“我们的现代性”和后社会主义中国的新社会主义

"Our Modernity" and New Socialism for Post-Socialist China

印度著名学者、美国哥伦比亚大学人类学教授帕萨.查特吉曾呼吁印度人民建构“我们的现代性”:他从康德的启蒙定义引申出他自己的现代性定义。所谓启蒙或进入现代世界,对查特吉和康德来说,便是不再听命于别人,而是从当下的主流思潮中退出,用自己的头脑思考和判断,摆脱霸权话语的制控。近百年来,中国知识分子在追求现代性的过程中,却常常显得精神上缺乏成熟,尚未启蒙,他们常常是摆脱了过往的权威,到头来又仰赖当下的权威。当今的新自由主义者和新保守派尤其如此。在他们眼里世界上只有一条现代性轨道。他们所代表或鼓吹的现代性实际上不外乎是一个西方老故事的中国翻版。这个故事的内容即社会两极分化、贫富悬殊、失业、医疗保险与社会福利解体、经济市场化,无视平等和社会公正的原则。建构查特吉所称的“我们的现代性”,有必要重新思考重新梳理毛泽东时期社会主义的社会、政治遗产。建构“我们的现代性”必须首先同时从内部与外部批判主控现代性话语;知识分子与社会批评家应该在资本主义体系以外构想不同的社会形态,从自身民族和其他国家的过去历史中吸取社会、文化、政治和思想资源。

The essay begins with Partha Chatterjee＇s call for ＂our modernity＂ and with his use of Kant＇s definition of Enlightenment. To be Enlightened, to be part of modernity, for Chatterjee as well as for Kant, is to stop depending on the authority of others and to exit or escape from the present, from the hegemonic system of thought and social life in the present. The authors of the essay proceed to argue that, in their impassioned pursuits for modernity, the Chinese intellectuals have often betrayed their immaturity and their unenlightened spirits, for they often break with the authorities of the past only to depend on the authorities in the present. This is especially true with the neoliberals/neoconservatives. To them there is only one orbit of modernity. The kind of modernity championed and celebrated by neoliberals and neoconservatives is actually nothing new, but a Chinese version of the old western story of social polarization, the widening gap between poor and rich, unemployment, the disintegration of medicare and social welfare, severance of market economy from the principles of equality and social justice. The authors propose revisiting and rethinking the Maoist legacy in building what Chatterjee calls ＂our modernity. ＂ For them to construct ＂ our modernity＂ is a matter of critiquing modernity from within as well as from without. They call upon intellectuals and social critics to imagine alternatives to the ongoing world system and to set up an agenda of ＂our modernity＂ by drawing upon the social, cultural, political, and philosophical resources from their own pasts and others＇.