[转载]Life Lessons in Fighti

Life Lessons in Fighting the Culture of Bullshit

抵制扯淡风气

（选自《英语世界》2014年第3期）

文/乔恩·洛维特¹   译/希语

By Jon Lovett

I recently turned thirty, which I know seems like a generation away to those of you graduating this morning. But it’s more than just the worst. Thirty is a year where you’re left straddling two worlds. One foot stands in the world of the young, among the bright eager minds and supple bodies of students like you. And the other foot stands in the world of the grey and decrepit; the ancient shapes of your professors and parents; their dulling senses; their craggily, wizened faces.

我最近刚过了30岁生日，我知道，我这个年纪似乎与今天上午即将毕业的你们隔了一代。但最糟糕的还不仅如此，30岁是横跨两个世界的年龄。一只脚站在年轻人的世界里，站在你们这样头脑聪明、内心热忱、体态轻盈的学生当中。另一只脚则站在年老体衰的白发人的世界里，和你们的教授、父母一样老态龙钟，感觉迟钝，脸上布满皱纹。

[2] But what it means is that I am in a position to talk about life after college—as someone who just lived through it. I want this to be a practical commencement address. And I’m going to do my best to tell the truth. Because you’re already swimming in half-truths, in people telling you what they think you want to hear. And in this next phase of your life, I promise you, you will encounter more.

〔2〕但这意味着我能够以过来人的身份谈谈大学毕业之后的生活。我希望这是一场实用的毕业典礼演讲。我会尽全力说实话。因为你们已经听多了半真半假的话，人们总是对你们说一些他们认为你们希望听到的话。在你们人生接下来的这段时间，我保证，你们还会听到更多这样的话。

[3] I should preface this by saying that the problem I am going to describe involves a bad word. One of the greatest threats we face is, simply put², bullshit. We are drowning in it. We are drowning in partisan rhetoric that is just true enough not to be a lie; in industry-sponsored research; in social media’s imitation of human connection; in legalese and corporate double-speak. It infects every facet of public life, corrupting our discourse, wrecking our trust in major institutions, lowering our standards for the truth, making it harder to achieve anything.

〔3〕首先，我得说，我要描述的问题涉及一个不雅的词。简单地说，我们面临的最严重的威胁之一就是扯淡。我们正淹没其中。我们淹没在虚假得就差成为谎言的党派言论之中，淹没在行业出资开展的研究之中，淹没在社交媒体对人际关系的模拟之中，淹没在晦涩的法律术语和企业的欺人之谈中。扯淡影响着公共生活的各个方面，腐蚀我们的交谈，摧毁我们对主要机构的信任，降低我们的真理标准，使取得成就更加困难。

[4] And it wends its way into³ our private lives as well, changing even how we interact with one another: the way casual acquaintances will say “I love you”; the way we describe whatever thing as “the best thing ever”; the way we are blurring the lines between friends and strangers.

〔4〕扯淡还侵入我们的私生活，甚至改变我们彼此交往的方式：萍水相逢的人会说“我爱你”；不管什么事物，我们都形容为“有史以来最好的”；我们逐渐模糊了朋友与陌生人的界限。

[5] But this is not only a challenge to our society; it’s a challenge we all face as individuals. Life tests our willingness, in ways large and small, to tell the truth. And I believe that so much of your future and our collective future depends on your doing so. So I’m going to give you three honest, practical lessons about cutting the BS.

〔5〕然而，这不仅是我们社会面临的挑战，也是我们每个人作为个体所面临的挑战。生活考验我们在大大小小的方面说实话的意愿。在我看来，你们的未来以及我们共同的未来，很大程度上取决于你们是否说实话。因此，我要告诉你们三条关于少说废话的坦率而实用的经验。

[6] Number one: Don’t cover for your inexperience. You are smart, talented, educated, conscientious, untainted by the mistakes and conventional wisdom of the past. But you are also very annoying. Because there is a lot that you don’t know that you don’t know. Your parents are nodding. You’ve been annoying them for years. Why do you think they paid for college? So that you might finally, at long last, annoy someone else. And now your professors are nodding.

〔6〕第一条，不要掩盖自己缺乏经验。你们聪明伶俐，才华横溢，受过良好的教育，诚实善良，不受过去的错误和传统观念的影响。但你们也非常烦人，因为你们不知道还有许多事情你们并不知道。你们的父母在点头呢。多年来，你们—直在烦扰他们。你们以为他们为什么花钱送你们上大学？这样你们就终于或总算可以去烦扰别人了。瞧，你们的教授在点头呢。

[7] F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” That’s what you have to do: you have to be confident in your potential, and aware of your inexperience. And that’s really tough. There are moments when you’ll have a different point of view because you’re a fresh set of eyes; because you don’t care how it’s been done before; because you’re sharp and creative; because there is another way, a better way. But there will also be moments when you have a different point of view because you’re wrong, because you’re 23 and you should shut up and listen to somebody who’s been around the block⁴.

〔7〕F. 斯科特·菲茨杰拉德曾经说过：“一流智力的检验标准是大脑同时持有两种相互对立的观点并且仍正常运转。”这就是你们必须做的：你们必须相信自己的潜力，同时认识到自己的经验不足。要做到这一点着实不易。有些时候，你的观点不同是因为你独具慧眼，因为你不在乎以前的做法，因为你敏锐而富有创意，因为存在另外一种更好的方法。但有些时候，你的观点不同是因为你错了，因为你只有23岁，应该闭上嘴巴，听听过来人的意见。

[8] It’s hard to tell the difference. Me, I love getting this one wrong. It’s a reminder that it’s not mutually exclusive to be confident and humble; to be skeptical and eager to learn.

〔8〕这种差别很难区分清楚。至于我，我宁愿自己在这一点上搞错了。这提醒我，自信和谦逊、心存怀疑和求知若渴并不相互排斥。

[9] But there is another side to this coin, which brings me to lesson number two: Sometimes you’re going to be inexperienced, naïve, untested and totally right. And then, in those moments, you have to make a choice: is this a time to speak up, or hang back? I worked for then-Senator Clinton during her campaign for president. But I vividly remember feeling like things weren’t right in that campaign; a lot of the young staffers felt that way—it wasn’t a secret that there were problems in how the campaign was run. The campaign pollster for example, rolled out so many slogans it was impossible to keep track.

〔9〕但这个问题还有另外一面，那么就让我来谈谈第二条经验吧：有时，你会显得经验不足，天真幼稚，涉世未深，观点却是完全正确的。在那些时候，你就要做出选择：是该畅所欲言，还是沉默不语？在时任参议员希拉里·克林顿竞选总统期间，我为她效力。我清晰地记得当时感觉选战不太对劲。许多年轻的工作人员也有同样的感受——选战的开展方式存在问题并不是秘密。比方说，竞选团队的民调分析师打出了太多口号，让人应接不暇。

[10] But I was timid; and a lot of us just assumed, or wanted to assume, that more experienced people must know what they’re doing. But that wasn’t true. So the campaign ended, my candidate lost, and I ended up as a presidential speechwriter anyway, which was cool. But the lesson I drew from that campaign is the subway rule: “If you see something, say something.” And I’ve tried to honor that ever since; to call BS when I see it—and to not be afraid to get in people’s faces⁵, and throw a punch or two, to make a point.

〔10〕但是我当时不敢说；我们许多人假定，或希望假定，经验更丰富的人肯定知道他们在做什么。可实际并非如此。因此竞选结束了，我的候选人输了，而不管怎样我最后成为了总统演讲稿撰写人，这事挺酷。但我从希拉里的竞选中得出的经验教训是一条地铁规则：“发现异常就报告。”从那以后，我一直努力遵守这条规则；发现废话就指出来——不怕惹怒别人，并挥上一两拳来表明自己的看法。

[11] Now, lessons one and two can be in tension. And I can’t tell you how to strike the balance every time. Though it helps to be very charming. And from my point of view, I’d rather be wrong and cringe than right and regret not speaking up. But the good news is, as long as you aren’t stubbornly wrong so frequently that they kick you out of the building, or so meek that everyone forgets you’re in the building you’ll learn and grow and get better at striking that balance, until your inexperience becomes experience. So it’s a dilemma that solves itself.

〔11〕这样一来，第一条经验和第二条经验会相互抵触。我没法儿告诉你们怎样才能每次都两全其美，但这会让你变得很有魅力。在我看来，我宁愿说错了而局促不安，也不愿表现得体而最终后悔没有畅所欲言。但让人高兴的是，只要你不是一而再、再而三地出错，被人赶出大楼，也没怯懦到让人都忘记你的存在，你就会不断学习和成长，越来越善于权衡，直到你从缺乏经验变得经验丰富为止。这个难题会自行解决。

[12] Finally, number three: Know that being honest—both about what you do know, and what you don’t—can and will pay off.

〔12〕最后，第三条经验是：要知道，不论对于自己了解的还是不了解的，说实话能够而且终究会带来回报。

[13] Up until recently, I would have said that the only proper response to our culture of BS is cynicism; that it would just get worse and worse. But I don’t believe that any more, and I think this matters for what comes next for you. I think we may have reached a critical turning point. Increasingly, those who push back against the noise and nonsense; those who refuse to accept the untruths of politics and commerce and entertainment and government will be rewarded.

〔13〕直到不久之前，我都会说应对扯淡风气的唯一恰当方式是愤世嫉俗，我会说这种风气只会变得越来越糟。但我已不再这样认为，而且我认为这个问题对你们今后的人生很重要。我觉得我们或许已经到达了一个关键的转折点。反对空话胡话的人以及拒绝接受政治、商业、娱乐和政府当中谎言的人会越来越多地得到报偿。

[14] And what’s awesome is that you will be the ones who are best prepared and most likely to lead this movement. All you have to do is avoid BSing yourself—in whatever you choose to do. To avoid the path of the sad gay judge filled with regret. To go forward with confidence and an eagerness to learn. And to be honest with yourselves, and others—to reject a culture of insincerity by virtue of⁶ the example you set in your own lives. And I say this only as someone hoping to do the same, along with you for the ride. ■

〔14〕了不起的是，你们会成为准备最充分、最有可能领导这场运动的人。不论你们选择什么工作，你们所要做的只是在工作中避免胡说八道。保持充满自信并且求知若渴。对自己、对他人坦诚相待——并且凭借自身树立的榜样，摒弃虚伪风气。我仅以一个同道中人的身份，对你们说这些话。 □

1. 乔恩•洛维特，作家，曾在白宫担任奥巴马演讲稿撰写人。本文节选自他在美国加利福尼亚州皮策学院毕业典礼上所做的演讲。
2. 简言之。
3. wend one’s way into（缓慢地）走向。
4. have been around the block经验丰富；见多识广。
5. in sb.’s face使人恼火。
6. 凭借；由于。