再论“西雅图之战”及其余波的教训

Revisiting the lessons of the Battle of Seattle and its aftermath

本文是作者2016年8月19日在华盛顿会议中心举行的美国社会学协会第111届会议全体大会开幕式上的讲话。讲话分成三部分,首先是反思"西雅图之战"对知识体系变化的意义;其次是讨论纵使新自由主义深陷危机,金融资本仍保持巨大影响力的原因;最后,呼吁大家对理想社会提出全新综合的看法。"西雅图之战"强调了在替换知识体系方面集体大规模行动的作用,这种作用若非决定性的,也是非常关键的。新自由主义范式的回退只是故事的一半。尽管存在概念危机,全球资本的力量已经发动了一场激烈的后卫战。举个例子,就拿金融资本来说,在面对全面改革的绝对必要性和社会共识时,它却成功地拒绝了任何变革。我们亟须将替代性方案具体化,这个任务需要我们把自身对资本主义的知识批判与对过去的白人同类、文化纯粹或宗教统一的高度强烈的情绪诉求结合起来。

This is the speech the author delivered at the opening plenary session of the 111 th Meeting of the American Sociological Association,Washington State Convention Center, August19, 2016. It has three parts. The first part includes some reflections on the meaning of the Battle of Seattle for change in knowledge systems. The second is a discussion of how,despite the deep crisis of neoliberalism, finance capital has managed to retain tremendous power. The third is an appeal for a new comprehensive vision of the desirable society.The Seattle underlines the very critical, if not decisive, role of collective mass action in displacing knowledge systems. The rollback of the neoliberal paradigm is only half the story.Even with its ideational crisis, the forces of global capital have waged a fierce rearguard battle. An example of this is the case of finance capital's successful effort to resist any change in the face of the naked necessity andsocial consensus for comprehensive reform. It is urgent that we flesh it out, a task which marries some of our intellectual critique of capitalism with the highly charged emotional appeal to return to an idealized past of white homogeneity, cultural purity or religious uniformity.