CASE STUDY ON MORAL SENSE AMONG VIETNAMESE YOUTH UNDER THE CURRENT SOCIALIST-ORIENTED ECONOMY

ABSTRACT

The socialist-oriented market economy is a product of the Doi Moi (Renovation) economic reforms in Vietnam. The market economy is a factor of infrastructure, with its distinctive features that strongly impact the human sense of morality. Since Vietnam adopted the idea of  “a market economy with socialist orientation”, it has recorded not only significant achievements in economy, politics, culture and society but also dramatic changes in the moral sense of all social classes. Being born and raised during the period when Vietnam began its transition towards a socialist-oriented market economy, Vietnamese youth are most influenced by the market economy conditions. By interpreting some fundamental characteristics of the morals of the youth, this essay uses the document analysis method to evaluate the main manifestations of youth moral consciousness under the impact of Vietnam’s market economy at the present time, thereby proposing recommendations to build Vietnamese youth morality in the renovation period.

АННОТАЦИЯ

Социалистически ориентированная рыночная экономика является результатом комплексных экономических реформ Дой Мой во Вьетнаме. Рыночная экономика - это фактор инфраструктуры со своими отличительными чертами, которые сильно влияют на человеческое чувство нравственности. С тех пор как Вьетнам принял идею “рыночной экономики с социалистической ориентацией”, были зафиксированы не только большие достижения в областях экономики, политики, культуры и общества, но и значительные перемены в моральном облике всех социальных классов. Поскольку вьетнамская молодежь родилась и выросла в период перехода к социалистически ориентированной рыночной экономике страны, сложившиеся условия экономики оказывают на нее наибольшее влияние. В данной статье раскрываются фундаментальные характеристики нравственности молодежи, анализируются документы для оценки основных текущих проявлений нравственного сознания молодежи под воздействием рыночной экономики Вьетнама, даются рекомендации по формированию нравственности в период реконструкции.

Keywords: Youth morality, Youth moral consciousness, Socialist-oriented market economy.

Ключевые слова: нравственность молодежи, нравственное сознание молодежи, социалистически ориентированная рыночная экономика.

1. Introduction

The socialist-oriented market economy is a creative breakthrough in the thinking and practical leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) during the renovation process. At the 9th CPV Congress in 2001, CPV officially considered the socialist-oriented market economy as a general model and a consistent strategic policy through the transitional period towards socialism. The socialist-oriented economy model in Vietnam has been gradually improved and developed through the congresses of CPV on the basis of theoretical study, practical summation, creative application of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh’s ideology, selectively absorbing experiences around the world. The 13th Congress of the CPV pointed out the basic implication of the socialist-oriented economy to facilitate consistency in awareness and implementation: “It is a modern and internationally integrated market economy, operating fully and cohesively in line with the rules of market economy, administered by the rule-of-law socialist state under the leadership of the CPV towards the goal of “rich people, strong nation, equitable, democratic and civilized society”, while ensuring the socialist orientation consistent with the country’s development in each period” [2, p. 128-129].

The term “socialist-oriented” is used to highlight the fact that Vietnam has yet to become a full-fledged socialist market economy and is undergoing the period of fulfilling fundamental conditions for achieving real socialism in the future. Some characteristics of the socialist-oriented market economy in Vietnam can be defined as: First, the socialist-oriented market economy is a mixed economy that operates in conformity with both market mechanisms and government control. Second, the socialist-oriented market economy comprises many ownership types and economic sectors, in which the State-owned economy plays the decisive role. Third, land is subject to public ownership. Fourth, distribution is to be conducted primarily based on labor outcomes, economic efficiency as well as capital and other resource contributions and through social welfare. Fifth, the socialist-oriented market economy is regulated by the rule-of-law socialist state under the leadership of the CPV towards the goal of “rich people, strong nation, equitable, democratic and civilized society”. Last, the socialist-oriented market economy is a modern and globally integrated market economy.

The socialist-oriented market economy is a component of infrastructure, with its distinctive characteristics that have a strong influence on human moral consciousness. To begin with, moral consciousness shares common features with other forms of social consciousness, which reflect social existence and are formed in the labor process. Moral consciousness belongs to the superstructure and social consciousness, it is affected by infrastructure and social existence and vice versa, it can also determine infrastructure and social existence. When the infrastructure and economic foundation change, moral consciousness changes accordingly and, in turn, has an impact on the economy.

Since Vietnam adopted the idea of  “a market economy with socialist orientation”, besides immense accomplishments achieved in economy, politics, culture and society, social morality has also shown some degrading aspects. It may be said that Vietnamese youth today are most affected by the market economy conditions because they were born and raised during the period when Vietnam is undergoing the process of developing the socialist-oriented market economy.

Before passing away, President Ho Chi Minh had an objective and scientific view of the position and historical role of youth in both the present and future. He firmly believed in the youth’s ability to lead the revolutionary movements, be undaunted and carry out  “The youth takes the bull by the horns”   [7, p. 310]. Ho Chi Minh valued youth as the most stimulating stage of life: “New year begins with the spring. New life begins with the youth. The youth is the spring of the society” [5, p. 167]. He affirmed: “The youth is the future owners of the country. Indeed, the country will prosper or become decadent, strong or weak, depending very much on the youth” [6, p. 185]. Thus, the education and fostering of future revolutionary generations is a strategic plan throughout Ho Chi Minh ideology on youth and youth activities.

Following the ideology of President Ho Chi Minh, the CPV always upholds the position and role of the young generation. Resolution No. 25-NQ/TW of September 25, 2008, of the Xth Party Central Committee’s 7th Plenum states unequivocally: “Youth are the future owners of the country, the disruptive forces at the forefront of  construction and defense of the Vietnamese Fatherland, the decisive factors in industrialization and modernization of the country, global integration and socialist construction. Youth must be at the center of any strategy to foster and develop Vietnam’s human resources. Their growth is both the goal and force in ensuring the stability and sustainable development of the country” [1].

However, under the impact of subjective and objective factors, especially in the condition of socialist-oriented market economy, the Resolution 25 pointed out: “A part of young people has decreased faith, lack of sense of law observance, pragmatic living, lack of ideals, far away from the fine cultural traditions of the nation, ect. Especially, the situation of crime and social evils among young people is increasing quickly and becoming complicated” [1]. Regarding such a significant role of the youth in society, if the decadence of morality persists and becomes a phenomenon, it will lead to a slippery slope towards not only society but also the economy. By conducting this research, the author aims to reinforce the positive morality development of Vietnamese youth  in the condition of the socialist-oriented market economy.

2. Fundamental moral characteristics among Vietnamese young people

Globalization is a competition of creative ability and knowledge creation capability among countries, businesses and individuals. The creative ability is reflected in the dreams, and ambitions of the young generation, who are always eager to seek new and distinctive things and conquer new challenges accelerating to new heights of knowledge. With their dynamic and creativity, young people are pioneers in science, technology, and international integration. They are not only becoming intellectual resources of the entire population, a driving force for developing socio-economic, culture and human, creating a knowledgeable human resource but also becoming one of the decisive factors to the rapid and sustainable development of the country.

There are many different perspectives on the components of general mortality. From one perspective, “Moral consciousness includes a knowledge about value and moral value orientation, emotion and moral ideal” [9]. The other view is that “Moral consciousness includes moral knowledge, moral emotion and moral will” [4]. Combining both perspectives, we can say that, in terms of structure, moral consciousness includes moral emotion, moral knowledge, moral ideal, and moral will. The moral sense of young people has the following features:

- Moral knowledge or the understanding of the youth about the system of principles and moral standards is quite sufficient and gradually developed so they have a better understanding of natural objects and phenomena of the objective world. This kind of characteristic of youth is due to the completion of feeling, perception, attention and memory and the experience of qualitative changes. Besides, young people are capable of independent thought and possessed of a great wealth of knowledge; hence they can determine the restrictions of behaviors and define the moral values of behaviors. However, because of the ebullient nature of youth and lack of experience of life, their moral knowledge is vulnerable to external impact. They tend to have a one-sided and objective view, are intolerant, escape from reality, and are doubtful about everything.

- The youth has a rich and thoughtful emotion in conformity with the rules and standards of morality. During the youth period, young people show a distinct development in obligations and responsibility to the community and surrounding people, the ability for empathy, the need for friendship, love, comradeship and political affections. All these kinds of emotions are very noble, sincere and have a clear purpose, in which love for the Fatherland, love for people embrace personal feelings. However, the youth aged between full sixteen and thirty years old (according to Youth Law amended and supplemented in 2020) are on different psychological development processes, as a result, emotional upheavals of young people in each period also have different shades. Young young people suffer from turbulent mood swings, which lead to their aggressive and unstable emotions; however, the ripe wisdom of maturity will gradually increase as they grow up. Therefore, the twofold nature of young people is quite evident, they can sometimes constantly strive for ideals and sometimes become discouraged.

The youth has profound experience in gender, affection and sexual desire, in which moral emotion in sexual relationships is extremely important and has an enormous effect on the youth's morality. Having noble sentiments and being able to well balance love and career, romantic love and love for parents, friends and comrades, etc have positive effects on facilitating the development of good personality traits among youth. On the contrary, blind love can lure young people into a debauched lifestyle, leading to faith and ideal moral deterioration. 

- Moral ideals: Young adults tend to choose an ideal person and personality to follow and adopt their typical traits and unique characteristics. In the process of pursuing their ideals, young people generally cultivate themselves to meet the qualities of their ideal model. They tend to live up to the ideal model instead of creating their own moral standards. Due to the low level of knowledge and life experiences, young people are easily affected by social movements and tend to choose the book by its cover. In addition, the phenomenon of idolization also exists among young people. When their idol falls for scandals, young people easily fall into a state of disappointment, loss of faith, direction, and go far on the wrong road.

3. Embodiments of Vietnamese youth’s moral sense under the impact of the current market economy

Market economy not merely influences the moral consciousness of several people but all classes in society. In particular, young people are most influenced by the market economy as they are more exposed to the socio-economic environment than teenagers and children. However, young people’ psychology is not yet stable and very complex, their life experience is limited, their self-educated ability is weak and they are easily affected by the surroundings. The market economy has both positive and negative impacts on the moral sense of Vietnamese youth. The positive effects include:

Firstly, the Vietnamese youth fulfilled the role of disruptive forces at the forefront of preserving and promoting the patriotic spirit of the nation, self-reliance spirit, ensuring well integration, sustainable development of the country, and affirming the country’s true independence.

According to a ministerial study directed by Dr. Do Ngoc Ha from the Youth Studies Institute, when examining the youth population, 89.5% of respondents believe that “patriotic spirit and national pride are essential moral values''; 91.8% think they “always feel proud when Viet Nam’s high achievements in science, culture, education, sports, economy, etc. gain international recognition”; 89.2% suppose “as many other youngsters, I hope my country will be well-matched with countries in the region and in the world”; 86.9% is of the opinion “I always bear in mind that history and tradition are respectable and should be followed and learned from” [3, p. 83], etc. Those are really meaningful numbers, showing the passionate patriotic spirit of Vietnamese youngsters. That serves as the foundation for building beliefs, desires, and pride in the young generation towards their homeland Vietnam.

In the nation-building process, the Vietnamese rising generation’s patriotic spirit has been manifested and contributed to promoting national industrialization and modernization and laying the foundation for socialism. The young have played an essential role in constructing the socialist-oriented market economy, raising labor productivity, restructuring the economy, and fostering production specialization. In order to carry out these tasks, young people have kept learning to develop the knowledge economy, acquiring new technology, applying advanced science and technique in the world, joining forces to get the country out of backwardness and poverty, making the Vietnamese economy to become more and more developed.

Secondly, in this context of globalization, the youth of Vietnam has done an excellent job in inheriting and keeping up national traditions, such as being solidarity, hard-working, studious, brave, creative, optimistic, and embracing a strong sense of community. Youngsters have played a big part in preserving, deepening, and enriching those core cultural values. Moreover, the voluntary generation also comes into contact with foreign culture, thus being a great help in accessing remarkable achievements of new technology and engineering.   

In this day and age, Vietnamese youth still carry on conserving and promoting the spirit of solidarity and community consciousness. They still keep caring for and supporting their fellow citizens when in need. The vast majority of them still live for the common good and prioritize national interests over their own. Especially in the last two years of the devastating Covid-19 pandemic, Vietnamese youth has become a pioneer in combating the epidemic. They become the front-line vanguard, helping people in the affected areas, etc. These acts of kindness are examples of preserving and promoting the spirit of community solidarity among the young Vietnamese generation.

Thirdly, Vietnamese youth have performed well in preserving and promoting our people's compassion and humaneness, which have long become valuable traditions of the nation, the roots of morality that young people always follow. Presently, these valuable qualities are being brought into play to help tackle humanitarian emergencies such as helping people in difficulty, fighting social evils, fighting hunger and illiteracy, curbing pandemics, protecting the environment, the need for volunteer movement, etc. To a certain extent, young people have tried their best to achieve the goals of associating humanitarianism with socialism, helping everyone have enough to eat and wear, get a chance to study, and live in an equal, democratic, and civilized society.

Over the years, our people have kept practicing and beautifying the tradition of compassion and humaneness in their daily lives. Likewise, the generation of youth has not stopped loving and sharing with others in the community by taking part in meaningful humanitarian campaigns such as “When drinking water, think of its source”, “Blood Donor Day”, “Fundraising for the poor”, “Day of Youth volunteer for Urban civilization”, “Shaping a new countryside”, “Youth volunteer for community life”, “Studying and following Uncle Ho’s words”, “ Youth of devotion and goodwill”, etc. Vietnamese youngsters have built themselves an image of pioneers in volunteer movements, which is concrete evidence showing that many are trying to preserve and promote the moral values of their country. Having determined the responsibility of developing their country’s socioeconomic, the youth of Vietnam are endeavoring to dedicate themselves to all aspects of social life.

However, apart from the bright sides, the sense of morals of many young people also has certain limitations as follows.

Firstly, in a part of the youth population, there are signs of not respecting the nation’s good traditional values to follow selfish individualism. Seeing many negatives and challenges in terms of the economy and society facing the country, many youngsters have shown signs of disorientation, losing faith, and even disbelieving in the nation’s socialism. Many young people have got the chance to go studying and work abroad. However, when returning to the homeland, they subjectively criticized and blamed the country for its difficulties and weaknesses instead of showing the will to shoulder responsibilities. Many even kept praising the West and showed opposite attitudes. Having forgotten the spirit of national self-respect, having ignored their ancestors’ noble idea of being ready to shed blood for national independence and freedom, they are now living a life of selfishness and irresponsibility.

Another part of the young population is indifferent to politics or not grateful in relationships with others, and many only care about money, they run after profits at any price, they run after the trivial materialistic lifestyle, they want to enjoy more than contribute, living a pragmatic and self-indulgent life. A survey by the Youth Studies Institute shows that 23.2% of youngsters think that money is everything and 32.1% believe love does not necessarily lead to marriage [10]. According to an inquiry on students, the group of values they pay the least attention to is the relationship with the community. Of the ten specific values for the good of the community, "Loving" is only ranked seventh and "Sacrificing for others" is ranked last. This means students still have a low degree of "one for all” idea, love, tolerance, and solidarity. A reasonably high percentage - 31% of students accept acting without caring whether they are affecting others, and 18% of students accept putting personal interests on the top and never think about unrelated people. This shows that the ego of young people is still huge when self-interests are likely to be placed above the common good of society.

Secondly, more and more young people become money worshipers, following materialistic, pragmatic, and selfish life. The Communist Party of Vietnam noted that: "... being pragmatic and following the lifestyle of enjoyment is becoming a rising trend"  [1]. According to a survey on the unwanted behaviors among young people, the findings showed that the popularity of money worship had a ratio of 29.4%, living pragmatic and selfish life of 19.6%; for the young in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, this way of living seems to be more trendy: worshiping money is accounted for 31.2%, being pragmatic and selfish is 27.9%. Although the rate is not high, it is worth our attention, especially with the figures in the two big cities.  Another negative manifestation can be seen in this knowledge economy when people have the helpful assistance of high-tech products and technology tools such as the internet, computers, laptops, smartphones, etc., to support their learning and working. The other side of the coin is that many are just following the crowd, being fond of show, not making use of these tools but exploiting their bad side such as depraved websites, violent games, etc.

Thirdly, in the process of cultural exchanges, young people are at risk of acquiring exotic ideas and lifestyles that violate the cultural values of our nation, thus creating challenges in preserving and promoting traditional cultural values. In our society, "there are still numerous products and activities that are miscellaneous, unethical and toxic", which can push youngsters to be uncultured, make them morally bankrupt and even breach the law [8, p. 43-49]. Moreover, must-have qualities in the market economy, namely respect for the law, honesty, independence, democracy, cooperation, business ethics, civil service ethics, etc. have not been fully aware and focused on by young people.

In brief, under the impact of the market economy, the moral sense of the Vietnamese youth generation diversifies in all of its constituent elements, including moral knowledge, moral emotions, and moral ideals; and moral sense can be presented in moral behavior and ethical relationships. On the credit side, the market economy ​​of this modern society facilitates young people to be exposed to and cultivate practical moral values such as dynamic, creativity, loyalty, respect for personal freedom, law compliance, accountability, cooperative attitude, etc., which are expressed through a wide variety of ethical relationships and through specific actions for the sake of individual and community. On the debit side, a part of the youth ignores the traditional ethics of the nation, running after selfish individualism, and pragmatic, egocentric life, which contradicts the fine customs and traditions of the nation. This problem of the negatives in the young’s moral awareness is very complicated and originates from a variety of reasons. One of them lies in the transition of the economy. Since Vietnam has just initiated the reorientation from central planning to a market economy, the new economic mechanisms and related regulations are still perfecting, causing coexistence and interweaving between the new and old. Meanwhile, the moral education of young people in both content and format has not been able to fully adapt to the new context, and it is also unsuitable for the psychological traits and moral psychology in young adulthood. In addition, a section of the youth population lack self-discipline in ethical training, so they are seriously hit by the side effects of the market economy.

4. Conclusion

Young people occupy a central position in the national human development strategy. The market economy significantly impacts the moral sense of this population section, and vice versa, it is necessary for the development of the market economy to have volunteer youth forces who have heightened awareness to create the proper ethical behavior and good moral relationships. Therefore, cultivating moral awareness in young minds is a matter of concern for society. Regarding the nowadays moral degradation among youngsters, the root of the issue does not simply lie in the adverse effects of the market economy but in the incompleteness of the economic mechanism, the state, and socio-political organizations, together with the insufficient education and poor self-training of the young.

To build a sense of morality in Vietnamese youth in the socialist-oriented market economy is to help them form and fulfill moral standards that fit the psychological traits of their age within our economic capacity, following the moral tradition of the nation, socialism, and communism. In order to meet the above requirements, it is necessary to implement these suggested solutions collectively: building and completing the economic basis and material conditions for the moral development of young people in the context of the socialist-oriented market economy; strengthening the law, restricting corruption and social negatives; enhancing the role of the Vietnamese Communist Party in building the morality of young people; innovating ethical education in the school environment practically and effectively following current requirements of the market economy developing; promoting the role of family and society in the moral education of young people; encouraging self-education and moral training among the youth. For maximum results in this education process, co-efforts are needed from the Party, the State, the socio-political organizations, the family, the school, the society, and the youth.

Due to many objective and subjective, complicated, and puzzle reasons, it is challenging to bring into play the strengths and to deal with the degradation in the moral sense of Vietnamese youth. Nevertheless, with the proper orientation and specific solutions tackling both objective and subjective, direct and indirect factors affecting the formation of the young’s moral consciousness, along with the determination of the whole society - the exemplary leadership of the Party, the strict management of the State and the close collaboration of the politics - society associations, families, schools, all will be stimulants contributing to the cultivation of a new morality for Vietnamese youth in the socialist-orientated market economy.

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