However, so far as the progression of the process is concerned, the movement of human knowledge is not completed. Every process, whether in the realm of nature or of society, progresses and develops by reasons of society’s[3-356]contradiction and struggle, and the movement of human knowledge should also progress and develop along with it. As far as social movements are concerned, valuable[3-357]revolutionary leaders must not only be good at correcting their theories, ideas,[3-358] plans, or programmes when errors are discovered, as has already been indicated above; but when a certain definite objective process has already developed from one definite stage of development to another, they must also be good at making themselves and[3-359] their fellow revolutionaries progress in their subjective knowledge along with it, that is to say, [p. 232] they must ensure that the proposed new revolutionary tasks and new working methods[3-360] correspond to the new changes in the situation. In a revolutionary period the situation changes very rapidly; if the knowledge of revolutionaries does not change rapidly in accordance with the changed situation, they will be unable to lead the revolution to victory.[3-361] It often happens, however, that thinking lags behind reality; this is because man’s cognition suffers from numerous limitations.[3-362] Many humans are limited by class conditions (the reactionary exploiting class has no knowledge with the capacity for truth, and which as a result has no capacity for transforming the universe; on the contrary, they have become the enemy which obstructs knowledge of the truth and the transformation of the world). Some humans are limited by the division of labour (the division between mental and manual labour, and the division between the various industries), while some are limited by originally erroneous ideas (idealism and mechanism and so on; many are exploiting elements, but there are also exploited elements, and this is due to the education of the exploiting elements). However, a general reason is the limitation which results from the historical condition of the level of technology and science. The proletariat and its political party should utilise their own naturally superior class conditions (which no other class possesses), utilise the new technology and science, and employ Marxism’s world view and methodology; and closely relying on revolutionary practice as its basis, ensure that their knowledge changes as does the objective situation change, ensure that the logical keeps abreast of the historical, so that they attain the goal of completely transforming the world.[3-363]
We are opposed to diehards in the revolutionary ranks whose thinking fails to advance with changing objective circumstances and has manifested itself historically as Right opportunism. In China, the Chen Duxiu-ism of 1927, and Bukharinism in the Soviet Union were of this type. These people fail to see that the struggle of opposites has already pushed the objective process forward while their knowledge has stopped at the old stage. This is characteristic of the thinking of all diehards. Their thinking is divorced from social practice, and they cannot march ahead to guide the chariot of society; they simply trail behind, grumbling that it goes too fast and trying to drag it back or turn it in the opposite direction.