At some point in one's life, self subversion may be the main way to transcend yourself.

At some point in one's life, self subversion can be a major way of transcending oneself.

This book contains Hechman 20 articles written since 1986, is his summary of his academic thinking, but also a rare spiritual autobiography. Hechman, in his book, has Rethought, challenged, reassessed and further developed his main views on social change and economic development, and his self subversion and self affirmation reveal to us how a scholar with such a great mind works. The book is a more valuable collection of autobiographical articles, and readers will see how deeply he is involved in some of the most important historical events of the 20th century, and to understand the development of the thought of the "deep thinker" and the way in which his profound insights come from.

"Albert Hechman Biography"

A Jewish middle-class family born in Berlin, Germany, when he was 16, Hechman became a young socialist supporter, joined the German Social Democratic Youth Organization, and participated in the anti-Nazi movement. After the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Hechman volunteered to join the French army to confront the Nazi forces in Germany. After France surrendered to the German Nazi government in 1940, Hechman was involved in anti-Nazi underground rebellion in Marseille. After working for a while, he became the target of the Nazi manhunt and was forced to leave France, leaving Europe along the Pyrenees trail.

Hechman arrived in New York, USA, in January 1941. 1956, as a visiting professor at Yale University. 1958, published the Strategy of economic development, put forward the unbalanced development strategy. Then Gairen Professor of international relations at Columbia University. He was a professor of political economics at Harvard University in 1964. He became a professor of political economics at Harvard University in 1974 and was a professor at the Institute of Advanced Research in Princeton until his retirement in 1985. Hechman, who died at the age of 97 in 2012, Fukuyama, the neo-conservative political scientist of the United States, recalls Hechman's main contribution, particularly the epochal significance of reactionary rhetoric, and beware of the conservative opposition to all reform efforts with negative results, but also to remind Hechman of the problems of revolutionary reform, The management of democratic reforms with slow but steady development should be advocated.

Paradox is the source of the passion of the thinker, the thinker without paradox is like a lover without emotion: insignificant mediocrity ... The supreme paradox of all thoughts is to try to find out what the mind cannot think. ”

Give Solen Kerkegour this passage to our virtual interview protagonist Albert Hechman (1915-2012), he is probably willing to accept. We can almost see the spread of the paradox in all his writings, he will tell you not to believe in the only right path, not to expect a definite order, not to have a clear worldview, not to embrace a claim to be the only truth, and he will add a necessary footnote, Don't take all these notions of "not believing" as a completely worthy creed, they offer an attitude that only reminds you of the importance of keeping your mind open and passionate about what might happen.

As for his life, Hechman like to use his childhood stories as a metaphor: in a discussion with his father, he found that his father had no worldview. This really shocked him, because he thought that anyone must have a "worldview" in his youth. In later memories, he said he remembered the moment, because "it condensed and foreshadowed a problem that I had been facing for more than half a century since then." The question is: Is it a good thing or a bad idea to insist on a firm opinion in all events?

And his life's conclusion is: "My life experience and thought can be summed up as: how I gradually found that father was actually right." ”

The legend of uncertainty about change

Beijing News: I want to start with the most legendary history of your Life, in 1940, France submitted to Hitler to set up the Vichy regime and promised that the French government would have to surrender any illegal French citizen living on French soil to Germany without preconditions. You were working to help anti-Nazism in danger and the anti-fascist refugees stranded in France to emigrate to the United States as soon as possible, including later political thinkers Arendt. What impact did that experience have on your thoughts and academic development?

Hechman: In 1933, I was in a hurry to flee Germany in the face of the danger of being arrested for participating in anti-Nazi political activities, and I was helped by many people on the flight. I would think that saving people out of danger is always the most exciting and memorable job. Regarding my experience in 1940, I recommend that you go to see our rescue team's core character Varian Fley's book "Unconditional extradition." Fry is hidden in the infinite power, on the surface is a "naïve foreign", an American civilian only with a list in his pocket, to save people one by one! In that dark era, the rescue was so hard, but Fry and his committee finally rescued nearly 3,000 people. Fry is the hero of our time, and if he knew from the beginning that he would be faced with difficulties, he might never be able to achieve his present success. And this idea, I have benefited greatly.

BEIJING News: You have been insisting on a point of view, there is no ideal mode of development, so that a country can calmly solve the problem in order to effectively develop their own political and economic development, many times, the change of a country, like Fry's story, is a surprising result, like a legend.

Hechman: Yes. I have always been skeptical about the search for "The only best way". I strongly disagree with the model that certain prerequisites must be fully met to achieve some kind of take-off. By contrast, I have put forward the idea of an inverted order, in the case of development, there is often a situation in which the cart is reversed, for example, in a country where some people "recklessly" begin a particular economic activity that "arbitrarily" requires that it be maintained, thus contributing to the progress of other economic activities. Any change can only take place as a surprising result, or it may not happen at all, and it will be suppressed by the forces that maintain the status quo.

The Beijing News: The unpredictable changes, how gray the conclusion is for those who yearn for good changes in the surrounding society. By comparison, how much we love it-"All good things come together."

Hechman: People like what intellectuals say about these things that seem to be more optimistic (or extremely pessimistic, so that people act as cautionary advice). Before me, many sociologists liked to imitate Newton's mechanics, thinking that social change must obey a series of iron laws that they imagined. Now that we have come to the age of quantum mechanics, let us be humble--awe of the unpredictability of social change itself, and respect for social change tend to evolve from some unique constellation. A country's development path does not exist a series of definite historical tasks: to achieve territorial integrity, to ensure national authority, to mobilize public participation in the management of the country without losing control. For the developed countries, they did these tasks with ease, but there was no such a calm and orderly opportunity in the latter countries. What the latter countries need to do is to promote reform according to the existing conditions, to be good at obtaining power from social contradictions and conflicts, rather than waiting to be assigned a definite historical task, in which honesty is the best strategy.

There's a cunning trick in East Germany's history.

The Beijing News: When I say in this book, my favorite is the first chapter "Exit, appeal and DDR fate", I hope you do not feel offended. I was surprised to quit--calling on this simple theoretical structure to have such a powerful interpretation.

Hechman: This chapter focuses on the events that took place at the heart of the collapse of Ddr in 1989, the first time I have studied Germany since I left Germany in 1933, and the major turning point in German history in recent years has brought a whole new meaning to the theoretical framework I have put forward. This concept comes from my economics theory: consumers have two choices to quit or call on when they feel that the quality of the purchased goods has slipped or the service and benefits gained have waned. Exit refers to leave directly, believe that other places can get better goods and services.

The appeal is to complain, complain, or organize together to complain about the protest, in order to directly promote the quality of goods or services to recover from the downturn. Quitting is a private act that requires no coordination with others and calls for time and effort and cost. Simply put, when it's easier to quit, the appeal is hard to come by. Withdrawal would undermine the foundation of the appeal.

Beijing News: East Germany next to the west with their own people, so the East German people have been a possibility, fled to West Germany. When everyone wanted to flee to West Germany, the east was crushed. Does this indicate that, in the political realm, as Yeats's poetry writes, when good people lose their faith in choice, and the bad man is filled with fiery passion, society collapses?

Hechman: Your conclusion is too simple. Since the establishment of the first day, the East German people have the possibility of departure to West Germany, so the East Germany basically did not appear as Poland, Hungary, the kind of the epic campaign against tyranny, because it has a safety valve, let those disgruntled people go to West Germany, the domestic stability. By 1989, it seemed that most of the people who would have been able to take political responsibility had left, there was no hope of change in the East Germany, but in the silence of Despair, East Germany had a great change, and the fuse was that more people wanted to leave, and perhaps just wanted to leave secretly, because it was not allowed Quitting this private behavior becomes a public act, "we're leaving" into "we're going to stay here and change Society". At the time of the collapse of East Germany, the exit and appeal were friendly and mutually reinforcing, and they joined forces to bring the east into history.

The Beijing News: we can call the development of Poland, Hungary and other countries as a democratic transition, but the East Germany is a disappeared country, as a country, this withdrawal and appeal to strengthen each other, together to destroy a pressure-oriented system, but also did not allow society to develop opportunities. I have interviewed the last prime minister of East Germany, Hans Modro, and he has repeatedly lamented that it is too late to be caught off guard.

Hechman: In an age of high ideology, people will always be easily cheered by the end of a system that does not conform to humanity and justice, but history does not end and society still needs development, and such cheers itself is against morality. Those who cheered for the end of the East Germany, if they understood the difficulties encountered after the unification of the two virtues, would probably have deeper thinking. Modelo said it was too late, based on maintaining the system he was loyal to. In Poland, Ceskoslovensko, Hungary, dissidents and the opposition have stayed at home, after the collapse of the old totalitarian regime, these countries have evolved a pluralistic political ecology, with its own new vitality. In East Germany, the opposition has gone to West Germany, the East Germany in the dying on the occasion of the emergence of a final strength, there has been a very wide range of resistance movement, but the movement of the waves only to the brink of collapse, but did not reach the new field. In a visit to West German radio, East German writer Christa to express his sadness: "(Thousands of young people turn their backs on the motherland) why did they leave so easily?" Why are they silent? "History has its own tricks, and the demise of East Germany is a punishment-a punishment for its long-standing repression of withdrawal and call for action."

On questioning the personality basis of a democratic society

The Beijing News: Arendt, who extradited to the United States with your help, said that "independent thinking is flexible and free from the most basic will." An independent person will not seek the rules and decrees, but for those who lack independence, everything is rule-based. "Your point of view is very close to hers. It is doubtful that we always believe that a person who is passionate about something and acts very forcefully must have a certain principle that guides its actions, especially in the field of public life.

Hechman: This kind of independent person that Arendt said is exactly what I hope to be the democratic political personality, I think this kind of personality just can constitute the microcosmic foundation of good democracy. It is a disaster to be sure of a certain idea, whether in the field of private life or in the public domain. People who hold a whole set of ideas about all the issues of the moment will also betray their personalities, personalities and selves. A man who relies on a single idea to act passionately and energetically, often brings great disaster to the world, think of Hitler, he has so passionately declared that to create a new, general public community of nations, but followed by an unprecedented catastrophe. My ideal democratic personality is to be able to learn to cherish the ideas that you have, and to keep your mind open, to reconcile and enjoy the pleasure of winning a debate and to be a good listener.

Beijing News: In your life, is there ever a person with such an independent personality?

Hechman: When I was young I felt that if a person does not have a mature and complete worldview, it is always a flaw. When I came to Italy in 1936, I had an important person in my life--my brother-in-law, Eugenio Collorny (arrested in 1938, killed in 1944), an active anti-fascist who thought that he would never take anything for granted without his own questioning. Many theories argue that a person must understand that the situation is fully understood before action, a belief that is a prerequisite for action. But questioning can actually inspire people to realize that the ideological shackles of political strategy and the limitations of a person's knowledge can make the institution free from its own reliance on these understandings.

Beijing News: How to understand the question is creative?

Hechman: Do not stubbornly indulge in a particular ideology, and their devotion to extremely dangerous political activities, have a close connection, they are in the search for social, political problems in the process of the answer to the kind of questioning and the spirit of exploration, to promote their action, Seeking change in an environment of suppressed freedom of thought, struggling in a world that feels manifestly unjust and the authorities have adopted an intolerable policy of ignorance. Their words go on, proving that questioning can inspire action without weakening and impeding action. I admire such an intellectual gesture very much. For me, the combination of the enthusiasm for active participation in public affairs and the openness of intellect has made it an ideal micro-foundation.

Note: Hechman's answer in a virtual conversation is excerpted from the tendency to self-subversion (commercial Press, January 2014)

Wen/Kuei