Yanis Varoufakis: Capitalism will eat democracy -- unless we speak up
亚尼斯·瓦鲁法基斯: 资本主义会消灭民主 -- 除非我们站出来
Yanis Varoufakis thinks we need a radically new way of thinking about the economy, finance and capitalism. Full bio
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taking it for granted.
认为民主是理所应当的。
of flowers that it really is,
of our society's furniture.
as an intransigent given.
无需妥协的赋予。
begets inevitably democracy.
资本主义必然导致民主。
and his great imitators in Beijing
和他在北京的伟大模仿者们,
to have a flourishing capitalism,
in our neck of the woods,
正在退步。
while I was representing Greece --
当我作为财政部长带领希腊 --
that our nation's democratic process --
我们国家的民主过程 --
that were being implemented in Greece.
vindication of Lee Kuan Yew,
是绝佳的辩护,
friends of mine who kept telling me
不断地告诉我,
if it ever threatened to change anything.
当它威胁要改变些什么的时候。
for an authentic democracy.
to join me in believing again
来一起重新相信,
that we can dispense with democracy --
我们可以不需要民主 --
boisterous democracy.
强有力的民主。
an interesting paradox
一个正在威胁着我们的经济的
our economies as we speak.
that has been casting a long shadow
投射着长长的阴影,
Europe, the whole world.
and to corporations,
that can generate the incomes
生产活动。
the mountain of debts
尝清那座债务高山,
that humanity desperately needs,
人类急需的物品,
展示两个数字。
in Britain and in the Eurozone,
英国和欧元区,
3.4 trillion dollars
3.4 万亿美元
and so on and so forth.
等等,等等。
似乎是一笔巨款
in the same countries,
during the same period
什么也没做,
and bidding up house prices.
让房产价格上涨。
and a mountain of idle cash
和一座闲置现金大山,
failing to cancel each other out
没能够让正常的市场运营
operation of the markets.
in America, in Japan and in Europe
和欧洲人没有工作。
reproduce it by not investing --
于是就不再投资 --
by the prophecy of the oracle
his son, would kill him.
他的儿子,真的杀了他。
all these technologies,
for saving planet Earth.
绝对是很重要的。
that democracy might be the answer?
答案的我是对的吗?
in which the free and the poor,
政府是由占着绝大多数比例的
excluded too many.
把很多人排除在外。
of course, the slaves.
当然地,奴隶。
有多少人被排除在外,
of ancient Athenian democracy
雅典民主制度的意义的话,
about ancient Athenian democracy,
the right to free speech,
to political judgments
concerning matters of state.
democracy didn't last long.
雅典民主没有延续下去。
it burned out quickly.
很快就燃烧殆尽。
do not have their roots in ancient Athens.
并不是产自于古代雅典。
was focusing on the masterless citizen
on the Magna Carta tradition,
是建立在大宪章的传统上,
a charter for masters.
only surfaced when it was possible
只有在它可以完全
from the economic sphere,
fully in the political sphere,
限定在政治领域,
的时候浮现。
from the political sphere,
epic struggle between the two,
无情的、史诗般的较量,
colonizing the political sphere,
are not what they used to be?
为什么政治人物不是他们原有的样子?
has degenerated.
in government today and not in power,
并没有权力,
from the political to the economic sphere,
with capitalism.
a population of predators,
the prey that they must feed on,
它们赖以生存的猎物,
and cannibalizing the political sphere
并蚕食了政治领域,
that it is undermining itself,
逐渐削弱了自己,
to invest the cash of their corporations.
用他们公司的资金进行投资。
in taking the demos out of democracy,
从民主中剔除,
of human resources
and economic spheres
政治和经济领域连结在一起,
with a demos being in control,
使它变得更好。
except without the slaves
在没有奴隶,
的前提下。
had that idea 100 years ago
在100多年前就有这样的想法,
from the Soviet debacle
吸取到的教训是
will the working poor be reempowered,
奇迹才会发生。
of brutality and waste.
with automata, androids, robots.
来取代低薪的劳工。
and the political spheres are separate,
and the political spheres,
连结在一块,
by democratizing the reunified sphere,
重新团结在一起的领域民主化,
a surveillance-mad hyperautocracy
监视狂般的超级独裁政权,
look like a documentary.
看起来像是纪录片。
whether capitalism will survive
it is spawning.
by something resembling a Matrix dystopia
像是黑客帝国这样的反乌托邦社会取代,
to a Star Trek-like society,
星际迷航的社会取代,
exploring the universe
about the meaning of life
有关于在某些古代,例如雅典时代的,
high tech agora.
instead of the Matrix-like dystopia?
而创造它需要些什么呢?
from one job to another,
从一个工作到下一个工作,
to work at at that time --
to work in it at that moment.
全权拥有。
from capital, from profits,
of wage labor becomes obsolete.
who own but do not work in the company
和在公司工作
but do not own the company;
between capital and labor;
拔河比赛;
investment and saving;
巨大缺口;
就会消失。
political economy,
have a free-floating exchange rate,
自由浮动的兑换汇率,
global, digital currency,
全球的,电子的,
by the International Monetary Fund,
is denominated in this currency --
都用这种货币来标价 --
to be paying into a common fund
根据他们国家的贸易逆差,
to the country's trade deficit,
投入成比例的宇宙币。
to invest in green technologies,
是被用于投资绿色科技,
where investment funding is scarce.
缺乏投资基金的地方。
John Maynard Keynes proposed
所提出来的。
the technology to implement it.
of a reunified political-economic sphere.
政治和经济领域的背景下。
empowered individuals,
个体们优先化,
to the dustbin of history
to imagine an authentic democracy.
一个真正的民主世界。
into a Matrix-like dystopia?
一个黑客帝国般的反乌托邦吗?
that we shall be making collectively.
政治选择中。
来进行选择。
in your bios as a libertarian Marxist.
自由派马克思主义者。
of Marx's analysis today?
有怎样的相关性呢?
any relevance in what I just said,
如果与我刚刚的演讲内容相关,
the political and economic is --
政治和经济最主要的意义在于—
is going to create
refers to as secular stagnation.
长期性经济停滞。
from one part of the world,
从世界某个区域向外扩散,
not only our democracies,
that keen on liberal democracy.
新兴国家。
then Marx is absolutely relevant.
那么马克思主义绝对是相关的。
我是一个自由派马克思主义者,
我自己都感到不清醒了。
我们现在也很迷惑。
you are not thinking, OK?
说明你没有思考,对吧?
philosopher kind of thing to say --
希腊哲学家一样的看法 --
you mentioned Singapore and China,
你提到了新加坡和中国,
about how the West looks at China.
表达了非常强烈的观点。
degree of hypocrisy.
很大程度上的虚伪。
we have a semblance of democracy.
一种民主的假象。
as I was saying in my talk,
正如我在演讲中所说的,
where all the action is --
in the 19th century.
liberalism with democracy --
连在一起的意图 --
it's like John Stuart Mill.
就像是约翰·斯图加特·密尔。
skeptical about the democratic process.
持非常怀疑的观点。
is a very similar process
就是一个跟英国在工业革命时期
during the Industrial Revolution,
from the first to the second.
和第二次工业革命的之间的过渡期。
in the 19th century,
are wondering about your experience
都对你今年早期
earlier this year.
at the first half of the year?
from a personal point of view,
to reboot the Eurozone.
that there was a massive --
architectural fault line
the whole of the European Union process.
on the basis of the Greek program --
to manifest that denial --
of the Soviet Union.
that architecturally cannot survive,
and through authoritarianism,
and catastrophically.
are you foreseeing?
the architecture of the Eurozone,
when you were Finance Minister?
YV: Anybody who looks back --
YV:任何人回看过往的时候 --
or of anything else for that matter,
或是任何与此有相关的人,
they're dangerous people.
说明他们是非常危险的。
was to sign the application
on the side of the creditors
in crushing our government,
the architectural fault lines
a catastrophic program in Greece.
他们在希腊实施了灾难性的计划。
that have been imposing this policy
of the discussion,
quite pro-European.
of the European Union and the Eurozone
who lives and breathes Europe.
the Eurozone will not survive.
that will be unleashed
not just for Europe
economy in the world.
of the postmodern 1930's,
and non-Europeans alike.
you are wrong on that point.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Yanis Varoufakis - Economist and professorYanis Varoufakis thinks we need a radically new way of thinking about the economy, finance and capitalism.
Why you should listen
Yanis Varoufakis describes himself as a "libertarian Marxist," although, he says, "It is not something that I volunteer to talk about much, because the very mention of Marx switches audiences off." He teaches economic theory at the University of Athens, where he challenges mainstream notions -- arguing that after the financial crash of 2008 we need a radically new way of thinking about the economy, finance and capitalism.
He became widely known in the first half of 2015 when, as Minister of Finance of the newly formed Greek government, he was a leading, outspoken and much-discussed figure in the renegotiations of Greece's debt.
In May 2017, Varoufakis released Adults in The Room: My Battle With Europe’s Deep Establishment, a personal account of Europe's hidden agenda and an urgent wake-up call to renew European democracy.
Yanis Varoufakis | Speaker | TED.com