Party, Intellectuals And Thought Integration

Devotion Movement, also known as "devotion to the Party", refers to the movement started from March to July 1958, during which intellectuals "willingly" exposed and criticized their inner-heart-thoughts that were deviated from requirements of the Party and people, and further made reform programs to declare their determination and courage to go on a road of socialism.Thought integration is a way to establish and cultivates the political recognition of the party among people, particularly the ruling party, Not only does thought integration require, in terms of social psychology, a minimum acquiesce and acceptance of party, but also, in terms of social structure and action, needs political affection and support for the party to realize its goal. Thought integration displays a clear path——to achieve progressive evolvement from submission to comprehension to belief in the process of recognition. That is to say, people change their attitude from negative participation in response to party's appeals to positive support and eventually to rational belief. Devotion Movement, whose purpose is to transform the political stand, emotion and value of intellectuals, is consistent with thought integration.Devotion Movement has significant historical and practical reasons. Some of the thoughts in this movement can trace their roots in history. The most important practical reason is the party's need to achieve recognition from intellectuals. Due to intellectuals' expansion within the Party, their large proportion outside the Party, their imbalanced inner structure, their distance to mainstream ideology, and the influence of Anti-rightist Movement, the Party misjudged intellectuals as a negative stream. In addition, prior to the movement, the intensification of contradictions within people and the country's strategies of macro political development also urged the Party to quickly transform intellectuals for the purpose of socialism construction.Since there is no clear cut between Devotion Movement and Anti-rightist Movement in 1957, and because of the influence of previous political campaigns and the pressure of political environment, a certain extent of coerced transformation appeared in the movement, preventing the benign political environment from development and rigidifying the ideology. In light of the Devotion Movement, the thought integration of intellectuals in contemporary Party should develop in two aspects:political recognition and value recognition. A well-chosen path should include identification of the width and levels of integration and cultivation of a tolerant ideal, creative theory, and perfect mechanism.