The moral bondage of power

我以前在街边的水果摊买樱桃、葡萄之类的水果时，总想挑出其中最新鲜好看的，但是常常受到摊主的阻挠：“不许挑！不许挑！”也是，如果我把好的都挑走了，坏的他怎么卖呢？其实岂止卖葡萄樱桃，卖企业也是一样：几年前中国产权改革如日中天的时候，为了甩掉一些不良企业，据说一些地方政府采取的办法是：哪个投资者要想买好资产，就得接受与之“搭售”的差资产。可见无论是卖葡萄还是卖企业，好坏搭配是推销之道。

后来我慢慢意识到，很多集权政府的治国之道也是如此，甚至可以说，很多集权政府的成功秘诀正在于此：为了推销强权的苦咖啡，得搭售道德的白砂糖，咖啡加糖，专制也就打开了销路。其实道理很简单，要说服民众放弃权利、财产、自由是很难的，甚至是不可能的，但是如果能让民众在打倒假丑恶的过程中“不知不觉”地放弃其权利和自由，那么民众对集权政府俯首帖耳就水到渠成了。

最典型的例子莫过于朱元璋，其治国之策可以说是政治酷寒和道德狂热的成功会合。一方面，其治下不但有锦衣卫这种秘密警察制度，明初的里甲制度也比任何时代更严密，志在把全民都变成秘密警察，“如鸟之在笼，兽之在柙，虽欲放逸，有不可得”。朱元璋不但利用胡惟庸案、蓝玉案等清洗成千上万潜在的政治威胁，而且还用强制民众迁徙的方式开发地广人稀之地，用强制子承父业的方式干预民众的从业自由。其暴虐到什么程度呢？据说某个街头老妇没有尊称其为皇上，而称之“老头”，朱元璋一怒之下，不但杀掉老妇，而且顺便干掉了老妇所在街区的所有其他人。

但是另一方面，这位“老头”又对道德纯洁性有着孜孜不倦的追求。他不喜酒肉，不荒淫无度，别的皇帝用金制物品，他要求以黄铜代之，“朕本农夫，深知民间疾苦”。对贪官他疾恶如仇，“官吏宿娼，罪亚杀人一等”，贪污六十两银子，就剥皮实草。他对地方官员的“截访”行为也深恶痛绝，认为应当给民众伸冤开绝对的绿灯，有个地方官员试图截访，被他发现后，阉之为奴。他还要求各乡各里建申明亭作为思想品德教育的宣传站，提醒人们尊老爱幼长幼有序。

如果他是纯粹的暴君，民间可能早就揭竿而起了。但是朱元璋同时又是这样一个道德清教徒，很多人喝着咖啡加糖就给喝晕了：“杀贪官？好！”于是在迎接道德特洛伊木马的过程中，不知不觉也迎接了“木马”腹中的极权统治。

在极“左”年代，如何动员亿万群众加入残酷的政治斗争？很大程度上还是要靠权力和道德的“打包”。要让民众接受“错抄一句语录就会被打成现行反革命、收听外国广播就要挨批斗”的制度安排，当然很难，但是假如接受这一安排的“收益”是可以批斗那些以前颐指气使的、享受特权的“土豪劣绅”或者“修正主义走资派”，“出一口恶气”，也许这个交易还算划算？所以革命期间每次政治清洗运动，往往都伴随着党内整风运动，前者目的是修理“地富反坏右”，而后者则是“让党员干部在群众批斗中过关”。一口咖啡一勺糖，革命群众在打倒土豪劣绅、打倒张子善刘青山、打倒官僚主义的道德欢呼声中逐渐拱手交出自由和权利。

权力和道德捆绑也不是中国的特产。比如今天的某些政教合一的国家，女人穿衣服不能有伤风化，同性恋被抓住甚至可能被绞死，好莱坞电影一概取缔——谁让它充满了色情和暴力？这种对道德纯洁性的追求在某些宗教激进主义者中深得人心，而这些激进主义者刚好构成政教合一政权的统治基础。

早在中世纪，马基雅维利就在《君主论》中指出，一个成功的统治者要同时具有狮子的凶猛和狐狸的狡诈，要在被惧怕的同时被爱戴。当然，道德和权力的共生性未必只是统治策略：一些专制者很可能“真心”地追求道德纯洁性，而这种追求恰恰与人类对纯洁性的迷恋契合。纯洁性固然美好，但是它对世界丰富性和复杂性的敌视，它天然的非黑即白世界观，本身就为专制提供了最好的精神土壤。因为深知道德说辞如何在历史上给权力如虎添翼，所以我虽然敬重一切洁身自好的个体，但是对一切来自当权者的整风、反低俗文化、打黑运动都心存疑虑，此类口号一出，总想要打开特洛伊木马的肚子，看看里面到底有没有什么猫腻。

I used to pick out the freshest and best looking fruits from the fruit stalls on the street, but was often discouraged by the vendors: "no picking! No picking!" If I take the good ones, how's he gonna sell the bad ones? In fact, not only selling grape cherries, but also selling enterprises: a few years ago, when China's property rights reform was in full swing, in order to get rid of some bad enterprises, some local governments are said to have adopted an approach in which investors who want to buy good assets have to accept "Tie-ins" with bad assets. Obviously no matter is sells the grape or sells the enterprise, the good and bad match is sells the way. Then I came to realize that the same is true of many totalitarian governments, and indeed the secret of many totalitarian governments'success lies in this: to sell the bitter coffee of power, one must sell the white sugar of morality, when coffee is sweetened, despotism opens the door. In fact, the reason is very simple. It is difficult, even impossible, to persuade the people to give up their rights, property and freedom, but if you can get people to "unknowingly" give up their rights and Freedoms in the fight against fake ugliness, it's easy to get people to fall in line with authoritarian governments. The most striking example of this is Hongwu Emperor, whose approach to statecraft could be described as a successful combination of political cold and moral fervor. On the one hand, it not only had the secret police system of Jinyiwei under its rule, but also the Lijia system in the early Ming dynasty was more rigorous than any other time, aiming to turn all the people into secret police, "If a bird is caught in a cage and an animal is caught in a cage, it is not to be caught.". Hongwu Emperor not only used the Hu Weiyong case and the Blue Jade case to purge tens of thousands of potential political threats, but also used forced migration to develop vast and sparsely populated areas, to interfere with People's freedom of employment by forcing them to follow in their father's footsteps. How tyrannical is it? Hongwu Emperor was said to have killed not only the old woman on the street, but everyone else in her neighborhood in a fit of rage, for calling her "old man" instead of "Emperor.". But on the other hand, the "old man" has a tireless pursuit of moral purity. He did not like wine and meat, and did not indulge in debauchery. Other emperors used gold objects. He asked for brass instead. To corrupt officials, he was as sick and evil as an enemy. "officials live as prostitutes, and their crime is murder." He embezzled 60 taels of silver and peeled off solid grass. He also abhors the practice of "intercepting interviews" by local officials. He believes that people should be given an absolute green light to seek justice. When a local official tried to intercept him, he found him and castrated him as a slave. He also asked the villages and towns to build the pavilion as a propaganda station for ideological and moral education, reminding people to respect the old, love the young and be orderly. If he had been a pure tyrant, the people would have Daze Village Uprising. But Hongwu Emperor was also a moral puritan, and many people got dizzy over coffee and sugar: "killing corrupt officials? Good!" So in the course of greeting the moral trojan horse, imperceptibly also welcomed the "Trojan horse" in the belly of the totalitarian rule. How to mobilize hundreds of millions of people to join the brutal political struggle in the extreme "left" age? Much depends on the "packaging" of power and morality. Of course, it is difficult for the people to accept the institutional arrangement that "a wrong quotation will be branded as the current counter-revolution, and listening to foreign radio will be criticized", but if the "benefits" of accepting this arrangement are to criticize the "local tyrants and evil gentry" or the "Revisionism capitalist roaders" who used to boss around and enjoy special privileges, and to "vent their indignation", maybe it's a good deal? So every political purge during the revolution was often accompanied by a Yan'an Rectification Movement within the party, the former aimed at repairing the "rich land against the evil right", while the latter aimed at "getting party members and cadres through mass criticism". With a mouthful of coffee and a spoonful of sugar, the revolutionary masses gradually surrendered their freedom and rights to the moral cheers of overthrowing local tyrants and evil gentry, overthrowing Zhang Zishan and Liu Qingshan, and overthrowing bureaucracy. Nor is the bundling of power and morality a specialty of China. Today, for example, in some religious and political countries, women can not dress indecently, homosexuals can be caught or even hanged, and Hollywood films are banned -- because they are full of pornography and violence? This pursuit of moral purity is popular with some religious radicals, who form the basis of the theocratic regime. As early as the Middle Ages, Machiavelli pointed out in the prince that a successful ruler must have both the ferocity of a lion and the cunning of a fox, to be feared and loved. Of course, the symbiosis of morality and power is not necessarily a ruling strategy: some despots are likely to pursue moral purity "sincerely", and this pursuit is precisely in line with the human obsession with purity. Purity is beautiful, but its hostility to the richness and complexity of the world, its natural black and white worldview, itself provides the best spiritual soil for despotism. Because I know how moral discourse has historically enhanced power, so while I respect all individuals who are chaste, but they are suspicious of all the rectification, anti-vulgarity and anti-mafia campaigns that come from those in power, and they always want to open up the Trojan horse and see if there is anything wrong with it.

标题: 权力的道德捆绑
作者: 刘瑜
字数: 1620
简介: 我以前在街边的水果摊买樱桃、葡萄之类的水果时，总想挑出其中最新鲜好看的，但是常常受到摊主的阻挠：“不许挑！不许挑！”也是，如果我把好的都挑走