摘要：英国人生活在这样的一个社会，在这里资本本身就已经变得动物凶猛。凶猛政客隐瞒他们的奢侈，凶猛银行家尽情掠夺公众的钱包，CEO、对冲基金操盘手和股票天才们洗劫着财富，电话和信用卡公司在每个人的账单上附加神秘费用，而且，骗子们一有机会就把老千耍到公司和政界的最高层。
（王立秋 试译）
“虚无主义的凶猛少年”，《每日邮报》这样称呼他们：疯狂的来自各阶层的青年无脑地到街上乱跑，拼命向警察投掷砖头、石块和酒瓶，在这里抢点东西在那里放把火，在他们从一个战略目标到另一个目标地推特他们的路线的同时把当局引上一场无计划的追击。
“凶猛”这个词使我短暂地停了下来。它提醒我1871年巴黎的公社社员是如何被描述为野生动物，描述为土狼，理应（经常也确实）以私有财产、道德、宗教和家庭的神圣不可侵犯之名处决。但后来这个词引起了另一个联想：托尼•布莱尔攻击“凶猛的媒体”，长期以来被安稳地放在鲁伯特•默多克左边口袋里，而在后来不过是在默多克伸手到右边口袋里拔出大卫•卡梅隆的时候换了个位置而已。
在那些倾向于把暴乱看作一种纯粹、放肆而无法辩解的罪行的人，和那些急着在坏警察、持续增长的种族主义和对青年和少数族裔的不公正的迫害、年轻人的大规模失业、迅速增长的社会剥夺以及一种无脑的紧缩的政治——这与经济无关，而与对个人财富与权力的维持与巩固有关——的背景下语境化事件的人之间当然会有通常是歇斯底里的辩论。有的人甚至开始考虑谴责在人类繁荣得巨大而分配不均的潜能中如此之多的工作和日常生活中如此之多的部分的无意义的和异化的品质。
如果我们幸运的话，我们会有委员会和报告来重复在撒切尔时代关于布里克斯顿和托斯德所说的话。我说“幸运”是因为当前首相凶猛的本能看起来更倾向于打开高压水泡，召来催泪瓦斯部队并使用橡皮子弹同时油腔滑调地武断地强调道德指针的丧失，教养的衰落和在误入歧途的年轻人身上家庭价值和规范的可悲的堕落。
但问题在于，我们生活在这样的一个社会，在这里资本主义本身就已经变得粗暴地凶猛。凶猛的政客欺瞒他们的开销，凶猛的银行家尽情地掠夺公众的钱包，CEO们，对冲基金的操们和私人股权天才们洗劫着财富的世界，电话和信用卡公司在每个人的账单上附加神秘的费用，店主们在搞价格欺骗，而且，一有机会骗子和诈骗专家就会把三牌赌一张的赌博游戏实践到公司和政治世界的最高层。
一种剥夺大众、到光天化日之下明抢程度的特别是针对穷人和弱者，朴实的人和在法律上不被保护的人的掠夺实践的政治经济学，已经成为今日的次序。有人还会相信我们有可能找到一个诚实的资本主义者，一个诚实的银行家，一个诚实的政客，一个诚实的店主或一个诚实的警官么？是的，他们确实存在。但只是作为其他所有人都觉得蠢的少数而存在。被逮到的几率很低。不管怎么说都有足够的方式来保护个人的财富不因共同的渎职带来的损失而受损。
我要说的可能听起来令人震惊。我们大多数人没有看到这点因为我们不想看到。当然没有政客档案说出这点而媒体也只会为对说出这点的人表示鄙视而把它刊印出来。但我猜，每个街上的暴乱者都确切地知道我要说的是什么。他们只是在做其他所有人都在做的事情，尽管是以一种不同的方式——在街上，更公然也更可见。撒切尔主义释放了资本主义凶猛的本能（他们扭捏作态地把它称作企业家的“动物精神”），而自那时起就没有什么来抑制这种本能。打砸烧现在公开地成其为差不多所有地方的统治阶级的箴言。
这是新的常态，而我们就生活在这种常态之中。这就是下一任质询委员会应当质询的问题。每个人，不仅仅是暴乱者，都必须作出解释。凶猛的资本主义必须为反人类的罪行和反自然的罪行而受审。
可悲的是，这些无脑的暴乱者看不到也没有要求这点。一切都在合谋组织我们看到这点并对此提出要求。这就是为什么政权如此急于穿上高人一等的道德和虚情假意的理性的外异，以确保没有人看到它是如此赤裸地腐败和愚蠢地非理性。
但在这世上还有许多希望和光明的微光。西班牙和希腊的愤怒者(indignados)运动，拉美的革命动力，亚洲的农民运动，都开始看穿这个巨大的骗局——一种掠夺成性的、凶猛的全球资本主义已经席卷世界。为使我们中的其他人看到并对此作出行动还需要什么？我们该如何重新开始？我们应当朝什么方向（前进）？这些问题不易回答。但有一件事情使我们可以确定的：我们只能通过提出正确的问题来获得正确的答案。
大卫•哈维是纽约城市大学研究中心的杰出教授。他最近的著作有《资本之谜与资本主义的危机》(The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism)。他的网站：http://davidharvey.org/。
[注]译自David Harvey, “Slash and Burn as the New Normal Feral Capitalism Hits the Streets”, at http://counterpunch.org/harvey08122011.html . trans. Liqiu Wang, [email protected] .
观察者网附：英文原版
U.K. riots: Feral capitalism is at least as big a culprit
By David Harvey | August 13, 2011
"Nihilistic and feral teenagers" London’s Daily Mail called them: the crazy youths from all walks of life who raced around the streets mindlessly and desperately hurling bricks, stones and bottles at the cops while looting here and setting bonfires there, leading the authorities on a merry chase of catch-as-catch-can as they tweeted their way from one strategic target to another.
The word "feral" pulled me up short. It reminded me of how the communards in Paris in 1871 were depicted as wild animals, as hyenas, that deserved to be (and often were) summarily executed in the name of the sanctity of private property, morality, religion, and the family. But then the word conjured up another association: Tony Blair attacking the "feral media," having for so long been comfortably lodged in the left pocket of Rupert Murdoch only later to be substituted as Murdoch reached into his right pocket to pluck out David Cameron.
There will, of course, be the usual hysterical debate between those prone to view the riots as a matter of pure, unbridled and inexcusable criminality, and those anxious to contextualize events against a background of bad policing; continuing racism and unjustified persecution of youths and minorities; mass unemployment of the young; burgeoning social deprivation; and a mindless politics of austerity that has nothing to do with economics and everything to do with the perpetuation and consolidation of personal wealth and power. Some may even get around to condemning the meaningless and alienating qualities of so many jobs and so much of daily life in the midst of immense but unevenly distributed potentiality for human flourishing.
Rampantly feral?
If we are lucky, we will have commissions and reports to say all over again what was said of Brixton and Toxteth in the Margaret Thatcher years. I say "lucky" because the feral instincts of the current prime minister seem more attuned to turn on the water cannons, to call in the tear gas brigade and use the rubber bullets while pontificating unctuously about the loss of moral compass, the decline of civility and the sad deterioration of family values and discipline among errant youths.
But the problem is that we live in a society where capitalism itself has become rampantly feral. Feral politicians cheat on their expenses, feral bankers plunder the public purse for all its worth, CEOs, hedge fund operators and private equity geniuses loot the world of wealth, telephone and credit card companies load mysterious charges on everyone’s bills, shopkeepers price gouge, and, at the drop of a hat swindlers and scam artists get to practice three-card monte right up into the highest echelons of the corporate and political world.
A political economy of mass dispossession, of predatory practices to the point of daylight robbery, particularly of the poor and the vulnerable, the unsophisticated and the legally unprotected, has become the order of the day. Does anyone believe it is possible to find an honest capitalist, an honest banker, an honest politician, an honest shopkeeper or an honest police commissioner anymore? Yes, they do exist. But only as a minority that everyone else regards as stupid. Get smart. Get easy profits. Defraud and steal! The odds of getting caught are low. And in any case there are plenty of ways to shield personal wealth from the costs of corporate malfeasance.
Thatcherism unchained
What I say may sound shocking. Most of us don’t see it because we don’t want to. Certainly no politician dare say it and the press would only print it to heap scorn upon the sayer. But my guess is that every street rioter knows exactly what I mean. They are only doing what everyone else is doing, though in a different way -- more blatantly and visibly in the streets. Thatcherism unchained the feral instincts of capitalism (the "animal spirits" of the entrepreneur they coyly named it) and nothing has transpired to curb them since. Slash and burn is now openly the motto of the ruling classes pretty much everywhere.
This is the new normal in which we live. This is what the next grand commission of enquiry should address. Everyone, not just the rioters, should be held to account. Feral capitalism should be put on trial for crimes against humanity as well as for crimes against nature.
Sadly, this is what these mindless rioters cannot see or demand. Everything conspires to prevent us from seeing and demanding it also. This is why political power so hastily dons the robes of superior morality and unctuous reason so that no one might see it as so nakedly corrupt and stupidly irrational.
But there are various glimmers of hope and light around the world. The indignados movements in Spain and Greece, the revolutionary impulses in Latin America, the peasant movements in Asia, are all beginning to see through the vast scam that a predatory and feral global capitalism has unleashed upon the world. What will it take for the rest of us to see and act upon it? How can we begin all over again? What direction should we take? The answers are not easy. But one thing we do know for certain: we can only get to the right answers by asking the right questions.
David Harvey is distinguished professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His latest book is The Enigma of Capital, and the Crises of Capitalism and publishes the Reading Marx’s Capital blog, where this article first appeared. This article also ran in The Bullet.
原文见http://rabble.ca/news/2011/08/uk-riots-feral-capitalism-least-big-culprit
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