英国卫报:你还在相信统计数据吗?(6)

These innovations carried extraordinary potential for governments. By simplifying diverse populations down to specific indicators¹, and displaying them in suitable tables, governments could circumvent² the need to acquire broader detailed³ local and historical insight. Of course, viewed from a different perspective, this blindness to local cultural variability is precisely⁴ what makes statistics vulgar and potentially offensive. Regardless of whether a given nation had any common cultural identity, statisticians would assume some standard uniformity or, some might argue, impose that uniformity upon it.

这些创新为政府带来了巨大的潜力。通过将不同的人口简化为具体的指标，并将其显示在适当的表格中，政府可以绕过获取更广泛、详细的地方和历史见解的需要。当然，从不同的角度来看，正是由于这种对当地文化多样性的忽视，使得统计数据变得粗俗，甚至具有潜在的攻击性。不管一个国家是否有任何共同的文化特征，统计学家都会假定某种标准的统一性，或者有些人可能认为，强加这种统一性。

Not every aspect of a given population can be captured by statistics. There is always an implicit⁵ choice in what is included and what is excluded, and this choice can become a political issue in its own right. The fact that GDP only captures the value of paid work, thereby⁶ excluding the work traditionally done by women in the domestic sphere, has made it a target of feminist⁷ critique since the 1960s. In France, it has been illegal to collect census⁸ data on ethnicity since 1978, on the basis that such data could be used for racist⁹ political purposes. (This has the side-effect of making systemic racism¹⁰ in the labour market much harder to quantify.)

统计数据并不能捕捉到特定种群的每一个方面。什么被包括和什么被排除总是有一个隐含的选择，而这个选择本身就可能成为一个政治问题。GDP只包含有偿工作的价值，因此排除了传统上由妇女从事的家务劳动，这一事实使其自20世纪60年代以来成为女权主义批评的目标。在法国，自1978年以来，收集关于种族的人口普查数据是非法的，因为这些数据可以用于种族主义政治目的。(这有一个副作用，那就是让劳动力市场上系统性的种族主义更加难以量化。)

Despite these criticisms, the aspiration¹¹ to depict¹² a society in its entirety, and to do so in an objective fashion, has meant that various progressive ideals have been attached to statistics. The image of statistics as a dispassionate science of society is only one part of the story. The other part is about how powerful political ideals became invested in these techniques: ideals of "evidence-based policy", rationality, progress and nationhood grounded in facts, rather than in romanticised stories.

尽管有这些批评，但要以客观的方式完整地描绘一个社会的愿望就意味着各种进步的理想都附在了统计数字之上。统计学被认为是一门冷静的社会科学，这只是故事的一部分。另一部分是关于强大的政治理想如何被投入到这些技巧当中的：“基于证据的政策”、理性、进步和国家地位的理想基于事实，而不是浪漫的故事。

1 indicators   

（仪器上显示温度、压力、耗油量等的）指针( indicator的名词复数 )； 指示物； （车辆上的）转弯指示灯； 指示信号

参考例句：

• The economic indicators are better than expected. 经济指标比预期的好。
• It is still difficult to develop indicators for many concepts used in social science. 为社会科学领域的许多概念确立一个指标仍然很难。

2 circumvent   

vt.环绕，包围；对…用计取胜，智胜

参考例句：

• Military planners tried to circumvent the treaty.军事策略家们企图绕开这一条约。
• Any action I took to circumvent his scheme was justified.我为斗赢他的如意算盘而采取的任何行动都是正当的。

3 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

4 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

5 implicit   

a.暗示的，含蓄的，不明晰的，绝对的

参考例句：

• A soldier must give implicit obedience to his officers. 士兵必须绝对服从他的长官。
• Her silence gave implicit consent. 她的沉默表示默许。

6 thereby   

adv.因此，从而

参考例句：

• I have never been to that city,,ereby I don't know much about it.我从未去过那座城市，因此对它不怎么熟悉。
• He became a British citizen,thereby gaining the right to vote.他成了英国公民，因而得到了投票权。

7 feminist   

adj.主张男女平等的，女权主义的

参考例句：

• She followed the feminist movement.她支持女权运动。
• From then on,feminist studies on literature boomed.从那时起，男女平等受教育的现象开始迅速兴起。

8 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

9 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

10 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

11 aspiration   

n.志向，志趣抱负；渴望；(语)送气音；吸出

参考例句：

• Man's aspiration should be as lofty as the stars.人的志气应当象天上的星星那么高。
• Young Addison had a strong aspiration to be an inventor.年幼的爱迪生渴望成为一名发明家。

12 depict   

vt.描画，描绘；描写，描述

参考例句：

• I don't care to see plays or films that depict murders or violence.我不喜欢看描写谋杀或暴力的戏剧或电影。
• Children's books often depict farmyard animals as gentle,lovable creatures.儿童图书常常把农场的动物描写得温和而可爱。