評論
打印
Books & arts
文藝板塊
Book review
書評
Globalisation
全球化
Lowering the drawbridge
降下封鎖的吊橋
Two books expound the virtues of open societies, past and future
用兩本書闡述了開放社會、過去和未來的的特點
Open: The Story of Human Progress.
《開放：人類進程的故事》
By Johan Norberg.
作者：約翰·諾爾貝格
One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger.
《十億美國人：更遠大理想的理由》
By Matthew Yglesias
作者：馬修·伊格萊西亞斯
It was not just roads that led to Rome. The shipping lanes did, too. By the first century BC,Rome had conquered the entire Mediterranean coastline. Some 90% of its people lived within 15km of the sea, buying corn from Egypt, olive oil from Spain and toga dye from Carthage. The Roman Empire prospered because it was open to trade, people and ideas, says Johan Norberg, a Swedish thinker. Galleys brought “all the crafts that exist or have existed”, as one Greek observer put it. Foreigners could become citizens; a slave’s son could (occasionally) rise to become emperor.
不只有條條大路才能通往羅馬。航道同樣也能到達。到公元前一世紀，羅馬征服了整個地中海沿海地帶。有90%的羅馬居民生活在離海岸不到15千米的地方，他們從埃及購買玉米，從西班牙購買橄欖油，從迦太基購買托加染料。瑞典思想家約翰·諾伯格表示，羅馬帝國之所以繁榮，是因為它廣開貿易、民眾自由、思想解放。正如一位希臘評論人士所說，羅馬戰艦帶回了“所有現存或者曾經存在過的技藝”。外國人能成為羅馬公民；奴隸的兒子（偶爾）能夠晉升為皇帝。
Mr Norberg’s “Open” is one of two new books that offer big ideas about globalisation, past and future. He argues that progress depends on openness, but that this tends to create resistance that sets back the clock. In “One Billion Americans” Matthew Yglesias, a co-founder of Vox (a wonky leftish news outlet), ponders how the United States might evolve if it were much more open to immigrants.
諾伯格新創作了兩本講述有關全球化、過去和未來的宏大理念書籍，《開放》就是其中一本。他認為開放是進步的先決條件，但這也往往會產生阻力，使時間倒流。Vox（一家政治左翼的新聞媒體）的聯合創始人馬修·伊格萊西亞斯在《十億美國人》中著力探討，如果美國的移民問題更加開放，那美國會如何發展。
譯文由可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。
