摘要：英國人生活在這樣的一個社會，在這里資本本身就已經變得動物兇猛。兇猛政客隱瞞他們的奢侈，兇猛銀行家盡情掠奪公眾的錢包，CEO、對沖基金操盤手和股票天才們洗劫著財富，電話和信用卡公司在每個人的賬單上附加神秘費用，而且，騙子們一有機會就把老千耍到公司和政界的最高層。

（王立秋 試譯）

“虛無主義的兇猛少年”，《每日郵報》這樣稱呼他們：瘋狂的來自各階層的青年無腦地到街上亂跑，拼命向警察投擲磚頭、石塊和酒瓶，在這里搶點東西在那里放把火，在他們從一個戰略目標到另一個目標地推特他們的路線的同時把當局引上一場無計劃的追擊。

“兇猛”這個詞使我短暫地停了下來。它提醒我1871年巴黎的公社社員是如何被描述為野生動物，描述為土狼，理應（經常也確實）以私有財產、道德、宗教和家庭的神圣不可侵犯之名處決。但后來這個詞引起了另一個聯想：托尼•布萊爾攻擊“兇猛的媒體”，長期以來被安穩地放在魯伯特•默多克左邊口袋里，而在后來不過是在默多克伸手到右邊口袋里拔出大衛•卡梅隆的時候換了個位置而已。

在那些傾向于把暴亂看作一種純粹、放肆而無法辯解的罪行的人，和那些急著在壞警察、持續增長的種族主義和對青年和少數族裔的不公正的迫害、年輕人的大規模失業、迅速增長的社會剝奪以及一種無腦的緊縮的政治——這與經濟無關，而與對個人財富與權力的維持與鞏固有關——的背景下語境化事件的人之間當然會有通常是歇斯底里的辯論。有的人甚至開始考慮譴責在人類繁榮得巨大而分配不均的潛能中如此之多的工作和日常生活中如此之多的部分的無意義的和異化的品質。

如果我們幸運的話，我們會有委員會和報告來重復在撒切爾時代關于布里克斯頓和托斯德所說的話。我說“幸運”是因為當前首相兇猛的本能看起來更傾向于打開高壓水泡，召來催淚瓦斯部隊并使用橡皮子彈同時油腔滑調地武斷地強調道德指針的喪失，教養的衰落和在誤入歧途的年輕人身上家庭價值和規范的可悲的墮落。

但問題在于，我們生活在這樣的一個社會，在這里資本主義本身就已經變得粗暴地兇猛。兇猛的政客欺瞞他們的開銷，兇猛的銀行家盡情地掠奪公眾的錢包，CEO們，對沖基金的操作者們和私人股權天才們洗劫著財富的世界，電話和信用卡公司在每個人的賬單上附加神秘的費用，店主們在搞價格欺騙，而且，一有機會騙子和詐騙專家就會把三牌賭一張的賭博游戲實踐到公司和政治世界的最高層。

一種剝奪大眾、到光天化日之下明搶程度的特別是針對窮人和弱者，樸實的人和在法律上不被保護的人的掠奪實踐的政治經濟學，已經成為今日的次序。有人還會相信我們有可能找到一個誠實的資本主義者，一個誠實的銀行家，一個誠實的政客，一個誠實的店主或一個誠實的警官么？是的，他們確實存在。但只是作為其他所有人都覺得蠢的少數而存在。被逮到的幾率很低。不管怎么說都有足夠的方式來保護個人的財富不因共同的瀆職帶來的損失而受損。

我要說的可能聽起來令人震驚。我們大多數人沒有看到這點因為我們不想看到。當然沒有政客檔案說出這點而媒體也只會為對說出這點的人表示鄙視而把它刊印出來。但我猜，每個街上的暴亂者都確切地知道我要說的是什么。他們只是在做其他所有人都在做的事情，盡管是以一種不同的方式——在街上，更公然也更可見。撒切爾主義釋放了資本主義兇猛的本能（他們扭捏作態地把它稱作企業家的“動物精神”），而自那時起就沒有什么來抑制這種本能。打砸燒現在公開地成其為差不多所有地方的統治階級的箴言。

這是新的常態，而我們就生活在這種常態之中。這就是下一任質詢委員會應當質詢的問題。每個人，不僅僅是暴亂者，都必須作出解釋。兇猛的資本主義必須為反人類的罪行和反自然的罪行而受審。

可悲的是，這些無腦的暴亂者看不到也沒有要求這點。一切都在合謀組織我們看到這點并對此提出要求。這就是為什么政權如此急于穿上高人一等的道德和虛情假意的理性的外異，以確保沒有人看到它是如此赤裸地腐敗和愚蠢地非理性。

但在這世上還有許多希望和光明的微光。西班牙和希臘的憤怒者(indignados)運動，拉美的革命動力，亞洲的農民運動，都開始看穿這個巨大的騙局——一種掠奪成性的、兇猛的全球資本主義已經席卷世界。為使我們中的其他人看到并對此作出行動還需要什么？我們該如何重新開始？我們應當朝什么方向（前進）？這些問題不易回答。但有一件事情使我們可以確定的：我們只能通過提出正確的問題來獲得正確的答案。

大衛•哈維是紐約城市大學研究中心的杰出教授。他最近的著作有《資本之謎與資本主義的危機》(The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism)。他的網站：http://davidharvey.org/。

[注]譯自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] .

觀察者網附：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.

原文見http://rabble.ca/news/2011/08/uk-riots-feral-capitalism-least-big-culprit

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