Marxism in Vietnam and its ethical consequences: A critique

• Main Author: Tran, Ngoc Duc
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2020
• Subjects: Communism-Vietnam; Capitalism > Vietnam; Ethics > Vietnam; Philosophy
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/5950; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=12971&context=etd_masteral
• Institution: De La Salle University

Vietnam had a long traditional ethics before Marxism. People believed in the theory of yin and yang, the harmony of heaven, earth and people. Humans were always respectful and filial to their ancestors. In addition, Vietnam was also influenced by the morality of religions such as Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism from China, and Catholicism from the West. However, when President Ho Chi Minh applied the Russian Marxist-Leninism doctrine as well as the implementation model of Marxism of China into Vietnam; they changed the traditional culture and morality into materialistic atheism. Marxism's ethics is based on dialectical materialism and class struggle. The dialectical materialism of Marxism, in opposition to Hegel's idealism, emphasizes the independent realism of matter and the fundamental value of the natural world, the historical development of society. Class struggle is a conflict of interest between the working class and the ruling class, between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, in order to free people from the corruption of capitalism. This provides the theoretical and practical basis of Vietnamese communism in the proletariat revolution. The Soviet Union and China helped the Communist Party of Vietnam gain independence and unification. In theory, communism is concerned with human rights and promotes labor, but in fact, theory and practice do not go hand in hand and contradict each other. The one-party communist regime made many mistakes during the land reform period. In addition, the subsidy regime resulted in the underdevelopment of Vietnam. Marxist morality has negatively affected the Vietnamese people in almost all areas over the past decades, such as school, family, society, and religion. Although there are also many changes, there are still many limitations, negatives, and deprivation of many human rights such as freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and religion. Therefore, these cannot be consistent with the culture, customs, and history of Vietnam. There have been many religions in Vietnam, many people don't support the Communist ideology Keywords: Ethics, Marxism, communism, capitalism, bourgeoisie, proletariat, revolution.