資本社會的17個矛盾

2014年11月13日

這是我第一本合譯並出版的書（之前合譯過一本未出版），我僅負責第三部和結論，篇幅不到全書的三分之一。以下是本書我覺得特別精彩的結論倒數第三段（在此拆為三段，以便閱讀）：

幾乎在所有地方，寡頭資本家階級的特權與權力正引導世界走往類似方向。在不斷加強的監控技術、警力和軍事化暴力支持下，政治權力正被用來侵害被視為可犧牲和可遺棄的族群之整體福祉。我們每天都在目擊可棄族群的系統性非人化。殘忍的寡頭權力正透過極權式民主體制施展出來，設法立即破壞、拆散和壓制任何一致的反財富政治運動（例如佔領運動）。

值得注意的是，有錢人看運氣不如他們的人時，滿心傲慢和不屑，即使（特別是）他們在幕後競爭成為慈善之王時也是這樣。寡頭階級與其他人的「同理心差距」（empathy gap）十分巨大，而且正在擴大。寡頭誤以為所得較高者作為人的價值也較高，誤以為他們的經濟成就證明他們對世界的認識高人一等（而不是因為他們的會計伎倆高人一等，而且擅長鑽法律漏洞）。

他們不懂得聆聽別人述說世界的困境，因為他們不能正視他們在這種困境的形成過程中所扮演的角色，而且他們蓄意不去正視這問題。他們看不到也無法看到他們自身的矛盾。億萬富翁科氏（Koch）兄弟慷慨捐款給麻省理工等大學，甚至會替值得幫助的教職員蓋起漂亮的托兒中心，但同時耗費巨資支持美國國會中的一項政治運動（由茶黨派系領導），推動削減食物券預算，同時拒絕為赤貧或接近赤貧的數以百萬計的人提供救濟、營養補給和托兒服務。

──大衛．哈維（David Harvey），《資本社會的17個矛盾》結論


原文：Oligarchic capitalist class privilege and power are taking the world in a similar direction almost everywhere. Political power backed by intensifying surveillance, policing and militarised violence is being used to attack the well-being of whole populations deemed expendable and disposable. We are daily witnessing the systematic dehumanisation of disposable people. ruthless oligarchic power is now being exercised through a totalitarian democracy directed to immediately disrupt, fragment and suppress any coherent anti-wealth political movement (such as Occupy).

The arrogance and disdain with which the affluent now view those less fortunate than themselves, even when (particularly when) vying with each other behind closed doors to prove who can be the most charitable of them all, are notable facts of our present condition. The ‘empathy gap’ between the oligarchy and the rest is immense and increasing. The oligarchs mistake superior income for superior human worth and their economic success as evidence of their superior knowledge of the world (rather than their superior command over accounting tricks and legal niceties).

They do not know how to listen to the plight of the world because they cannot and wilfully will not confront their role in the construction of that plight. They do not and cannot see their own contradictions. The billionaire Koch brothers give charitably to a university like MIT even to the point of building a beautiful day-care centre for the deserving faculty there while simultaneously lavishing untold millions in financial support for a political movement (headed by the Tea Party faction) in the US Congress that cuts food stamps and denies welfare, nutritional supplements and day care for millions living in or close to absolute poverty.