CGTN时评丨美国“民主移植”文化基因的反噬
“你们是世上的光。城立在山上，是不能隐藏的。” 1630年，温斯罗普布道时引用了马太福音5章14节耶稣的登山宝训中关于盐和光的隐喻，提醒清教徒殖民者，他们的新社区将成为一座“山巅之城”。由此，美国人相信自己的国家是“山巅之城”，自己则是“上帝的选民”。
"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid." John Winthrop's often quoted adaptation from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount was meant to remind puritan colonists in America in 1630 that their new community would soon become "a city on a hill." Since then, Americans have trumpeted the idea that their country is a shining nation on a hill offering light to the world and that they are God's chosen people.
美国历史学家方纳认为，许多美国人相信美国的政策和体制代表了一个应为其他国家所仿效的榜样。
They believe, as American historian Eric Foner observed, that American policies and institutions provide other countries with a model they should follow.
作为一个多种族的移民国家，美国得以成为一个政治共同体的基础是拯救世界的“山巅之城”政治神学使命。“五月花号”传说等给美国的建国历程罩上了神秘的基督教宗教色彩，从禁奴运动、禁酒运动到罗斯福新政等，基督教运动都是美国历次重大变化的最主要推动力。时至今日，植根于基督教宗教信仰的政治神学使命感深入渗透到美国政治和社会生活之中。
As a multi-ethnic country of immigrants, the U.S. bases its political community on the political-theological mission of saving the world as "a city on a hill." All U.S. presidents, from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama, have quoted the phrase from Winthrop's sermon on Christian charity.
The Mayflower, the ship that carried a group of English settlers to Massachusetts in 1620, enveloped the founding of America with a mysterious hue of Christianity. From the Abolitionist Movement to the Temperance Movement to Roosevelt's New Deal, Christian movements were the main driver of America's major social changes. To this day, a political-theological missionary sense rooted in Christianity runs deeply in the country.
约翰•昆西•亚当斯在1821年的独立日曾宣布，美国“只会去国外寻找撒旦并将它们摧毁。她真诚地希望所有人都获得自由和独立。但她将只是自身自由与独立的捍卫者和支持者。”
On Independence Day in 1821, John Quincy Adams said, "[America] is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own."
这句话准确地描绘出美国的文化基因所具有的天然悖论：一方面，坚持美国例外主义，把美国自身看作是一个自由的神话和化身，把美国的成功归结于独一无二的美国精神；另一方面，坚持美式民主的普世性，对外以“自由和独立”等名义大肆进行“民主移植”，将与美国的意识形态、价值观和生活方式等“不同”的其他国家和文明形态，要么视为“美国的敌人”需要被其“摧毁”，要么视为“落后国家”需要被其改造得与美国“相同”。
This is an accurate representation of a paradox underlying America's cultural genes. Americans are enthusiastic believers in the exceptionalism of the U.S., which they see as an embodiment of freedom, attributing its success to a uniquely American spirit. In the meantime, they insist that American-style democracy is universal and therefore persistently try to implant it elsewhere in the name of freedom and independence. Other countries or civilizations with different ideologies, values and lifestyles are seen as either enemies that have to be destroyed or backward outposts that need to be transformed.
正因为坚持美国例外主义，美国在使用武力和人权问题上一直是一个单边主义者，美国仅仅遵守那些内容与国内法所规定的内容相符的国际条约。正因为坚持美式民主的普世性，“民主移植”和意识形态输出本质上是美国国家利益最大化和试图统治世界的选择性工具，却被赋予拯救所有人的政治神学使命。正因为美国“只是自身自由与独立的捍卫者和支持者”，本质上美国维护的是自身利益。实用主义是美国重要的哲学传统，也是美国人精神面貌和行为方式的写照。
Thanks to this belief that America has a unique and special role to play in the world, the country is always a unilateralist when it comes to human rights and the use of force. It abides by international treaties only when they are in line with its own laws. The notion that America also has a manifest spiritual destiny means that its attempt to export democracy and ideology and dominate the world is packaged as a political-theological mission to save the world.
But thanks to the perception that it is the "champion and vindicator only of her own," all America has done is to uphold its own interests. Pragmatism is an important philosophical tradition in the United States as well as a reflection of the mentality and behavioral patterns of Americans.
因此，哪怕美国内部的精神不一致性在不断增强，在对外部世界特别是“美国的敌人”的问题上，却有着高度的一致性——“不允许有任何美国的对手或威胁存在”是美国称霸世界以来的基本社会共识。基于该共识，对外发动战争或者进行“民主移植”在美国具有广泛的民意基础。并且，塑造共同的外部敌人、对手或威胁，不仅有利于美国对外转嫁危机，而且有利于弥合美国的内部分裂。
Therefore, despite a widening ideological divide internally, America remains united when dealing with the outside world, especially those it regards as enemies. Zero tolerance for the existence of any rival or threat to the U.S. has been a fundamental social consensus since the country became a global hegemon. The consensus can woo widespread public support when America wages wars on foreign soil. So the creation of a common external enemy, rival or threat can help to shift attention from domestic crises, but also serve to mend internal divisions.
然而，美国对外进行“民主移植”的失败远多于成功。
Yet, America's democracy implantation efforts fail far more than they succeed.
独立战争后，美国北方确立了资本主义制度并致力于向非洲遣返黑人。1821年美国在西非沿海地区购买了一块土地作为黑人的流放地，并于1847年支持美国黑人在这块土地上独立建国，利比里亚正式成立。建立在一片荒芜的土地上的利比里亚，几乎完全照搬美国宪法和政治制度，被世人称为小美国。这个美国进行“民主移植”的范例自建国到2003年经历了上百年的内战，社会矛盾始终不断，今天已经变成全世界最穷的国家之一。
After the independence war, America adopted a capitalist system and began to send black slaves back to Africa. In 1821, it bought land on the coast of West Africa for freed slaves and allowed them to set up their independent country, Liberia, in 1847. Built on barren land, the new nation almost completely copied the American Constitution and political system, gaining the title of "Little America." This early pioneer in copying America's democracy nevertheless fought a civil war for over a century after its establishment, until 2003. Plagued by incessant social unrest, Liberia is one of the world's poorest countries today.
美国强行军事介入和“政治改造”其他国家的失败案例更是屡见不鲜，在越南、伊拉克、阿富汗等不断遭遇挫折，更有喀布尔上演西贡时刻的说法。20年的阿富汗战争不仅构成了一个充满讽刺的从塔利班到塔利班的轮回，更见证了美国从2002年时任总统小布什宣布“重建一个稳定、自由、和平的阿富汗，是美国的长期承诺”，到2021年现任总统拜登表示“我们在阿富汗的任务从来不是国家建设，也不是为了建立统一的、集中的民主国家”的变化。这一变化背后，是阿富汗人民所遭受的巨大人道主义灾难。
The Vietnam War, the Iraq War, and the Saigon moment in Kabul confirm a track record of abject failure in military intervention and in transplanting democracy. America's 20-year war in Afghanistan ironically ended with the Taliban regaining power. In 2002, then U.S. president George W. Bush said, "Our commitment to a stable and free and peaceful Afghanistan is a long-term commitment." In 2021, current President Joe Biden said, "Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation- building. It was never supposed to be creating a unified, centralized democracy." Such a turn of rhetoric means nothing to Afghans who have suffered a tremendous humanitarian disaster.
不仅对外进行“民主移植”屡遭挫折，在美国内部，例外主义政治神学长期受到自由主义和文化左派的挑战。近年来，在经济全球化、产业空心化和美国人口结构变化等因素推动下，这种挑战在加剧。
The political theology of exceptionalism has, it should be said, long been challenged by liberals and cultural leftists. This is even more so in recent years as a result of economic globalization, industrial hollowing-out and America's demographic changes.
2017年的夏洛茨维尔骚乱，2020年的弗洛伊德事件……美国内部的种族暴力冲突不断发生，不仅引爆了美国多地的抗议与骚乱，而且点燃了美国的“文化战争”或者“另类内战”：陷入白人主体地位渐丧恐慌之中的一些美国人高呼“把美国夺回来”、 “你们不会取代我们”，对结构性种族歧视无比愤怒的一些美国人高呼“黑人的命也是命”、“无正义就无和平”…… 白人身份政治和多元身份政治在全美各地的对抗日趋激化，与此同时，“我们是谁”和“美国何以成为美国”这些关乎美利坚民族和国家底线问题的对立在日益凸显。
From the Charlottesville riot in 2017 to George Floyd's death in 2020, the U.S. has been plagued by racial violence. This not only triggered protests and riots, but also ignited a culture war or what can be termed an alternative civil war: Some Americans, fearing the loss of white dominance, chanted "take America back" and "you will not replace us" during protests, while others, infuriated by the country's structural racial discrimination, shouted "black lives matter" and "no justice, no peace." Confrontation between white identity politics and plural identity politics is escalating throughout the country, heightening divisions on such fundamental questions as "who are we" and "why America is America."
当保守主义和自由主义两大阵营都在将身份政治作为争夺政治权力和文化主导权的工具之时，美国内部的文化和文明冲突必将持续，也必将和种族冲突、阶层矛盾错综复杂地交织在一起，共同在解构美国人的文化认同……一定程度上，美国正在遭遇“民主移植”的反噬。
With conservatives and liberals both wielding identity politics as a weapon to gain greater political power and cultural dominance, civilizational clashes within America are bound to continue and will inevitably and inextricably intertwine with racial and class conflicts and lead to an erosion of Americans' cultural identity. To some extent, democracy implantation is backfiring on the United States.
The author, Wei Nanzhi, is a research fellow at the Institute of American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.