Page 127 - SELECTED WORKS OF LIU SHAOQI Volume I

HOW TO BE A GOOD COMMUNIST 123
erately. These people are absolutely incapable of guiding their lives by
the principles of Marxism-Leninism, and hence incapable of dealing
with practical problems promptly, correctly and realistically according
to these principles; sometimes they even adopt a negative attitude
when practical problems have already been correctly solved according
to these principles by the Party organization, or by comrades other than
themselves. Such things are neither rare nor unusual, but are quite
common.
Thus we can say that it is impossible for a Party member who
lacks a clear-cut, firm proletarian stand and a correct, purely prole-
tarian ideology to achieve a thorough understanding and real mastery
of the theory and method of Marxism-Leninism as a weapon in the
revolutionary struggle. In other words, a Party member must have
the noble stand of the proletariat in order to become versed in Marxist-
Leninist theory.
At the same time, we should add that no Party member can main-
tain a proletarian stand and express proletarian ideology concretely
in every revolutionary struggle unless he studies the theory and method
of Marxism-Leninism diligently and guides his thinking and action
accordingly.
There are some Party members who think it quite enough to have
revolutionary firmness and to fight bravely, and that it does not matter
much whether they study and undertake self-cultivation in Marxist-
Leninist theory. Some comrades even think that a good class origin
or a good personal class status is all that is needed to make them
vanguard proletarian fighters, thus obviating the need to study Marx-
ism-Leninism. There are other comrades who never study it earnestly
in the course of work or struggle, though they generally admit the im-
portance of theory. All such attitudes are obviously wrong.
The theory of Marxism-Leninism is our weapon for studying every
phenomenon and dealing with every question, and especially for study-
ing all social phenomena and dealing with all social questions. If we
do not know how to wield the weapon of Marxist-Leninist theory, we
shall be unable correctly to understand and deal with the problems
confronting us in the revolutionary struggle and shall be in danger of
losing our bearings and departing from the revolutionary proletarian
stand, or even, whether consciously or unconsciously, of becoming op-
portunists of one kind or another, captives and yes-men of the bour-
geoisie.