商务英语 - 高级英语(上) - Lesson Two - 年轻人的四个选择

May 12, 2023 NL AE

60 年代的美国是社会急剧动荡的年代。种族歧视、贫困和越南战争等各种社会问题和矛盾引发了美国青年对美国社会的极大不满，导致他们鄙视和摒弃美国的传统价值观念。面对一个他们不再信任的社会，美国青年以各种方式表达他们自己的态度和信念。正如本课中所说的，他们当中有些人脱离传统的社会活动，拒绝承担任何社会责任，过着颓废的寄生生活；有些人逃离城市，跑到偏僻的乡间过着原始公社式的生活；有些人则试图以暴力手段改变社会状况，遭到了残酷的镇压。作者认为只有一点一点地改良社会才是青年人应走地道路。读者对这一点应持批判的态度



Four Choices for Young People

年轻人的四个选择

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

在斯坦福大学的高年级班长吉姆·宾斯即将毕业之前，他写信给我表达了他的一些担忧。他说：“与任何其他一代相比，我们这一代对成年世界持有极大的怀疑态度……还存在着完全拒绝接受那个世界的趋势。”

Apparently he speaks for a lot of his contemporaries. During the last few years, I have listened to scores of young people, in college an out, who were just as nervous about the grown-up world. 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 things. If they can’t do better than that, what have they go to teach our generation? That kind of lesson we can do without.”

显然，他代表了许多同龄人的观点。在过去几年里，我倾听了许多大学和非大学的年轻人，他们对成年世界感到同样的不安。大致上，他们的态度可以总结如下：“这个世界处于一片混乱之中，充满了不公正、贫困和战争。负有责任的人，想来应该是一直在运营事物的成年人。如果他们做不比这更好，那么他们还能教给我们这一代什么？这种教训我们可以不要。”

These conclusions strike me as reasonable, at last from their point of view. 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, For all its harshness and irrationality, it is the only world we’ve got. 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. So far asI have been able to discover, there are only four basic alternative:

这些结论在他们的观点下似乎是合理的。对于新一代来说，相关的问题不是我们的社会是否完美（这是可以想当然地认为的），而是如何应对它。尽管它充满了残酷和不合理，但这是我们唯一拥有的世界。选择一种应对策略，是年轻成年人需要做出的第一个决定，通常也是他们一生中最重要的决定。据我所了解，目前只有四种基本的选择：

I. Drop Out

脱离社会活动

This is one of the oldest expedients, and it can be practiced any where, at any age, and with or without the use of hallucinogens. It always has been the strategy of choice for people who find the world too brutal or too complex to be endured. 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. Some of us find this distasteful–an undignified kind of life. But for the poor in sprit, wit low levels of both energy and pride, it may be the least intolerable choice available.

这是最古老的应急手段之一，它可以在任何地方、任何年龄段进行，无论是否使用幻觉剂。对于那些觉得世界太残酷或太复杂而难以忍受的人来说，这总是首选的策略。从定义上来说，这种生活方式是寄生性的。无论以何种方式，其从业者都依附于他们蔑视并拒绝承担任何责任的社会之上。对于我们中的一些人来说，这是令人不悦的，是一种不庄重的生活方式。但对于精神贫瘠、能量和自尊心都较低的人来说，这可能是可忍受的选择中最为可取的一种。

II. Flee

逃离城市文明

This strategy also has ancient antecedents. ever since civilization began, certain individuals have trie to run away from it in hopes of finding a simpler, more pastoral, and more peaceful life. Unlike the dropouts, they are not parasites. They are willing to support themselves and to contribute something to the general community, but they simple don’t like the environment of civilization; that is, the city, with all its ugliness and tension.

这是最古老的权宜之计之一，它可以在任何地方、任何年龄、使用或不使用致幻剂的情况下实施。它一直是那些发现世界太残酷或太复杂而无法忍受的人的选择策略。根据定义，这种生活方式是寄生性的。在这样或那样的情况下，它的实践者以他们所蔑视的社会为食，而他们拒绝承担任何责任。我们中的一些人觉得这种生活令人厌恶–一种不体面的生活。但对于那些精神懦弱、精力和自尊心都很差的人来说，这可能是最可忍受的选择。

The Trouble with this solution is that it no longer is practical on a large scale. Our planet, unfortunately, is running out of noble savages and unsullied landscapes; except for the polar regions, the frontiers are gone. 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.

这个解决方案的问题是，它不再具备大规模实行条件。不幸的是，我们的星球过着原始生活的文明人和未受污染的风景都越来越来少；除了北极地区和南极地区外，地球上很少有地区仍然没有人类定居。少数拥有大量资金的绅士农夫仍然可以逃往乡村生活–但总的来说，移民流正流向另一个方向。

III. Plot a Revolution

3. 策划一场革命

This strategy is always popular among those who have no patience with the tedious workings of the democratic process or who believe that basic institutions can only be changed by force. It attracts some of the more active and idealistic young people of every generation. To them it offers a romantic appeal, usually symbolized by some dashing and charismatic figure.

这种策略在那些对民主进程的繁琐运作没有耐心的人或认为基本制度只能通过武力改变的人中总是很受欢迎。它吸引了每一代人中一些比较积极和理想主义的年轻人。对他们来说，它提供了一种浪漫的吸引力，通常由一些潇洒而有魅力的人物作为象征。

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.”

它有更大的吸引力的地方在于它的简单性： “既然这个社会坏得无可救药，那我们就把它打碎，在废墟上建造更好的东西。”

Some of my best friends have been revolutionists, and a few of them have led reasonably satisfying hves. 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. Others died young, in prison or on the barricades. But the most unfortunate are those whose revolutions have succeeded. They lived, in bitter disillusionment, to see the establishment they had overthrown replaced by a new one, just as hard-faced and stuffy.

我的一些好朋友是革命者，其中有几个过上了相对令人满意的生活。这些人的革命没有成功；他们达到衰老时仍能够一直愉快地策划着他们的大屠杀。其他人年轻时在监狱或街垒上丧生。但最不幸的是那些革命成功的人。他们在痛苦的幻灭中活着，看到他们推翻的体制被一个同样冷酷无情的、呆板的新体制所取代。

I am not, of course, suggesting that revolutions accomplish nothing. Some (the American Revolution, the French Revolution) clearly do change things for the better. My point is merely that the idealists who make the revolution are bound to be disappointed in either case. For at best their victory never dawns on the shining new world they had dreamed of, cleansed of all human meanness. Instead it dawns on a familiar, workaday place, still in need of groceries and sewage disposal. 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.

当然，我并不是在暗示革命一事毫无成就。有些革命（比如美国革命、法国革命）显然改变了事物的好转。我的观点仅仅是，无论哪种情况，革命者都注定会对结果感到失望。因为即使他们取得胜利，也不会出现他们梦寐以求、摆脱一切人类卑劣行为的光明新世界。相反，他们所迎来的是一个熟悉而平凡的世界，仍然需要处理食品和污水等日常杂事。无论贴上什么样的政治标签，革命机构都必须由市场营销专家、卫生工程师和官僚管理专家等专业人士来管理，而不是由暴力浪漫主义者来管理。

For the idealists who are determined to remake society, but who seek a more practical method than armed revolution, there remains one more alternative.

对于那些决心改造社会、但寻求比武装革命更实际的方法的理想主义者来说，还有另外一个选择。

IV. Try to Change the World Gradually, One Clod at a TIme

4. 尝试逐步改变世界

At first glance, this course is far form inviting. It lacks glamour. It promised no quick results. It depends on the exasperating and uncertain instruments of quick results. It depends on the exasperating and uncertain instruments of persuasion and democratic decision marking. It demands patience, always in short supply. 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 outranges than any other available strategy.

乍一看，这个选择并不吸引人。它缺乏魅力，没有迅速的结果。它依赖令人恼怒和不确定的说服和民主决策工具。它需要耐心，而耐心总是稀缺的。关于这个选择，我们只能说它有时是有效的，即在特定的时间和地点，它提供了比其他可用的策略更好的纠正世界不公的机会。

So at least the historical evidence seems to suggest. When I was graduating form college, my generation also found the world in a mess. the economic machinery had broken down almost everywhere: In this country nearly a quarter of the population was out of work. A major war seemed all to likely. As a college newspaper editor at that time, I protested against this just as vehemently as student activists are protesting today.

历史证据似乎至少表明了这一点。当我大学毕业的时候，我的那一代人也发现世界一片混乱。经济机器几乎在每个地方都崩溃：在这个国家，将近四分之一的人口失业。一场重大战争似乎不可避免。作为当时的大学报纸编辑，我像今天的学生活动人士一样，强烈抗议这种情况。

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. 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. Most disturbing of all was our discovery of the population explosion. It dawned on us rather suddenly that the number of passengers on the small spaceship we inhabit is doubling about every forth years. So long as the earth’s population keeps growing at this cancerous rate, all of the other problems appear virtually insoluble. Our cities will continue to become more crowded and noisome. The landscape will get more cluttered, the air and water even dirtier. The quality of life is likely to become steadily worse for everybody. And warfare on a rising scale seems inevitable if too many bodies have to struggle for ever-dwindling shares of food and living space.

同时，我的这一代人正在发现，改革世界有点像在亚平宁山脉进行军事战役，一旦你攻下一个山脉，下一个山脉又会迎面而来。随着三十年代的重大问题在某种程度上得到了初步控制，新问题出现了——一个富裕社会的前所未有的问题，种族正义问题，如何防止我们的城市变得不适宜居住，如何应对战争以新的形式出现。最令人不安的是我们发现了人口爆炸的问题。我们突然意识到，我们居住的这艘小太空船上的乘客数量大约每四年翻一番。只要地球人口以这种癌症般的速度继续增长，所有其他问题几乎都变得无法解决。我们的城市将继续变得更加拥挤和恶劣。景观将变得更加混乱，空气和水也更加污染。生活质量很可能对每个人而言将逐渐恶化。如果过多的人需要为越来越少的食物和生活空间而争夺，规模不断扩大的战争似乎是不可避免的。

So Jim Binns’s generation hasa formidable job on its hands. But not, I think, an insuperable one. 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.

因此，吉姆·宾斯的这一代人面临着一项艰巨的任务。但我认为这并非是不可克服的。根据过去的经验，可以采用与以往解决困难问题相同的方式来应对它——通过许多人的持续努力，分段式地、务实地解决问题。

Notes

  1. president of the senior class –毕业班班主席。美国大学地一、二、三、四年级的学生分别称作 freshman, sophomore, junior, senior。
  2. Stanford University –斯坦福大学，位于美国加利福尼亚州的帕洛阿尔托(Palo Alto, California)，是由铁路大王利兰·斯坦福(Leland Stanford)于 1891 年创办的私立男女合校高等学府。斯坦福大学是美国著名的大学之一，尤以科研和研究生教学著称。研究战争、革命、和平的胡佛研究院(The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace)设在该校。
  3. our generation –吉姆·宾斯所指的那一代人，也就是上世纪60年代的美国年轻人。
  4. the adult world –“美国社会的成年人”和”成年人的世界”指的是同一个对象。这些词汇是上世纪60年代美国年轻人使用的时髦术语，用来指代他们认为与他们无关的社会。
  5. The world is in pretty much of a mess,… –世界处于完全混乱状态。To be in a mess: 处于混乱的状态。
  6. full of injustice, poverty, and war –在 60 年代的历史背景下，”injustice” 主要指的是对黑人的种族歧视(racial discrimination against blacks)。”poverty” 指的是生活在贫困线以下的美国人。美国社会学家迈克尔·哈林顿(Michael Harrington)在 1962 年出版的《另一个美国》（The Other America）一书中第一次披露，美国有五千多万穷人过着贫苦的日子，从此，人们广泛地认识到富裕的美国依然存在贫困。”war” 指的是越南战争。美国从 1961 年派兵侵略越南，战争逐步升级，于 1973 年以失败告终，共死亡五万六千多名官兵，耗资一千五百多万美元。
  7. what have they got to teach out generation? –这是一个修辞性疑问句，用来强调要表达的意思。这一句强调的意思是：They have got nothing to teach our generation.
  8. That kind of lesson we can do without. –我们不需要那种指示，因为我们可以自己处理事情而不依赖它们。这句话的正常语序是：We can do without that kind of lesson. to do without: 不需要，没有也行。
  9. The relevant question…is not whether…(we can take that for granted)…but how… –珠姨这一句中的 not…but… 的结构，其意思为“不是……而是……”。 take something for granted 意思是视某事为当然。
  10. For all its harshness and irrationality, it is the only world we’ve got. –尽管世界残酷而不合理，但这是我们唯一拥有的世界。
  11. Drop Out –拒绝传统社会价值观并放弃社会责任(脱离社会)。实行这种行为的人被称为辍学者。退学的学生也被称为 dropouts。
  12. with or without the use of hallucinogens –With or without taking drugs. 60 年代美国青年吸毒成风。 一种叫 LSD 的毒品特别受青年人的青睐，吸食后可产生各种扭曲的幻觉，很多人因此死于非命。
  13. In one way or another, it’s practitioners batten on the society… –他们以某种方式从社会中获益。这些青年人拒不承担任何社会责任，什么工作也不做，他们不得不乞讨、抢劫或偷窃、向家里要钱，依赖社会过寄生虫的生活。
  14. But for the poor in spirit… the least intolerable choice available. –poor in spirit: 精神懦弱的人。most tolerable choice: 最可忍受的选择。
  15. Flee –在这里，它指的是逃离城市，去未受破坏的乡村，过一种相对原始的共同生活（原始公社生活）。
  16. …except the polar regions, the frontiers are gone. –除了北极地区和南极地区外，地球上很少有地区仍然没有人类定居。这里的 “Frontier” 不是指国家之间的国界或一个国家的边境、边疆，而是泛指尚无人定居的未开发地区。这个词还可特指美国历史上由东向西逐渐开发的边疆，这种勇于开拓的精神在美国称为拓荒精神(the frontier spirit)。
  17. Our plane, unfortunately, is running out of noble savages and unsullied landscapes… – 不幸的是，地球上的高尚野蛮人（指过着原始生活的文明人）和未受污染的风景越来越少。高尚野蛮人是指那些选择在未经探索的贫困地区过着相对原始的生活方式的人，因此能够远离文明世界的邪恶并保持高尚。
  18. gentleman farmers –拥有农场却让别人来大部分耕种工作的人。他们只是把农业作为一种业余爱好，而不是职业。
  19. the stream of migration is flowing the other way. –大量人口正在从农村流向城市进行迁移或流动。
  20. This strategy is always popular among those who…the tedious workings of the democratic process..who… –这一句里 who 引导的两个定语从句都是修饰 those。
    the workings of something: the way in which something operates(运作方式) . the democratic process: 这里指的是美国的民主决策过程。
  21. some dashing and charismatic figure –一个有活力并且具有广泛吸引力的人。
  22. These are the ones whose revolutions did not come off…to keep on cheerfully plotting their holocausts right into their senescence. –他们的革命实际上并没有发生。他们只是密谋大规模摧毁人类生命，却停留在这个层面上，并未对社会和自己造成任何伤害。因此，他们能够一直这样做直到老年。他们欣然这样做是因为满足了他们的浪漫欲望。需要注意的是，”大屠杀”一词显示了作者对革命的偏见态度。
  23. Others died young… on the barricades. –在20世纪60年代，一些激进的年轻人，如黑豹党人，拿起武器，在街上筑起 barricades，并与警察进行斗争。许多人在街头战斗中丧生，其他人被逮捕并入狱。
  24. They lived, in bitter disillusionment, to see the establishment they had overthrown replaced by a new one, just as hard-faced and stuffy. –他们感到彻底失望，痛苦地看到新的体制和旧的体制一样僵硬和乏味。该句中的 “in bitter disillusionment” 说明他们活着的思想状态。句中的 “to see…” 是一个表示结果的动词不定式。注意句中 “to see the establishment…replaced by…” 的用法，它和 “hard-faced and stuffy” 合起来的意思是：发现新机构跟他们所推翻的旧机构一样令人难以忍受。
  25. the American Revolution –也被称为独立战争（1775-1783年），是指北美洲的13个英国殖民地进行的武装斗争，通过这场斗争，他们从英国获得独立，并建立了美利坚合众国。
  26. the French Revolution –这是对整个世界产生深远影响的最彻底的资产阶级革命（1789-1799年）。它不仅废除了所有封建特权，在法国建立了资产阶级的政治权力，还推翻了欧洲的中世纪结构，加速了资本主义的发展。
  27. My point is…the idealists…are bound to be disappointed in either case. –无论革命成功与否，他们都肯定会感到失望。
  28. still in need of groceries and sewage disposal –这里的 “groceries and sewage disposal” 用来泛指 “the most basic things people need for a decent life”。这句话的意思是：新的体制并没有带来什么非凡和浪漫的事物，相反，人们依然过着相同的乏味生活。
  29. by experts in marketing, sanitary engineering, and the management of bureaucracies –这里的 “experts in marketing” 接上句的 “in need of groceries” 而来，泛指 “experts in business”；”experts in sanitary engineering” 接上句的 “sewage disposal” 而来，泛指 “experts in all technical matters”；”bureaucracies” 指的是 “government organizations at all levels”。这一部分的意思是：革命后的国家与旧体制相同，仍然由在各个企业和公共服务领域从事技术和专业工作的专家来运营。
  30. instruments of persuasion and democratic decision making –这主要指的是美国政府、国会以及各种利益集团的代理人所进行的游说活动。
  31. It demands patience, always in short supply. –这需要人们保持耐心，而大多数人并不具备这种特质。他们的耐心很快耗尽。
  32. About all that can be said for it is that it sometimes works–that in this…than any other available strategy. –这种方法唯一的好处是有时会带来期望的结果。破折号后面的 that 引导的从句补充说明这个办法如何行得通。
  33. So at least the historical evidence seems to suggest. –“So” 是 “suggest” 的宾语，指的是上一句里讲到的情况，放在句首有承上启下的作用。
  34. The economic machinery had broken down almost every-where… –The economic machinery means the economic system. 1929 年美国股市暴跌，引发了 30 年代波及西方世界各国的严重经济危机。在美国，这场长达 10 年的危机迫使数千家银行倒闭，进出口急剧下降，商业萧条，一千七百多万工人失业。美国人把这场危机称作 “the Great Depression”(大萧条)。
  35. A major war seemed all too likely. –这指的是第二次世界大战（1939-1945年），它很有可能爆发。
  36. the Apennines –亚平宁山脉是意大利半岛的主干山脉。第二次世界大战期间，在意大利于 1932 年 9 月宣布投降之后，驻守在意大利的德军凭借复杂的山地地形负隅顽抗，使英美联盟军的进军一时收到阻拦。
  37. war in unfamiliar guises –War taking forms unfamiliar to people at that time. 当时的这一类战争包括以遏制和削弱共产主义国家力量为名的冷战和打着捍卫民主和遏制共产主义扩散的旗号而进行的越南战争，甚至包括约翰逊政府于 1964 年在美国国内发起的所谓 “向贫穷宣战(the War on Poverty)”
  38. Most disturbing of all was our discovery of th population explosion. –1960年，全球人口达到30亿，增长速度超过2％，令人震惊。在美国，第二次世界大战后出现了生育高峰期。这些战后婴儿在1960年代长大。年轻人数量的快速增加很容易让美国人突然发现人口爆炸不仅在国内，而且在世界其他地区也存在。
  39. the small spaceship we inhabit –隐喻地指代我们居住的地球。
  40. And warfare on a rising scale seems inevitable… –随着时间推移，冲突规模越来越大，也就是说，战争似乎是不可避免的。这反映了马尔萨斯人口论的观点。托马斯·马尔萨斯(Thomas Malthus, 1766~1834) 是英国经济学家，近代人口问题研究的先驱。他认为：人口增长的趋势永远快于生产的增长。如果不加限制，人口总是按几何级数增长而生产力只能按算术级增长。人口扩张到生产力能维持的极限时，就会出现饥饿、战争、疾病（然而我在看到这篇文章的现在是 2023 年 6 月，中国人口已经出现负增长了，只能说认真你就乐了）.