2009年6月26日 星期五

Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson, Pop Icon, Is Dead at 50

Rusty Kennedy/Associated Press

Michael Jackson performed during the Super Bowl XXVII halftime show in 1993 in Pasadena, Calif. More Photos >


Published: June 25, 2009

LOS ANGELES — For his legions of fans, he was the Peter Pan of pop music: the little boy who refused to grow up. But on the verge of another attempted comeback, he is suddenly gone, this time for good.

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Michael Jackson, whose quintessentially American tale of celebrity and excess took him from musical boy wonder to global pop superstar to sad figure haunted by lawsuits, paparazzi and failed plastic surgery, was pronounced dead on Thursday afternoon at U.C.L.A. Medical Center after arriving in a coma, a city official said. Mr. Jackson was 50, having spent 40 of those years in the public eye he loved.

The singer was rushed to the hospital, a six-minute drive from the rented Bel-Air home in which he was living, shortly after noon by paramedics for the Los Angeles Fire Department. A hospital spokesman would not confirm reports of cardiac arrest. He was pronounced dead at 2:26 pm.

As with Elvis Presley or the Beatles, it is impossible to calculate the full effect Mr. Jackson had on the world of music. At the height of his career, he was indisputably the biggest star in the world; he has sold more than 750 million albums. Radio stations across the country reacted to his death with marathon sessions of his songs. MTV, which grew successful in part as a result of Mr. Jackson’s groundbreaking videos, reprised its early days as a music channel by showing his biggest hits.

From his days as the youngest brother in the Jackson 5 to his solo career in the 1980s and early 1990s, Mr. Jackson was responsible for a string of hits like “I Want You Back,” “I’ll Be There” “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” “Billie Jean” and “Black or White” that exploited his high voice, infectious energy and ear for irresistible hooks.

As a solo performer, Mr. Jackson ushered in the age of pop as a global product — not to mention an age of spectacle and pop culture celebrity. He became more character than singer: his sequined glove, his whitened face, his moonwalk dance move became embedded in the cultural firmament.

His entertainment career hit high-water marks with the release of “Thriller,” from 1982, which has been certified 28 times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and with the “Victory” world tour that reunited him with his brothers in 1984.

But soon afterward, his career started a bizarre disintegration. His darkest moment undoubtedly came in 2003, when he was indicted on child molesting charges. A young cancer patient claimed the singer had befriended him and then groped him at his Neverland estate near Santa Barbara, Calif., but Mr. Jackson was acquitted on all charges.

Reaction to his death started trickling in from the entertainment community late Thursday.

“I am absolutely devastated at this tragic and unexpected news,” the music producer Quincy Jones said in a statement. “I’ve lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him.”

Berry Gordy, the Motown founder who helped develop the Jackson 5, told CNN that Mr. Jackson, as a boy, “always wanted to be the best, and he was willing to work as hard as it took to be that. And we could all see that he was a winner at that age.

Tommy Mottola, a former head of Sony Music, called Mr. Jackson “the cornerstone to the entire music business.”

“He bridged the gap between rhythm and blues and pop music and made it into a global culture,” said Mr. Mottola, who worked with Mr. Jackson until the singer cut his ties with Sony in 2001.

Impromptu vigils broke out around the world, from Portland, Ore., where fans organized a one-gloved bike ride (“glittery costumes strongly encouraged”) to Hong Kong, where fans gathered with candles and sang his songs.

In Los Angeles, hundreds of fans — some chanting Mr. Jackson’s name, some doing the “Thriller” dance — descended on the hospital and on the hillside house where he was staying.

Jeremy Vargas, 38, hoisted his wife, Erica Renaud, 38, on his shoulders and they danced and bopped to “Man in the Mirror” playing from an onlooker’s iPod connected to external speakers — the boom boxes of Mr. Jackson’s heyday long past their day.

“I am in shock and awe,” said Ms. Renaud, who was visiting from Red Hook, Brooklyn, with her family. “He was like a family member to me.”

Dreams of a Comeback

Mr. Jackson was an object of fascination for the news media since the Jackson 5’s first hit, “I Want You Back,” in 1969. His public image wavered between that of the musical naif, who wanted only to recapture his youth by riding on roller-coasters and having sleepovers with his friends, to the calculated mogul who carefully constructed his persona around his often-baffling public behavior.

Mr. Jackson had been scheduled to perform 50 concerts at the O2 arena in London beginning next month and continuing into 2010. The shows, which quickly sold out, were positioned as a comeback, with the potential to earn him up to $50 million, according to some reports.

But there had also been worry and speculation that Mr. Jackson was not physically ready for such an arduous run of concerts, and his postponement of the first of those shows to July 13 from July 8 fueled new rounds of gossip about his health. Nevertheless, he was rehearsing Wednesday night at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. “The primary reason for the concerts wasn’t so much that he was wanting to generate money as much as it was that he wanted to perform for his kids,” said J. Randy Taraborrelli, whose biography, “Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness,” was first published by Citadel in 1991. “They had never seen him perform before.”

Mr. Jackson’s brothers, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Randy, have all had performing careers, with varying success, since they stopped performing together. (Randy, the youngest, replaced Jermaine when the Jackson 5 left Motown.) His sisters, Rebbie, La Toya and Janet, are also singers, and Janet Jackson has been a major star in her own right for two decades. They all survive him, as do his parents, Joseph and Katherine Jackson, of Las Vegas, and three children: Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, born to Mr. Jackson’s second wife, Deborah Jeanne Rowe, and Prince Michael Jackson II, the son of a surrogate mother. Mr. Jackson was also briefly married to Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department said the department assigned its robbery and homicide division to investigate the death, but the spokesman said that was because of Mr. Jackson’s celebrity.

“Don’t read into anything,” the spokesman told reporters gathered outside the Bel-Air house. He said the coroner had taken possession of the body and would conduct an investigation.

At a news conference at the hospital, Jermaine Jackson spoke to reporters about his brother. “It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest at his home,” he said softly. A personal physician first tried to resuscitate Michael Jackson at his home before paramedics arrived. A team of doctors then tried to resuscitate him for more than an hour, his brother said.

“May our love be with you always,” Jermaine Jackson concluded, his gaze aloft.

In Gary, Ind., hundreds of people descended upon the squat clapboard house were Mr. Jackson spent his earliest years. There were tears, loud wails, and quiet prayers as old neighbors joined hands with people who had driven in from Chicago and other nearby towns to pay their respects.

“Just continue to glorify the man, Lord,” said Ida Boyd-King, a local pastor who led the crowd in prayer. “Let’s give God praise for Michael.”

Shelletta Hinton, 40, drove to Gary from Chicago with her two young children. She said they had met Mr. Jackson in Gary a couple of years ago when he received a key to the city. “We felt like we were close to Michael,” she said. “This is a sad day.”

As dusk set in, mourners lighted candles and placed them on the concrete doorstep. Some left teddy bears and personal notes. Doris Darrington, 77, said she remembered seeing the Jackson 5 so many times around Gary that she got sick of them. But she, too, was feeling hurt by the sudden news of Mr. Jackson’s death.

“He has always been a source of pride for Gary, even though he wasn’t around much,” she said. “The older person, that’s not the Michael we knew. We knew the little bitty boy with the big Afro and the brown skin. That’s how I’ll always remember Michael.”

Michael Joseph Jackson was born in Gary on Aug. 29, 1958. The second youngest of six brothers, he began performing professionally with four of them at the age of 5 in a group that their father, Joe, a steelworker, had organized the previous year. In 1968, the group, originally called the Jackson Brothers, was signed by Motown Records. The Jackson 5 was an instant phenomenon. The group’s first four singles — “I Want You Back,” “ABC,” “The Love You Save” and “I’ll Be There” — all reached No. 1 on the pop charts in 1970, a feat no group had accomplished before. And young Michael was the center of attention: he handled virtually all the lead vocals, danced with energy and finesse, and displayed a degree of showmanship rare in a performer of any age.

In 1971, Mr. Jackson began recording under his own name, while continuing to perform with his brothers. His recording of “Ben,” the title song from a movie about a boy and his homicidal pet rat, was a No. 1 hit in 1972.

The brothers (minus Michael’s older brother Jermaine, who was married to the daughter of Berry Gordy, Motown’s founder and chief executive) left Motown in 1975 and, rechristened the Jacksons, signed to Epic, a unit of CBS Records. Three years later, Michael made his movie debut as the Scarecrow in the screen version of the hit Broadway musical “The Wiz.” But movie stardom proved not to be his destiny.

A Solo Sensation

Music stardom on an unprecedented level, however, was. Mr. Jackson’s first solo album for Epic, “Off the Wall,” released in 1979, yielded four No. 1 singles and sold seven million copies, but it was a mere prologue to what came next. His follow-up, “Thriller,” released in 1982, became the best-selling album of all time and helped usher in the music video age. The video for title track, directed by John Landis, was an elaborate horror-movie pastiche that was more of a mini-movie than a promotional clip.

Seven of the nine tracks on “Thriller” were released as singles and reached the Top 10. The album spent two years on the Billboard album chart and sold an estimated 100 million copies worldwide. It also won eight Grammy Awards.

The choreographer and director Vincent Paterson, who directed Mr. Jackson in several videos, recalled watching him rehearse a dance sequence for four hours in front of a mirror until it felt like second nature.

“That’s how he developed the moonwalk, working on it for days if not weeks until it was organic,” he said. “He took an idea that he had seen some street kids doing and perfected it.”

Mr. Jackson’s next album, “Bad,” released in 1987, sold eight million copies and produced five No. 1 singles and another state-of-the-art video, this one directed by Martin Scorsese. It was a huge hit by almost anyone else’s standards, but an inevitable letdown after “Thriller.”

It was at this point that Mr. Jackson’s bizarre private life began to overshadow his music. He would go on to release several more albums and, from time to time, to stage elaborate concert tours. And he would never be too far from the public eye. But it would never again be his music that kept him there.

Even with the millions Mr. Jackson earned, his eccentric lifestyle took a severe financial toll. In 1988 Mr. Jackson paid about $17 million for a 2,600-acre ranch in Los Olivos, Calif., 125 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Calling it Neverland after the mythical island of Peter Pan, he outfitted the property with amusement-park rides, a zoo and a 50-seat theater, at a cost of $35 million, according to reports, and the ranch became his sanctum.

But Neverland, and Mr. Jackson’s lifestyle, were expensive to maintain. A forensic accountant who testified at Mr. Jackson’s molesting trial in 2005 said Mr. Jackson’s annual budget in 1999 included $7.5 million for personal expenses and $5 million to maintain Neverland. By at least the late 1990s, he began to take out huge loans to support himself and pay debts. In 1998, he took out a loan for $140 million from Bank of America, which two years later was increased to $200 million. Further loans of hundreds of millions followed.

The collateral for the loans was Mr. Jackson’s 50 percent share in Sony/ATV Music Publishing, a portfolio of thousands of songs, including rights to 259 songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, considered some of the most valuable properties in music.

In 1985, Mr. Jackson paid $47.5 million for ATV, which included the Beatles songs — a move that estranged him from Mr. McCartney, who had advised him to invest in music rights — and 10 years later, Mr. Jackson sold 50 percent of his interest to Sony for $90 million, creating a joint venture, Sony/ATV. Estimates of the catalog’s value exceed $1 billion.

Last year, Neverland narrowly escaped foreclosure after Mr. Jackson defaulted on $24.5 million he owed on the property. A Los Angeles real estate investment company, Colony Capital L.L.C., bought the note, and put the title for the property into a joint venture with Mr. Jackson.

A Scandal’s Heavy Toll

In many ways, Mr. Jackson never recovered from the child molesting trial, a lurid affair that attracted media from around the world to watch as Mr. Jackson, wearing a different costume each day, appeared in a small courtroom in Santa Maria, Calif., to listen as a parade of witnesses spun a sometimes-incredible tale.

The case ultimately turned on the credibility of Mr. Jackson’s accuser, a 15-year-old cancer survivor who said the defendant had gotten him drunk and molested him several times. The boy’s younger brother testified that he had seen Mr. Jackson groping his brother on two other occasions.

After 14 weeks of such testimony and seven days of deliberations, the jury returned not-guilty verdicts on all 14 counts against Mr. Jackson: four charges of child molesting, one charge of attempted child molesting, one conspiracy charge and eight possible counts of providing alcohol to minors. Conviction could have brought Mr. Jackson 20 years in prison. Instead, he walked away a free man to try to reclaim a career that at the time had already been in decline for years.

After his trial, Mr. Jackson largely left the United States for Bahrain, the island nation in the Persian Gulf, where he was the guest of Sheik Abdullah, a son of the ruler of the country, King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa. Mr. Jackson would never return to live at his ranch. Instead he remained in Bahrain, Dubai and Ireland for the next several years, managing his increasingly unstable finances. He remained an avid shopper, however, and was spotted at shopping malls in the black robes and veils traditionally worn by Bahraini women.

Despite the public relations blow of his trial, Mr. Jackson and his ever-changing retinue of managers, lawyers and advisers never stopped plotting his return.

By early this year, Mr. Jackson was living in a $100,000-a-month mansion in Bel-Air, to be closer to “where all the action is” in the entertainment business, his manager at the time, Tohme Tohme, told The Los Angeles Times. He was also preparing for his upcoming London shows.

”He was just so excited about having an opportunity to come back,” said Mr. Paterson, the director and choreographer.

Despite his troubles, the press and the public never abandoned the star. A crowd of paparazzi and onlookers lined the street outside Mr. Jackson’s home as the ambulance took him to the hospital.

Reporting was contributed by John M. Broder from Washington; Randal C. Archibold from Los Angeles; Susan Saulny from Gary, Ind.; and Melena Ryzik, Ben Sisario, Brian Stelter and Peter Keepnews from New York.
wsj
流行音樂之王邁克爾·傑克遜去世
2009年06月26日07:09



克爾·傑克遜(Michael Jackson)週四下午在洛杉磯家中發生心跳驟停﹐送往醫院後被宣佈死亡﹐這位50歲的流行音樂之王怪異而悲劇性的一生也因此劃上了句號﹐傑克遜在這其中的45年都是世界上最具象徵性的流行音樂人之一。

知情人士透露﹐傑克遜被送到加州大學洛杉磯分校醫療中心時處於昏迷狀態﹐在被送入手術室前去世。

去世前﹐傑克遜正試圖重新開始自己的演唱生涯﹔此前幾年他一直備受爭議﹐這令他實際上停止了演出和發行新專輯。甚至在他2005年因孌童的指控而受到刑事審判、並最後被判無罪之前﹐他的演唱事業已經處於停頓狀態。

5月份﹐演唱會宣傳公司AEG Live宣佈﹐傑克遜將在倫敦的O2 arena舉行系列演唱會。事實證明﹐演唱會門票需求火爆﹐場次最終被加到50場﹐賣出的門票有數十萬張。演唱會的日期被分散在好幾個月裡﹐從7月初一直到2010年。

傑克遜與AEG Live的協議包括一項進一步增加演唱會場次的雄心勃勃選擇﹐在三年甚至更長的時間里在歐洲、亞洲、北美各地舉辦演唱會。所有的巡演加在一起能讓他賺4億美元。AEG Live由丹佛富豪安舒茲(Phil Anschutz)所有。

在為倫敦演唱會作準備期間﹐傑克遜進行了一次5個小時的全面體檢。AEG Live首席執行長菲利普斯(Randy Phillips)當時說﹐傑克遜輕鬆通過了體檢。

不過﹐在傑克遜為首輪演唱會作準備的時候就出現了問題的跡象。前四場演唱會被推遲了﹐表面的理由是傑克遜需要更多的時間進行場內帶裝彩排。一些熟悉傑克遜的人懷疑他是否能完成這麼多的演唱會﹐儘管演出日程中有充足的間歇時間。

週四下午﹐加州大學洛杉磯分校醫療中心外的人行道上擠滿了人。甚至在官方宣佈傑克遜的死訊前﹐一些人已經忍不住痛哭失聲。

有人表演他的招牌太空步﹐唱著他的流行歌曲。街道對面的一個學生公寓用音響大聲播放著傑克遜的歌。用於新聞報導的直升機在天空中盤旋。

傑克遜1958年出生於印地安那州加里市﹐他很快就被推上了眾人注目的中心。甚至在很小的時候﹐他顯然就已經是“傑克遜五兄弟”(Jackson Five)中的明星了。該演唱組合是他的父親約瑟夫·傑克遜(Joseph Jackson)把五個兒子召集在一起組成的。

“傑克遜五兄弟”很快從當地的業餘歌手演唱會和地方演唱會中脫穎而出﹐登上了全國舞台。他們與高迪(Berry Gordy)的Motown Records簽了約﹐推出一系列風靡一時的歌曲﹐包括“ABC”和“I Want You Back”。不過在嚴厲的父親和經理的控制下﹐他們的人生付出了代價﹐傑克遜沒有正常的童年。

在單飛之後﹐傑克遜名氣越來越大。1982年的個人專輯《Thriller》是歷史上最暢銷的專輯之一。

《Thriller》 連續80週高居Billboard 200排行榜的前十名﹐其中的熱門單曲“Billy Jean”、“Wanna Be Startin”和“Beat It”更是大受歡迎。據美國唱片工業協會(Recording Industry of Association of America)的數據﹐該專輯常常列為有史以來最暢銷的專輯﹐美國的銷量為2,800萬張。據估計﹐全球銷量超過5,000萬張。《Thriller》的MV如今仍是YouTube上觀看次數最多的視頻之一﹐排在第54位。這段13分鐘的視頻觀看人次有37,083,417。

Ethan Smith

2009年6月19日 星期五

Ralf Dahrendorf'

Obituary | 18.06.2009

German sociologist Ralf Dahrendorf dies

Dahrendorf, who was a respected European intellectual and politician, died on Wednesday evening in Cologne at the age of 80. He was made a British Lord in 1993.

Dahrendorf gained fame in the English-speaking world as head of the London School of Economics (LSE), a post he held from 1974-84, and as an Oxford University professor.

He wrote a number of articles and books in the field of sociology, including “Reflections on the Revolution in Europe,” and the “Modern Social Contract.”

Marxist roots

Born on May 1st, 1929 in Hamburg, Dahrendorf's academic career began at the University of Saarbrücken in 1957 when he was awarded a professorship of sociology. There he wrote a thesis on class conflict and Karl Marx.

Although his ideas changed over the years, he remained committed throughout his entire career to the idea of a democratic society, pointing out in many of his writings how societies and institutions inexorably fail to live up to their ideals.

Career in politics

In the 1970s, Dahrendorf was a German member of the European Commission, where he represented the liberal Free Democrats (FDP). He served a short term as a junior foreign minister in what was then the German capital, Bonn. In 1988, however, Dahrendorf resigned from the FDP.

In Britain, he sat in the House of Lords as an independent after Queen Elizabeth II granted him a life peerage in 1993.

Londoner at heart

In 1988, Dahrendorf obtained British citizenship without giving up his German passport. Since retiring, however, he lived in Cologne, choosing to move back to Germany to be closer to his family.

Asked once in an interview what city he considered his home, he said, "I am a Londoner."

Dahrendorf was married three times, to British, US, and German partners. He is survived by three daughters from his first marriage.

glb/dpa/Reuters

Editor: Susan Houlton

Lord Ralf Gustav Dahrendorf, Baron Dahrendorf, KBE (born May 1, 1929) is a German-British sociologist, philosopher, political scientist and politician.

He was born in Hamburg, the son of Lina and the late Gustav Dahrendorf, a social democrat member of the German Parliament. He studied philosophy, classical philology and sociology at Hamburg University between 1947 and 1952, became a doctor of philosophy and classics (Dr. phil.) in 1952. He continued his academic research at London School of Economics as a Leverhulme Research Scholar in 1953-54, gaining a PhD degree in 1956. He was a professor of sociology in Hamburg (1957-60), Tübingen (1960-64) and Konstanz (1966-69).

From 1969 to 1970 he was a member of the German parliament for the Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party) (the German liberals), and a Parliamentary Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1970 he became a Commissioner in the European Commission in Brussels. From 1974 to 1984 he was director of the London School of Economics, when he returned to Germany to become Professor of Social Science, Konstanz University (1984-86).

1967-1970 he was Chairman of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie, resigning it when he took up his office at Brussels. Between 1976 and 1979 he led the educational sub-committee of the Benson Commission.[1]

He settled in the United Kingdom in 1986, becoming a Governor of the London School of Economics, and also from 1987 to 1997 Warden of St Antony's College at the University of Oxford, succeeding the historian Sir Raymond Carr.

Having adopted British citizenship in 1988, he was granted a life peerage in 1993 and was created Baron Dahrendorf of Clare Market in the City of Westminster by Queen Elizabeth II. He sits in the House of Lords as a cross-bencher. On July 11, 2007, he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Social Studies.

His famous book Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society (1959) argued that Marx defined class too narrowly and in a historically-specific context. Instead of describing the fundamental differences of class in terms of property, Dahrendorf claimed that power was at the root of differences in class. Thus, society could be split up into "order takers" and "order givers".

In January 2005, he was appointed a Research Professor at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB)[1].

Further reading

  • Julie Smith, Ralf Dahrendorf (Lord Dahrendorf) in Brack et al. (eds.) Dictionary of Liberal Biography; Politico's 1998 pp89–90
  • Julie Smith, Ralf Dahrendorf in Brack & Randall (eds.) Dictionary of Liberal Thought; Politico's 2007 pp83–85

Works available in English

  • Dahrendorf, Ralf. (1959) Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
  • Dahrendorf, Ralf. (1967) Society and Democracy in Germany. New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company.
  • "The Modern Social Conflict". University of California Press: Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1988
  • Dahrendorf, Ralf (1990) Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: In a letter intended to have been sent to a gentleman in Warsaw. New York: Random House.

Works available in German

  • Die angewandte Aufklärung: Gesellschaft u. Soziologie in Amerika. Piper, München 1962
  • Homo Sociologicus: ein Versuch zur Geschichte, Bedeutung und Kritik der Kategorie der sozialen Rolle. Westdeutscher Verlag, Köln/Opladen 1965
  • Gesellschaft und Demokratie in Deutschland. Piper, München 1965
  • Konflikt und Freiheit: auf dem Weg zur Dienstklassengesellschaft. Piper, München 1972, ISBN 3-492-01782-7
  • Pfade aus Utopia: Arbeiten zur Theorie und Methode der Soziologie. Piper, München 1974, ISBN 3-492-00401-6
  • Lebenschancen: Anläufe zur sozialen und politischen Theorie. Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch, Frankfurt a.M. 1979, ISBN 3-518-37059-6
  • Die neue Freiheit: Überleben und Gerechtigkeit in einer veränderten Welt. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a.M. 1980, ISBN 3-518-37123-1
  • Die Chancen der Krise: über die Zukunft des Liberalismus. DVA, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-421-06148-3
  • Fragmente eines neuen Liberalismus. DVA, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-421-06361-3
  • Der moderne soziale Konflikt: Essay zur Politik der Freiheit. DVA, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-421-06539-X
  • Die Zukunft des Wohlfahrtsstaats. Verl. Neue Kritik, Frankfurt a.M. 1996
  • Liberale und andere: Portraits. DVA, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-421-06669-8
  • Liberal und unabhängig: Gerd Bucerius und seine Zeit. Beck, München 2000, ISBN 3-406-46474-2
  • Über Grenzen: Lebenserinnerungen. Beck, München 2002, ISBN 3-406-49338-6
  • Auf der Suche nach einer neuen Ordnung: Vorlesungen zur Politik der Freiheit im 21. Jahrhundert. Beck, München 2003, ISBN 3-406-50540-6
  • Der Wiederbeginn der Geschichte: vom Fall der Mauer zum Krieg im Irak; Reden und Aufsätze. Beck, München 2004, ISBN 3-406-51879-6
  • Werner Bruns, Döring Walter (Hrsg): Der selbstbewusste Bürger. Bouvier Verlag
  • Engagierte Beobachter. Die Intellektuellen und die Versuchungen der Zeit, Wien: Passagen Verlag 2005.
  • Versuchungen der Unfreiheit. Die Intellektuellen in Zeiten der Prüfung . München 2006, ISBN 3-406-54054-6

See also

References

  1. ^ "Emerald: Article Requests: Indefinite articles". Emerald Group Publishing. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do;jsessionid=9F328F753CC45ECD41DD5147379E5983?contentType=Article&hdAction=lnkpdf&contentId=1702699&history=true. Retrieved on 2009-05-27.

External links

2009年6月18日 星期四

德国大哲学家哈贝马斯度过八十岁生日

文化社会 | 2009.06.18

德国大哲学家哈贝马斯度过八十岁生日

阿多诺、霍尔克哈默同哈贝马斯代表的所谓"法兰克福学派"对战后德国的哲学界以及政治气候起了决定性的影响。鉴于20世纪上半叶集权意识,尤其是纳粹主义 的反面经验,法兰克福学派应运而生。现代社会应该汲取哪些教训?哈贝马斯在他的著作中试图对这个问题进行回答。于是,他将哲学推到社会学的近旁。同时,他 还摘下了哲学过于激情的光环,这一点,对哲学本身特别有利,但不仅限于哲学。它对现代德国也颇有裨益。

如果一个十六岁的少年亲眼目睹了灾难的结束,那么,他也一定会对灾难的起源进行思索。究竟发生了什么,以至于让灾难泛滥到如此规模?德国人 究竟怎么了,什么原因让他们在1933年将一名咆哮不已、品位低俗的反犹主义者推选成了帝国总理?更重要的是,怎样才能阻止类似的民众结构和情绪再次出 现?同当时几乎所有的知识分子一样,哲学家哈贝马斯也是将纳粹统治作为思考、教学以及对时事加以评论的出发点。

1970年时的哈贝马斯Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: 1970年时的哈贝马斯

哈贝马斯在80年代曾这样说过,反思纳粹主义,更准确地说反思对犹太人的大屠杀,是创建联邦德国的基础, "非常遗憾的是,德意志这个我们自认的文化民族,恰恰是在奥斯维辛之后,或者说正是通过奥斯维辛,才建立起普世宪法原则。"

哈贝马斯长久以来思考的课题是,文化是一个民族的起源。他在1968年出版的著名著作"认知与利益"中指出,认知是受到某种利益制约的。无论人们思 考什么,都是在一定竞争社会的环境中进行。这就是说,每个进行思考的人,都是朝具体的目标进行思考,而这些目标常常是为个人服务的。由此可见,追求知识本 身并非纯洁无瑕,寻找的过程无一例外地都是在寻找好处。

波恩大学哲学家霍格雷柏在2006年的一份哈贝马斯赞词中这样总结道: "我们进行自然科学和社会科学的研究并不是随意为之,而是我们想知道特殊的 东西。每一个'想要'都是在追逐某种利益,一般而言,这是个人的行为,但如果将之运用到我们人类,哈贝马斯认为,追逐利益也可以超出个人行为。"

1983年哈贝马斯在法兰克福大学Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: 1983年哈贝马斯在法兰克福大学

哈 贝马斯在1981年的专著"交际行为理论"中,勾画了人们的行动应当遵守的原则。遵守这些原则,既可以抵达目标,又不伤害别人。哈贝马斯写道,在现代社 会,只有公民尽量将自己的利益同别人的相互关照,才可能达成和平性理解。出于这个原因,在抗议之年的1968年,他指责大学生太过于强调自己的利益,甚至 不惜动用暴力争取实现目标。因为这项指责,哈贝马斯同大学生运动拉开了距离,而这一距离保持了多年。

不过,这并没有影响他参与论战的能力。35年后,2003年,他发表激烈言论反对美国出兵伊拉克。此后,他又公开批评对经济界的监控不够严密,因此而导致社会的分化。除此之外,他众多的时政讨论文章使他成为德国几乎家喻户晓的哲学家。

不论是基因科技,再度复兴的宗教以及移民问题,哈贝马斯都不断重复强调,发展的活力和变化是现代社会最基本的原则, "不论关系到外籍工人家庭还是 前殖民地人民的融入,教训总是同一个:没有融入,就不会有自己视野的开拓,就不会心平气和地去了解丰富多彩的传闻和思想,更不会感受到令人痛楚的不和谐现 象。"

2006年,哈贝马斯在波恩Bildunterschrift: 2006年,哈贝马斯在波恩在 德国,哈贝马斯的哲学地位,好比政治上德国归属西方的意义,相当于文化上的流行乐及摇滚乐的地位。撤下过去岁月的权威架子,开始冷静的、政治上却是异常健 康的辩论文化,哈贝马斯的哲学没有情绪激昂的亢奋。正是如此,他的哲学为传统上并非和平的欧洲,为它的和平做出了一点贡献。在他80寿辰之际,人们有理由 为这位二十世纪最伟大的哲学家之一献上祝福。

作者:Knipp, Kersten / 李鱼

责编:叶宣

2009年6月7日 星期日

林正義

林正義:不信品質就退單

太平洋自行車董事長林正義熱愛腳踏車,學英國文學讓他個性有點叛逆和浪漫。他曾開過很大的公司,轉型後專攻小而精的摺疊車市場,他說,要做得小不容易,中間「誘惑很多」,然而小公司有彈性,更能滿足他喜歡挑戰的天性。

他不諱言脾氣壞,「我天天在跟客人吵架!」吵架的背後是堅持品質,更為維護「Made in Taiwan」的聲譽。

曾有一個大客戶代表跑到工廠,從生產線上就把他們研發中、還沒完成的車架拿下來,當場鋸開檢查品管。這個客戶占當時訂單量的4成,林正義二話不說就把客戶代表趕出工廠,當場退單。

他感嘆,「台灣代工」有時是一個原罪。許多國外產品明明設計和功能很普通,但打著歐洲大國設計,業界評價就高;台灣廠商做得再努力,都要先被懷疑,從被扣20分開始起跑。他因客戶態度蠻橫生氣,更氣客戶不信任台灣廠商,「這訂單絕對不能再接!」

也為了台灣製造的保證,林正義堅持不殺價,收現金才出貨,再大的客戶也一樣。他說,很多歐美客戶往往要求先提貨、開長期支票,這種不平等的交易,他絕對不做。

太平洋從轉型做摺疊車,都是客人自己找上門來。林正義笑說,他曾為客戶設計一款車,每輛開價800美元,結果客戶堅持「我1200美元跟你買」,雙方爭執 半天。後來他每台報價900美元出了第一批貨,再用600美元出了第二批貨,最後告訴客戶,其實只要300美元一台。「客戶很怕我們沒賺到合理利潤,將來 沒有開發新車的資本。」

識貨的客戶,讓林正義可以繼續「大小聲」。

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