The Snub: Robert Menzies and the Melbourne Club

Bart Ziino’s scholarship illuminated some of the complex reasons behind thousands of Australian men’s failure to enlist for military service in the First World War. This article explores the corresponding complexity of the establishment’s response to non-enlistment. It focuses on the case of the barrister and politician Robert Menzies and the Melbourne Club, to investigate how elite gentlemen’s clubs used the concept of ‘fitness for membership’ to punish young, able-bodied non-enlistees by excluding and/or publicly criticising them. It shows that clubs’ treatment of such cases was inconsistent and internally contested, and argues that the apparently honourable discourse of loyalty that was such a fixture of elite groups in the 1920s and 1930s often masked arcane, less honourable agendas. It suggests that the establishment was more likely to punish men like Menzies who had offended doubly: not only by failing to enlist, but also by directly challenging establishment values and power.     

The Politics of Suffering: Progress,Modernity and the Adolescent Crisis

A concern for progress is central to the public agendas of modern societies. Political actors compete with one another mainly with regard to their respective claims to bring about a better future, particularly in the economic and technological spheres. The focus on progress has, however, deeper roots which date back to the aspirations of the Enlightenment. Around that time, the belief arose that systematic improvements are made possible by the structural features of modern society and culture, improvements that will gradually release humanity from much of the suffering characterising its historical past. This article argues the persistence of a culture of progress, rather than easing suffering, in fact enhances and mobilises it for the pursuit of superficial forms of gain. It is also claimed the attempt by Habermas' critical theory to develop a broader and more satisfactory conception of progress fails to address this problem. The article suggests an alternative and more fundamental critique of progressive ideas is required. It reflects upon these abstract theoretical questions in connection with the concrete example of the 'adolescent crisis' and the role ideas of progress play within it.     

大学中的人民,人民中的大学墨西哥国立自治大学UNAM

这所大学的特色,在于它的自治传统和校园建筑艺术。自治传统使墨大成为墨西哥历史和文化独树一帜的传承者,而其校园建筑艺术则让墨大在2007年入选了世界遗产名录。     

自我的觉醒:彼特拉克与现代性

自布克哈特在《意大利文艺复兴时期的文化》中首次提出彼特拉克是"第一个现代人"后,引发学术界关于彼特拉克是"现代人"抑或中世纪人的激烈争论。身处中世纪与文艺复兴新旧交替以及"现代人"与旧有传统矛盾的历史时期,作为文艺复兴之父的彼特拉克首当其冲地经历了这场巨变。在经历青年、中年和老年的三场觉醒后,彼特拉克意识到自己需要摆脱过去与未来之纠缠,在新旧的断裂带中寻找突破时间限制的夹缝,让自己的作品在时间的洪流中保持永恒的鲜活。     

马来亚华人抗日武装与马来亚联盟公民权计划

太平洋战争时期, 英国殖民当局针对马来亚地区制定了马来亚联盟计划及马来亚联盟公民权计划。英国制定公民权计划主要是由于下列因素的影响: 第一, 主要由华人参与、由马共领导的抗日武装力量受到英国的高度重视, 面对马共提出的政治权利要求, 英国绝不可漠然视之, 公民权计划与此密切相关; 第二, 给予马来亚华人所谓的“政治权利”, 有利于切断当地华人与中国的联系,抵消中国政府对马来亚华人的影响; 第三, 由于马来苏丹不愿承认当地华人的政治身份, 解决华人的政治地位问题成为英国剥夺马来苏丹主权的一个有利的借口。由于华人政策和公民权计划中包含着许多种族不平等甚至容易引起种族纷争的内容, 因此, 英国制定这一计划与其说是要促进马来亚各民族的融合不如说是要在马来亚各民族间制造新的障碍, 也很难说英国制定这一计划是为马来亚自治做准备。     

后现代、现代性重建与中国的现代性问题

后现代主义对现代性的批判为人们提供了一个理解现代的有益视角,它有利于揭示现代性充满矛盾和悖论的一面,促使人们加强对现代性的反思并发掘其尚未释放的理性潜能,从而实现现代性的重建。就中国的后现代主义者而言,他们对现代性的批判过多地集中于剖析其“西化”本质,忽视了现代性的某些普遍内涵,使中国的现代性问题局限于中西对立的二元视野。客观地评价中国的现代性,就应当突破上述理论框架,认识到现代性中所包含的普遍性与特殊性之间的张力,同时借鉴后现代主义的建设性作用,努力实现现代性的解放功能。     

The Elusive Idea of the Nation: Israel in the Mirror of Modernity

The article begins by analyzing the historical process that brought many Europeans to question the natural framework of their common political existence: the nation and its secular contrivance, the state. The nation appears as the ultimate casualty of European nationalism, and its “crisis of identity” has further deepened in the last few years with the acceleration of European integration. The state appears less and less as the natural locus of political authority, and, in a continent where particularities are tending to diminish, a very different sense of affiliation has been emerging: the inclination to embrace “global humanism” which has no correlation with the conventional framework of representative government. Israel offers an appropriate counterproof to the tribulations of the European fading sense of nationhood. The article considers the distinctive character of Israel among modern nation-states in light of the classical definitions of the nation, in particular with regard to the role of religion and its relation to the political institutions.