欧元的想象共同体.doc

The Euro 欧元s Imagined Community20/03/2012 By Robert Shiller Great significance意义；重要性；意思 probably too much has been attached附加的；依恋的，充满爱心的to a possible breakup of the eurozone. 欧元区Many believe that such a breakup if, say, Greece abandoned the euro and reintroduced再引入；再提出；再介绍 the drachma n. 古希腊的重量单位；古希腊的银币名 would constitute组成，构成；建立；任命a political failure that would ultimately最后；根本；基本上threaten Europes stability. Speaking before the Bundestag 德语(德国)联邦议院(下院) last October, German Chancellor Angela Merkel put the matter starkly: 严酷地；明显地；毫无掩饰地“Nobody should believe that another half-century of peace and prosperity in Europe is guaranteed. It is not. So I say: If the euro fails, Europe fails. That must not happen. We have a historical obligation义务；职责；债务to protect by all prudent谨慎的；明辨的means at our disposal处理；支配；清理；安排Europes unification process begun by our forefathers more than fifty years ago after centuries of hatred憎恨；怨恨；敌意and spilling of blood. None of us can foresee what the consequences后果，结果；影响（consequence的复数）would be if we were to fail.”Europe has had more than 250 wars since the beginning of the Renaissance文艺复兴in the mid-fifteenth century. So, it is not alarmist n. 杞人忧天者；大惊小怪者adj. 危言耸听的；忧虑的to worry aloud about preserving the sense of community that Europe has enjoyed for the past half-century.In a fascinating, but largely overlooked book,How Enemies Become Friends,Charles A. Kupchanreviews many historical case studies of how nation-states with a long history of conflict managed eventually to become secure and peaceful friends. His examples include the formation of the Swiss Confederation联盟；邦联；同盟(1291-1848); the creation of the Iroquois易洛魁人（北美印第安人）；易洛魁语系Confederation in the century or so before the first Europeans arrived in America; the establishment of the United States (1776-1789); the unification of Italy (1861), and of Germany (1871); the Norway-Sweden rapprochement友好；恢复邦交；友善关系的建立(1905-1935); the formation形态；队形of the United Arab Emirates (1971); and the Argentine-Brazilian rapprochement of the 1970s.Kupchan also examines检查；调查some notable值得注意的，显著的；著名的failures of friendship: the United States Civil War (1861-65); the end of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1923); the breakdown of Sino-Soviet relations (1960); the demise死亡，终止；转让；传位of the United Arab Republic (1961); and the expulsion驱逐；开除of Singapore from Malaysia (1965).Kupchan never mentions a common currency货币；通货as a condition of comity礼让，友谊among nations; in fact, economic integration集成；综合 tends to follow, rather than precede . 领先，在之前；优于，高于, achievement of political unity. 团结；一致；联合；个体Rather, he regards diplomatic adj. 外交的；外交上的；老练的engagement 婚约；约会；交战；诺言as the essential element to strategic战略上的，战略的accommodation 住处，膳宿；调节；和解；预订铺位and mutual trust, and this is more easily accomplished if the states have similar social orders and ethnicities. 种族划分But Kupchans analysis implies that a common currency can help nation-states to build lasting friendships, for he argues that friendship-building is most secure有担保的after an identity-changing “narrative” takes root, leading to a sense that the nations are like members of a family. A common currency can help to generate生成的；发生的such a narrative. 叙述；故事；讲述For example, the Iroquois tell the story of a great warrior战士，勇士；鼓吹战争的人 and skilled orator named Hiawatha, who, traveling with the mystic Deganawidah, negotiated the treaties that established their confederation. He advocated new condolence ceremonies to commemorate lost warriors and to replace wars of vengeance. 复仇；报复；报仇The new narrative was reinforced with physical symbols, 符号；象征；标志akin. 蛇行 to a currency or a flag标记；衰退；枯萎, in the form of belts皮带（belt的复数）；带子of beads made of wampum, the Iroquois money. A survivingHiawatha belt, dating from the eighteenth century (and probably a copy of earlier belts), contains symbols of the five nations Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk much as the US flag contains stars representing each of its states. The belt also preserves Hiawathas status as the confederations forefather.Flags may be a more inspiring symbol of common destiny, but most of us do not carry them around, and many people never display them, except perhaps at major sports events; their origin, rooted in battle standards, can seem uncomfortably aggressive侵略性的；好斗的；有进取心的；有闯劲的. There is a European Union flag, but it is rarely seen anywhere but outside of EU government buildings.A British schoolteacher expressed the sentiment . 感情，情绪；情操；观点；多愁善感well in 1910: “We suspect the man who talks patriotism爱国主义；爱国心，爱国精神and imperialism帝国主义, just as we suspect him who talks religion or any of the things that are of deepest value in life. We think him either a humbug or a shallow浅的；肤浅的person who has not realized the inadequacy不适当，不充分；不完全；不十分of words to express what is deepest.”And yet national currency, which we display every time we make a cash purchase, 购买；紧握；起重装置arouses no such suspicions. So currency works as a constant, if latent, reminder of identity. In using it, one has the psychological experience of participating with others in a common venture, and thus developing a sense of trust in both the endeavor努力；尽力（等于endeavour）and ones fellow-participants. 参与的；有关系的Every currency union chooses symbols of common cultural values for its coins and notes, and these symbols become part of the sense of shared identity. We see the human faces on the notes so often that they come to seem like family, creating what the political scientist Benedict Anderson called the “imagined community” that underlies and sustains维持；支撑，承担；忍受；供养；证实a sense of nationhood.The euro notes feature v. 使有特色；起重要作用（feature的过去分词）bridges as they appeared throughout Europe in various epochs新纪元；新时代, rather than images of actual structures结构；构造；建筑物that might seem to imply preferential优先的；选择的；特惠的；先regard for some countries. The town of Spijkenisse in the Netherlands is now in the process of building all seven bridges depicted 描述；描画on the euro notes. But the bridges remain symbols of European culture, in which presumably all Europeans share.Modern electronic technology will not eliminate消除；排除paper notes and coins soon, so there is still plenty of time to make use of the symbolic value of a common currency. Indeed, even if the eurozone breaks up, each European country could adopt a different currency but retain common symbols. For example, there could be a Greek euro, a Spanish euro, etc. The notes could even show the same pictures of bridges.Even electronic transactions. 交易；事务；办理；会报，学报 should be able to generate symbols of peace, trust, and unity. The point is that if Europe can keep these symbols alive, even a eurozone breakup would not have the dire直接的；直系的；亲身的；恰好的political consequences for Europe that so many predict.人们把欧元区可能崩溃的影响看得很严重也许是过于严重了。许多人认为欧元区的崩溃比如希腊放弃欧元，重新使用其货币德拉克马（Drachma）将意味着政治上的失败并最终会威胁到欧洲的稳定。德国总理默克尔在去年10月的联邦议会演讲中毫不掩饰地指出： “没有人应相信欧洲肯定能享有另50年的和平与繁荣。这是不能肯定的。因此，我要说：如果欧元失败，欧洲也将失败。这决不能发生。我们身上承载着历史的使命，我们必须动用可以动用的一切审慎办法，捍卫欧洲的统一进程。五十多年前，在经历了千百年的仇恨和流血之后，我们的先辈开创了欧洲统一的进程。如果我们失败，没有人能预见会导致什么样的后果。” 为何为保持欧洲统一忧心忡忡 自15世纪中期文艺复兴以来，欧洲经历了超过250次战争。因此，为保留存在了50多年的欧洲统一的观念感到忧心忡忡绝不是没有理由的。 在引人入胜但被大多数人忽略的著作化敌为友（How Enemies Become Friends）中，查尔斯库普乾（Charles A. Kupchan）研究了许多长时间冲突对立的国家，最终如何成为可靠与友好伙伴的历史案例。他的例子包括瑞士联邦（Swiss Confederation）的形成（1291-1848）、在欧洲人首次踏上美洲领土约一个世纪前易洛魁部落联盟（Iroquois Confederation）的形成、美国的建立（1776-1789）、意大利（1861）和德国（1871）的统一、挪威瑞典友好关系的重建（1905-1935）、阿联酋的形成（1971）及阿根廷和巴西的重新修好（70年代）。 库普乾还探讨了一些著名的化敌为友未果的例子：美国内战（1861-1865）、英日同盟（Anglo-Japanese Alliance）的结束（1923）、中苏关系的破裂（1960）、阿拉伯联合共和国（United Arab Republic）的分裂（1961年）及新加坡脱离马拉西亚独立（1965年）。 库普乾并没有提及共同货币是国家间友好的条件。事实上，经济一体化总是在政治联合之后（而不是之前）才出现的。库普乾认为外交才是战略融合和互信的基本要素，而具有相似社会秩序和民族的国家间更容易建立这种关系。 共同货币可促使民族团结 但库普乾的分析也表明，共同货币有助于民族国家建立持久的友好关系。他指出，友好关系的建设在身份变换“叙述”（narrative）完成时最为稳固。此时，各民族彼此觉得像是同一大家族的成员。共同货币有助于产生这样的“叙述”。 比如，易洛魁人中流传着一个关于伟大勇士和演说家海华沙（Hiawatha）的传说。他与神秘的德甘纳威达（Deganawidah）一起穿行于美洲大陆，谈判确定了易洛魁部落联盟的相关条约。他建议使用新的悼念仪式来纪念死去的战士，从而避免冤冤相报的战争。 这一新“叙述”进一步由实物符号来强化，类似货币或旗帜，是一种用易洛魁货币贝壳做成的数珠带。现今保存完好的一条海华沙带大约是18世纪的产物，很有可能是更早的海华沙带的复制品包括了五个易洛魁部落塞内卡（Seneca）、卡育加（Cayuga）、奥内达加（Onondaga）、奥奈达（Oneida）和莫霍克（Mohawk）的符号。这与美国国旗包括了象征各州的五角星类似。这条海华沙带也保