Jeffrey Sachs 全球化、地理、技術和製度時代

全球化、地理、技術和製度時代

The Ages of Globalization, Geography, Technology, and Institutions
https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-ages-of-globalization/9780231193740

傑弗裏·D·薩克斯  June 2020
哥倫比亞大學出版社

當今最緊迫的問題基本上是全球性的。 如果我們要確保長遠的未來，就需要在全球範圍內采取協調一致的行動。 但人類的故事始終是全球範圍的。 在本書中，著名經濟學家和可持續發展專家傑弗裏·D·薩克斯 (Jeffrey D. Sachs) 借助世界曆史來闡明我們如何應對二十一世紀的挑戰和機遇。

薩克斯帶領讀者經曆了一係列七次不同的技術和製度變革浪潮，從早期現代人類通過長途遷徙最初在地球上定居開始，到對當今全球化的反思結束。 在此過程中，他思考了地理、技術和製度的相互作用如何影響新石器時代的革命； 馬在帝國興起中的作用； 古典時代大型陸地帝國的擴張； 從歐洲到亞洲和美洲的海上航線開通後，全球帝國的崛起； 和工業時代。 薩克斯證明，過去這些浪潮的動態為我們這個時代正在發生的進程（基於數字技術的全球化）提供了新的視角。

薩克斯強調需要新的國際治理與合作方法，以防止衝突並實現與可持續發展相一致的經濟、社會和環境目標。 《全球化時代》對於所有旨在了解我們快速變化的世界的讀者來說都是一本至關重要的書。

評論——Sachs, Jeffrey D.《全球化時代：地理、技術和製度》

作者：蒂姆·W·申克

傑弗裏·D·薩克斯 (Jeffrey D. Sachs) 的最新著作《全球化時代》（哥倫比亞大學出版社，2020 年）旨在從人類曆史的七個時代（從舊石器時代到數字時代）中吸取經驗教訓。

薩克斯將自己定位為全球貧困、環境以及外交和國內政策辯論中的進步人士。 他曾擔任政府、基金會和聯合國的顧問。 他經常被視為國民經濟的“救世主”和消除全球貧困的主要鬥士。 這本新書試圖進一步拓寬這一範圍，講述人類七萬年曆史的前進曆程，以此作為框架，說明需要全球合作來解決世界上最緊迫的問題。

為了評價這篇文章，我們首先必須超越外表的層麵來討論薩克斯本人，包括使他享譽全球的項目以及他目前的隸屬關係。

薩克斯在冷戰結束時作為反共專家而聲名狼藉。 《紐約時報》稱他在 20 世紀 90 年代初“可能是世界上最重要的經濟學家”，當時他前往莫斯科，將自由市場經濟學的“休克療法”應用於俄羅斯社會。 根據 2009 年發表在醫學雜誌《柳葉刀》上的一項研究，薩克斯監督的這些大規模私有化政策導致失業率急劇上升，並導致“1000 萬人因製度變革而失蹤”。 該研究指出，“1991年至1994年間，俄羅斯人口的預期壽命縮短了近五年”，而且艾滋病毒感染率上升、酗酒和吸毒成癮率上升，以及與資本主義轉型相關的嚴重壓力的影響 經濟。

薩克斯還被派往玻利維亞和波蘭起草類似的親資本主義經濟改革。 此後，他擔任聯合國特別顧問，並為全球反貧困項目提供建議。 他的主要機構所在地是紐約市哥倫比亞大學的教授，並且是傑出的統治階級幹部組織外交關係委員會的主要代言人。

這一職業軌跡向我們表明，薩克斯四十年來一直是統治階級的重要有機知識分子。 有了這種理解，我們就不能僅僅將他視為一個分享個人觀點的個人，而是將他視為社會中統治少數派的代表，他們需要特定的過去和現在的框架來維持其權力。 也就是說，我們必須能夠不主要根據其表麵價值來評估《全球化時代》，而是根據我們對那些放大薩克斯聲音的人的利益和目標的了解來進行倒推。

統治資產階級是社會中極小的少數，他們擁有世界上大部分財富，並且擁有以犧牲我們其他人為代價積累更多財富的手段。 他們擁有土地、工廠、銀行和大眾媒體。 他們的代表和像薩克斯這樣受雇的知識分子製定國家和國際政策，為各國政府提供信息和建議，並為每個問題的辯論設定參數。 為了讓這麽小的少數人控製廣大人口，需要強大的意識形態機構。 諾姆·喬姆斯基（Noam Chomsky）將這種現象稱為被統治者的“製造同意”。 薩克斯的書必須被視為超級富豪武器庫中的一種意識形態武器。

為了簡潔起見，這篇評論不會全麵探討薩克斯的所有論點。 在此，鼓勵基於對作者兩個基本前提的回應對《全球化時代》進行批判性閱讀就足夠了。 它們是：“人類一直是全球化的”（第23頁），人類必須尋求全球合作來解決世界緊迫的問題（第21頁）。

首先，頂尖學者將全球化定義為一種較新的現象，可以追溯到 20 世紀下半葉。 （參見全球化社會學家菲利普·麥克邁克爾（Philip McMichael）、威廉·羅賓遜（William I. Robinson）和萊斯利·斯克萊爾（Leslie Sklair）。）確實，人類一直在流動，總是在交換思想和事物。 但這不是全球化。 全球化是指在資本主義生產方式下由跨國公司發展起來的全球生產體係的興起。

隨著計算機芯片驅動的運輸和通信技術的廉價化，全球生產成為可能。 大約在同一時間，在資本主義激烈競爭的時代，資本有必要打破與國界有關的經濟壁壘，以維持或增加利潤率。 那麽，全球化的具體目標就是確保日益全球化的資產階級的利潤。 “人類始終全球化”的說法掩蓋了曆史時期

ch 這種現象的出現，又是因為什麽原因。 薩克斯從他的曆史講述中刪除了對階級、權力和財富的所有嚴肅分析。

薩克斯的第二個主要論點表麵上令人信服，但我認為，這是故意誤導，最終是陰險的。 薩克斯認為，全人類必須團結起來，共同應對社會最緊迫的問題，“包括控製人類引起的氣候變化； 保護生物多樣性； 控製和扭轉空氣、土壤和海洋的大規模汙染； 互聯網的正確使用和治理； 核武器不擴散； 避免大規模強迫移民； 以及避免或結束暴力衝突始終存在的挑戰”（第 21 頁）。 這些問題當然是我們大家都關心的。 我們的生命、我們子孫的生命以及地球上許多其他物種的生存都取決於解決這些問題。

然而，這種全球性的武裝號召——或者更確切地說是合作號召——的框架方式也掩蓋了資產階級與我們其他人的關係。 並不是全人類都應對氣候緊急情況負責。 2017 年碳主要企業報告詳細說明了僅 100 家企業就造成了全球 71% 的溫室氣體排放量。 氣候緊急情況並不是要我們減少亂扔垃圾、增加回收利用或縮短淋浴時間。 這是一個縱容和促進少數人謀取利益而不顧地球生存的治理體係。

薩克斯清單上所有最緊迫的全球問題都是由於資本與其他人類和地球的關係而產生的問題。 隻有當人們因資本的持續擴張和私有化而被剝奪了在原地生活的手段時，強迫移民才會成為目前所麵臨的問題。 在資本控製財富來源的驅動下，暴力衝突隻會變得更加頻繁。 2003 年伊拉克戰爭就是一個典型的例子。 資本有一種貪婪的、永不滿足的增長需求，需要積累越來越多的資金，以超越其他資本——而且它不能也不會“合作”，除非有必要進行公共關係拍照。

簡而言之，薩克斯列出的全球問題清單忽略了最大的問題：資本主義及其捍衛者。 保護私人擁有大量金錢和財產的權利高於我們的生存權的環環相扣的機構網絡最終威脅著任何可持續的未來。 薩克斯掩蓋這一事實暴露了他的立場和動機。 否認具有對立利益的社會階級的存在，本身就是一種階級戰爭行為。

《全球化時代》應該被閱讀、研究和討論，但不要從其作為進步論著的角度來看待。 它應該被視為統治階級撰寫和推廣的文本，旨在操縱和破壞我們迫切需要的根本性變革的浪潮。

4 條評論

喬安娜·格林
說：
2021 年 2 月 6 日晚上 10:59
感謝蒂姆的分析。

回複

大衛·羅默萊姆
說：
2021 年 3 月 30 日晚上 10:45
這非常有幫助。 它提醒我，有一些人雖然獲得了公眾的讚譽，但為平民生產的卻很少。 感謝您對他的書的介紹。 我會用我所謂的“懷疑解釋學”來閱讀。

回複

吉米·洛曼
說：
2022 年 10 月 10 日淩晨 4:54
精彩的批評。

回複
DLGP.com | 互保建設
說：
2023 年 2 月 2 日淩晨 1:05
[……]“《全球化時代》應該被閱讀、研究和討論，但不能通過它作為一部進步論文的視角來看待。 它應該被視為統治階級撰寫和推廣的文本，旨在操縱和破壞我們迫切需要的根本性變革的浪潮。” 評論鏈接[...]

全球視野的領導力博士：在互聯世界中打造事工
互保建設

作者：邁克爾·西蒙斯，2023 年 2 月 1 日
https://blogs.georgefox.edu/dlgp/mutually-assured-construction/

人們說不要以封麵來判斷一本書，但我確實僅根據書名來判斷這本書。 全球化一詞已成為政治、經濟和社會結構中的白噪音、一種背景假設。 然而，傑弗裏·薩克斯（Jeffery Sachs）的《全球化時代》一書提供了全球化的敘述性曆史框架，他將其定義為“[……]跨越廣大地理區域的不同社會的相互聯係。” 他繼續說，“這些相互聯係是技術、經濟、製度、文化和地緣政治的。”[1]我發現他的工作有助於對全球化發展的背景進行概述，並在範式上得到加強。

全球化常常被認為是一種較新的現象，但薩克斯回顧了舊石器時代的覓食時代，以表明全球化的相互聯係如何與人類曆史及其發展同時發生。

薩克斯繪製了人類曆史上推進全球化的七個時代

舊石器時代（公元前 70,000-10,000 年）：史前、覓食、遊牧。
新石器時代（公元前10,000-3,000年）：人類開始耕種和定居。
馬術時代（3,000-1,000）：馬的馴化和通訊的進步。 這使得遠程貿易和通訊成為可能，而這對於全球化的升級至關重要。
古典時代（公元前 1,000 年至公元 1,500 年）：第一個大規模帝國興起。
海洋時代（公元1800-1500年）：當這些帝國向陸地和海洋擴張時。
工業時代（公元1800-2000年）：英國和美國等少數社會利用科學技術來推動生產和增加財富。
數字時代（公元 2000-2023 年）：當前全球互聯和相互依存的時代。[2]
薩克斯在談到數字時代時寫道：

“我們正在從霸權時代轉向多個地區強國共存的多極世界。 與工業時代相比，無處不在的信息流動使經濟和政治全球化更加直接和緊迫。 我們已經看到世界經濟某一部分的小問題如何在幾天內造成全球範圍的金融恐慌和經濟崩潰。”[3]

盡管傑弗裏·薩克斯看到了每個時代的轉變和區別，但他在小說中聲稱全球化是人類故事和方向的重要組成部分。 每個時代都會帶來新的挑戰、維持和破壞生命的新方法，但他非常尖銳地指出，在經濟不平等加劇、環境破壞和大規模地緣政治轉變的數字時代，我們必須如何前進。 [4]

薩克斯似乎對工業時代黎明以來所帶來的進步相當樂觀，但他也對最富有的人和最貧窮的人之間的增長差距發出警告。 他詳細介紹了聯合國渴望的17個可持續發展目標，其中包括全民醫療保健、受教育機會、性別平等、控製氣候變化等。這些目標都是崇高的理想，而曾為許多美國外籍領導人提供谘詢的薩克斯 在這些主題上，強調需要在全球範圍內達成共識和問責製。

從表麵上看，薩克斯的書在措辭上似乎相當進步，但一些進步人士認為他的著作隻是談論變革，而沒有真正倡導其實施。 一位評論家這樣評價這本書，

“《全球化時代》應該被閱讀、研究和討論，但不能通過其作為進步論著的視角來看待。 它應該被視為統治階級撰寫和推廣的文本，旨在操縱和破壞我們迫切需要的根本性變革的浪潮。” 評論鏈接

在一個播客中，薩克斯建議對美國政治結構進行革命性變革，例如廢除總統和修改憲法，他認為這與數字時代不再相關。

最後，傑弗裏·薩克斯描繪了全球化曆史和未來的清晰圖景，盡管他無疑是一個理想主義者，但我相信這些理想植根於實現共同利益和相互保證建設的目標。

The Ages of Globalization, Geography, Technology, and Institutions

https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-ages-of-globalization/9780231193740
Jeffrey D. Sachs  June 2020
Columbia University Press

Today’s most urgent problems are fundamentally global. They require nothing less than concerted, planetwide action if we are to secure a long-term future. But humanity’s story has always been on a global scale. In this book, Jeffrey D. Sachs, renowned economist and expert on sustainable development, turns to world history to shed light on how we can meet the challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century.

Sachs takes readers through a series of seven distinct waves of technological and institutional change, starting with the original settling of the planet by early modern humans through long-distance migration and ending with reflections on today’s globalization. Along the way, he considers how the interplay of geography, technology, and institutions influenced the Neolithic revolution; the role of the horse in the emergence of empires; the spread of large land-based empires in the classical age; the rise of global empires after the opening of sea routes from Europe to Asia and the Americas; and the industrial age. The dynamics of these past waves, Sachs demonstrates, offer fresh perspective on the ongoing processes taking place in our own time—a globalization based on digital technologies. 

Sachs emphasizes the need for new methods of international governance and cooperation to prevent conflicts and to achieve economic, social, and environmental objectives aligned with sustainable development. The Ages of Globalization is a vital book for all readers aiming to make sense of our rapidly changing world.

Review – Sachs, Jeffrey D. The Ages of Globalization: Geography, Technology, and Institutions

By Tim W. Shenk

Jeffrey D. Sachs’s latest book, The Ages of Globalization (Columbia University Press, 2020) sets out to draw lessons from seven eras of human history, from the Paleolithic to the digital era.

Sachs has styled himself as a progressive in debates on global poverty, the environment and foreign and domestic policy. He has been an adviser to governments, foundations and the United Nations. He is often presented as a “savior” of national economies and a leading crusader against global poverty. This new book attempts to broaden that scope even further to present a telling of the forward march of 70,000 years of human history as a framework for the need for global cooperation to solve the world’s most pressing problems.

In order to evaluate this text, we must first go beyond the level of appearances to discuss Sachs himself, including the projects that brought him to global prominence and his current affiliations.

Sachs gained notoriety as an anticommunism expert around the end of the Cold War. The New York Times called him “probably the most important economist in the world” in the early 1990s when he traveled to Moscow to apply the “shock therapy” of free-market economics to Russian society. These policies of mass privatization Sachs oversaw led to crushing spikes in unemployment and upwards of “10 million missing men because of system change,” according to a study published in 2009 in the medical journal The Lancet. The study noted, “the Russian population lost nearly five years of life expectancy between 1991 and 1994” and also suffered rising HIV rates, higher alcoholism and drug addiction rates, as well as the effects of the acute stress related to the transition to a capitalist economy.

Sachs also was brought into Bolivia and Poland to draft similar pro-capitalist economic reforms. He has since been a special adviser to the United Nations and has advised global anti-poverty programs. His primary institutional home is as a professor at Columbia University in New York City, and he is a leading voice in the preeminent ruling-class cadre organization, the Council on Foreign Relations.

This professional trajectory shows us that Sachs has been an important organic intellectual for the ruling class for 40 years. With this understanding, we must evaluate him as not just an individual sharing his personal views, but rather see him as a representative of a ruling minority of society that requires a particular framing of past and present to maintain its power. That is, we have to be able evaluate The Ages of Globalization not primarily based on its face value, but rather work backwards based on what we know about the interests and goals of those who amplify Sachs’s voice.

The ruling capitalist class is a miniscule minority of society that owns the majority of the world’s wealth and the means to accumulate more wealth at the expense of the rest of us. They own the land, the factories, the banks and the mass media. Their representatives and hired intellectuals like Sachs shape national and international policy, populate and advise national governments and set the parameters of debate on every issue. In order for such a small minority to control the mass of the population, a powerful ideological apparatus is required. Noam Chomsky has called this “manufacturing consent” of the governed. Sachs’s book must be read as one such ideological weapon in the arsenal of the superrich.

For the sake of brevity, this review will not fully explore all of Sachs’s arguments. It will be enough here to encourage a critical reading of The Ages of Globalization based on a response to the author’s two basic premises. These are: that “humanity has always been globalized” (p.23), and that humanity must seek global cooperation to tackle the world’s pressing problems (p.21).

First, leading scholars define globalization as a much more recent phenomenon, dating to the latter half of the 20th century. (See sociologists of globalization Philip McMichael, William I. Robinson and Leslie Sklair.) It’s true that humans have always been on the move and have always traded ideas and things. But that’s not globalization. Globalization refers to the rise of a global production system developed by transnational corporations that came about under the capitalist mode of production.

Global production became possible with the cheapening of transportation and communications technologies driven by the computer chip. Around the same time, it became necessary for capital to break down economic barriers related to national borders to maintain or increase profit margins in an era of tight capitalist competition. The specific goal of globalization, then, is to secure the profits of an increasingly globalized capitalist class. Saying that “humanity has always been globalized” obscures the historic period in whi

ch this phenomenon has arisen, and for what reason. Sachs removes all serious analysis of class, power and wealth from his telling of history.

Sachs’s second major argument is compelling on the surface but is, I believe, deliberately misleading and ultimately insidious. Sachs argues that all of humanity must come together as one to battle society’s most urgent concerns, “including the control of human-induced climate change; the conservation of biodiversity; the control and reversal of the massive pollution of the air, soils, and oceans; the proper uses and governance of the internet; the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons; the avoidance of mass forced migrations; and the ever-present challenge of avoiding or ending violent conflicts” (p.21). These problems are certainly of concern to all of us. Our lives, the lives of our grandchildren and the survival of many other species on planet Earth depend on solving them.

Yet this global call to arms – or rather cooperation – is framed in such a way that it too obscures the relationship of the capitalist class to the rest of us. It’s not all of humanity who is to blame for the climate emergency. The 2017 Carbon Majors Report detailed how just 100 corporations are responsible for 71 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. The climate emergency is not about us littering less, recycling more or taking shorter showers. It’s about a system of governance that condones and facilitates the profits of a few over the survival of the planet.

All of the most pressing global problems on Sachs’s list are problems because of the relationship of capital to the rest of humanity and the planet. Forced migration only becomes an issue of its current proportion when people are dispossessed of their means to live where they are, which comes about because of capital’s continued expansion and privatization. Violent conflict has only become more incessant under capital’s drive to control sources of wealth. See the 2003 Iraq War as a prime example. Capital has a voracious, insatiable need to grow, to accumulate more and more, to outcompete other capitals – and it cannot and will not “cooperate” except when it’s necessary for a public relations photo op.

In short, Sachs’s list of global problems is missing the biggest problem of all: capitalism and those who defend it. The interlocking web of institutions that protect the right to privately own ludicrous amounts of money and property over our right to live is what is ultimately threatening any sort of sustainable future. That Sachs would obscure this fact is revealing of his position and motivation. Denying the existence of social classes with oppositional interests is in itself an act of class warfare.

The Ages of Globalization should be read, studied and discussed, but not through the lens of its billing as a progressive treatise. It should be treated as a text penned and promoted by the ruling class, meant to manipulate and derail the groundswell for fundamental change we so desperately need.

Comments

David Rommereim says:
March 30, 2021 at 10:45 pm
This is very helpful. It has reminded me that there are those few who are provided wonderful public acclaim yet, produce so very little for the commoners. Thank you for this introduction to his book. I will read with what I call a “hermeneutic of suspicion.”

DLGP.com | Mutually Assured Construction says:
February 2, 2023 at 1:05 am
[…] “The Ages of Globalization should be read, studied and discussed, but not through the lens of its billing as a progressive treatise. It should be treated as a text penned and promoted by the ruling class, meant to manipulate and derail the groundswell for fundamental change we so desperately need.” Link to Review […]

Doctor of Leadership in Global Perspectives: Crafting Ministry in an Interconnected World
Mutually Assured Construction

BY: MICHAEL SIMMONS ON FEB 1, 2023
https://blogs.georgefox.edu/dlgp/mutually-assured-construction/

They say do not judge a book by its cover, but I certainly judged this book by its title alone. The term globalization has become white noise, a contextual assumption, within the political, economic, and social structures. However, Jeffery Sachs’ book The Ages of Globalization provides a narrative, yet historical arch of globalizations, which he defines as the, “[…] interlinkages of diverse societies across large geographical areas.” He continues, “These interlinkages are technological, economic, institutional, cultural, and geopolitical.”[1] I found his work to be helpful as a contextual overview of globalization’s development, and paradigmatically enhancing.

Globalization is often posed as a more recent phenomenon, but Sachs points back to the foraging era of the Paleolithic Age to show how the interlinkages of globalizations are a concurrent with human history and its development.

Sachs charts 7 ages in human history that advanced globalization

Paleolithic Age (70,000-10,000 BC): Prehistoric, foraging, nomadic.
Neolithic Age (10,000-3,000 BC): Humans began farming and settling land.
Equestrian Age (3,000-1,000): Domesticating of the horse and advancements in communication. This enabled distant trade and communication, both which are essential to the escalation in globalization.
Classical Age (1,000 BC-1,500 AD): The first large scale empires galvanized.
Ocean Age (1800-1500 AD): When those empires expanded across land and sea.
Industrial Age (1800-2000 AD): A few societies, Great Britain and the United States namely, utilized science and technology to drive production and increase wealth.
Digital Age (2000-2023 AD): The current age of global interconnection and interdependence.[2]
Sachs writes of the digital age:

“We are moving from an era of hegemonic power to a multipolar world, in which several regional powers coexist. The ubiquitous flows of information have globalized economics and politics more directly and urgently than in the Industrial Age. We have seen how a hiccup in one part of the world economy, […] can within days create a global-scale financial panic and economic crash.”[3]

Though he sees the shift and distinction of each age, Jefferey Sachs makes the novel claim that globalization is an essential part of the human story, and orientation. Each age presents new challenges, new ways of sustaining and destroying life, but he’s quite pointed about how we must move forward now in the digital age with rising economic inequality, environmental destruction, and massive geopolitical shifts.[4]

Sachs seems quite optimistic about the advances brought about since the dawn of the Industrial Age to present, but also warns of the growth disparity between the wealthiest people and the poorest. He details 17 sustainable development goals which the United Nations aspire to, which include universal healthcare, access to education, gender equality, control of climate change, etc. These goals are high ideals, and Sachs, who has advised many American foreign-national leaders on these topics, stressed the need for consensus and accountability on a global scale.

Upon face value, Sachs book seems rather progressive in its verbiage, but some progressives feel his work only speaks of change, without truly advocating its implementation. One reviewer wrote of the book,

“The Ages of Globalization should be read, studied and discussed, but not through the lens of its billing as a progressive treatise. It should be treated as a text penned and promoted by the ruling class, meant to manipulate and derail the groundswell for fundamental change we so desperately need.” Link to Review

In one podcast, Sachs suggested revolutionary changes within the American political structure, such as the elimination of a president, and a revisioning of the Constitution, which he feels is no longer relevant for the digital age.

In the end, Jeffery Sachs paints a clear picture of globalizations history and future, and though he is certainly an idealist, I believe those ideals are rooted in an aim toward the common good, and mutually assured construction.