity, they are prejudiced, persecuted, etc. because only people with high power have the final say, the "upper" say "to cover the mouth of the younger one".

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With a long-term vision, in 1947, in the book “Reforming the way of working”, President Ho Chi Minh wrote: “There are cadres who only see the interests of their own part, not the interests of the whole, wanting to subordinate the interests of the whole to the interests of their part. They completely forget the centralized democratic regime. They forget that the minority must obey the majority, the lower level must obey the higher level, the part must obey the whole”.

He also pointed out: "Many diseases, such as localism, selfishness, individualism, the tendency to crave fame and position, suppressing talented people, corruption... are all caused by narrow-mindedness"!

Narrow-mindedness is a “dark spot” in the perception of each person on the path of development and self-improvement. For cadres and party members, narrow-mindedness is synonymous with going against the noble ideals of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Therefore, what each organization, unit and individual needs to do is to constantly improve political and ideological education, helping each party member and cadre to raise awareness and correct “ideological shortcomings”.

Grasping the Party's guidelines and policies and the State's laws will help each person more clearly determine what should be done or not done; what should be maintained or changed; what should be ignored or accepted; what should be sacrificed or fought for; what should be devoted or enjoyed, etc. From there, each person will have more correct and practical actions.

Again, the narrow-mindedness of each organization and individual is easy to recognize. The people know it all, and they are very sad. It contributes to eroding the people's trust in the Party. The problem is whether we dare to seek answers, to recognize it ourselves in order to correct it, to speak up, to give criticisms for mutual progress, to firmly correct it or severely punish it for transparency and cleanliness.