I believe in self-correcting modernity
WATANABE Yasushi / Professor, Keio University
November 25, 2013
The West has led the "growth" in the modern age, but haven't Western values come to an impasse?
Whenever I come across such questions, I feel uncomfortable for the following three reasons.
1. The notion of "Western values" as a bundle is akin in its crudeness to its reverse equivalent, Orientalism in the West with all its prejudices against the East. It should be noted, however, that there exists among such values a solid tradition of skepticism about untrammeled linear "growth". It is the universities, foundations, research institutes and businesses in the West that are most enthusiastically engaged in research and development of alternative models for energy and resources supply, transport and urban development. Western societies have such "reflexive" aspects as will enable the introspective correction of the excesses of modernity. Whether on the right or left, those who disregard this redeeming feature of Western societies are not too different from those prewar Japanese ideologues who insisted on "Overcoming Modernity" in justification of the Greater East Asian War.
2. The average citizens in Western countries are by no means "growth" supremacists. I have spent nearly 10 years since graduate school in the Unites States and Europe, and was teaching last month as a visiting professor at L'Institut d'Etudes Politiques (SciencesPo) de Paris, a top-notch grooming ground for the cream of French élites. On the whole, the people that I have come across there are those who care about the subtleties of human relationships around them, probably respect the tacit wisdom of daily life nurtured through the ages, and live a simple and frugal life. The same holds true for the people in the United States, of which I have visited all the states except Alaska. I am inclined to feel that these are the people who embody "Western values".
3. Since the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima No.1 Nuclear Power Plant disaster, some schools of thought in Japan have argued for the negation of modern civilization or called longingly for a virtual return to pre-modern communities. However, the images that they conjure up are so loaded with emotion and devoid of reality that they are unlikely to elicit serious responses from people in the West, except perhaps as a polite diplomatic gesture. There was a time in Western societies when "savage tribes" were romanticized as the "noble savage". But that was only as a stock character in literature, and had no policy relevance.
For these reasons, I do not subscribe to the "West at an impasse" theory. Instead, I believe in the possibility of "reflexive modernity" as the ideal as well as realistic option. In the modern age, there have been periods in which "growth" was pursued single-mindedly, to the exclusion of women and the handicapped, and placing extreme burdens on the environment. However, it is also the modern age that is providing the logical and ethical support to the efforts towards the introspective correction of these excesses.
I obviously do not claim that Western societies are completely geared toward or are realizing "reflexive modernity". But it would be even dangerous to decide categorically that the West is at an impasse and long for a return to pre-modern or anti-modern bonds, in either fundamentalist or relativist terms. I have recently visited India, Vietnam and Uganda. These countries did not seem at all to have pre-modern or anti-modern aspirations.
Rather, what worries me about Western societies is the tendency toward "consumer supremacy" whereby, for example, "low price" is equated to "justice". This could result, more often than not, in the retailers' supremacy over the manufacturers and end up putting heavy pressures, in the name of "cost cutting" and "work efficiency", on the producers and workers on the low end of the spectrum. Naturally, this would destabilize the labor market and erode workers' rights. This has been a salient trend in the United States since the 1980s, but, given the advance of globalization today, who can be sure that Japan and other countries could remain immune to the challenge?
If we are to seriously contemplate saving energy and other resources, convenience stores may have to refrain from operating 24/7. But that would run against the credo of "customers (consumers) first" and would slow down the growth of the business. It would not be easy to resist the temptation for untrammeled linear "growth" in a climate of "consumer supremacy". However, many of us are "consumers" as well as "workers" at the same time. These two incarnations are intrinsically inseparable, and it would be unnatural and unhealthy to overemphasize the rights of one at the expense of the other.
What is needed is not just competition in prices and services. We should find ways to devise a system whereby there is sound competition for higher wages and better job opportunities as well. This is the question on which we should muster our wisdom before negating "Western values".
Yasushi Watanabe is Professor at Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus. The article first appeared in the Mainichi Shimbun Newspaper dated Novermber 11th 2013.
Whenever I come across such questions, I feel uncomfortable for the following three reasons.
1. The notion of "Western values" as a bundle is akin in its crudeness to its reverse equivalent, Orientalism in the West with all its prejudices against the East. It should be noted, however, that there exists among such values a solid tradition of skepticism about untrammeled linear "growth". It is the universities, foundations, research institutes and businesses in the West that are most enthusiastically engaged in research and development of alternative models for energy and resources supply, transport and urban development. Western societies have such "reflexive" aspects as will enable the introspective correction of the excesses of modernity. Whether on the right or left, those who disregard this redeeming feature of Western societies are not too different from those prewar Japanese ideologues who insisted on "Overcoming Modernity" in justification of the Greater East Asian War.
2. The average citizens in Western countries are by no means "growth" supremacists. I have spent nearly 10 years since graduate school in the Unites States and Europe, and was teaching last month as a visiting professor at L'Institut d'Etudes Politiques (SciencesPo) de Paris, a top-notch grooming ground for the cream of French élites. On the whole, the people that I have come across there are those who care about the subtleties of human relationships around them, probably respect the tacit wisdom of daily life nurtured through the ages, and live a simple and frugal life. The same holds true for the people in the United States, of which I have visited all the states except Alaska. I am inclined to feel that these are the people who embody "Western values".
3. Since the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima No.1 Nuclear Power Plant disaster, some schools of thought in Japan have argued for the negation of modern civilization or called longingly for a virtual return to pre-modern communities. However, the images that they conjure up are so loaded with emotion and devoid of reality that they are unlikely to elicit serious responses from people in the West, except perhaps as a polite diplomatic gesture. There was a time in Western societies when "savage tribes" were romanticized as the "noble savage". But that was only as a stock character in literature, and had no policy relevance.
For these reasons, I do not subscribe to the "West at an impasse" theory. Instead, I believe in the possibility of "reflexive modernity" as the ideal as well as realistic option. In the modern age, there have been periods in which "growth" was pursued single-mindedly, to the exclusion of women and the handicapped, and placing extreme burdens on the environment. However, it is also the modern age that is providing the logical and ethical support to the efforts towards the introspective correction of these excesses.
I obviously do not claim that Western societies are completely geared toward or are realizing "reflexive modernity". But it would be even dangerous to decide categorically that the West is at an impasse and long for a return to pre-modern or anti-modern bonds, in either fundamentalist or relativist terms. I have recently visited India, Vietnam and Uganda. These countries did not seem at all to have pre-modern or anti-modern aspirations.
Rather, what worries me about Western societies is the tendency toward "consumer supremacy" whereby, for example, "low price" is equated to "justice". This could result, more often than not, in the retailers' supremacy over the manufacturers and end up putting heavy pressures, in the name of "cost cutting" and "work efficiency", on the producers and workers on the low end of the spectrum. Naturally, this would destabilize the labor market and erode workers' rights. This has been a salient trend in the United States since the 1980s, but, given the advance of globalization today, who can be sure that Japan and other countries could remain immune to the challenge?
If we are to seriously contemplate saving energy and other resources, convenience stores may have to refrain from operating 24/7. But that would run against the credo of "customers (consumers) first" and would slow down the growth of the business. It would not be easy to resist the temptation for untrammeled linear "growth" in a climate of "consumer supremacy". However, many of us are "consumers" as well as "workers" at the same time. These two incarnations are intrinsically inseparable, and it would be unnatural and unhealthy to overemphasize the rights of one at the expense of the other.
What is needed is not just competition in prices and services. We should find ways to devise a system whereby there is sound competition for higher wages and better job opportunities as well. This is the question on which we should muster our wisdom before negating "Western values".
Yasushi Watanabe is Professor at Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus. The article first appeared in the Mainichi Shimbun Newspaper dated Novermber 11th 2013.
The English-Speaking Union of Japan
弊害を自省する「近代」の可能性
渡辺 靖 / 慶應義塾大学教授
2013年 11月 25日
近代の「成長」を先導してきた西洋の価値観は行き詰まりを迎えているのではないか。
こうした問いに接するたびに私は三つの違和感を覚える。
（１）そもそも「西洋の価値観」という括り自体が、西洋から東洋に注がれる偏向した視線（オリエンタリズム）の裏返しに近い乱暴なものだが、そこには直線的な「成長」に対する懐疑の伝統がしっかりと存在する。今日でも、エネルギーや資源、交通、都市開発などに関する代替モデルの研究開発に最も熱心なのは欧米の大学や財団、研究所、企業である。これまでの「近代」の弊害を自省し修正しようとする「再帰的」側面を無視して「西洋の行き詰まり」を説く論法は、左であれ右であれ、戦前の「近代の超克」論と大差ない。
（２）欧米の市井の人びとは決して「成長」至上主義者ではない。私は大学院以降、欧米で１０年近くを過ごし、先月はフランス屈指のエリート養成機関であるパリ政治学院で客員教授を務めたが、身近な人間関係の機微に気を配り、おそらく昔とそう変わらぬ日常の暗黙知のなかに生き、質素で素朴な暮らしをしている人が大半だ。この点はアラスカ以外の全州を訪れた米国についてもほぼ同じ印象である。彼らは「西洋の価値観」の体現者ではないのだろうか。
（３）東日本大震災や福島第一原発事故以降、日本では近代文明を否定し、あたかも近代以前の共同体への回帰を志向するような論調が散見される。しかし、その具体像はあまりに情緒的で現実味を欠き、少なくとも欧米ではーー社交辞令としてはともかくーー真剣に相手にされることはなかろう。かつて欧米では「未開民族」を「高貴なる野蛮人」とロマン化した時期があったが、それはあくまで文学の話であって、政策の話ではなかった。
こうした理由で私は「西洋の行き詰まり」論には与しない。むしろ「再帰的近代」の可能性を信じており、それこそが理想的かつ現実的な選択だと考えている。近代には女性や有色人種、身障者などを排除し、環境に極度の負荷をかけながら「成長」に邁進した時期があったが、それを自省し修正しようとする試みを論理的・倫理的に後押ししているのも、また近代である。
もちろん、欧米社会が「再帰的近代」を完全に志向・体現しているわけではない。しかし、「西洋の行き詰まり」を一方的に断定し、前近代ないし反近代的な紐帯ーー原理主義的であれ相対主義的であれーーを憧憬することは危険ですらあると考える。私は最近、インドやベトナム、ウガンダなども訪れたが、これらの国々も前近代ないし反近代を志向しているとはとても思えなかった。
欧米社会を俯瞰していて、私がむしろ危惧するのは「消費者至上主義」とでもいうべき傾向、例えば、「低価格」こそは「正義」であるかのような風潮だ。それは往々にして、製造業に対する小売業の優位を意味し、「コスト削減」や「効率化」などの名目で、末端の生産者や労働者に過大な圧力を課すことになる。当然ながら、雇用は不安定となり、労働者の権利は蝕まれる。これは１９８０年代以降の米国でとりわけ顕著になった傾向だが、グローバル化が進む今日、日本を含め、他の国とて無縁ではいられない。
例えば、エネルギーや資源の節約を本気で考えるならば、コンビニは２４時間営業を自粛すべきかもしれない。しかし、それは「お客（消費者）のため」という大義に反するし、企業としての「成長」も鈍化させてしまう。「消費者至上主義」のもとで直線的な「成長」への誘惑を断つことは容易ではない。
ただし、私たちの多くは「消費者」であると同時に「労働者」でもある。両者は本来的に不可分であり、どちらか一方の権利のみが偏重されることは不自然かつ不健全であろう。
価格やサービスのみを競うのではなく、高いレベルの賃金や雇用環境をも競い合うような仕掛けをどう構築すべきか。これこそが「西洋の価値観」を否定する前に、皆で知恵を出し合うべき問いではないだろうか。
（筆者は慶應義塾大学SFC教授。本稿は2013年11月11日付毎日新聞に掲載された。）
こうした問いに接するたびに私は三つの違和感を覚える。
（１）そもそも「西洋の価値観」という括り自体が、西洋から東洋に注がれる偏向した視線（オリエンタリズム）の裏返しに近い乱暴なものだが、そこには直線的な「成長」に対する懐疑の伝統がしっかりと存在する。今日でも、エネルギーや資源、交通、都市開発などに関する代替モデルの研究開発に最も熱心なのは欧米の大学や財団、研究所、企業である。これまでの「近代」の弊害を自省し修正しようとする「再帰的」側面を無視して「西洋の行き詰まり」を説く論法は、左であれ右であれ、戦前の「近代の超克」論と大差ない。
（２）欧米の市井の人びとは決して「成長」至上主義者ではない。私は大学院以降、欧米で１０年近くを過ごし、先月はフランス屈指のエリート養成機関であるパリ政治学院で客員教授を務めたが、身近な人間関係の機微に気を配り、おそらく昔とそう変わらぬ日常の暗黙知のなかに生き、質素で素朴な暮らしをしている人が大半だ。この点はアラスカ以外の全州を訪れた米国についてもほぼ同じ印象である。彼らは「西洋の価値観」の体現者ではないのだろうか。
（３）東日本大震災や福島第一原発事故以降、日本では近代文明を否定し、あたかも近代以前の共同体への回帰を志向するような論調が散見される。しかし、その具体像はあまりに情緒的で現実味を欠き、少なくとも欧米ではーー社交辞令としてはともかくーー真剣に相手にされることはなかろう。かつて欧米では「未開民族」を「高貴なる野蛮人」とロマン化した時期があったが、それはあくまで文学の話であって、政策の話ではなかった。
こうした理由で私は「西洋の行き詰まり」論には与しない。むしろ「再帰的近代」の可能性を信じており、それこそが理想的かつ現実的な選択だと考えている。近代には女性や有色人種、身障者などを排除し、環境に極度の負荷をかけながら「成長」に邁進した時期があったが、それを自省し修正しようとする試みを論理的・倫理的に後押ししているのも、また近代である。
もちろん、欧米社会が「再帰的近代」を完全に志向・体現しているわけではない。しかし、「西洋の行き詰まり」を一方的に断定し、前近代ないし反近代的な紐帯ーー原理主義的であれ相対主義的であれーーを憧憬することは危険ですらあると考える。私は最近、インドやベトナム、ウガンダなども訪れたが、これらの国々も前近代ないし反近代を志向しているとはとても思えなかった。
欧米社会を俯瞰していて、私がむしろ危惧するのは「消費者至上主義」とでもいうべき傾向、例えば、「低価格」こそは「正義」であるかのような風潮だ。それは往々にして、製造業に対する小売業の優位を意味し、「コスト削減」や「効率化」などの名目で、末端の生産者や労働者に過大な圧力を課すことになる。当然ながら、雇用は不安定となり、労働者の権利は蝕まれる。これは１９８０年代以降の米国でとりわけ顕著になった傾向だが、グローバル化が進む今日、日本を含め、他の国とて無縁ではいられない。
例えば、エネルギーや資源の節約を本気で考えるならば、コンビニは２４時間営業を自粛すべきかもしれない。しかし、それは「お客（消費者）のため」という大義に反するし、企業としての「成長」も鈍化させてしまう。「消費者至上主義」のもとで直線的な「成長」への誘惑を断つことは容易ではない。
ただし、私たちの多くは「消費者」であると同時に「労働者」でもある。両者は本来的に不可分であり、どちらか一方の権利のみが偏重されることは不自然かつ不健全であろう。
価格やサービスのみを競うのではなく、高いレベルの賃金や雇用環境をも競い合うような仕掛けをどう構築すべきか。これこそが「西洋の価値観」を否定する前に、皆で知恵を出し合うべき問いではないだろうか。
（筆者は慶應義塾大学SFC教授。本稿は2013年11月11日付毎日新聞に掲載された。）
一般社団法人 日本英語交流連盟