TED演讲：温和的成功哲学(5)

 　　You know, in the Middle Ages, in England, when you met a very poor person, that person would be described as an "unfortunate" 你知道，在中世纪的英国，当你遇见一个非常穷苦的人，你会认为他“不走运”，

　　literally¹, somebody who had not been blessed by fortune, an unfortunate. 直接地说，那些不被幸运之神眷顾的人，不幸的人。

　　Nowadays, particularly in the United States, if you meet someone at the bottom of society, 现如今，尤其在美国，如果人们遇见一些社会底层的人，

　　they may unkindly be described as a "loser." 他们被刻薄地形容成“失败者”。

　　There's a real difference between an unfortunate and a loser, “不走运”和“失败者”中间有很大的差别，

　　and that shows 400 years of evolution in society and our belief in who is responsible for our lives. 这表现了四百年的社会演变，我们对谁该为人生负责看法的改变。

　　It's no longer the gods, it's us. We're in the driving seat. 神不再掌握我们的命运，我们掌握自己的人生。

　　That's exhilarating if you're doing well, and very crushing if you're not. 如果你做的很好，这是件令人愉快的事。相反的情况，就很令人沮丧。

　　It leads, in the worst cases -- in the analysis of a sociologist² like Emil Durkheim 社会学家Emil Durkheim分析发现，

　　it leads to increased rates of suicide. 这提高了自杀率。

　　There are more suicides in developed, individualistic countries than in any other part of the world. 追求个人主义的发达国家的自杀率高过于世界上其它地方。

　　And some of the reason for that is that people take what happens to them extremely personally 原因是人们把发生在自己身上的事情全当作自己的责任，

　　they own their success, but they also own their failure. 人们拥有成功，也拥有失败。

　　Is there any relief from some of these pressures that I've been outlining? I think there is. 有什么方法可以解决刚才提到的这些焦虑呢？是有的。

　　I just want to turn to a few of them. Let's take meritocracy. 我想提出几项。先说“功绩主义”。

　　This idea that everybody deserves to get where they get to, I think it's a crazy idea, completely crazy. 也就是相信每个人的地位忠实呈现他的能力，我认为这种想法太疯狂了。

　　I will support any politician of Left and Right, with any halfway-decent meritocratic idea; I am a meritocrat in that sense. 我可以支持所有相信这个想法的，无论是左倾还是右倾的政治家，我同样相信功绩主义。

　　But I think it's insane to believe that we will ever make a society that is genuinely meritocratic; it's an impossible dream. 但我认为一个完全彻底以能力取决地位的社会是个不可能的梦想。

　　The idea that we will make a society where literally everybody is graded, 这种我们能创造一个每个人的能力都忠实地被分级的想法，

　　the good at the top, bad at the bottom, exactly done as it should be, is impossible. 好的就到顶端，坏的就到底部，而且保证过程毫无差错，这是不可能的。

　　There are simply too many random³ factors: 这世上有太多偶然的契机：

　　accidents, accidents of birth, accidents of things dropping on people's heads, illnesses, etc. 不同的机运，出身，疾病，从天而降的意外等等。

　　We will never get to grade them, never get to grade people as they should. 我们却无法将这些因素分级，无法完全忠实的将人分级。

1 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

2 sociologist   

n.研究社会学的人，社会学家

参考例句：

• His mother was a sociologist,researching socialism.他的母亲是个社会学家，研究社会主义。
• Max Weber is a great and outstanding sociologist.马克斯·韦伯是一位伟大的、杰出的社会学家。

3 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。