《黑神话悟空》中的经济学寓言:黄眉的货币实验

上次介绍了《黑神话悟空》第三章,关于黄眉和金蝉子辩经论道的动画剧情传说。黄眉想要证明人类是愚痴的,即便把菩萨放在他们面前,他们也会因为自己的贪婪走向毁灭,从而证明了他"众生愚痴,不如神佛"的观点。金蝉子对此并不以为意。首先他并不是非常看重输赢,其次,他也并不认为黄眉的这场社会实验就是赢了这场辩经。金蝉子用"惑乱人心,倒果为因"八个字下定论。这八个字现在已经变得很热门了。

在我看来,这个情节是一个非常深刻的隐喻。初看之下,这个故事给人传递的启示,确实就是黄眉想证明的——人心的贪婪最终会毁灭人类自己。但是如果加上最后结尾处金蝉子对黄眉辩经做总结的那八字真言,再结合动画中的一些细节,就会得出完全不同的结论。

贪婪并非这个小渔村毁灭的原因。黄眉祸乱人心才是真正的原因。因为那个第一个跳出来划开巨鳖身体的人,动画中的暗示正是受了黄眉的蛊惑。深入分析,这并非是唯一的,甚至不是最重要的原因。真正的原因,黄眉祸乱人心的方式,其实就是他"救苦救难"的方式。

整部动画片完全可以看作一个关于大而全能的政府如何毁灭社会的寓言。与当代社会结合得非常紧密。黄眉下凡救苦救难的方式,除了那些耳熟能详的起死回生、翻云覆雨、返老还童类的法术之外,最主要的方式是:只要剖破皮肤上的几个水泡,里面就会流出珍珠金银等物。这些很容易被人们当成为贸易交换当中的一般等价物,也就是货币。珍珠金银之所以能够作为货币,自然是因为它们看上去漂亮,更重要的是它们也有其用途,具有一定的价值。但是这个用途并非人人都用得着,所以人们就忘记了珍珠金银只是交易媒介,而把它当成了财富本身。

珍珠金银除了能够作为货币具有较高的价值、因为它有用途之外,还有一个原因就是它的数量相当有限。而黄眉只要抠破身上的几个水泡,就能够流出珍珠金银,这无疑就非常类似于现实中的央行印钞机,这才是它惑乱人心的地方。珍珠金银在现实世界中,原本是很难获取、数量有限的珍贵物件。在黄眉这里,把它变成了轻而易举、要多少有多少的普通物品,但人们一时间还没有意识到这一点,仍然把它当做财富本身。其实按这样的做法,如果珍珠金银如此容易获得,它的价值就会一落千丈。

黄眉显然很懂这一套,说不定在西天,他也算是个经济学家级别的人物。他每次只抠破几个水泡轻易地控制货币的发行量,是一个非常绝妙的隐喻。

这个渔村的居民本来是打鱼为生的。自从人们将黄眉供奉起来之后,让黄眉施展法术在海上刮起龙卷风,就能将海里的鱼刮到天上,然后像下雨一样落在渔村里,人们可以真正的不劳而获。这种行为非常像现实社会中全能政府为社会提供各种各样的福利。

动画片中用一个非常容易错过的细节,暗示了这种提供福利所可能造成的结果:当黄眉施法在海上刮起龙卷风的时候,居民们原先用于出海捕鱼的生产工具——渔船也被刮到了天上,然后被撕成一片片的木板和鱼一起落了下来。这就正好说明了滥发福利、全能政府滥发福利造成的结果就是破坏生产资本。

正常的社会应该是人人为我,我为人人。这里不是说要鄙视社会底层的人。有些人之所以生活在社会底层,当然现在也有很多制度的原因,但不可否认,有些人确实是能力和知识水平上的不足,造成了他们所处的社会地位。他们需要做的应该是为社会提供力所能及的产品和服务,接受市场的检验,正大光明地获取收入,逐渐改善自己的生活境遇,而不是依靠一个全能政府提供福利政策。这会使越来越多的人脱离社会生产力,导致社会生产力的下降。就像动画片中那些渔船被摧毁了一样。

最后是人们被黄眉化身的怪物体内爆出的大量金银珍宝所蛊惑,进行了一场狂欢。狂欢的结局,就是小渔村的毁灭。这场狂欢完全可以看成是黄眉放弃了先前一个水泡一个水泡抠破来进行货币投放,而是进行了一次类似QE(量化宽松)的货币宽松大放水。

最终小渔村的毁灭,有人理解是村民们为了争夺财富而自相残杀。但我觉得更可能的原因是:村民们分割了黄眉的肉体,得到了一大堆的珍珠金银。但是这个时候渔村里面已经没有渔船了,大家空有一堆金银珠宝,却买不到任何的食物和用品,也没人进行生产。这才是小渔村毁灭的更重要的原因。

这暗喻了全能政府大放水拯救经济的最终结果会是怎么样。

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Last time, I introduced the third chapter of "Black Myth Wukong", which is about the animated plot legend of Huang Mei and Jincicada Zi debating Sutra and Dao. Huang Mei wants to prove that human beings are stupid, and even if Bodhisattvas are put in front of them, they will go to destruction because of their greed, thus proving his view that "sentient beings are stupid and inferior to gods and Buddhas". Jincicada does not take this seriously. First of all, he is not very concerned about winning or losing, and second, he does not think that Huang Mei's social experiment is to win the argument. Jincicada Zi with "confusing people, pour fruit for the cause" eight words to conclude. These eight words have become very popular now.

In my opinion, this plot is a very profound metaphor. At first glance, the revelation that this story transmits to people is indeed what Huang Mei wants to prove - the greed of the human heart will eventually destroy mankind itself. However, if you add the eight-character truth of Jincicada's summary of the Yellow Mei debate at the end, combined with some details in the animation, you will come to a completely different conclusion.

Greed was not the cause of the destruction of this small fishing village. The real reason is that the yellow eyebrows upset the people. Because the first person to jump out and cut the giant turtle's body, the animation suggests that it is under the spell of yellow eyebrows. This is not the only or even the most important reason. The real reason, the way the yellow eyebrows upset people, is actually his "rescue" way.

The whole cartoon can be seen as a parable about how big and all-powerful government can destroy society. It is very closely integrated with contemporary society. In addition to those familiar spells of resurrecting the dead, turning over the clouds, and rejuvenating the child, the most important way is: as long as a few blisters on the skin are broken, pearls, gold, and other things will flow out. These can easily be regarded as the general equivalent of trade exchange, that is, money. The reason why pearls and gold can be used as money is naturally because they look beautiful, and more importantly, they also have their uses and have a certain value. But this use was not universal, and so people forgot that pearls and gold were only a medium of exchange, and took them for wealth itself.

In addition to the high value of pearls and gold as money, because it is useful, another reason is that it is quite limited in quantity. As long as the yellow eyebrow breaks a few blisters on the body, it can flow out of pearls and gold and silver, which is undoubtedly very similar to the reality of the central bank printing machine, which is where it confuses people. In the real world, pearls and gold were originally precious objects that were difficult to obtain and limited in quantity. Here, it has become easy to have as many ordinary items as you want, but people have not realized this for a time, and still regard it as wealth itself. In fact, if pearls and gold were so readily available, their value would plummet.

Huang Mei obviously knows this set, maybe in the West, he is also an economist level figure. The ease with which he can control the circulation of money by popping a few bubbles at a time is a wonderful metaphor.

The residents of this fishing village used to earn their living by fishing. Since people will worship the yellow eyebrow, let the yellow eyebrow cast a spell in the sea to blow a tornado, you can blow the fish in the sea to the sky, and then fall like rain in the fishing village, people can really get nothing. This behavior is very much like the real world in which the all-powerful government provides all kinds of welfare to the society.

The cartoon uses a very easy to miss detail to hint at the possible results of this provision of welfare: when Huang Mei's magic blows up a tornado at sea, the fishing boat, the production tool originally used by the residents to go out to sea to catch fish, is also blown into the sky, and then torn into pieces of wood fell down with the fish. This just shows that the result of indiscriminate welfare and the indiscriminate welfare of the all-powerful government is the destruction of productive capital.

A normal society should be all for one and one for all. This is not about despising people at the bottom of society. The reason why some people live at the bottom of society, of course, there are many institutional reasons, but it is undeniable that some people are indeed inadequate ability and knowledge level, resulting in their social status. What they need to do is to provide products and services to the society within their ability, accept the test of the market, obtain income in a fair way, and gradually improve their living conditions, rather than relying on an all-powerful government to provide welfare policies. This will make more and more people out of social productivity, leading to the decline of social productivity. Just like in the cartoons when those fishing boats get destroyed.

In the end, people were captivated by a large amount of gold and silver treasures bursting out of the body of the monster with yellow eyebrows, and carried out a carnival. The end of the carnival is the destruction of the small fishing village. This carnival can be seen as the yellow eyebrow gave up the previous bubble a bubble to crack the money, but carried out a similar QE(quantitative easing) monetary easing.

The final destruction of the small fishing village, some people understand that the villagers are fighting each other for wealth. But I think the more likely reason is that the villagers split the flesh of yellow Mei and got a lot of pearls and gold and silver. But at this time, there were no fishing boats in the fishing village, and everyone had a pile of gold and silver, but they could not buy any food and supplies, and there was no one to produce. This is the more important reason for the destruction of small fishing villages.

It's a metaphor for what happens when an all-powerful government throws water at the economy.