Mao's 11 Types of Liberalism

Types of Liberalism

Liberalism manifests in various ways.

Type 1

This:

• lets things slide for the sake of peace and friendship when a person has gone wrong.
• refrains from principled argument because he is an old acquaintance, fellow townsman, schoolmate, close friend, etc.
• touches the matter lightly instead of going into it thoroughly, so as to keep on good terms.

This harms both the organization and the individual.

Type 2

This:

• indulges in irresponsible criticism in private instead of actively putting forward one’s suggestions to the organization.
• says nothing to people to their faces but to gossip behind their backs, or to say nothing at a meeting but to gossip afterwards.
• shows no regard at all for the principles of collective life but to follow one’s own inclination.

Type 3

To let things drift if they do not affect one personally;

to say as little as possible while knowing perfectly well what is wrong, to be worldly wise and play safe and seek only to avoid blame.

Type 4

Not to obey orders but to give pride of place to one’s own opinions. To demand special consideration from the organization but to reject its discipline.

Type 5

To indulge in personal attacks, pick quarrels, vent personal spite or seek revenge instead of entering into an argument and struggling against incorrect views for the sake of unity or progress or getting the work done properly.

Type 6

To hear incorrect views without rebutting them and even to hear counter-revolutionary remarks without reporting them, but instead to take them calmly as if nothing had happened.

Type 7

To be among the masses and fail to conduct propaganda and agitation or speak at meetings or conduct investigations and inquiries among them, and instead to be indifferent to them and show no concern for their well-being, forgetting that one is a Communist and behaving as if one were an ordinary non-Communist.

Type 8

To see someone harming the interests of the masses and yet not feelindignant, or dissuade or stop him or reason with him, but to allow him to continue.

Type 9

To work half-heartedly without a definite plan or direction; to work perfunctorily and muddle along - “So long as one remains a monk, one goes on tolling the bell.”

Type 10

To regard oneself as having rendered great service to the revolution, to pride oneself on being a veteran, to disdain minor assignments while being quite unequal to major tasks, to be slipshod in work and slack in study.

Type 11

To be aware of one’s own mistakes and yet make no attempt to correct them, taking a liberal attitude towards oneself.

“Combat Liberalism” (September 7, 1937), Selected Works, Vol. II, pp. 31-32.

Liberalism is extreme]y harmful in a revolutionary collective.

It is a corrosive which eats away unity, undermines cohesion, causes apathy and creates dissension.

It robs the revolutionary ranks of compact organization and strict discipline, prevents policies from being carried through and alienates the Party organizations from the masses which the Party leads. It is an extremely bad tendency.

Ibid., p. 32.

Liberals look on the principles of Marxism as abstract dogma. They:

• approve of Marxism, but are not prepared to practise it or to practise it in full.
• are not prepared to replace their liberalism by Marxism.
• have their Marxism, but they have their liberalism as well - they talk Marxism but practise liberalism
• apply Marxism to others but liberalism to themselves
• keep both kinds of goods in stock and find a use for each. This is how the minds of certain people work.

Ibid., pp. 32-33

The people’s state protects the people.

Only when the people have such a state can they:

• educate and remould themselves by democratic methods on a country-wide scale, with everyone taking part
• shake off the influence of domestic and foreign reactionaries (which is still very strong, will survive for a long time and cannot be quickly destroyed)
• rid themselves of the bad habits and ideas acquired in the old society so they can advance towards a socialist and communist society.

On the People’s Democratic Dictatorship" (June 30, 1949). Selected Works, Vol. IV, p. 418.*

It is not hard for one to do a bit of good.

What is hard is to:

• do good all one’s life and never do anything bad
• act consistently in the interests of the broad masses, the young people and the revolution, and
• engage in arduous struggle for decades on end.

That is the hardest thing of all!

“Message of Greetings on the 60th Birthday of Comrade Wu Yu-chang” (January 15, 1940).