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 the most important decision of their lifetime.
根據我的發現,他們的基本選擇只有四種:
So far as I have been able to discover, there are only four basic alternatives:
1)脫離傳統社會
1)Drop Out
這是最古老的方法之一,任何年齡的人無論在任何地方,也無論是否使用迷幻劑都可以采用。
This is one of the oldest expedients, and it can be practiced anywhere, at any age, and with or without the use of hallucinogens.
那些認為這個世界殘酷、復雜得令人難以忍受的人通常會選擇這個辦法。
It always has been the strategy of choice for people who find the world too brutal or too complex to be endured.
實質上,這是一種寄生式的生活方式,采取此策略的人通過這樣或那樣的方式寄生于這個他們蔑視的社會,并且拒絕對這個社會承擔責任
By definition, this way of life is parasitic. In one way or another, its practitioners batten on the society which they scorn and in which they refuse to take any responsibility.
我們中的一些人對此很厭惡——認為這種生活方式很不光彩。
Some of us find this distasteful – an undignified kind of life.
但對于那些卑微、懶惰又缺乏自尊的人來說,這也許是可行的最可以忍受的選擇了。
But for the poor in spirit, with low levels of both energy and pride, it may be the least intolerable choice available.
2)逃避現實社會
2) Flee
這個策略早在遠古就有先例。
This strategy also has ancient antecedents.
自文明誕生以來,就有人企圖逃避文明社會,希望尋求一種更為樸素、更富田園風情、更為寧靜的生活。
Ever since civilization began, certain inspaniduals have tried to run away from it in hopes of finding a simpler, more pastoral, and more peaceful life.
與那些脫離傳統社會的人不同,這些人不是寄生者。他們愿意自食其力,愿意為社會作出貢獻,可是他們就是不喜歡這個文明世界的環境。確地說,不喜歡這充滿丑惡和緊張的大都市。
Unlike the dropouts, they are not parasites. They are willing to support themselves and to contribute something to the general community, but they simply don't like the environment of civilization; that is, the city, with all its ugliness and tension.
這種方法的問題在于無法大規模地進行實踐。
The trouble with this solution is that it no longer is practical on a large scale.
不幸的是,在我們的地球上,高尚的野蠻人和未被破壞的自然景色已越來越少;除了兩極地區以外已經沒有未開發的土地了。
Our planet, unfortunately, is running out of noble savages and unsullied landscaped; except for the polar regions, the frontiers are gone.
少數富有的鄉紳還可以逃避現實去過田園生活——但總的說來,遷移的潮流是向相反的方向流動。
A few gentleman farmers with plenty of money can still escape to the bucolic life – but in general the stream of migration is flowing the other way.
3)策劃革命
Plot a Revolution
在對民主進程單調乏味的運作方式毫無耐心或相信只有武力才能改變基本社會制度的那些人中,這一策略頗受歡迎。
This strategy is always popular among those who have no patience with the tedious working of the democratic process or who believe that basic institutions can only be changed by force.
它吸引了每一代年輕人中那些更為活躍和更具理想主義的人。
It attracts some of the more active and idealistic young people of every generation.
對他們來說,這種策略具有浪漫的吸引力,通常以某位魅力非凡且令人振奮的人物為其象征。
To them it offers a romantic appeal, usually symbolized by some dashing and charismatic figure.
這一策略簡單明了并具有更大的吸引力:“既然這個社會已經無可救藥,那就讓我們砸碎它,在它的廢墟上面建一個更好的社會。”
It has the even greater appeal of simplicity: “Since this society is hopelessly bad, let's smash it and build something better on the ruins.”
我最好的朋友中有些是革命者,他們中的一些人過得相當滿足。
Some of my best friends have been revolutionists, and a few of them have led reasonably satisfying lives.
這部分人其實是那些革命并未成功的人,他們可以繼續興高采烈地策劃大屠殺,直至老態龍鐘。
These are the ones whose revolutions did not come off; they have been able to keep on cheerfully plotting their holocausts right into their senescence.
另外一些人年紀輕輕就死了,死在監獄里或街壘旁。
Others died young, in prison or on the barricades.
但最不幸的是那些革命成功的人。
But the most unfortunate are those whose revolutions have succeeded.
他們極度失望,看到他們推翻的權力機構又被新機構所替代,而新機構依舊是那樣冷酷,那樣毫無生機。
They lived in bitter disillusionment, to see the establishment they had overthrown replaced by a new one, just as hard-faced and stuffy.
當然,我并不是說革命一無所成。
I am not, of course, suggesting that revolutions accomplish nothing.
一些革命(美國革命,法國革命)確實將事情變得越來越好。
Some (The American Revolution, the French Revolution) clearly do change things for the better.
我只是想說革命無論成敗,那些策劃革命的革命者們都注定要失望。
My point is merely that the idealists who make the revolution are bound to be disappointed in either case.
因為勝利的曙光無論如何也不會照耀在他們夢想中的那個擺脫了人類一切卑劣的燦爛的新世界上。
For at best their victory never dawns on the shining new world they had dreamed of, cleansed of all human meanness.
相反,它照在了一個熟悉的平庸的地方,這個地方仍舊需要食品雜貨和污水排放。
Instead it dawns on a familiar, workaday place, still in need of groceries and sewage disposal.
無論貼著什么樣的政治標簽,革命后的國家都不是由激進的浪漫主義者來治理,而是由市場營銷、衛生工程和管理官僚機構的專家來治理。
The revolutionary state, under whatever political label, has to be run-not by violent romantics-but by experts in marketing, sanitary engineering, and the management of bureaucracies.
對一些決心改造社會,但同時又希望能找到一種比武裝革命更可行的方法的理想主義者來說,還有另外一種選擇。
For the idealists who are determined to remake society, but who seek a more practical method than armed revolution, there remains one more alternative.
4)循序漸進,逐步改變社會
Try to Change the World Gradually, One Clod at a Time
乍一看,這一途徑毫無吸引力。
At first glance, this course is far from inviting.
它缺乏魅力,并且見效很慢。
It lacks glamour. It promises no quick results.
它依靠勸說和民主決策這些令人惱火且不可靠的方法來實現。
It depends on the exasperating and uncertain instruments of persuasion and democratic decision making.
它需要耐心,可我們卻總是缺乏耐心。
It demands patience, always in short supply.
它惟一的好處是有時這方法行得通——在這個特定的時間和地點,它比其他的任何策略都更有可能制止世界上的某些惡行。
About all that can be said for it is that it sometimes works – that in this particular time and place it offers a better chance for remedying some of the world's outrages than any other available strategy.
至少歷史事實似乎證明了這一點。
So at least the historical evidence seems to suggest.
我大學畢業的時候,我們這一代人也發現世界亂得一團糟。
When I was graduating from college, my generation also found the world in a mess.
幾乎所有地方的經濟機構都已崩潰,在美國幾乎四分之一的人口失業。
The economic machinery had broken down almost everywhere: In this country nearly a quarter of the population was out of work.
一場大戰似乎在所難免。
A major was seemed all too likely.
當時作為校報編輯,對這些我曾經猛烈地抗議過,像今天的學生積極分子一樣。
As a college newspaper editor at that time, I protested against this just as vehemently as student activists are protesting today.
與此同時,我們這一代人漸漸發現改造世界有點像在亞平寧山區打仗一樣。你剛剛占領一條山脈,另一條山脈又在前方隱現。
At the same time, my generation was discovering that reforming the world is a little like fighting a military campaign in the Apennines, as soon as you capture one mountain range, another one looms just ahead.
當20世紀30年代的大問題剛剛勉強得到控制,新的問題又出現了——富足社會中出現的嶄新問題,如種族平等,保證城市環境適于居住,應付各種陌生偽裝下的戰爭等等。
As the big problems of the thirties were brought under some kind of rough control, new problems took their place – the unprecedented problems of an, affluent society, of racial justice, of keeping our cities from becoming uninhabitable, of coping with war in unfamiliar guises.
最令人不安的是我們發現了人口爆炸這一問題。
Most disturbing of all was our discovery of the population explosion.
我們突然意識到我們這艘載人小飛船上的乘客數目大約每40年翻一倍。
It dawned on us rather suddenly that the number of passengers on the small spaceship we inhabit is doubling about every forty years.
只要地球上的人口持續地按這個可怕的速度增長,其他所有問題都將無法解決。
So long as the earth's population keeps growing at this cancerous rate, all of the other problems appear virtually insoluble.
我們的城市會變得越來越擁擠,景色會變得更加雜亂,空氣和水也會變得愈發骯臟。
Our cities will continue to become more crowded and noisome. The landscape will get more cluttered, the air and water even dirtier.
所有人的生活質量都會不斷惡化。
The quality of life is likely to become steadily worse for everybody.
如果過多的人必須為了爭奪日益減少的食物份額和生存空間而爭斗的話,戰爭的升級看來是無法避免的。
And warfare on a rising scale seems inevitable if too many bodies have to struggle for ever-dwindling shares of food and living space.
因此吉姆?賓司這代人要承擔一項艱巨的任務。
So Jim Binns 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 the most important decision of their lifetime.
根據我的發現,他們的基本選擇只有四種:
So far as I have been able to discover, there are only four basic alternatives:
1)脫離傳統社會
1)Drop Out
這是最古老的方法之一,任何年齡的人無論在任何地方,也無論是否使用迷幻劑都可以采用。
This is one of the oldest expedients, and it can be practiced anywhere, at any age, and with or without the use of hallucinogens.
那些認為這個世界殘酷、復雜得令人難以忍受的人通常會選擇這個辦法。
It always has been the strategy of choice for people who find the world too brutal or too complex to be endured.
實質上,這是一種寄生式的生活方式,采取此策略的人通過這樣或那樣的方式寄生于這個他們蔑視的社會,并且拒絕對這個社會承擔責任
By definition, this way of life is parasitic. In one way or another, its practitioners batten on the society which they scorn and in which they refuse to take any responsibility.
我們中的一些人對此很厭惡——認為這種生活方式很不光彩。
Some of us find this distasteful – an undignified kind of life.
但對于那些卑微、懶惰又缺乏自尊的人來說,這也許是可行的最可以忍受的選擇了。
But for the poor in spirit, with low levels of both energy and pride, it may be the least intolerable choice available.
2)逃避現實社會
2) Flee
這個策略早在遠古就有先例。
This strategy also has ancient antecedents.
自文明誕生以來,就有人企圖逃避文明社會,希望尋求一種更為樸素、更富田園風情、更為寧靜的生活。
Ever since civilization began, certain inspaniduals have tried to run away from it in hopes of finding a simpler, more pastoral, and more peaceful life.
與那些脫離傳統社會的人不同,這些人不是寄生者。他們愿意自食其力,愿意為社會作出貢獻,可是他們就是不喜歡這個文明世界的環境。確地說,不喜歡這充滿丑惡和緊張的大都市。
Unlike the dropouts, they are not parasites. They are willing to support themselves and to contribute something to the general community, but they simply don't like the environment of civilization; that is, the city, with all its ugliness and tension.
這種方法的問題在于無法大規模地進行實踐。
The trouble with this solution is that it no longer is practical on a large scale.
不幸的是,在我們的地球上,高尚的野蠻人和未被破壞的自然景色已越來越少;除了兩極地區以外已經沒有未開發的土地了。
Our planet, unfortunately, is running out of noble savages and unsullied landscaped; except for the polar regions, the frontiers are gone.
少數富有的鄉紳還可以逃避現實去過田園生活——但總的說來,遷移的潮流是向相反的方向流動。
A few gentleman farmers with plenty of money can still escape to the bucolic life – but in general the stream of migration is flowing the other way.
3)策劃革命
Plot a Revolution
在對民主進程單調乏味的運作方式毫無耐心或相信只有武力才能改變基本社會制度的那些人中,這一策略頗受歡迎。
This strategy is always popular among those who have no patience with the tedious working of the democratic process or who believe that basic institutions can only be changed by force.
它吸引了每一代年輕人中那些更為活躍和更具理想主義的人。
It attracts some of the more active and idealistic young people of every generation.
對他們來說,這種策略具有浪漫的吸引力,通常以某位魅力非凡且令人振奮的人物為其象征。
To them it offers a romantic appeal, usually symbolized by some dashing and charismatic figure.
這一策略簡單明了并具有更大的吸引力:“既然這個社會已經無可救藥,那就讓我們砸碎它,在它的廢墟上面建一個更好的社會。”
It has the even greater appeal of simplicity: “Since this society is hopelessly bad, let's smash it and build something better on the ruins.”
我最好的朋友中有些是革命者,他們中的一些人過得相當滿足。
Some of my best friends have been revolutionists, and a few of them have led reasonably satisfying lives.
這部分人其實是那些革命并未成功的人,他們可以繼續興高采烈地策劃大屠殺,直至老態龍鐘。
These are the ones whose revolutions did not come off; they have been able to keep on cheerfully plotting their holocausts right into their senescence.
另外一些人年紀輕輕就死了,死在監獄里或街壘旁。
Others died young, in prison or on the barricades.
但最不幸的是那些革命成功的人。
But the most unfortunate are those whose revolutions have succeeded.
他們極度失望,看到他們推翻的權力機構又被新機構所替代,而新機構依舊是那樣冷酷,那樣毫無生機。
They lived in bitter disillusionment, to see the establishment they had overthrown replaced by a new one, just as hard-faced and stuffy.
當然,我并不是說革命一無所成。
I am not, of course, suggesting that revolutions accomplish nothing.
一些革命(美國革命,法國革命)確實將事情變得越來越好。
Some (The American Revolution, the French Revolution) clearly do change things for the better.
我只是想說革命無論成敗,那些策劃革命的革命者們都注定要失望。
My point is merely that the idealists who make the revolution are bound to be disappointed in either case.
因為勝利的曙光無論如何也不會照耀在他們夢想中的那個擺脫了人類一切卑劣的燦爛的新世界上。
For at best their victory never dawns on the shining new world they had dreamed of, cleansed of all human meanness.
相反,它照在了一個熟悉的平庸的地方,這個地方仍舊需要食品雜貨和污水排放。
Instead it dawns on a familiar, workaday place, still in need of groceries and sewage disposal.
無論貼著什么樣的政治標簽,革命后的國家都不是由激進的浪漫主義者來治理,而是由市場營銷、衛生工程和管理官僚機構的專家來治理。
The revolutionary state, under whatever political label, has to be run-not by violent romantics-but by experts in marketing, sanitary engineering, and the management of bureaucracies.
對一些決心改造社會,但同時又希望能找到一種比武裝革命更可行的方法的理想主義者來說,還有另外一種選擇。
For the idealists who are determined to remake society, but who seek a more practical method than armed revolution, there remains one more alternative.
4)循序漸進,逐步改變社會
Try to Change the World Gradually, One Clod at a Time
乍一看,這一途徑毫無吸引力。
At first glance, this course is far from inviting.
它缺乏魅力,并且見效很慢。
It lacks glamour. It promises no quick results.
它依靠勸說和民主決策這些令人惱火且不可靠的方法來實現。
It depends on the exasperating and uncertain instruments of persuasion and democratic decision making.
它需要耐心,可我們卻總是缺乏耐心。
It demands patience, always in short supply.
它惟一的好處是有時這方法行得通——在這個特定的時間和地點,它比其他的任何策略都更有可能制止世界上的某些惡行。
About all that can be said for it is that it sometimes works – that in this particular time and place it offers a better chance for remedying some of the world's outrages than any other available strategy.
至少歷史事實似乎證明了這一點。
So at least the historical evidence seems to suggest.
我大學畢業的時候,我們這一代人也發現世界亂得一團糟。
When I was graduating from college, my generation also found the world in a mess.
幾乎所有地方的經濟機構都已崩潰,在美國幾乎四分之一的人口失業。
The economic machinery had broken down almost everywhere: In this country nearly a quarter of the population was out of work.
一場大戰似乎在所難免。
A major was seemed all too likely.
當時作為校報編輯,對這些我曾經猛烈地抗議過,像今天的學生積極分子一樣。
As a college newspaper editor at that time, I protested against this just as vehemently as student activists are protesting today.
與此同時,我們這一代人漸漸發現改造世界有點像在亞平寧山區打仗一樣。你剛剛占領一條山脈,另一條山脈又在前方隱現。
At the same time, my generation was discovering that reforming the world is a little like fighting a military campaign in the Apennines, as soon as you capture one mountain range, another one looms just ahead.
當20世紀30年代的大問題剛剛勉強得到控制,新的問題又出現了——富足社會中出現的嶄新問題,如種族平等,保證城市環境適于居住,應付各種陌生偽裝下的戰爭等等。
As the big problems of the thirties were brought under some kind of rough control, new problems took their place – the unprecedented problems of an, affluent society, of racial justice, of keeping our cities from becoming uninhabitable, of coping with war in unfamiliar guises.
最令人不安的是我們發現了人口爆炸這一問題。
Most disturbing of all was our discovery of the population explosion.
我們突然意識到我們這艘載人小飛船上的乘客數目大約每40年翻一倍。
It dawned on us rather suddenly that the number of passengers on the small spaceship we inhabit is doubling about every forty years.
只要地球上的人口持續地按這個可怕的速度增長,其他所有問題都將無法解決。
So long as the earth's population keeps growing at this cancerous rate, all of the other problems appear virtually insoluble.
我們的城市會變得越來越擁擠,景色會變得更加雜亂,空氣和水也會變得愈發骯臟。
Our cities will continue to become more crowded and noisome. The landscape will get more cluttered, the air and water even dirtier.
所有人的生活質量都會不斷惡化。
The quality of life is likely to become steadily worse for everybody.
如果過多的人必須為了爭奪日益減少的食物份額和生存空間而爭斗的話,戰爭的升級看來是無法避免的。
And warfare on a rising scale seems inevitable if too many bodies have to struggle for ever-dwindling shares of food and living space.
因此吉姆?賓司這代人要承擔一項艱巨的任務。
So Jim Binns'generation has a formidable job on its hands.
但我認為這并不是無法克服的困難。
But not, I think, an insuperable one.
過去的事實證明,處理這項艱巨任務完全可采用以前解決困難問外時使用的方法——從實際效果出發,一點一滴,通過大家不懈的努力來完成。
On the evidence of the past, it can be handled in the same way that hard problems have been coped with before-piecemeal, pragmatically, by the dogged efforts of many people.
generation has a formidable job on its hands.
但我認為這并不是無法克服的困難。
But not, I think, an insuperable one.
過去的事實證明,處理這項艱巨任務完全可采用以前解決困難問外時使用的方法——從實際效果出發,一點一滴,通過大家不懈的努力來完成。
On the evidence of the past, it can be handled in the same way that hard problems have been coped with before-piecemeal, pragmatically, by the dogged efforts of many people.
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