小欢_新浪博客

("Obey the Party", the 60th Anniversary of the PRC)

I thought they were words inscribed in stone, as dead as the Old Man behind; but they are words written in stone, as permanent as the Party ahead.

How does the supremacy thread itself into our everyday life, down to the level of these slogans? From “Obey the Party” to “Constructing a Harmonious Society”, these slogans change from time to time, but the supremacy always remains.

“Constructing” seems like a natural road to order or harmony, but it could also be a road to serfdom. “Constructing” implies planning, designing, and controlling, and all these deliberate activities call for authorities. For both Lao-Tzu and Hayek, a more natural road to order or harmony emerges from repeated interactions among individuals, not from conscious construction.

I am not naïve to believe in the spontaneous order and ecological rationality without reservation, but the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics certainly reminds me to keep doubting the efficacy of constructivism. With her lifetime work, Elinor Ostrom, one Nobel Laureate, examines a variety of different common property resources problems around the world and shows ingenious solutions emerging from people’s experiences and self-governing institutions, yet most economists thought these problems could be solved only by government interventions.

I am not saying that constructivists and ecologists are inherently in opposition, they can and do work together. But “order by construction” is more easily accepted and shared, like common sense. When common sense assumes consensus, without being doubted and debated, “order by control” follows.

(I used Blogspot at first, but it was walled out. So I walled myself in. People say that English is the sharpest weapon to pierce the Wall, so I chose Sina.)

I always want to write with two fists, English and Chinese, and of course, always argue with two hands, the one and the other. You know how we call a “one-armed economist”? Disabled.

I doubt that the two roads of writing would ever converge if I only write research papers. So today I take the other, as just as fair. It has to make the difference.

After I signed up and filled out my profile form on Blogspot, I saw my astrological sign: Sagittarius. Seriously, I think this word is very goatish, both in English and in Chinese, though they told me the lower half of a centaur is a horse. Think about it, why did he have to give a shot at the Milky Way? Did he think it is still not creamy enough?

Anyway, I like Mr. Milk, a great speaker. Following the spirit in his famous Hope Speech, I won’t be content to accept the pablum in my paper writing. I can sense English, now I want to feel it.

Let’s start.

Two Fists, One Heart

杂谈

杂谈