青年人的四種選擇

　　Lesson 2 Four Choices for Young People

　　在畢業前不久，斯坦福大學四年級主席吉姆？賓司給我寫了一封信，信中談及他的一些不安。

　　Shortly before his graduation， Jim Binns， president of the senior class at Stanford University， wrote me about some of his misgivings.

　　他寫道：“與其他任何一代人相比，我們這一代人在看待成人世界時抱有更大的疑慮……同時越來越傾向于全盤否定成人世界。”

　　“More than any other generation，” he said， “our generation views the adult world with great skepticism… there is also an increased tendency to reject completely that world.”

　　很明顯，他的話代表了許多同齡人的看法。

　　Apparently he speaks for a lot of his contemporaries.

　　在過去的幾年里，我傾聽過許多年輕人的談話，他們有的還在大學讀書，有的已經畢業，他們對于成人的世界同樣感到不安。

　　During the last few years， I have listened to scores of young people， in college and out， who were just as nervous about the grown world.

　　大致來說，他們的態度可歸納如下：“這個世界亂糟糟的，到處充滿了不平等、貧困和戰爭。對此該負責的大概應是那些管理這個世界的成年人吧。如果他們不能做得比這些更好，他們又能拿什么來教育我們呢？這樣的教導，我們根本不需要。”

　　Roughly， their attitude might be summed up about like this： “The world is in pretty much of a mess， full of injustice， poverty， and war. The people responsible are， presumably， the adults who have been running thing. If they can't do better than that， what have they got to teach our generation？ That kind of lesson we can do without.”

　　我覺得這些結論合情合理，至少從他們的角度來看是這樣的。

　　There conclusions strike me as reasonable， at least from their point of view.

　　對成長中的一代人來說，相關的問題不是我們的社會是否完美（我們可以想當然地認為是這樣），而是應該如何去應付它。

　　The relevant question for the arriving generation is not whether our society is imperfect （we can take that for granted）， but how to deal with it.

　　盡管這個社會嚴酷而不合情理，但它畢竟是我們惟一擁有的世界。

　　For all its harshness and irrationality， it is the only world we've got.

　　因此，選擇一個辦法去應付這個社會是剛剛步入成年的年輕人必須作出的第一個決定，這通常是他們一生中最重要的決定。

　　Choosing a strategy to cope with it， then， is the first decision young adults have to make， and usually