"Weapon criticism" means using "weapons" to "criticize" the unequal society and the old system. In other words, progressive violence should be used to deal with reactionary violence, and revolutionary armed forces must be used to destroy counter-revolutionary armed forces, because "only material forces can destroy material forces." Corresponding to "critical weapon", "critical weapon" obviously refers to revolutionary theory, that is, we should use the power of theory to arm the minds of the masses with advanced theories and mobilize more people to join the revolutionary ranks.
Marx also said that "once the theory has mastered the masses, it will also become a material force." As he said, "once the theory has mastered the masses, it will also become a material force." Whether it is the October Revolution in Russia, the Revolution in China or the revolutionary practice in other countries, Marxist theory has produced infinite energy, which has turned into an extremely powerful "weapon criticism" and an epoch-making and thunderous "material force".
Extended data:
In the first chapter of German Ideology, Feuerbach, we can easily see that Marx emphasized the following points: in the final analysis, human nature is not only an abstract thing of religious nature, but also the sum of all social relations; Subjective practice is needed.
And it is the most important, because people's active thinking can act objectively through practice; To change the world with philosophy, we must understand human perceptual activities as human practical activities and consider them in real social life-"The foothold of new materialism is human society or socialized people.
In a word, Marx criticized mercilessly because he thought that most philosophers, including Feuerbach and Hegel, kept inventing new words to explain the world, instead of making compromises, just beating around the bush in their thoughts, that is, they just wanted to change their ideas about the world, but not the world itself.
Most philosophers have not touched the decline from the paradise of thought to real life-that is, the realization of philosophy in reality, and then the elimination of philosophy, which makes the role of philosophy stay in thinking most of the time, without cutting into reality, so it has no material power. However, in the historical process, "the weapon of criticism can't replace the criticism of weapons, and the material force can only be eliminated by the material force" (Introduction to Criticism of Hegel's Philosophy of Right).
This is the key point in Marx's viewpoint. Marx believes that because people are not isolated and abstract, but are related to their environment, they have enough motivation to change the environment. As a theory, philosophy, as long as it is thorough, "once it is mastered by the masses, it will also become a material force."
Philosophers such as Feuerbach fell into idealism when they talked about people, abstracting and alienating the world around people, and suffering became an uncommon phenomenon, an exception to a few people, and had nothing to do with social reality. Therefore, Feuerbach and others fundamentally ignored "realizing philosophy in reality" or thought that "philosophy can become reality without destroying itself"
In short, they ignored the vital link of subjective practice, so Marx said sadly when analyzing the current situation in Germany, "Here, the actual life lacks spiritual content, and spiritual life also lacks contact with practice.
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia-Criticism of Hegel's Philosophy of Law