2016年07月发表的文章(26)

同态迷信

【2016-07-07】

@海德沙龙 《阿米绪人的生意经》 在进步主义者眼里,阿米绪人恐怕是最落后、最愚昧、最守旧、最不开窍的一群人了,他们不看电视、不用手机、不开汽车,不领福利,醉心于17世纪的乡村生活,遵循着古老而朴素的教义,上学只上到八年级,然而也正是他们,在创办小企业上有着北美最出色的记录……

@whigzhou: 阿米绪人教会我很多事情,多得我都很难一一罗列,社会科学家总是抱怨社会无法做实验,可是阿米绪人的(还有摩门教徒的)经历难道不是(more...)

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【2016-07-07】 @海德沙龙 《阿米绪人的生意经》 在进步主义者眼里,阿米绪人恐怕是最落后、最愚昧、最守旧、最不开窍的一群人了,他们不看电视、不用手机、不开汽车,不领福利,醉心于17世纪的乡村生活,遵循着古老而朴素的教义,上学只上到八年级,然而也正是他们,在创办小企业上有着北美最出色的记录…… @whigzhou: 阿米绪人教会我很多事情,多得我都很难一一罗列,社会科学家总是抱怨社会无法做实验,可是阿米绪人的(还有摩门教徒的)经历难道不是很好的实验吗?还能指望更理想的实验条件吗?可是当他们无法将它与自己的社会理论协调起来时,他们宁愿假装没看见。 @whigzhou: 本文是又一项教益,在一个自由市场里,或者(用更古老的术语)资本主义体系里,信奉自由市场(或资本主义)的人会表现更好,更加成功吗?请看犹太人,请看耆那教徒,请看阿米绪人 @whigzhou: 这一同态迷信的另一种表现是:以为在自由市场里如鱼得水成就辉煌的商人企业家一定是亲市场爱市场的,现实告诉我们,这完全是一厢情愿  
[译文]牛仔:备受排挤的濒危物种

I’m an Oregon rancher. Here’s what you don’t understand about the Bundy standoff.
俄勒冈农场主来信:谈谈“邦迪对峙”中你所不知道的一些事情

作者: Keith Nantz @ 2016-1-8
译者:沈沉(@你在何地-sxy)
校对:Tankman
来源:The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/01/08/im-an-oregon-rancher-heres-what-you-dont-understand-about-the-bundy-standoff/

The Obama administration has pushed our livelihood to the brink.
奥巴马政府把我们的生计推到了崩溃边缘。

This week, the Ammon Bundy-led seizure of a federal wildlife refuge thrust Oregon’s ranchers into the spotlight. While I don’t agree with the occupiers’ tactics, I sympathize with their position. Being a rancher was always challenging. And it has become increasingly difficult under the Obama administration.

本周,由阿蒙·邦迪领导的一场占领某联邦野生动物保护站的行动将俄勒冈的牧场主们推到了聚光灯下。尽管我并不赞同占领者的策略,但我同情他们的立场。牧场主历来难当,在奥巴马政府治下更是日益艰辛。

I grew up in a ranching community in northeast Oregon. Even as a kid, I knew I wanted to be a rancher. After eight years as a firefighter, I’d saved enough to start my own business. I wanted to work on the land, raising delicious, wholesome beef for our growing population.

我自幼在俄勒冈东北部的一个放牧社区长大。还在孩提时代,我就知道自己想要做个牧场主。当了八年消防员之后,我攒够了钱,启动了自己的生意。我渴望在土地上劳作,为我们日益增长的人口生产出美味可口的健康牛肉。

For almost a decade, I’ve done just that. Most days, I’(more...)

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I’m an Oregon rancher. Here’s what you don’t understand about the Bundy standoff. 俄勒冈农场主来信:谈谈“邦迪对峙”中你所不知道的一些事情 作者: Keith Nantz @ 2016-1-8 译者:沈沉(@你在何地-sxy) 校对:Tankman 来源:The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/01/08/im-an-oregon-rancher-heres-what-you-dont-understand-about-the-bundy-standoff/ The Obama administration has pushed our livelihood to the brink. 奥巴马政府把我们的生计推到了崩溃边缘。 This week, the Ammon Bundy-led seizure of a federal wildlife refuge thrust Oregon’s ranchers into the spotlight. While I don’t agree with the occupiers’ tactics, I sympathize with their position. Being a rancher was always challenging. And it has become increasingly difficult under the Obama administration. 本周,由阿蒙·邦迪领导的一场占领某联邦野生动物保护站的行动将俄勒冈的牧场主们推到了聚光灯下。尽管我并不赞同占领者的策略,但我同情他们的立场。牧场主历来难当,在奥巴马政府治下更是日益艰辛。 I grew up in a ranching community in northeast Oregon. Even as a kid, I knew I wanted to be a rancher. After eight years as a firefighter, I’d saved enough to start my own business. I wanted to work on the land, raising delicious, wholesome beef for our growing population. 我自幼在俄勒冈东北部的一个放牧社区长大。还在孩提时代,我就知道自己想要做个牧场主。当了八年消防员之后,我攒够了钱,启动了自己的生意。我渴望在土地上劳作,为我们日益增长的人口生产出美味可口的健康牛肉。 For almost a decade, I’ve done just that. Most days, I’m up before the sun rises. I spend my mornings tending to my horses, dogs and livestock. In the winter, when it’s bitter cold, I’m outside with my cattle, making sure their water isn’t frozen and that they’re properly fed. In the summer, I often work 15-hour days, cultivating my crops and tending to the animals. In the afternoons, I’m in my office, reaching out to customers and handling the ranch’s business side. Over the course of a given day, I act as a vet, a mechanic, an agronomist and accountant. 有大约整整十年,我就在做这个事情。大多数日子,我会在天亮之前起床。整个早上都要去照料我的马匹、狗和牲畜。冬天的严寒时节,我也需要和牛群呆在外边,确保它们的饮水不会结冰,进食不会出错。夏天,我通常每天工作15小时,种植庄稼、照料动物。下午则呆在办公室里联络顾客、处理农场的经营事务。每天的不同时候,我需要扮演兽医、技工、农艺师和会计等不同角色。 I love the work, but it’s grueling. As a rancher, I’m always one bad year away from financial disaster. Every purchase I make — from new cows ($2,000 each) to a new piece of equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars — is a major investment. And my ranch operates on very slim margins, so I have to be savvy to make ends meet. 我热爱这份工作,但确实很累。作为一个牧场主,我离出现财务悲剧永远只有一个糟糕年份的距离。每购进一样东西——不管是新的奶牛(每头2000元)还是价值数十万的新设备——都是一次重要投资。我的农场盈利微薄,所以我必须精打细算、量入为出。 Money isn’t the only challenge. Raising cattle requires a lot of land, much more than most ranchers can afford to own outright. I lease about a third of the space I use from private owners. But most ranchers aren’t so lucky. The federal government controls a huge amount of land in the west (more than 50 percent in some states, like Oregon), and many ranchers must lease that space to create a sustainable operation. 钱并不是唯一的麻烦。养牛需要大片土地,多数牧场主做不到全部使用自有土地。我所用的土地中,约有三分之一是从其他私人业主手中租用的。但多数牧场主没有我这种好运。在西部,联邦政府控制着巨量土地(在一些州,如俄勒冈,联邦政府土地占有量超过50%),许多牧场主必须从其手中租用,以支撑牧场持续运转。 Utilizing federal land requires ranchers to follow an unfair, complicated and constantly evolving set of rules. For example, a federal government agency might decide that it wants to limit the number of days a rancher can graze their cattle to protect a certain endangered plant or animal species, or they might unilaterally decide that ranchers can’t use as much water as they need because of a fight over water rights. Or they might take over land that once belonged to the state or private individuals, imposing an entirely new set of restrictions. 使用联邦土地要求牧场主遵从一系列不甚公平、复杂且持续多变的规则。比如,某联邦机构可能会决定限制牧场主放牧牛群的时间,以保护某种濒危植物或动物;或者,他们也可能单方面要求牧场主不能足量地使用淡水,因为在水权问题上有争执。或者,他们也可能接管原属于州政府或私人的土地,强加一套全新的规制。 I saw this play out firsthand when the federal government considered listing the sage grouse, a chicken-like bird, as endangered. That regulation would have shrunk the amount of land where ranchers could graze cattle, putting many out of business and decimating the industry. 我曾亲眼目睹上述现象上演,起因是联邦政府考虑将艾草榛鸡——一种外形像鸡的鸟——列为濒危物种。一旦政府作出这一规定,牧场主用于放牧牛群的土地面积就将大为缩减,许多牧场会因此倒闭,整个行业也会大受伤害。 To avoid this, ranchers like myself and local officials spent months meeting with federal officials looking for compromise. We ultimately found middle ground. But we already have an enormous workload in our daily lives. The pressure of having to drop everything to lobby against a rule (which happens more often than you’d think) is a tremendous burden. 为避免发生这种事情,像我这样的牧场主及地方官员费时数月之久去和联邦官员会谈,寻找折中方案。最后,我们找到了中间立场。但我们的日常经营本来就有庞大的工作量,要我们放下手头一切事情去游说政府放弃某条规则(此类事情的发生频率比你想象的要高),这种压力对我们而言是极大的负担。 Most of the time, those regulations are written by people with no agriculture experience, and little understanding of what it takes to produce our nation’s food. The agencies that control these lands can add burdensome regulations at any time. Often, they will begin aggressively enforcing them before ranchers have a chance to adjust. 大多数时候,制定此类规定的人没有任何农业经验,也对生产全国食物需要付出什么缺乏任何了解。控制土地的各类机构任何时候都可以添加各种累赘麻烦的规定。通常,在牧场主们有机会为此做任何调整之前,他们就已经咄咄逼人地强制执行开了。 This forces us to either find new grazing land, reduce the size of our herd or sell out completely. In rural communities, this can have a catastrophic effect on the local economy and environment. Ranching is a billion-dollar industry in Oregon. 这就迫使我们要么找到新的放牧用地,要么削减牧群规模,要么彻底卖光牲畜。对于农村社群而言,这就有可能对地方经济和环境造成灾难性影响。在俄勒冈,放牧是一门价值十多亿的生意。 Overall, agriculture accounts for 15 percent of the state’s economic activity and 12 percent of the state’s employment. The income of a local farm generates double the money for the local economy as a supermarket’s income in the same area, according to the London-based New Economics Foundation. 总体而言,农业在全州经济活动中占到15%,在全州就业中占到12%。根据位于伦敦的“新经济学基金会”估计,就对俄勒冈地方经济的货币贡献而言,一个地方农场的收入是同一地区一个超市收入的两倍。 The siege on our industry has only increased under the Obama administration. Officials are effectively regulating us out of business by enforcing a string of unprecedented environmental restrictions. In Malhuer county (next to Harney county, where the current standoff is taking place), the Obama administration is considering a measure that will turn 2.5 million acres of federal land into a “national monument,” a move that would severely restrict grazing. These restrictions would cause a huge economic downturn for those communities. 对我们这一行业的围攻在奥巴马当政期间有增无减。官员们通过实施一系列前所未见的环境管制,事实上正把我们规制得走向歇业。在马卢尔郡(临近此次对峙所在地哈尼郡),奥巴马政府正考虑采取一项举措,将250万英亩联邦土地变成“国家保护区”。此举将会极大地限制放牧。这类管制将会使此类社群面临巨大的经济衰退。 These decisions are being made by people who are four to five generations removed from food production. The rule-makers don’t quite understand our industry, and are being spurred on by extreme environmentalist groups asking for unreasonable policy changes. 这类决策的制定者祖上四代或五代人之前就已经远离食物生产。规定制定者并不很了解我们这一行业,并且受到了要求进行不合理的政策变革的极端环保主义团体的鼓动唆使。 It’s not that I don’t care what the environmental community wants. In every part of my business, I try to find a balance between economics, mother nature and our culture. I know that if we don’t treat our land properly, we will go out of business by our own hands. It is of utmost importance for us to be true conservationists if we want to continue producing the most nutritious and safest protein in the world. 并不是说我不关心环保团体的要求。在我的生意的方方面面,我都努力寻求在经济、大自然母亲和我们的文化之间达成平衡。我知道,如果我们不善待自己的土地,我们就会在自己手上歇业完蛋。如果我们期望持续地生产出世界上最营养、最安全的蛋白质,那么最重要的一点就是要做一个真正的自然资源保护主义者。 But all too often, I’m not given the autonomy to do so. I’m given rules, not a conversation about how ranchers and government officials and environmentalists might be able to work together. That’s an approach that fails everyone. 但反复发生的事情是,我并没有得到自决权去这么做。他们给我定规则,而不是和我就农场主、政府官员和环保主义者如何可能共同合作进行对话。这种办法令所有人都失望透顶。 (编辑:辉格@whigzhou) *注:本译文未经原作者授权,本站对原文不持有也不主张任何权利,如果你恰好对原文拥有权益并希望我们移除相关内容,请私信联系,我们会立即作出响应。

——海德沙龙·翻译组,致力于将英文世界的好文章搬进中文世界——

[译文]进步派的种族主义历史

When Bigots Become Reformers
 当顽固派变成改革者

作者:Damon Root @ 2006-05
译者:沈沉(@你在何地-sxy)
校对:Whig Zhou(@whigzhou)
来源:Reason,https://reason.com/archives/2006/05/01/when-bigots-become-reformers/

The Progressive Era’s shameful record on race.
进步时代在种族问题上的黑记录

The Progressive Era and Race: Reform and Reaction, 1900-1977, by David W. Southern, Wheeling, W.V.: Harlan Davidson, 240 pages, $15.95

《进步时代与种族问题:改革与反动,1900-1977》,作者 David W. Southern

THE PROGRESSIVE movement swept America from roughly the early 1890s through the early 1920s, producing a broad popular consensus that government should be the primary agent of social change.

大概从1890年代早期开始,直到1920年代早期,进步主义运动席卷美国,催生了一个广泛的民众共识,即政府应当是推动社会变化的首要主体。

To that end, legions of idealistic young crusaders, operating at the local, state, and federal levels, seized and wielded sweeping new powers and enacted a mountain of new legislation, including minimum wage and maximum hour laws, antitrust statutes, restrictions on the sale and consumption of alcohol, appropriations for hundreds of miles of roads and highways, assistance(more...)

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When Bigots Become Reformers  当顽固派变成改革者 作者:Damon Root @ 2006-05 译者:沈沉(@你在何地-sxy) 校对:Whig Zhou(@whigzhou) 来源:Reason,https://reason.com/archives/2006/05/01/when-bigots-become-reformers/ The Progressive Era’s shameful record on race. 进步时代在种族问题上的黑记录 The Progressive Era and Race: Reform and Reaction, 1900-1977, by David W. Southern, Wheeling, W.V.: Harlan Davidson, 240 pages, $15.95 《进步时代与种族问题:改革与反动,1900-1977》,作者 David W. Southern THE PROGRESSIVE movement swept America from roughly the early 1890s through the early 1920s, producing a broad popular consensus that government should be the primary agent of social change. 大概从1890年代早期开始,直到1920年代早期,进步主义运动席卷美国,催生了一个广泛的民众共识,即政府应当是推动社会变化的首要主体。 To that end, legions of idealistic young crusaders, operating at the local, state, and federal levels, seized and wielded sweeping new powers and enacted a mountain of new legislation, including minimum wage and maximum hour laws, antitrust statutes, restrictions on the sale and consumption of alcohol, appropriations for hundreds of miles of roads and highways, assistance to new immigrants and the poor, women's suffrage, and electoral reform, among much else. 为实现那一目的,一大批年轻的理想主义斗士活跃在地方、各州直至联邦政府层面,掌握并运用手中势不可挡的权力,制定了成堆的新法律,涉及最低工资和最长工时法、反托拉斯法、酒精出售与消费限制、对数百英里道路与高速路的征用、对新移民及穷人的补助、妇女投票权和选举改革,等等。 Today many on the liberal left would like to revive that movement and its aura of social justice. Journalist Bill Moyers, speaking at a conference sponsored by the left-wing Campaign for America's Future, described Progressivism as "one of the country's great traditions." Progressives, he told the crowd, "exalted and extended the original American Revolution. They spelled out new terms of partnership between the people and their rulers. And they kindled a flame that lit some of the most prosperous decades in modern history." 今天,许多自由左派人士希望复兴这一运动以及它带来的社会正义氛围。在一场由左翼团体“美国的未来运动”举办的会议上,记者Bill Moyers称进步主义是“美国的伟大传统之一”。他向与会者说,进步派“提升并拓展了原本的美国革命。他们阐明了人民与统治者之间合作关系的新条件。他们所点燃的火焰,照亮了现代历史上最为繁荣昌盛的年代之一。” Yet the Progressive Era was also a time of vicious, state-sponsored racism. In fact, from the standpoint of African-American history, the Progressive Era qualifies as arguably the single worst period since Emancipation. The wholesale disfranchisement of Southern black voters occurred during these years, as did the rise and triumph of Jim Crow. 然而,进步时代也是一个种族主义得到国家支持、极为严重的时代。事实上,从非裔美国人历史的角度来看,进步时代可以说是自黑奴解放以来最为黑暗的一段时间。南方黑人选民的公民权遭到大规模剥夺,就发生于这段时间,Jim Crow法【译注:指南方各州通过的在公共设施使用上实行种族隔离的法律】也是在此期间出现并流行。 Furthermore, as the Westminster College historian David W. Southern notes in his recent book, The Progressive Era and Race: Reform and Reaction, 1900-1917, the very worst of it-disfranchisement, segregation, race baiting, lynching-"went hand-in-hand with the most advanced forms of southern progressivism." Racism was the norm, not the exception, among the very crusaders romanticized by today's activist left. 另外,正如威斯敏斯特学院的历史学家Daivd W. Southern在其新书《进步时代与种族问题:改革与反动,1900-1917》中所提到的那样,其中最糟糕的情形——剥夺选举权、种族隔离、种族羞辱和对黑人实施私刑——“与南方进步运动的最先进活动是携手并进的。”正是在那些被今天的左派活动家浪漫化的斗士中,种族主义是种常态,而非例外。 At the heart of Southern's flawed but useful study is a deceptively simple question: How did reformers infused with lofty ideals embrace such abominable bigotry? His answer begins with the race-based pseudoscience that dominated educated opinion at the turn of the 20th century. Southern的研究不无瑕疵,但非常有用,其核心是一个看似简单的问题:那些心中充满崇高理念的改革者们怎么会有这样恶劣的偏执言行?他的回答始于一种以种族为基础的伪科学,这种伪科学在19和20世纪之交时曾在知识人的观念中占据主导地位。 "At college," Southern notes, "budding progressives not only read exposés of capitalistic barons and attacks on laissez-faire economics by muckraking journalists, they also read racist tracts that drew on the latest anthropology, biology, psychology, sociology, eugenics, and medical science." “学院里头,”Southern提到,“崭露头角的进步派不仅阅读调查记者所写的揭批资本主义大亨、攻击自由放任经济学的东西,他们也阅读那些征引最新的人类学、生物学、心理学、社会学、优生学和医学研究的种族主义小册子。” Popular titles included Charles Carroll's The Negro a Beast (1900) and R.W. Shufeldt's The Negro, a Menace to American Civilization (1907). One bestseller, Madison Grant's The Passing of the Great Race (1916), discussed the concept of "race suicide," the theory that inferior races were outbreeding their betters. 当时流行的作品包括Charles Carroll的《黑人是野兽》(1900)和R. W. Shufeldt的《黑人对美国文明的威胁》(1907)。Madison Grant所写的畅销书,《伟大种族的消逝》,讨论了“种族自杀”这一概念,该理论认为卑贱种族已然比优等种族繁殖得更快。 President Theodore Roosevelt was one of many Progressives captivated by this notion: He opposed voting rights for African-American men, which were guaranteed by the 15th amendment, on the grounds that the black race was still in its adolescence. 西奥多·罗斯福总统就是诸多被这一概念俘获的进步人士之一。他反对非裔美国男性获得由宪法第15修正案保障的投票权,理由就是黑人种族尚未成年。 Such thinking, which emphasized "expert" opinion and advocated sweeping governmental power, fit perfectly within the Progressive worldview, which favored a large, active government that engaged in technocratic, paternalistic planning. As for reconciling white supremacy with egalitarian democracy, keep in mind that when a racist Progressive championed "the working man," "the common man," or "the people," he typically prefixed the silent adjective white. 这类理论强调“专家”观点,主张扩大政府权力,与进步主义的世界观严丝合缝,后者就欣赏大而有为、实施专家治理和家长式计划的政府。至于在白人至上与民主平等之间如何调和,你只要记住,当一个种族主义的进步派拥护“劳动群体”、“普通人”或“人民”时,他总是会加上一个不说出声的形容词前缀,“白人”。 For a good illustration, consider Carter Glass of Virginia. Glass was a Progressive state and U.S. senator and, as chairman of the House Committee on Banking and Currency, one of the major architects of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. He was also an enthusiastic supporter of his state's massive effort to disfranchise black voters. 这里有个很好的例证,就是弗吉尼亚州的Carter Glass。Glass是个进步派,既是州参议员也是国会参议员,他曾任国会银行与货币委员会主席,是1913年《联邦储备法》的主要缔造者之一。他也是弗吉尼亚州大规模剥夺黑人选民公民权行动的热情支持者。 "Discrimination! Why that is exactly what we propose," he declared to one journalist. "To remove every negro voter who can be gotten rid of, legally, without materially impairing the numerical strength of the white electorate." “歧视!为什么这恰恰就是我们所提倡的,”他对某记者宣称,“为了合法地移除每一个可以甩掉的黑人投票人,避免极大地削弱白人选民的数量优势。” Then there was political scientist John R. Commons, an adviser to the Progressive Wisconsin governor and senator Robert M. LaFollette and a member of Theodore Roosevelt's Immigration Commission. Commons, the author of Races and Immigrants in America (1907), criticized immigration on both protectionist grounds (he believed immigrants depressed wages and weakened labor unions) and racist ones (he wrote that the so-called tropical races were "indolent and fickle"). 然后还有政治科学家John R. Commons,他曾是威斯康辛州进步派州长和参议员Robert M. LaFollette的顾问,还曾是西奥多·罗斯福的“移民委员会”成员。Commons著有《美国的种族与移民》(1907),同时从贸易保护主义立场(他相信移民压低了工资、削弱了工会)和种族主义立场(他写道,所谓的热带种族都“懒惰而善变”)出发批评外来移民。 Woodrow Wilson, whose Progressive presidential legacy includes the Federal Reserve System, a federal loan program for farmers, and an eight-hour workday for railroad employees, segregated the federal bureaucracy in Washington, D.C. "I have recently spent several days in Washington," the black leader Booker T. Washington wrote during Wilson's first term, "and I have never seen the colored people so discouraged and bitter as they are at the present time." 伍德罗·威尔逊,这位进步派总统的遗产包括联邦储备体系、一项针对农民的联邦贷款计划和铁路工人八小时工作日制度,对华盛顿的联邦机构实施了种族隔离。“最近我在华盛顿呆了几天”,黑人领袖Booker T. Washington在威尔逊的第一个任期写道,“我从没见过有色人种像今天这样气馁心酸。” Perhaps the most notorious figure of the era was Benjamin "Pitchfork" Tillman, a leading Southern Progressive and inveterate white supremacist. As senator from South Carolina from 1895 to 1918, Tillman stumped for "Free Silver," the economic panacea of the agrarian populist (and future secretary of state) William Jennings Bryan, whom Tillman repeatedly supported for president. 或许这一时代最为臭名昭著的人物应数“干草叉”Benjamin Tillman,南方进步派领袖,同时也是冥顽不灵的白人至上主义者。Tillman从1895年至1918年一直是南卡罗来纳州的参议员,一直为William Jennings Bryan这位土地民粹主义者(后曾出任国务卿)的经济万灵药——“自由银币”——而奔走鼓呼,并反复支持后者出任总统。 "Pitchfork" Tillman favored such Progressive staples as antitrust laws, railroad regulations, and public education, but felt the latter was fit only for whites. "When you educate a negro," he brayed, "you educate a candidate for the penitentiary or spoil a good field hand." “干草叉”Tillman对反托拉斯法、铁路管制、公共教育等进步主义产品均表支持,但他觉得公共教育这种东西只适用于白人。“你要是教育黑人”,他干嚎道,“那就相当于为监狱教育出一个后备分子,或说是糟蹋了一个农活好手。” Nor did African Americans always fare better among those radicals situated entirely to the left of the Progressives. Socialist Party leader Eugene V. Debs, though personally sympathetic to blacks, declared during his 1912 campaign for the presidency, "We have nothing special to offer the Negro." 在完全处于进步派最左端的激进分子面前,非裔美国人也并不总是能讨得了好。美国社会党领袖Eugene V. Debs尽管私底下同情黑人,但在1912年总统竞选活动中仍宣称:“我们不能向黑人提供什么特殊对待”。 Other leading radicals offered even less. Writing in the Socialist Democratic Herald, Victor Berger, the leader of the party's right wing, declared that "there can be no doubt that the negroes and mulattoes constitute a lower race-that the Caucasian and even the Mongolian have the start on them in civilization by many years." 其他激进分子领袖愿意付出的甚至比这还少。社会党右翼领袖Victor Berger在为社会主义刊物《民主先驱报》所写文章中宣称,“毫无疑问,黑人和黑白混血是一个低等种族,白人甚至蒙古人都在文明程度上领先他们许多年。” The celebrated left-wing novelist Jack London, covering the 1908 heavyweight title bout between black challenger Jack Johnson and white boxing champ Tommy Burns, filled his New York Herald story with lurid ethnic caricatures and incessant race baiting. "Though he was a committed socialist," observed Jack Johnson biographer Geoffrey C. Ward, London's "solidarity with the working class did not extend to black people." 著名左翼小说家杰克·伦敦曾报道过黑人挑战者Jack Johnson和白人拳击冠军Tommy Burns于1908年进行的重量级拳王争霸赛,在为《纽约先驱报》采编的故事中,他用尽了各种夸张的族裔讽刺和层出不穷的种族羞辱。“尽管伦敦是个坚定的社会主义者,”Jack Johnson的传记作家Geoffrey C. Ward说道,但他“并没有将其与劳动阶级的团结延伸到黑人身上。” As Southern thoroughly documents, these examples just begin to scratch the surface. Progressivism was infested with the most repugnant strains of racism. But was there something more, something inherent in Progressivism itself that facilitated the era's harsh treatment of blacks? 正如Southern的详尽描绘所示,以上例证只是浮光掠影。种种令人心生厌恶的种族主义性质在进步主义之中泛滥成灾。但是,这一时代对于黑人的残酷态度,是否出于进步主义本身所具有的某种内在特质? According to Southern, who repeatedly maintains that racism derailed "the great promise" of Progressivism, the answer is no. "The ideas of race and color were powerful, controlling elements in progressive social and political thinking," he argues. "And this fixation on race explains how democratic reform and racism went hand-in-hand." Southern的回答是“并非如此”。他反复强调,种族主义偏离了进步主义的“伟大愿景”。“种族观念和肤色观念强大无比,控制了进步主义的社会与政治思想元素,”他论证道,“而这种对于种族的关注,解释了为何民主改革会与种族主义并驾齐驱。” That is surely correct, but is it the whole story? As the legal scholar Richard Epstein has noted, "the sad but simple truth is that the Jim Crow resegregation of America depended on a conception of constitutional law that gave property rights short shrift, and showed broad deference to state action under the police power." 这当然是对的,但这就是事情的全部面目吗?正如法学家Richard Epstein所说,“真相虽然可悲,但很简单:美国的Jim Crow种族隔离法案奠基于一种宪法理念,这种理念漠视财产权,并对国家依据治安权实施的行动表现出最大程度的顺从。” Progressivism itself, in other words, granted the state vast new authority to manage all walks of American life while at the same time weakening traditional checks on government power, including property rights and liberty of contract. Such a mixture was ripe for the racist abuse that occurred. 换句话说,进步主义本身就把广泛的新权限赋予国家,使之能够管理美国人生活的方方面面,同时又削弱了传统上对于政府权力的各种制衡,包括财产权和契约自由。这种组合对于所发生的种族主义虐待而言,正是水到渠成。 Take the Supreme Court's notorious decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), a case that has rightly come to symbolize the South's Jim Crow regime. In Plessy, the Court considered a Louisiana statute forbidding railroads from selling first-class tickets to blacks, a clear violation of economic liberty. 以最高法院在“普莱西诉弗格森案”(1896)中臭名昭著的判决为例,这个案子自此已经恰如其分地成为南方种族隔离体制的象征。在普莱西案中,最高法细致考察了路易斯安那州一条禁止铁路公司将头等票卖给黑人的法令——这是一条明显违反经济自由的法令。 In its 7-1 ruling, the Court upheld segregation in public accommodations so long as "separate but equal" facilities were provided for each race, setting off an orgy of legislation throughout the old Confederacy. South Carolina, for example, segregated trains two years after Plessy.Streetcars followed in 1905, train depots and restaurants in 1906, textile plants in 1915-16, circuses in 1917, pool halls in 1924, and beaches in 1934. 在其7-1的判决中,最高法院认可在公共设施中实施种族隔离,只需每个种族都获得“隔离但平等”的设施。这一判决在整个过去的南部邦联地区引爆了一轮立法高潮。比如,普莱西案两年后,南卡罗来纳州就在火车上实行了种族隔离。1905年是有轨电车,1906年是火车站和餐厅,1915-1916是纺织厂,1917年是马戏团,1924年是台球厅,1934年则是海滩。 No doubt many of those businesses would have excluded or mistreated black customers whatever the law. But in a market free from Jim Crow regulations, other businesses would have welcomed blacks, or at least black dollars, forcing racist enterprises to bear the full cost of excluding or mistreating all those potential paying customers. (This was one of the chief reasons the segregationists pushed for those laws in the first place.) 毫无疑问,不管法律如何规定,许多上述企业还是会排斥或歧视黑人顾客。但是,如果某个市场没有受到种族隔离法规的限制,其他企业就可能欢迎黑人,或至少是黑人身上的美金,那些排斥或歧视此类潜在付费顾客的种族主义企业就会被迫承受由此产生的全部成本。(这就是隔离主义者一开始推动此类立法的最主要原因之一。) The state, in the eloquent words of the historian C. Vann Woodward, granted "free rein and the majesty of the law to mass aggressions that might otherwise have been curbed, blunted, or deflected." 用历史学家C. Vann Woodward文辞华美的话来说,各州把“完全的自由和法律的庄严认可”赋予了“大规模的侵害行为,而这本来是可以有所限制、有所缓和或有所修正的。” Furthermore, this tangled web of regulations, ordinances, codes, and controls was spun during the heyday of Progressivism, precisely when such official actions were least likely to receive any meaningful scrutiny. Southern, despite his otherwise close attention to the many permutations of race and racism, fails to recognize this major defect in the Progressive worldview. 另外,这一团由各种规章、条例、法令和控制组成的乱麻是在进步主义的鼎盛时期编织出来的,而当时恰恰就是这种官方行为最不可能受到任何有意义的细致审查的时候。尽管Southern在其他地方考察种族和种族主义的各种不同组合时细致绵密,在这里却没有注意到进步主义世界观的这一巨大缺陷。 A similar failure handicaps his treatment of one of the era's rare victories for African Americans. In Buchanan v. Warley(1917), the Supreme Court unanimously overturned a Louisville ordinance segregating residential housing blocks by race. The case involved a voluntary contract between a white seller and a black buyer for a housing lot located in a majority-white neighborhood. Under the law, the new black owner could not live on the property he had just purchased. Southern还有一个不足之处,导致他未能很好地处理非裔美国人在这一时期所取得的罕见胜利之一。在“布坎南诉沃利案”(1917)中,最高法院一致判决推翻路易斯维尔市依据种族来隔离居民住宅街区的法令。在该案中,黑人买方和白人卖方自由订立合同,购买一套位于以白人居民为主的街区的住宅。按照上述法律,这位黑人新房主不能在他刚刚购买的房产内居住。 Writing for the Court, Justice William Rufus Day held that "this attempt to prevent the alienation of the property in question to a person of color...is in direct violation of the fundamental law enacted in the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution preventing state interference with property rights except by due process of law." 大法官William Rufus Day代表最高法院写道,“企图阻止涉案房产转让给有色人……这是对于宪法第十四修正案关于各州不经正当法律程序不得干涉财产权的基本法则的直接违反。” Yet Southern dismisses this rare and important victory as "hollow" and incorrectly asserts that it "was decided not on the grounds of human rights, but on those of white property rights." In fact, the judicial recognition of black rights stood at the very center of the decision. Justice Day's opinion clearly states that the Fourteenth Amendment "operate[s] to qualify and entitle a colored man to acquire property without state legislation discriminating against him solely because of color." 然而,Southern却称这一罕见且重要的胜利“意义不大”,并且错误地断言其“并非基于人权所作出的判决,而是基于白人的财产权。”事实上,法院对黑人权利的承认正处于上述判决的核心。大法官Day在其意见中清晰阐明,第十四修正案“的作用是,准予并授权有色人获得财产,不受各州仅仅因为其肤色而针对他的立法歧视。” Nor should Southern's characterization of this victory as "hollow" pass unchallenged. As the legal scholars David Bernstein and Ilya Somin have argued, the Buchanan ruling played a major though sadly underappreciated role in the burgeoning fight for civil rights. Southern对这一胜利“意义不大”的描述也不应该轻轻揭过。正如法学家David Bernstein和Ilya Somin论证到的,布坎南案判决在风生水起的公民权斗争中发挥了重要作用,很遗憾没有获得应得的承认。 "Buchanan could not force whites to live in the same neighborhood as blacks," Bernstein and Somin write, "but it did prevent cities from stifling black migration by creating de jure and inflexible boundaries for black neighborhoods, and may have prevented even more damaging legislation." It is well worth noting, they continue, that the South did not adopt South African-style apartheid at this time, despite widespread white support for such measures. “布坎南案无法强迫白人和黑人住到同一个街区去,”Bernstein和Somin写道,“但它对各市通过为黑人街区制造法定且固定的边界以限制黑人迁徙的做法发挥了阻止效果,并且可能阻止了其他伤害性更大的立法。”他们接着说,特别值得注意的是,美国南方当时并没有采取一种南非式的种族隔离,尽管当时白人普遍支持此类举措。 In addition, Buchanan was the first major Supreme Court victory for the four-year-old National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a huge boon for the organization that would go on to win the landmark Brown v. Board of Education (1954), overturning Plessy. W.E.B Du Bois, an NAACP founder and longtime editor of its newsletter, The Crisis, gave Buchanan credit for "the breaking of the backbone of segregation." 此外,布坎南案是当时成立仅4年的“全国有色人种协进会”在最高法院所取得的第一次重要胜利,这为该组织带来了极大的好处,此后它将赢得里程碑式的“布朗诉教育委员会案”(1954),从而推翻普莱西案。该组织的创始人之一、长期为会刊《危机》担任编辑的W. E. B. Du Bois赞扬布坎南案“打断了种族隔离制度的脊柱”。 Despite these significant shortcomings, The Progressive Era and Race deserves careful attention. The Progressive movement unleashed, aided, and abetted some of the most destructive forces in 20th-century America. The better we understand this history, the less likely we are to repeat it. 尽管存在这些重大缺陷,《进步时代与种族问题》仍值得细心阅读。进步运动解放、助推和煽动了在20世纪美国历史上最具破坏性的一些力量。我们对这段历史了解越多,重复犯错的可能性就越小。 (编辑:辉格@whigzhou) *注:本译文未经原作者授权,本站对原文不持有也不主张任何权利,如果你恰好对原文拥有权益并希望我们移除相关内容,请私信联系,我们会立即作出响应。

——海德沙龙·翻译组,致力于将英文世界的好文章搬进中文世界——

[译文]阿米绪人的生意经

The Amish Effect: Unique cultural strengths help Plain Sect businesses thrive
阿米绪效应:独特的文化力量帮助该朴素教派获得商业繁荣

作者: Tim Stuhldreher  @ 2016-5-18
译者:babyface_claire(@许你疯不许你傻)
校对:hkustliqi
来源:LancasterOnline,http://lancasteronline.com/business/local_business/the-amish-effect-unique-culturalstrengths-help-plain-sect-businesses/article_ba60c8e4-e6dc-11e5-9cc7-73775e680585.html

Amish scholar Don Kraybill calls it a riddle, or a paradox.

阿米绪学者Don Kraybill称之为一个迷,或者一个悖论。

How can the Amish be such successful entrepreneurs today, when they end their formal education at eighth grade and forswear so much of the paraphernalia of modern life?

在完成八年级后结束正式教育,并且放弃这么多与现代生活息息相关的用品,阿米绪人如何能在当今成为如此成功的企业家?

That they succeed is indisputable: The failure rate of Amish startups in the first five years is less than 10 percent, versus 65 percent for businesses in North America overall.

他们的成功是毋庸置疑的:阿米绪人创业企业在第一个五年内的失败率不到10%,而对于整个北美,这一失败率为65%。

Many Amish retailers cater to mainstream customers, and do so with sophistication. Kraybill likes to cite Emma’s Gourmet Popcorn, which pegs promotions to (more...)

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The Amish Effect: Unique cultural strengths help Plain Sect businesses thrive 阿米绪效应:独特的文化力量帮助该朴素教派获得商业繁荣 作者: Tim Stuhldreher  @ 2016-5-18 译者:babyface_claire(@许你疯不许你傻) 校对:hkustliqi 来源:LancasterOnline,http://lancasteronline.com/business/local_business/the-amish-effect-unique-culturalstrengths-help-plain-sect-businesses/article_ba60c8e4-e6dc-11e5-9cc7-73775e680585.html Amish scholar Don Kraybill calls it a riddle, or a paradox. 阿米绪学者Don Kraybill称之为一个迷,或者一个悖论。 How can the Amish be such successful entrepreneurs today, when they end their formal education at eighth grade and forswear so much of the paraphernalia of modern life? 在完成八年级后结束正式教育,并且放弃这么多与现代生活息息相关的用品,阿米绪人如何能在当今成为如此成功的企业家? That they succeed is indisputable: The failure rate of Amish startups in the first five years is less than 10 percent, versus 65 percent for businesses in North America overall. 他们的成功是毋庸置疑的:阿米绪人创业企业在第一个五年内的失败率不到10%,而对于整个北美,这一失败率为65%。 Many Amish retailers cater to mainstream customers, and do so with sophistication. Kraybill likes to cite Emma’s Gourmet Popcorn, which pegs promotions to popular holidays and offers online ordering on a modern, well-designed website. 许多阿米绪零售商迎合主流客户,并且精于世故。Kraybill喜欢引用“艾玛的美食爆米花”为例,它经常利用受欢迎的节假日进行促销活动,并且提供了一个精心设计的入时网站供在线订购。 Bowls of the flavored treat were part of a buffet preceding a talk on Amish business that Kraybill gave recently at Elizabethtown College. Kraybill, who retired from teaching at Elizabethtown last year, remains an active scholar at the college’s Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies. Kraybill最近在伊丽莎白镇学院做了一个有关阿米绪商业的演讲,在演讲开始前的自助餐上,有着各式各样的风味小吃。Kraybill去年从伊丽莎白镇学院的教学岗位退休,但仍然是该学院青年中心的一位活跃学者,这个中心从事再洗礼派和虔信派研究。 2,000-plus Amish firms 2000多家阿米绪企业 Over the past few decades, Lancaster County’s Amish have undergone a “mini-Industrial Revolution,” Kraybill said. High land prices plus a population explosion limited farming opportunities for rising generations, fueling a turn to carpentry, small manufacturing and other enterprises. Kraybil说,在过去的几十年里,(宾夕法尼亚州)兰开斯特县的阿米绪人经历了一场“小型工业革命”。对年轻一代,高昂的土地价格加上人口爆炸限制了农业机会,推动了(从农业)向木工业、小型制造业和其他企业的转变。 Today, there are more than 2,000 Amish businesses in the Lancaster area, Kraybill said. Fewer than one-third of local Amish households still rely on farming as the primary source of income. 现今有超过2000多家阿米绪企业在兰开斯特地区,Kraybill说道。只有少于三分之一的当地阿米绪家庭仍然依靠农业作为主要收入来源。 Alan Dakey is president of the Bank of Bird-in-Hand. Its single branch sits at the corner of North Ronks Road and Route 340, and a majority of its clientele are Plain-sect members. Many of the bank’s customers farm but also operate nonfarm side businesses, Dakey said. Alan Dakey是手中鸟银行的主席。该银行的唯一分行座落在Ronks北路和340号公路的路口,并且大多数客户是朴素派教徒。Dakey说,许多银行的客户经营农场,同时也进行非农业方面的业务。 Remarkably, the bank has yet to record a single 30-day delinquency on a loan since its December 2013 opening — a tribute to its customers’ frugality and money-management capabilities. Amish aren’t opposed to borrowing per se, but “they want to use it constructively,” Dakey said. 值得注意的是,自从2013年12月开业以来,归功于其客户的节俭和理财能力,银行从未有过哪怕一个拖欠贷款达到30天的记录。阿米绪人并不反对借款本身,但“他们想积极地使用它,” Dakey如是说。 In his talk, Kraybill identified 12 factors he sees contributing to Amish business success. While some are integral to the culture, many, in principle, could be adopted by anyone. 在Kraybill的演讲中,他指出了他所认为的帮助阿米绪人创业成功的12个因素。虽然有一些与他们的文化融为一体,但也有许多在原则上是可以被任何人采纳的。 Here they are: 这些因素是: 1.Apprenticeship: Apprenticeship is a training system that mainstream society has largely abandoned, Kraybill said. But in Amish society, teens learn trades by working alongside their parents or other adults. Kraybill described once watching a 13-year-old fix a piece of hydraulic machinery. He had already spent years in his father’s shop and knew what he was doing. “That’s apprenticeship,” Kraybill said. 1.学徒制:学徒制是一个很大程度上已经被主流社会放弃了的训练体系,Kraybill说到。然而在阿米绪社会中,青少年从通过在他们父母或其他成年人旁边工作而学习手艺。Kraybill介绍了他曾经观察一个13岁少年在修理一台液压机械的部件。他已经花了数年时间在父亲的商店,并且知道自己在做什么。“这就是学徒制,” Kraybill说。 2.Limited education: Because Amish finish school with eighth grade, they can’t be drawn off into law, medicine or other professions that require extended formal education. The two basic Amish career tracks are farming and small business, so that’s where the best and brightest end up, bringing their ingenuity and drive with them. 2.有限的教育:由于阿米绪人八年级就结束学校教育,他们不能进入律师、医药或者其他需要更长时间正式教育的行业。阿米绪人的两种基本职业路线是农业和小型企业,这就是最优秀最聪明的人的出路,这些人具备智慧和进取心。 3.Work ethic: Amish are brought up in a culture that values hard work. It’s seen as integral to life, and children are brought up from an early age to pitch in to help their family and community. 3.职业道德:阿米绪人在一种重视努力工作的文化中长大。这种文化被视为生活中不可或缺的一部分,并且儿童从小要帮助他们的家庭和社区。 4.Smallness: “Bigness spoils everything,” Kraybill said an Amishman once told him. With many small companies instead of a few dominant ones, individual Amish have scope to express their entrepreneurial spirit. There’s little social distance between business owners and employees, and owners stay personally invested in their enterprises. 4.精简:“庞大宠坏了一切,”Kraybill说一个阿米绪人曾经这么告诉他。有许多小公司而不是少数几家大公司占据统治地位,阿米绪个人有机会展现他们的创业精神。企业主和员工之间的社交距离很短,业主们在他们自己的企业里保持投入。 5.Low overhead: Amish businesses don’t have air conditioning or luxurious offices. If the business has an office, Kraybill said he usually finds it empty, because the owner is out working on the shop floor. 5.低开销:阿米绪企业没有空调和奢华的办公室。Kraybill说,即便企业有办公室,他也经常发现办公室是空的,因为业主在车间工作。 6.Social capital: Information propagates rapidly through Amish communities’ social networks. Job seekers and companies with vacancies can put the word out and find each other easily. Transaction costs are low because everyone shares the same values and trust is high. 6.社会资本:信息通过阿米绪社区的社交网络传播得很迅速。求职者们和有职位空缺的公司可以让每个人都知道,并且很容易找到彼此。由于大家有着共同的价值观和高信任度,因此交易成本很低。 7.The paradox of technology: The Amish taboos on technology stimulate innovation and “hacking” as entrepreneurs find workarounds, Kraybill said. The culture distinguishes between using and owning technology — that’s why it’s OK for a business like Emma’s Gourmet Popcorn to contract with a website developer, or for Amish carpenters to journey to job sites in “Amish taxis” driven by their neighbors. 7.技术的悖论:在创业者寻找替代方法时,阿米绪人的技术禁忌刺激了创新和黑客精神,Kraybill说。这种文化把使用技术和拥有技术区别对待——那就是为什么像艾玛的美食爆米花这样的企业与网站开发人员签约是可行的,阿米绪木匠也可以乘坐由他们邻居的“阿米绪出租车”去工作地点。【编注:阿米绪人的教规不允许他们拥有手机、电脑和汽车等现代器物,但其中一些较开明的支派允许在工作中使用这些器物。8.Infrastructure:New Amish companies operate within a framework created by their fellow business people. They enjoy access to a well-established network of products and services tailored to the culture and its unique needs and restrictions. 8.基础设施:新的阿米绪公司在一个由他们的商人创建的框架里运行。他们享有一个为其文化以及该文化所赋予的独特需求和限制而量身定做的完善的网络产品和服务。 9.Regional markets: The tens of millions of people in the mid-Atlantic region comprise a “phenomenal external market” for the Amish, Kraybill said. There are more than 50 Amish markets between Annapolis and New York City, many catering to urban dwellers hungering for a taste of rural life. Ben Riehl, who owns a stand at the Markets at Shrewsbury in southern York County, said half of his Saturday customers drive up from Maryland, and he estimates they account for half his weekly sales. 9.区域性市场:Kraybill说,大西洋中部地区数以千万计的居民为阿米绪人提供了一个“规模惊人的外部市场”。在安纳波利斯(美国马里兰州首府)和纽约之间有超过50个阿米绪市场,许多是为了迎合城市居民对体验农村生活的渴望。Ben Riehl在南约克郡什鲁斯伯里的集市里拥有一个摊位【译注:什鲁斯伯里是宾夕法尼亚州的一个自治镇】,他说他周六的一半客人是从马里兰州开车赶来的,他估计这大概占了每周收入的一半。 10.Niche markets: Gourmet popcorn is a niche product. So are dried flower arrangements, carriage restoration, handmade furniture and horse-drawn farm machinery. Many Amish specialize in organic or free-range farming, Dakey said. Kraybill said he knows an Amish farmer who raises camels, having discovered camel milk commands a premium price. 10.细分市场:美食家爆米花是一个细分产品。同样,干花艺术、马车修整、手工家具和马车农业机械也是。许多阿米绪人专业从事有机或自由放养的农业,Dakey说。Kraybill说他知道一个阿米绪农民饲养骆驼,并且发现骆驼奶奇货可居。 11.Amish “branding”: For many Americans, the term “Amish” has strong positive associations: honesty, simplicity, old-fashioned virtue. Businesses can partake in those associations simply by being Amish. For Riehl, there's a big difference between overt image-building and the kind of trust that accrues when Amish business owners serve their customers with integrity: The latter “is a reputation that was earned, not a brand that was bought.” 11.阿米绪“品牌效应”:对许多美国人而言,“阿米绪”这个词有着很强的正面联想:诚实、朴素和传统的美德。企业仅仅需要是阿米绪的即可产生那些联想。对Riehl而言,赤裸裸的形象塑造和阿米绪企业主通过全心全意为客人服务而积累的那种信任之间有天壤之别,后者“是赢得的口碑,而不是可以买到的品牌”。 12.Payroll costs: Amish employees in Amish businesses are exempt from mainstream companies’ Social Security, health insurance and pension mandates. Though that keeps costs down, the impact is often exaggerated, Amish business owners say. They say they still have to pay into Amish Aid, the community’s mutual-aid fund, and they have responsibility for payroll taxes and benefits for non-Amish employees, so the difference isn’t all that great. 12.薪资成本:在阿米绪企业工作的阿米绪雇员被免除了主流公司的社会保障、医疗保险和退休津贴的要求。阿米绪企业主说,尽管那带来了成本下降,效果却经常被过分夸大。阿米绪企业主说他们仍然需要支付阿米绪援助金,社区互助基金,并且有责任为非阿米绪员工付工资税和福利津贴,因此差别并没有那么显著。 (编辑:辉格@whigzhou) *注:本译文未经原作者授权,本站对原文不持有也不主张任何权利,如果你恰好对原文拥有权益并希望我们移除相关内容,请私信联系,我们会立即作出响应。

——海德沙龙·翻译组,致力于将英文世界的好文章搬进中文世界——

[译文]把基因摆回属于它的位置

Giving Genes Their Due, But Not More
正视基因的功劳,但不要过誉

作者:Erik Parens @ 2015-5-21
译者:Tankman
校对:Drunkplane (@Drunkplane-zny)
来源:quillette,http://quillette.com/2016/05/21/giving-genes-their-due-but-not-more/

A review of Behaving: What’s Genetic, What’s Not, and Why Should We Care?   by Kenneth B. Schaffner. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2016), 304 pages.
对牛津大学出版社出版的Kenneth B. Schaffner的《行为:什么是遗传的,什么不是,以及我们为何要在意这些》的书评。

No one gets anxious about using genetics to help explain a medical disease like cancer or heart disease. But using genetics to help explain a normal behavior like aggression, or a psychiatric disorder like depression, can be an entirely different story. At first blush, this difference in response to using genetics to explain different features of the same animal seems odd.

没有人会担心用遗传学来帮助解释疾病,如癌症或心脏疾病。但是用遗传学来帮助解释普通的行为,例如攻击行为,或精神障碍,如抑郁,则是一个完全不同的故事。对于用遗传学来解释同一动物的不同特征却有不同的反应,乍一看这似乎很奇怪。

After all, it’s not as if medical geneticists, on the one hand, and behavioral and psychiatric geneticists, on the other, employ different research methods. The difference, of course, is that the behavioral and psychiatric geneticists investigate features of ourselves that we take to be central to our humanity: our ways of acting and being in the world. To use genetics to try to explain those features elicits the anxious question, is human behavior genetically determined?

毕竟,这并不是说医疗遗传学家与另—边的行为和精神遗传学家,采用的是不同的研究方法。所不同的当然是,行为和精神遗传学家研究我们自己的特征,我们认为这些特征是我们人性的核心:我们行动和存在于世界的方式。试图用遗传学解释这些特征引起了一个令人焦虑的问题,人的行为是不是遗传决定的?

Few people have been thinking about that question for as long, or with as much devotion to the scientific facts and philosophical subtleties, as the philosopher of science, Kenneth Schaffner. In his magisterial, wise, and succinct new book,Behaving, he disentangles its two separate but related components. The first, which he devotes the lion’s share of the book to illuminating, concerns reductionism: specifically, can behavior be reduced to genes? No, it can’t.

没几个人像科学哲学家Kenneth Schaffner这样,长期思考这一问题,并大量精力投入科学事实和深奥哲理。在他的权威,智慧,简洁的新书《行为》中,他理顺了行为的两个独立但相关的成分。第一,他用本书的大部分篇幅,做了关于还原论的阐释:具体而言,行为可以被简化为基因吗?不,不能。

But it can, at least in principle, be reduced to, or explained in terms of, a mind-bogglingly large number of variables — including genes — which interact over time. The second concerns determinism: even if genes alone don’t determine behavior, does the fact that behavior is determined mean that freedom is an illusion? No. But it does mean that we have to jettison the sort of freedom that chil(more...)

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Giving Genes Their Due, But Not More 正视基因的功劳,但不要过誉 作者:Erik Parens @ 2015-5-21 译者:Tankman 校对:Drunkplane (@Drunkplane-zny) 来源:quillette,http://quillette.com/2016/05/21/giving-genes-their-due-but-not-more/ A review of Behaving: What’s Genetic, What’s Not, and Why Should We Care?   by Kenneth B. Schaffner. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2016), 304 pages. 对牛津大学出版社出版的Kenneth B. Schaffner的《行为:什么是遗传的,什么不是,以及我们为何要在意这些》的书评。 No one gets anxious about using genetics to help explain a medical disease like cancer or heart disease. But using genetics to help explain a normal behavior like aggression, or a psychiatric disorder like depression, can be an entirely different story. At first blush, this difference in response to using genetics to explain different features of the same animal seems odd. 没有人会担心用遗传学来帮助解释疾病,如癌症或心脏疾病。但是用遗传学来帮助解释普通的行为,例如攻击行为,或精神障碍,如抑郁,则是一个完全不同的故事。对于用遗传学来解释同一动物的不同特征却有不同的反应,乍一看这似乎很奇怪。 After all, it’s not as if medical geneticists, on the one hand, and behavioral and psychiatric geneticists, on the other, employ different research methods. The difference, of course, is that the behavioral and psychiatric geneticists investigate features of ourselves that we take to be central to our humanity: our ways of acting and being in the world. To use genetics to try to explain those features elicits the anxious question, is human behavior genetically determined? 毕竟,这并不是说医疗遗传学家与另—边的行为和精神遗传学家,采用的是不同的研究方法。所不同的当然是,行为和精神遗传学家研究我们自己的特征,我们认为这些特征是我们人性的核心:我们行动和存在于世界的方式。试图用遗传学解释这些特征引起了一个令人焦虑的问题,人的行为是不是遗传决定的? Few people have been thinking about that question for as long, or with as much devotion to the scientific facts and philosophical subtleties, as the philosopher of science, Kenneth Schaffner. In his magisterial, wise, and succinct new book,Behaving, he disentangles its two separate but related components. The first, which he devotes the lion’s share of the book to illuminating, concerns reductionism: specifically, can behavior be reduced to genes? No, it can’t. 没几个人像科学哲学家Kenneth Schaffner这样,长期思考这一问题,并大量精力投入科学事实和深奥哲理。在他的权威,智慧,简洁的新书《行为》中,他理顺了行为的两个独立但相关的成分。第一,他用本书的大部分篇幅,做了关于还原论的阐释:具体而言,行为可以被简化为基因吗?不,不能。 But it can, at least in principle, be reduced to, or explained in terms of, a mind-bogglingly large number of variables — including genes — which interact over time. The second concerns determinism: even if genes alone don’t determine behavior, does the fact that behavior is determined mean that freedom is an illusion? No. But it does mean that we have to jettison the sort of freedom that children sometimes imagine — freedom untethered to our bodies and histories. 但它可以,至少在原则上,可以简化或被解释成,包括基因在内的一大堆变量,数量多到令人发狂,且这些变量一直交互作用。第二点则关于决定论:即使基因并不能单独决定行为,行为是被决定的这一事实是否意味着自由是一种错觉?不。但它确实意味着我们必须抛弃那种自由,即有时孩子们会想象的那种——不受我们的身体和历史羁绊的自由。 In the course of decreasing the anxiety associated with genetic determinism, Schaffner’s book also decreases the anxiety associated with the fantasy of “designer babies” — a fantasy which depends on the notion that just by “editing” genes we can produce any trait we want, from great athleticism to great intelligence. 在试图减少遗传决定论所带来的焦虑时,Schaffner的书也降低了与“设计婴儿”狂想有关的焦虑——这一狂想基于以下概念:仅通过“编辑”基因,我们便可以创造任何我们想要的特质,从强大的运动能力到极高的智力。 By dispelling this wildly simplistic notion, Schaffner’s book serves not only as an anxiety reducer — or “anxiolytic” — but also as a “mood stabilizer”: it helps stabilize the mania that can afflict those who envision the Human Genome Project as the key to the future of medicine. 通过打消这种疯狂简单化的概念,Schaffner的书不仅可充当一种焦虑缓和剂——或“抗焦虑药”——而且可充当一种“情绪稳定剂” :它有助于稳定一种狂热,这狂热让那些把人类基因组计划当成开启医学未来的金钥匙的人备受折磨。 Schaffner provides a balanced account while never losing sight of what has been and will be achieved by using genetics to explain medical, behavioral, and psychiatric traits — especially if integrated with insights at myriad other levels of analysis, from the genetic and neuronal to the psychological and social. Schaffner提供了一个平衡的描述,他从未忽视在用遗传学解释医疗、行为和精神特质的方面,已经和将会实现的成就—— 特别展望了若把这些成就和遗传学、神经科学、心理、社会等诸多其他层面的分析相结合所能带来的前景。 A Judge and a Behavioral Geneticist Have a Conversation 一个法官和一个行为遗传学家的对话 Schaffner begins with three Socratic dialogues (minus any Socratic snarkyness or dead ends) that elegantly introduce the basic concepts and methods of behavioral genetics. They are worth rehearsing here. The dialogues feature a Behavioral Geneticist and a fictional Judge. Based on the breathless headlines she’s read over the years, the Judge anticipates that she will increasingly confront the results of behavioral genetics research in her courtroom. Schaffner以三个苏格拉底式对话开始。(没有任何苏格拉底的反讽或死结)这些对话优雅的介绍了行为遗传学的基本概念和方法。他们值得在此被回溯。这些对话的主角是一个行为遗传学家和一个虚构的法官。根据她多年来读到的那些令人喘不过气的头条新闻,法官预计,她将在她的法庭面对越来越多的行为遗传学研究结果。 This provides the Behavioral Geneticist with a pretext for explaining how such results can — and cannot — help explain human behavior, and how such results are — and are not — relevant to everyday understandings of behaviors like aggression, traits like performance on IQ tests, and disorders like ADHD. (Because there is no difference between the concepts and methods of behavioral genetics and psychiatric genetics, from here on out I will use “behavioral genetics” to include the use of genetics to illuminate behaviors and traits, whether or not they are associated with a psychiatric diagnosis.) 这为行为遗传学家提供了理由,来解释这些结果可以或者不可以帮助解释人类行为,以及这些结果和一些对行为,特质,或者疾病的日常理解怎样关联或不相关。例如攻击性人格的行为,智商测试的表现,以及多动症。(因为行为遗传学的概念和方法与精神病遗传学之间没有区别,在此我将使用“行为遗传学”,以包括遗传学在解释的行为和特征上的应用,无论其是否与精神病诊断相关。) Two radically different sorts of investigation are undertaken by behavioral geneticists, and the dialogues introduce a basic but crucial distinction between them. The first uses “classical” methods to demonstrate that genes help explain observed differences in human traits and behaviors, whereas the second uses “molecular” methods to determine which genes or genetic differences are generating those observed differences. 行为遗传学家进行了两种截然不同的调查,而对话介绍了它们之间基本但关键的一个区别。第一种是使用“经典”方法来阐明基因有助于解释人的特征和行为上可见的差异,而第二个则使用“分子层面”方法,以确定哪些基因或遗传差异产生了那些可见差异。 The distinction is important — the distance is enormous between being able to say that a trait “is genetic” and being able to say which gene variants are contributing to the emergence of that trait (much less being able to say how they are contributing). 这种区别很重要 ——能够说一个特征“是遗传的”,和能够说出哪些基因变异正在促成该性状的涌现,这之间有着巨大的鸿沟(更别提说出它们是如何促成的)。 The basic idea for the classical method has been around since the pioneering statistician and father of modern eugenics, Francis Galton, published “The History of Twins” in 1875 — long before anyone knew anything about DNA. In its simplest contemporary form, geneticists compare identical and fraternal twins on a trait of interest, whether heart disease, schizophrenia, or performance on IQ tests. 自统计学先驱和现代优生学之父Francis Galton以来,经典方法的基本思想就已经出现,Galton于1875年发表了《双胞胎的历史》,那时人们还不知道DNA。在当时最简单的形式中,遗传学家比较同卵和异卵双胞胎的目标性状,无论是心脏疾病,精神分裂症,或智商测试的表现。 The first premise of such investigations is that identical twins are nearly 100% genetically similar and fraternal twins share on average only 50% of their genetic material. The second premise is that identical twins and fraternal twins are raised in equally similar environments. 这种调查的第一个前提是同卵双胞胎遗传上近乎100%的相似,而异卵双胞胎则平均只有50%的遗传物质相似。第二个前提是,同卵双胞胎和异卵双胞胎在同样相似的环境被养大。 If one accepts those premises and observes that genetically identical twins are more similar with respect to some trait than fraternal twins, then one has reason to make the simple but profound inference that genetic factors help explain why the identical twins are more similar to each other than are the fraternal twins. 如果一个人接受这些前提并观察到同卵双胞胎的某些特质比异卵双胞胎更相似,那么他便有理由做出简单而深刻的推论,即遗传因素能够帮助解释为什么同卵双胞胎之间比异卵双胞胎更相似。 Over time, by deploying ever more sophisticated variations on that basic logic, behavioral geneticists have demonstrated that identical twins (whether raised together or apart) are not only more similar with respect to traits like height and weight and heart rate, but are also more similar with respect to traits like depression, schizophrenia, aggression, and intelligence. 随着时间的推移,在该基本逻辑的基础上增加更复杂的变量,行为遗传学家已证明同卵双胞胎(无论是一起或分开抚养)不仅在诸如身高、体重和心率等性状上更为相似,而且在诸如抑郁症,精神分裂症,攻击性行为和智力等性状上也更相似。 As Schaffner’s Behavioral Geneticist patiently explains to the Judge, such classical studies produce what are called “heritability estimates.” These are the numbers that are invoked when it is said that depression “is 40% genetic” or that intelligence “is 60% genetic.” 正如Schaffner的行为遗传学家耐心地给法官大人解释的,这样的经典研究产生了所谓的“遗传率估计”。当讨论到抑郁症“40 %是遗传性的”,或智慧“60 %是遗传性的”时,有数字可以列。 They are estimates of how much of the variation with respect to a given trait in a given population can be attributed to variation in genetic factors and how much can be attributed to variation in environmental factors. However, in a different environment the observed variation can be different, and thus so can the heritability estimates. 这些估计反映了:对于一个给定群体特定性状的差异,有多少可以归因于遗传因素的差异,多少可以归因于环境因素的差异。毕竟,在不同的环境中可观察到的差异可以是不同的,因此,这样就可以估计遗传率。 To say that heritability estimates can be different in different environments is not to say that heritability estimates tell us nothing! (Indeed, how our genes can affect the environments we choose is an area of behavioral genetic research.) 如果说,遗传率在不同的环境下可以是不同的,这并不意味着遗传率什么都没告诉我们! (事实上​​,我们的基因如何影响我们为自己选择身处其中的环境,是行为遗传学研究的一个领域。) An old but ever-relevant example of how much heritability estimates can tell us comes from the 1960s, when behavioral geneticists used classical studies to discredit the then-popular idea that schizophrenia and autism were due solely to bad environments — in particular, to “refrigerator mothers.” 关于遗传率,有个老旧但十分相关的例子,来自1960年代。当时行为遗传学家采用经典的研究方法,以贬斥当时十分流行的观点:精神分裂症和自闭症纯粹由恶劣环境引发—— 尤其是“冰箱妈妈”。【译者注:让孩子感到缺乏母爱的妈妈。】 The good news is that these studies helped relieve already-devastated mothers of the burden and social stigma associated with believing that their mothering had caused the disease in their child. 好消息是,这些研究有助于缓解已经受创颇深的母亲们的负担和社会污名,这些负担和污名来自这样一种见解:这些妈妈的抚育方式导致了她们孩子的疾病。 The bad news is that the knowledge gleaned from those classical studies does not help diagnose or treat — much less prevent — a disorder like schizophrenia. To go from noticing that genetic differences were making a difference to knowing which genetic differences were making a difference, geneticists had to move from the classical twin methods to the modern “molecular” methods. 坏消息是,从经典研究中获取的知识并不能帮助诊断或治疗——更不用说预防——如精神分裂症之类的疾病。从注意到遗传差异,到知道哪个遗传差异导致某种不同,遗传学家必须从经典的双胞胎方法跨越到现代的“分子”方法。 The Genome: A “Molecular Crystal Ball”? 基因组:一个“分子层面的水晶球”? This move only became possible in the second half of the 20th century, when researchers began to understand the molecular structure of genes and how to map and sequence human genomes. Indeed, the purpose of the Human Genome Project (HGP), which officially launched in 1990, was to map the genome and to specify the sequence of the base pairs, the As, Gs, Cs, and Ts, that are the building blocks of genes. 此举直到20世纪下半叶才成为可能,当时研究人员开始了解基因的分子结构,以及如何对人类基因组进行绘制和测序图谱。事实上,于1990年正式启动的人类基因组计划(HGP)的目的,便是绘制基因组,并指定基因的积木——碱基对AS、GS 、CS和TS的序列。 The fervent hope was that knowledge of those sequences would lead rather quickly and directly to understanding and treating human disease. In reflecting back on that time, the geneticists Linda and Edward McCabe speak ruefully of the dream that an individual’s genome would be like a “molecular crystal ball.” 人们热切希望有关这些序列的知识将相当快且相当直接的导致对人类疾病的理解和治疗。忆起那个时候,遗传学家Linda 和 Edward McCabe懊丧的谈起当时的梦想:一个人的基因组将会像一个“分子层面的水晶球”。(http://content.ucpress.edu/pages/10867/10867.ch01.pdf) This idea of identifying “genes for” diseases made intuitive sense. After all, one year before the official launch of the HGP, in 1989, Francis Collins — who would go on to direct the National Human Genome Research Institute and who now directs the entire NIH — did co-discover “the gene for” cystic fibrosis, which constituted a prime supporting case in point for the idea dubbed OGOD: One-Gene-One-Disease. 直觉上,确定“致病基因”的想法是有道理的。毕竟,正式启动人类基因组计划前一年,即1989年,Francis Collins ——美国国家人类基因组研究所后来的领袖,也是现在整个美国国家卫生研究院(NIH)的领袖——和他人共同发现了囊性纤维化的“致病基因” ,这构成了OGOD理念,即一个基因对应一种疾病(One-Gene-One-Disease)的主要支撑例证。 If a rare medical disorder like cystic fibrosis could be caused by one gene, then maybe common medical diseases like heart disease could, too. And if common medical diseases could be caused by single genes, then maybe the same was true for psychiatric disorders and behavioral traits. 若是像囊性纤维化这样一种罕见的医学疾病可以由一个基因引起,那么也许常见病,如心脏病,也可能如此。如果普通疾病可能由单个基因引起的,那么也许精神疾病和行为特征同样如此。 Sure enough, in the 1990s, articles in the scientific and lay presses announced discoveries of “genes for” everything from bipolar disorder to aggression. But as Schaffner’s Behavioral Geneticist tells the Judge, those findings (which sparked the Judge’s initial interest) could not be replicated. “Genes for” diseases like cystic fibrosis and Huntington’s and sTay Sach were exceptions to the rule. 诚然,在1990年代,科普界的文章宣布发现各种各样的“致病基因”,从躁郁症到攻击性人格,无所不包。但正如Schaffner的行为遗传学家告诉法官的,这些(引发了法官最初兴趣的)发现无法被复制。诸如如囊性纤维化、亨廷顿舞蹈症和Tay-Sachs 病的“致病基因”是这一规律的例外。 “Failures to replicate” reminded geneticists of the yawning gap between discovering that a trait “is genetic” and figuring out which genes help explain it. 这些研究“无法被复制”提醒遗传学家们,在发现一种特质“是遗传的” ,和搞清哪些基因有助于解释该特质之间的存在着巨大鸿沟。 Genetic Reductionism: A Panacea or a Boondoggle? 遗传学还原论:万灵药还是打水漂? One of the fascinating features of Schaffner’s book is his commitment to telling the story of how he came to reform — not renounce — his own vision of reductionism. When he began his career in the 1970s, he resonated with the hardcore genetic reductionists, who dreamt that understanding the operation of genes would be a panacea: a cure for our ignorance with respect to how disease and behavior come into being. Schaffner这本书的一个令人赞叹的特点是,他坚持讲述他如何变革——而不是抛弃——自己对还原论的看法。当他的职业生涯在1970年代开始时,他和铁杆遗传还原论者很合得来,这些还原论者有一个梦想,即理解基因的操作将会是一个万灵药:在疾病和行为是如何产生的这个问题上,能治愈我们的无知。 But already at that time people who called themselves developmentalists (such as the much-discussed evolutionary biologist Richard Lewontin) were challenging that dream, suggesting that, especially in the context of behavior, genetic reductionism was a boondoggle. 但在那时自称是发育展主义者的人士(如备受争议的进化生物学家Richard Lewontin)则挑战了这一梦想,他提出,基因还原论打了水漂,尤其是在行为问题上。 To understand how Schaffner arrived at a middle path, it helps to understand the developmentalists’ challenge. According to Schaffner, that challenge boils down to five core concepts, two of them helpful and three overstated. 了解Schaffner如何到达一条中间道路,有助于理解发育主义者的挑战。据Schaffner看,这一挑战可以归结为五大核心理念,当中有两个有用,有三个被夸大其辞了。 The first helpful one concerns “contextualism” — the idea that genes do not have inherent meaning, but only acquire meaning “in context with other genes, and in the environment that is cellular, extracellular, and extraorganismic” (p. 95). 第一个有用的理念和“背景主义”相关——即基因不具有固有的意义,但仅“在其他基因的背景中,并且在细胞内环境,细胞外环境,和生物体外的环境中”获得了意义(第95页)。 The other helpful (or at least wholly unobjectionable) core concept is “nonpreformationism” — the developmentalists’ rejection of the very old idea that genes contain within them little copies of the traits with which they are associated. 另一个有用的(或至少是完全无法反驳的)核心理念是“非预成论”——即发育主义者拒绝了基因中含有与其相关的性状的微小副本这一古旧想法。 As for the overstated ones, they include the core concept of “parity” — the idea that genes have no more explanatory power than many other features of the organism and environment. Schaffner dismisses this as an exaggeration, at least insofar as it ignores the extent of our current understanding of the molecular structure and function of DNA. 而那些夸大的理念,包括“等价性”——即基因和生物体以及环境的许多其他特征相比,并没有更多的解释力。至少目前,Schaffner把这作为一种夸张来驳斥,因为它忽略了我们当下对DNA分子结构和功能的了解程度。 “Unpredictability,” their fourth core concept, is also exaggerated: genes can contribute to some predictions. As for the developmentalists’ fifth concept, “indivisibility,” Schaffner reminds us of the extent to which reductionism can make incremental progress in “dividing” behavior into analyzable components. 他们的第四个核心理念 “不可预测性”,也是夸张的:基因可以帮助做出一些预测。而对于发育主义的第五个理念, “不可分割性”,Schaffner提醒我们在把行为分割成可分析组件方面,还原论能够取得何种程度的渐进性进展。 To better illustrate his revised vision for reductionism, he introduces the humble roundworm, a wonderful organism for research purposes precisely because we have such highly detailed knowledge of its genes, neurons, neuronal connections and circuits, and of the typical behaviors it engages in during its short life. 为了更好地说明他的修正版还原论,他介绍了不起眼的蛔虫。对做研究来说,这个生物真是棒极了。我们对它的基因,神经元,神经连接和回路,及其短暂一生中的典型行为都有非常详细的知识。 In his characteristically even-handed way, Schaffner actually begins his account of worm behavior with one of those exceptional cases that can mesmerize journalists, pop psychologists, bioethicists, and others — a case where mutations in a single gene do indeed appear to be the necessary condition for a behavior: specifically, in this case, for determining whether a roundworm eats alone or in groups. In other words: one gene appears to determine the worm’s dining preference! 以其特有的不偏不倚的方式,Schaffner实际上用一个极好的例子开始阐释蛔虫的行为,这例子可以让记者,通俗心理学家,伦理学家和其他人着迷。那就是某个基因的变异看起来确实可以是一种行为改变的必要条件:具体来说,决定了一条蛔虫单独进食还是和群体一起进食。换句话说:看来是一个基因决定着该蠕虫的进食喜好! But then the remainder of his discussion of the roundworm illuminates what’s wrong with the One-Gene-One-Behavior idea — and more generally, with the One-Gene-One-Disease (OGOD) idea. 但书中关于蠕虫的讨论的余下篇幅阐明了“一个基因一种行为”, 更宽泛的来说是“一个基因一种疾病”(One-Gene-One-Disease ,缩写为OGOD)这一理念的谬误之处,。 To show why the “gene for style of eating” example is an exception to the big rule of thumb that behaviors cannot be reduced to genes, much less to single genes, Schaffner introduces eight smaller “rules.” 为了解释为何“决定进食偏好的基因”只是“行为不能被还原为基因,更不能被还原为单个基因”这条更一般性的经验法则的一个例外,Schaffner 介绍了八条较小的“法则”。 These emphasize the interactions, occurring on multiple levels of analysis (from genes to neurons and nutrients), which change over time, and which shape and are shaped by the cellular, extracellular, and extraorganismic environments. 这些法则强调了发生在多个分析层次上的交互作用,从基因到神经元和营养物,而且这些交互作用一直在变化,并且塑造着细胞内,细胞外和生物体外的环境,反过来又受到这些环境的影响。 For example, “social deprivation,” he patiently explains, can adversely affect even the development of worms. Those raised in isolation were slower to respond to taps on the plates that constitute their environments (the “tap withdrawal reflex”), were physically smaller, and had delayed development — and the delay was correlated with the altered expression of a gene coding for a protein involved in the tap response. 他耐心地解释道,例如“社交剥夺”,甚至对蠕虫的发育也会造成负面影响。那些在孤独中被培育的蠕虫对轻拍培养皿的反应更慢,而培养皿构成了它们的生存环境(轻拍回撤反射实验),而且它们身形更小,发育更迟缓。而这迟缓与一个基因表达上的改变相关,这一基因编码了一种与轻拍反射相关的蛋白质。 Schaffner quotes the researcher’s conclusion: “Experience … can alter both gene expression and the structure of the nervous system” (p. 92). Even in the roundworm, there is no “gene for” the tap response; instead, the tap response is the result of a complex network, including, at a minimum, genes, neurons, and environments. If we hope to explain behavior, then, according to Schaffner, we need a “network perspective.” Schaffner 引用研究者的结论:“经验……能够改变基因表达和神经系统结构”(第92页)。即使在蠕虫里,也没有负责轻拍反应的基因;反之,轻拍反应是一个复杂网络的结果,这一网络至少包括基因、神经元、和环境。如果我们希望解释行为,那么根据Schaffner 的观点,我们需要一个“网络视角”。 If this “network” type of genetic explanation holds for most behaviors, including even more complex organisms than worms and fruit flies, such as mice and humans, it raises barriers both to any simplistic type of genetic explanation, and the prospects of easily achievable medical and psychiatric pharmacological interventions into behaviors (ital. added, p. 95). 如果这个“网络”型遗传学解释能对大多数行为成立,包括比蠕虫和果蝇复杂得多的生物体,比如老鼠和人,它就使以下二者变得更困难:一,任何还原论版本的遗传学解释;二,发明出针对行为的,容易实现的医药或精神病学的药物干涉的希望。 In other words, to appreciate the leap from genes to worm behaviors should put us on notice that there will be even more “barriers” in going from genes to human behaviors, disorders, and diseases. The once-intuitively plausible idea of the genome as a molecular crystal ball has come to seem quaint. 换言之,理解从基因到蠕虫行为的思维跳跃,应该让我们注意到,从基因推及人的行为、失调和疾病,存在更多的困难。把基因组当分子层面的水晶球,这一曾是直觉上可行的的理念已经变得古旧。 It is essential to recognize, however, the difference between the notion that behaviors can be reduced to the operation of genes and the idea that behaviors can be reduced. The former notion, according to Schaffner, is wildly inaccurate, but the latter is not. The fact that we can’t achieve what he calls “sweeping reductions” of the sort first fantasized about at the start of the Human Genome Project does not mean that the enterprise of reductionism is a bust. 然而,有必要认识到,行为可以被还原为基因运作的结果,与行为可以被还原,这两种想法是不同的。在Schaffner看来,前者是非常不精确的,但是后者不是。在人类基因组开始时,人类开始沉迷于Schaffner的所谓“全面还原”的愿景,我们不能达成“全面还原”的愿景这一事实并不意味着还原论的雄心只是个泡影。 It means, among other things, that we need to accept the fact that, in complex systems, we should expect what he calls “patchy” or “partial” or “creeping” reductions. Genes can help to illuminate one “patch” of the huge field or network that would in theory constitute something like a complete explanation of a behavior. 而且这意味着,我们得接受一个事实:在复杂系统中,我们应该期待他所谓的打补丁的,或部分的,或是“小步推进”的还原。基因能帮助弄清这个网络或巨大场域的一个补丁,这在理论上构成了对一种行为的完整解释的一部分。 Finding a Path Forward to Understanding Human Behavior 发现通向理解人类行为的路径 Schaffner nimbly moves from worms to human beings. What geneticists have notbeen able to discover regarding human personalities should reassure, even gladden, skeptics. Schaffner 灵活地从蠕虫跳到人类。关于人格,遗传学家一直没能发现的部分,应该会安慰和甚至鼓舞怀疑论者。 At the turn of the century, some psychologists and geneticists hypothesized that there were three domains of personality temperament — novelty seeking, harm avoidance, and reward dependence; each linked to a distinct neurotransmitter — dopamine, serotonin, and epinephrine; and thus linked to “genes for” the production and regulation of one of those neurotransmitters. 在世纪之交,一些心理学家和遗传学家假设人类气质有三个方面——猎奇性,避害性,和趋奖性;每种都和不同的神经递质相关——多巴胺,血清素,和肾上腺素;因此也和产生及管理这些神经递质的基因相关。 The idea was that specific gene variants associated with the regulation of dopamine, for example, had significant effects on novelty seeking. Again, those initial results failed to replicate. Among the reasons for those failures was the mistaken assumption that single “candidate” genes would, independent of their interaction with other genes and environmental variables, have large effects on traits as complex as personality. 这种理念认为,与管理多巴胺有关的基因的特定变异,会对猎奇性有显著影响。再一次,这些最初的结果未能被重复。单个基因会独立于其他基因和环境变量而对诸如人格这样的复杂性状产生巨大影响,这一错误的假设,算是失败的原因之一。 Combine that mistaken assumption with the all-too-human appetite of scientists, university PR departments, and journal editors for big, exciting findings, and voila: a variety of subtle statistical errors crept in. 这个错误的假设,加上科学家们的野心(这也是人之常情),大学公关部门和追求巨大且令人振奋发现的期刊编辑,于是:一系列微妙的统计学谬误渗透了进来。 Even the study of the interaction of genetic and environmental variables in the early 2000s was plagued with replication problems, perhaps due to their depending on the idea of “candidate” genes with large effects. Since then, extraordinary advances in technologies designed to compare genome sequences, combined with powerful new statistical methods, make it increasingly possible to detect genetic variants associated with tiny effects. 即使在21世纪初,对遗传和环境变量相互作用的研究也被结果不能重复这一问题所困扰,也许是因为研究者依赖“候选”基因有强大影响这一理念。此后,旨在比较基因组序列的非凡的技术进步,结合功能强大的新统计方法,使得发现与微小影响相关的遗传变异变得越来越可能。 The new, emerging picture boils down to this: common complex traits are the result of hundreds or thousands of gene variants of small effect size, which often interact with other gene variants as well as a gigantic range of environmental variables. It remains to be seen how much of practical value will result from this. 正在浮现中的新图景可以归结为:常见的复杂性状是几百或几千种效果较小的基因变异所产生的效果,并且它们通常与其他基因变异以及为数众多的环境变量相互作用。这个途径能带来多少实际价值仍有待观察。 Moreover, as Schaffner observes, it may be that huge categories like “novelty seeking” and “harm avoidance” are just too vague or indistinct to establish pathways from genes to behaviors like these. Again, to know that personality “is genetic” is massively different from knowing which genes are at work, much less how they are contributing to a given trait. 此外,Schaffner 指出,这可能是因为诸如“猎奇性”和“避害性”的宽泛类别太过含糊不清,以至于无法建立从基因到此类行为的途径。再次,要知道个性“是遗传的”和知道哪个基因在起作用是非常不同的,更不用说它们是如何导致一个特定性状的。 While Schaffner’s account of personality genetics may dishearten aficionados of genetic explanations, his account of schizophrenia should gladden them. Schizophrenia, too, is a large and heterogeneous category, but researchers have made headway in characterizing that heterogeneity — in specifying the symptoms and subtypes of schizophrenia. It’s in the context of schizophrenia that Schaffner elaborates on his conception of successfully reductionist scientific explanations. 虽然Schaffner关于个性遗传学的阐释会让遗传学解释狂人气馁,他关于精神分裂症的论述应该鼓舞他们。精神分裂症,也同样是一个宽泛且异质的类别,但研究人员在描述其异质性——即详细描述其症状和亚型——上已取得了进展。在精神分裂症问题上,Schaffner成功阐述了他的还原论者科学解释的概念。 Such explanations, whether of schizophrenia or any other disorder or behavior, will have to be “interlevel”; in other words, they will need to draw on what is known at the level of ions, molecules, cells, cell-cell circuits, and organs — and will have to tell a story about how, over time, the factors at those different levels interact with each other and their environments. 这样的解释,无论是针对精神分裂症或任何其他病症或行为,将必须是“层次间的”;换言之,他们将需要利用在离子、分子、细胞、细胞间回路和器官等各层面的知识构建一个故事——且必须解释在不同层次上的各个因素如何一直互动并和环境相互作用。 In the case of schizophrenia, this includes genes implicated in the production and regulation of specialized nerve cells, specialized parts of those nerve cells, connections among those nerve cells, and, ultimately, brain wave patterns thought to be associated with the activation of those neuronal circuits and associated with at least some features of schizophrenia. 在精神分裂症的例子中,那将包括所有涉及下列事情的基因:特化神经细胞的生成和调控、这些神经细胞的特化部位、这些神经细胞之间的连接,以及最后,被认为是和这些神经回路相关联的脑波模式,这些脑波模式也被认为至少和神经分裂症的一些特征相关联。 Need one say that the model he describes is not anywhere close to complete? (Nor is the elaboration of this model, which has recently received high-profile attention.) Rather, it offers a “creeping” reduction — incremental progress in using the tools of genetics and neuroscience to understand one patch of the massively complex phenomenon we call schizophrenia. 可以说他描述的模型离完成还差十万八千里吗?(阐述这个模型让他最近引人瞩目。)然而,这提供了一个“小步推进”的还原论解释——即在利用遗传学和神经科学方面的渐进性进展,可用来理解我们称之为精神分裂的极为复杂现象的一个方面。 Clearly, this model shouldn’t inspire euphoric expectations of imminent cures. Again, to his credit, Schaffner is adamant in stating that, “DNA sequence per se increasingly seems impoverished as a biological explainer” (p. 197). And, again, this is not to say that DNA sequence is unimportant — it’s just not important in the simple ways we once imagined, which notably still linger in the imagination. 很显然,这种模式不该激发关于治愈方案立即诞生的欣快预期。令人佩服地,Schaffner 再次坚决指出, “ 单单用DNA序列本身去解释生物学现象,似乎越来越困窘” (第197页) 。并且再次,这不是说 DNA序列是不重要的——只是不像我们曾经想象得那样,以简单的方式而显出其重要性,很明显,这些简单方式仍徘徊在想象中。 A Grownup Conception of Freedom 一个成熟的“自由”概念 So, is human behavior genetically determined? Different from what a sweeping genetic reductionist would hope, we have seen that the answer is plainly no. But nor is human behavior not determined. On the contrary, Schaffner thinks that human behavior is determined — and that it admits of reductionist explanations. Does this mean freedom is an illusion? 所以,人类行为是遗传决定的吗?不同于全面遗传学简化论者所指望的,我们已经看到答案明显是否定的。但这也不是说人类行为不是决定的。相反,Schaffner 认为人类行为是决定的——这使得还原论者的解释成为可能。这意味着自由是幻觉吗? No, it doesn’t, even if it does mean that we have to give up conceptions of freedom of the sort that best-selling authors like Sam Harris like to set up in order to knock down. Yes, we have to give up the idea of freedom as an extra-natural capacity or force that is somehow insulated from the impact of the natural and social forces at work in the world. 不,这没有,即使这意味着我们必须放弃畅销书作家如 Sam Harris 为了作品成功而设定的那种自由概念。是的,我们必须放弃这一理念:自由某种程度上是一种能绝缘于世上自然和社会力量影响的超自然能力。 But accepting that our behaviors are determined by natural and social forces that, at least in principle, admit of explanation does not mean that we have to give up the conception of freedom that mature adults should want, or that, as Daniel Dennett puts it, “is worth having.” 但是接受我们的行为是被自然和社会决定的,或者至少在原则上承认该解释,并不意味着我们必须放弃有关心智成熟的成人应该渴望的那种——或者如 Daniel Dennett所说的,“值得拥有的”——自由的概念。 To get at what such a conception of freedom is, Schaffner introduces philosopher Harry Frankfurt’s influential distinction between first- and second-order desires. Consider, for example, an alcoholic with insight into her alcoholism. She might have a second-order desire not to drink, while also having a first-order desire to drink. 为了说清楚如此的自由概念究竟是什么,Schaffner 介绍了哲学家Harry Frankfurt所说的第一阶渴望和第二阶渴望之间的显著区别。试想,一个酗酒者很清楚的认识到她的成瘾问题。她也许有种不喝酒的二阶渴望,但同时又有想喝酒的一阶渴望。 The person who cannot bring her first-and second-order desires into alignment lacks what warrants being called free will. If, on the other hand, she can get those first- and second-order desires into alignment, and if she can, as it were, desire what she wants to desire, we can say that she is free. 这个不能把一阶和二阶渴望协调好的人缺乏确保自由意志的能力。反之,如果她能协调好一阶和二阶渴望,并且如果某种程度上她能渴望她想渴望的,我们可以说她是自由的。 The behavioral geneticist and philosopher of psychiatry, Kenneth Kendler explains how human beings can, “through their decision-making capacity, intervene in causal pathways from genes to behavior.” Kendler’s first example is alcohol dependence. We know from classical behavioral genetics studies that alcoholism “is genetic” in the real but limited sense that the genes that children inherit from parents can put them at increased risk of becoming alcoholics. 行为遗传学家和精神病哲学家 Kenneth Kendler 解释了人类如何能“通过他们的决策能力,在从基因到行为的因果性路径上进行干涉。”Kendler的第一个例子是酒精依赖。从经典的行为遗传学研究我们知道,酗酒在真实但有限的意义上是“遗传性的”,即孩子从父母那里继承的基因能增加他们成为酗酒者的风险。 We also know, however, that children of alcoholics are also at increased “risk” of becoming teetotalers — practicing complete abstinence from alcohol; Donald Trump’s response to his father’s and brother’s alcoholism is a case in point. Kendler and Schaffner both want us to notice how a grownup conception of freedom retains a place both for genes and for choice. 但我们也知道,酗酒者的孩子成为滴酒不沾者——也就是实际上完全戒绝酒精——的可能性也增加了;川普对于其父兄酗酒的回应就是一个与此有关的例子。Kendler 和Schaffner都想让我们注意到一个成人的自由概念,如何能给基因和选择都留有余地。 In other words, human decisions can be an essential factor in the multilevel causal network that gives rise to our behaviors. If we notice that genes, neurons, hormones, neighborhoods, cultures, histories — and human desires and choices — can be among the determinants of human behavior, determinism should be less anxiety-producing. 另一方面,人类决策能够成为导致我们的行为的多层次因果网络中的一个关键因素。如果我们注意到,基因,神经元,荷尔蒙,邻里,文化,历史——还有人的渴望和选择——都能算作人类行为的影响因素,决定论就应该不那么让人焦虑。 In offering his view of the sort of freedom of choice that any grownup should want, he reminds us that scientific researchers choose which level of the causal network they will study. There is nothing wrong with having a preference for a given level of analysis, but there is something wrong with forgetting that a preferred level won’t be the only one needed to make headway in the sorts of reductions that can contribute to practically useful explanations. 在阐释他关于(任何成年人都应向往的那种)选择自由的观点时,他提醒我们不要忽略科学研究者选择何种层次的因果网络来研究。对某层次的分析有偏好完全没有错,但如果想要在那种能够产生有实际用处的解释的还原工作上取得进展,忘记你所偏爱的层次不是所需的唯一条件,则是不对的。 An Anxiolytic and a Mood Stabilizer 一种抗焦虑剂和情绪稳定剂 This brings us full circle to the growing anxiety swirling around the idea of “designer babies,” and more specifically to the idea that it will be possible to use “gene editing technologies” like CRISPR-Cas9 to engineer traits like intelligence. As we begin to appreciate that such traits involve hundreds or thousands of genes interacting with each other and with the cellular, extracellular, and extraorganismic environments, then the less seriously we can take the notion that it will be possible to enhance such traits by making changes at the level of the gene. 这把我们带回到文章开头提到的那萦绕在“设计婴儿”这一概念周围的日益增长的焦虑,或者更确切地说,带回到对利用“基因编辑技术”(如CRISPR-Cas9)来对诸如智力之类的性状进行工程设计的焦虑。当我们开始注意到这些性状涉及数百个基因的互动,以及和细胞内、细胞间和生物体外环境的交互作用,那么我们就更不会认为在基因层面做改动来增强这些性状是可能的了。 Moreover, as mentioned earlier, understanding this complexity can help stabilize the mania precipitated by the Human Genome Project. Ever since its launch in 1990, we have heard ecstatic claims about the imminent arrival of medical diagnoses, treatments, and preventive interventions tailored to individual genomes. 而且,如早先提到的,理解这种复杂性可以帮助平息人类基因组计划带来的急躁冒进。早在该项目于90年代发起之际,我们已经听到欣喜若狂的宣告,即针对个人基因定制的疾病诊疗预防手段即将问世。 While it is absolutely crucial to appreciate the real and important strides in diagnosis and treatment linked to advances in understanding the genome, it is equally important to appreciate that, with few exceptions, knowledge at the level of the genome alone will likely not be able to produce as much clinically relevant information as was once promised. 当然,重视由对基因组的深入理解而带来的诊疗方面的真实且重要的进步是绝对关键的,但同样重要的是要明白,除了少数几个例外,仅靠基因组层面的知识产生相关的临床信息,很可能不如之前曾经承诺的那么多。 As we taxpayers begin to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the Human Genome Project’s offspring, The Precision Medicine Initiative, we should hold its leaders to their word when they say that they are getting the mania under control. Given how ardently some of the leaders of that initiative — not least Francis Collins — have been committed to a geneocentric approach, and given how mesmerizing and cheap gene-sequencing has become, it may take significant effort on their part to live up to their new promise of pursuing a more multilevel and, dare one say, balanced approach. Reading Schaffner’s book could strengthen their resolve to live up to that promise. 既然我们纳税人已开始把数亿美元投入人类基因组计划的续集,精准药物计划,当计划的领袖们说他们正在控制关于基因疗法的急躁冒进,我们应当让他们遵守承诺。考虑到一些项目领袖们是如此热忱,不光Francis Collins一人决心采用基因导向的方法,而且目前基因测序已变得如此便宜又吸引人,让这些领袖信守他们采用更加多层次的,当然也就是更平衡的方法的承诺也许需要更大的努力。读Schaffner的书可以加强他们实现这个承诺的决心。 Erik Parens is a senior research scholar at The Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute in Garrison, New York, and is the author of Shaping Our Selves: On Technology, Flourishing, and a Habit of Thinking. Erik Parens 是Hastings中心(一个坐落于纽约州Garrison的生物伦理研究机构)的一位高级学者,他著有《塑造自我:关于技术,繁荣,和思维的习惯》。 (编辑:辉格@whigzhou) *注:本译文未经原作者授权,本站对原文不持有也不主张任何权利,如果你恰好对原文拥有权益并希望我们移除相关内容,请私信联系,我们会立即作出响应。

——海德沙龙·翻译组,致力于将英文世界的好文章搬进中文世界——

[译文]向死神投降

Surrendering to Death
向死亡投降

作者:Gavin McInnes @ 2016-5-14
译者:Tankman
校对:babyface_claire(@许你疯不许你傻)
来源:Taki Mag,http://takimag.com/article/surrendering_to_death_gavin_mcinnes/

Eagles of Death Metal recently finished a Canadian tour and I got to sit down with vocalist Jesse Hughes and discuss the Bataclan attack in Paris that killed 89 of his fans. You’d think he’d want to avoid the topic, but he was actually eager to get into it. He sees it as a catharsis.

死亡金属之鹰乐队最近结束了一个加拿大巡演,我有机会和主唱Jesse Hughes坐下来讨论巴黎的Bataclan剧院惨案。该事件中,他的89位粉丝惨遭杀害。也许你认为他想回避这一话题,但他其实很渴望提到它。他将此视为一种宣泄。

Hughes is not happy with the way the media has treated the story. Details are randomly pulled from his interviews and entire angles are edited in later that are diametrically opposed to his beliefs. Jesse Hughes has been ordained as a minister by the Universal Life Church. He’s pro-gun, pro-Trump, and pro-life. He recognizes that Islam is the problem and political correctness is literally killing us.

Hughes 不满意媒体对待该故事的方式。他访谈中的细节被随意抽出,整个视角随后则被编写成与他的信念截然相反。Jesse Hughes 已经被任命为普世生命教会的牧师【译者注:该宗教流派鼓励行善,并允许牧师保持其原有信仰,无论是基督教、伊斯兰教和无神论等。】。他支持持枪权,支持川普,也反对堕胎。他认为伊斯兰教才是问题所在,而政治正确正在真真切切的杀死我们。

Takimag: It’s hard to talk about the attack without sounding like you’re blaming the victims, but it’s impossible to deny fear of Islamophobia and fear of guns led to a lot of deaths that night.

Taki杂志:谈论这次袭击,却避免听起来像是指责受害者,是很难的。但是不能否认的是:对伊斯兰恐惧症的恐惧,和对枪支的恐惧,导致了那晚很多人的死亡。

Jesse Hughes: I saw fear fall like a blanket on the whole crowd and they fell like wheat in the wind—the way you would before a god. I was totally alert from the very beginning. The first thing I needed to do was find my girl. Fear took a backseat and “where’s my girl?” took over.

Jesse Hughes:我看见恐惧如毯子一样盖在整个人群上,人群倒伏在地,如风中的麦子——就是那种面对上帝你会下拜的姿态。我从一开始就非常的警觉。首先,我需要做的是找到我的女朋友。恐惧退居第二位,而“我的女朋友在哪”则位居第一。

I could smell gunpowder in the backstage area and I knew someone fired a round back there. I saw a guy with an FAL and when he turned to face me his eyes looked like marbles. He was stoned out of his mind, and we now know they were on Xanax and cocaine. I recognized him. I’d seen him earlier in the day and noticed him staring at us.

我可以在后台区域闻到火药味,我知道某人往那边打了一梭子。我看见一个配有轻型自动步枪的人,当他面朝我时,他的眼睛看起来像玻璃弹珠一样。他整个呆住了,现在我们知道他们当时是嗑了蝴蝶丸和可卡因。我认出了他。当天早些时候,我看到过他并注意到他盯着我们看。

They were in the venue early. That implies some(more...)

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Surrendering to Death 向死亡投降 作者:Gavin McInnes @ 2016-5-14 译者:Tankman 校对:babyface_claire(@许你疯不许你傻) 来源:Taki Mag,http://takimag.com/article/surrendering_to_death_gavin_mcinnes/ Eagles of Death Metal recently finished a Canadian tour and I got to sit down with vocalist Jesse Hughes and discuss the Bataclan attack in Paris that killed 89 of his fans. You’d think he’d want to avoid the topic, but he was actually eager to get into it. He sees it as a catharsis. 死亡金属之鹰乐队最近结束了一个加拿大巡演,我有机会和主唱Jesse Hughes坐下来讨论巴黎的Bataclan剧院惨案。该事件中,他的89位粉丝惨遭杀害。也许你认为他想回避这一话题,但他其实很渴望提到它。他将此视为一种宣泄。 Hughes is not happy with the way the media has treated the story. Details are randomly pulled from his interviews and entire angles are edited in later that are diametrically opposed to his beliefs. Jesse Hughes has been ordained as a minister by the Universal Life Church. He’s pro-gun, pro-Trump, and pro-life. He recognizes that Islam is the problem and political correctness is literally killing us. Hughes 不满意媒体对待该故事的方式。他访谈中的细节被随意抽出,整个视角随后则被编写成与他的信念截然相反。Jesse Hughes 已经被任命为普世生命教会的牧师【译者注:该宗教流派鼓励行善,并允许牧师保持其原有信仰,无论是基督教、伊斯兰教和无神论等。】。他支持持枪权,支持川普,也反对堕胎。他认为伊斯兰教才是问题所在,而政治正确正在真真切切的杀死我们。 Takimag: It’s hard to talk about the attack without sounding like you’re blaming the victims, but it’s impossible to deny fear of Islamophobia and fear of guns led to a lot of deaths that night. Taki杂志:谈论这次袭击,却避免听起来像是指责受害者,是很难的。但是不能否认的是:对伊斯兰恐惧症的恐惧,和对枪支的恐惧,导致了那晚很多人的死亡。 Jesse Hughes: I saw fear fall like a blanket on the whole crowd and they fell like wheat in the wind—the way you would before a god. I was totally alert from the very beginning. The first thing I needed to do was find my girl. Fear took a backseat and “where’s my girl?” took over. Jesse Hughes:我看见恐惧如毯子一样盖在整个人群上,人群倒伏在地,如风中的麦子——就是那种面对上帝你会下拜的姿态。我从一开始就非常的警觉。首先,我需要做的是找到我的女朋友。恐惧退居第二位,而“我的女朋友在哪”则位居第一。 I could smell gunpowder in the backstage area and I knew someone fired a round back there. I saw a guy with an FAL and when he turned to face me his eyes looked like marbles. He was stoned out of his mind, and we now know they were on Xanax and cocaine. I recognized him. I’d seen him earlier in the day and noticed him staring at us. 我可以在后台区域闻到火药味,我知道某人往那边打了一梭子。我看见一个配有轻型自动步枪的人,当他面朝我时,他的眼睛看起来像玻璃弹珠一样。他整个呆住了,现在我们知道他们当时是嗑了蝴蝶丸和可卡因。我认出了他。当天早些时候,我看到过他并注意到他盯着我们看。 They were in the venue early. That implies some staff were in on it. 他们早先就在会场。这意味着有些工作人员参与了此事。 I got in a lot of trouble for saying that. I know for sure that they were in there early. I remember them staring at my buddy. I just chalked it up to Arab envy. You know what I mean? When a Muslim sees a cocky American dude with tattoos, he stares at him. 因为声称这点,我遭遇了很多麻烦。我很肯定他们早先就在那里。我记得他们盯着乐队成员看。我当时认为那只是阿拉伯式的羡慕。你懂吧?当一个穆斯林看到一个臭屁的纹着身的美国哥们,他就盯着那人看。 I realized later it was Abdeslam and he was staring at my buddy because they thought he was a threat. There’s no denying the terrorists were already inside, and they had to get in somehow. During the shooting I went outside and the backstage door was propped open. How did that happen? 之后我意识到那人是 Abdeslam【译者注:袭击参与者之一】。他盯着我哥们看,因为他们认为他是个威胁。无可否认,恐怖分子已经混进里面了,他们必须用某种法子混进去。在枪击中,我跑到外面去,而后台的门是大开着的。这是怎么发生的? Do you think political correctness is killing our natural instincts and making us vulnerable? 你认为政治正确正在杀死我们的自然直觉,并使得我们变得易受攻击吗? Definitely. There were two girls who were involved. They were at the venue and vanished before the shooting, and these women were in traditional Muslim garb. They knew people wouldn’t check them because of the way they were dressed. They got caught a few days later. 当然。有两个女孩参与了此事。她们曾在大厅里,但在枪击前又消失了。这些女士穿着传统穆斯林服装。他们知道因为她们的穿着,人们不会检查她们。几天后她们被抓获。 The fear of offending Muslims is a terrorist’s greatest weapon. 害怕冒犯穆斯林的心态是恐怖分子最有力的武器。 Look at the guys who bombed Brussels. They were wearing black gloves on one hand. Their luggage was too heavy to lift, but they didn’t want anyone helping them with it. Nobody brought any of this up until after the bombs went off. 看看那些在布鲁塞尔放炸弹的家伙。他们一只手带着黑手套,他们的行李太重举不起来,但是他们不想让任何人帮助他们搬行李。直到炸弹爆炸后才有人把这些线索联系起来。 We’d rather die than be called a bigot. 我们宁死也不愿意被称作是偏执狂。 How is a faith being associated with racism? Just take out the word “Islam” and replace it with “communism.” It’s an ideology. The same way the Rosenbergs could sell nuclear secrets from within America is the same way Muslim terrorists can attack us from within. It’s okay to be discerning when it comes to Muslims in this day and age. 一种信仰是如何被和种族主义联系起来的?只要把“伊斯兰”一词抽掉,换成“共产主义”。这就是一种意识形态。和卢森堡夫婦出卖美国的原子弹机密一样,穆斯林恐怖分子也从内部袭击我们。今时今日,一旦涉及到穆斯林,小心一点没错。 Where is this push coming from? Is it all our fault? 这动机从何而来?都是我们的错吗? Of course not. When you’re at a soccer game in Europe and you see the words “United Arab Emirates,” you know there is a lot of Arab money floating around and influencing the dialogue. The conversation is constantly being steered away from scrutiny. They think we’re fools. 当然不是。当你在欧洲的足球赛场看到阿联酋一词,你就知道有很多阿拉伯资金流入并影响了交流。这一交流始终得以避开审慎的检视。他们觉得我们是白痴。 Arab money is a pollutant. So many movies are made with Arab money. George Clooney doesn’t kiss the ass of the Arabs for no reason. American movies are the best way to influence the hearts and minds of the world. 阿拉伯资金是一种污染物。如此多的电影是在阿拉伯资金的支持下拍摄的。乔治·克鲁尼不是无缘无故跪舔这些阿拉伯人的。美国电影是影响这世界的心灵和思想的最佳方式。 You never see bad guys in movies who are Arab terrorists. It’s always Germans or French… 电影中,你从来看不到阿拉伯恐怖分子作为坏人出现。总是德国人或者法国人。 Or conservative Christian rednecks. They’re apparently what’s wrong with everything in the world now, including global warming. What about the other ice age we went through? There were no Christian Republicans back then. What caused that meltdown? 或者保守的红脖子基督徒。他们显然是这个世界当下各种麻烦的根源,包括全球变暖。那我们经历过的那个冰河时代呢?那时候可没有基督徒共和党人。那是什么导致了这场灾难呢? The other problem with that is, when you get rid of these Christian rednecks, you create a vacuum and it gets filled with people way worse. It gets filled with Islam. You end up replacing evangelism with sharia law. 另一个麻烦是,如果你排挤走这些红脖基督徒,你就创造了一个真空,让更糟糕的人来填补。伊斯兰填补了这真空。你的结局就是用伊斯兰教法代替福音主义。 Politicians behave better when they know people are watching. We behave better when we believe Jesus is watching us. 当知道人们在监督时,政客们的行为更规矩。当相信耶稣在看着我们时,我们的行为更规矩。 These atheists tell us we don’t need religion, yet everyone seems to be creating flimsy substitutes to replace it. Rehab is just Lent. Meditation is just Latin Mass. Seeing a therapist is just talking to your priest. 那些无神论者告诉我们,我们不需要宗教,不过每个人似乎都在创造轻浮脆弱的替代品来代替宗教。修复期实际是大斋期【译者注:在西方基督教国家,每年的大斋期是基督徒献供与苦修的时期,也是洗涤罪恶,承蒙天主启示的时期】。冥想实际是拉丁弥撒。去看治疗师实际上是和你的牧师谈话。 And the thing about the Bible is it’s written down. A therapist can change his diagnosis just like that and there’s no way of calling him out on it. 而圣经,就是那些被写了下来的(治愈谈话),它不像一个治疗师可以任意更改其诊断,而且人们无法在这事上挑战他。 Let’s get back to the attack. Why didn’t the cops come in earlier? It seemed like the killing went on forever. 让我们回到袭击这个话题。为什么警察不能更早来呢?当时看起来杀戮好像会永远进行下去。 The press heard some kids were locked away in rooms so they reported it as a hostage situation. Those kids were hiding. This misinformation meant the cops set up outside for a negotiation while inside dozens of people were dying. 媒体听说一些小孩被锁在房间里,所以他们当时把这事当作人质危机报道。那些小孩在躲藏。这种信息误导意味着警察在外面准备谈判,而内部的数十人则正在死去。 The terrorists would go up to bodies and stick them with the gun. If they budged, they’d shoot them again. One girl got up and said she was scared. The guy said, “Don’t be scared, you’ll be dead in two minutes,” and then he shot her, BOOM. 恐怖分子们会走近倒下的人,用枪戳他们。如果倒地者动了,就会被补枪。一个女孩爬了起来,说她很害怕。一个恐怖分子说“别怕,你在两分钟内就会死。”然后他开枪打了她,砰。 The French are so concerned with racism, they’re letting Muslims get away with murder. 法国人太在意种族主义,他们让穆斯林逍遥法外。 A day after, at the stadium, Muslims booed the moment of silence and we barely heard about it in the press. I saw Muslims celebrating in the street during the attack. I saw it with my own eyes. In real time! How did they know what was going on? There must have been coordination. 一天后,在球场上,穆斯林在默哀时刻发出嘘声,而我们很少听到关于这一情节的媒体报道。袭击的时候,我看到穆斯林们在街上庆祝袭击。我亲眼看到这事。就在袭击的那个时刻。他们怎么知道袭击正在发生?这些事情一定有联系。 I’ve heard you say you credit your childhood with your survival. You had a real dad who stuck around and taught you about guns. 我听说你提到你的童年经历帮你幸存了下来。你有个陪伴你的父亲,而且教给你关于枪支的知识。 I knew what gunfire was. I was able to think through it. I was also able to remember practical lessons of my life because I had to be in fights as a kid. My mom didn’t go sue anyone. I didn’t have playdates. I had some practical upbringing growing up in the desert where you got to get yourself out of your problems. 我知道开枪是怎么回事。我能把这事考虑清楚。我也能记起我生活中的实际经验,因为我小时候不得不参与打架。我妈妈没有起诉任何人,我也没有大人给我找的玩伴。我有些实际成长经验,在孤立无援的困境中你只能靠你自己走出来。 Also, the reason I’ve done well with this healing process is everything I was raised to believe was affirmed that night. In a way, that’s a blessing of God. When the first bullets started being fired, people looked at me. I remember that. It pissed me off because I knew right then and there it was going to be bad. I knew these kids had no idea what was coming. None. They’d never heard a gunshot in real life and it hit them so hard. 而且,我从此事件中恢复的如此之好的原因是,我长大成人过程中得到的一切信念都在那一晚被肯定了。某种程度上,这是神的保佑。当第一颗子弹出膛,人们看着我。我记得这点。这让我愤怒,因为就在那刻那地我知道事情要坏了。我知道那些孩子们对即将发生的事情毫无概念。没有一个知道。他们从未在现实生活中听到过一声枪响,这重重的打击了他们。 Political correctness kills. 政治正确在杀人。 Davey [bassist Dave Catching] was in the middle of the stage and when the lights went on, he saw shit he’d never seen before in his life, awful stuff. It has no parallel. It’s not just death. It’s the most unsuspecting, innocent victims you can imagine—people who are gripped in terror and can’t move as a result of it. 当灯光开启时,Davey(贝斯手Dave Catching)在舞台中间,他看到了他此生从未见过的可怕场景,可怕极了。没什么可以与此相比。不仅仅是死亡。那是你可以想象的最无辜最没有防备的受害人——人们被笼罩在恐怖中呆若木鸡。 It’s like a metaphor for all of Western civilization. 这好像是所有西方文明的一个隐喻。 I watched about seven people die. A couple of them were three feet from the barrier. They could have fallen backwards and been alive but they were too scared to even turn around. I remember a woman just standing with her hands up in a surrender pose. The terrorist finally saw her and all she did was go, “No no no.” She surrendered to death in front of my very eyes. I was yelling at her, “HEY!” and I don’t think she could hear me. She was so terrified, I think she’d already given up. 我目睹了大约七个人死亡。他们中一些离护栏就三英尺远。他们也许能翻越护栏逃生,但他们太害怕了甚至不敢转身。我记得一个女人就站在那里,高举双手作投降状。恐怖分子终于看见了她,而她只是一味的说“不,不,不。”就在我的眼前,她向死亡投降了。我向她呐喊,“嗨!”。我不认为她听到了我。她如此害怕,我想她已经放弃了。 Is it fair to say the liberal mentality created this need to surrender? 说自由派的精神气质创造了投降的需要,合理吗? I will lay the blame right in its lap. When you tell people they can’t help themselves and that they’re children, you weaken them to a point where three feet away is life and they can’t see it because they’re too scared. 对,我要责怪的正是他们。当你告诉人们他们不能自助,他们只是孩子,你就把他们变弱到一个连三英尺远的逃生机会都看不到的地步。他们看不到,因为他们太害怕了。 In a way we’re unarmed two fold. We’re literally unarmed and we’re also mentally unarmed. 某种程度上我们是双倍的赤手空拳。我们本来就赤手空拳,而且我们在精神上赤手空拳。 It’s like the bleating sheep from Animal Farm. You suggest anything that strays from the narrative and this chorus of bleats comes to drown you out. This attack didn’t happen by accident. 就像《动物庄园》中懦弱哀嚎的绵羊。当你的观点脱离叙述的主流,这懦弱哀嚎的合唱就把你的声音盖过。这个袭击不是偶然发生的。 I went to Paris after the attacks and was disgusted by the lack of rage. They didn’t blame Islam. In fact, many blamed the Jews. They seemed more concerned with us promoting xenophobia than laying blame on the terrorists. 我在袭击后去过巴黎,并对缺乏愤怒的程度感到恶心。他们没有谴责伊斯兰。事实上,很多人指责犹太人。比起指责恐怖分子,他们似乎更关心我们促进仇外情绪。 I hung out with plenty of Parisians who were fucking pissed off, but it was mostly cops and military. During the attack, one cop finally realized it wasn’t a hostage situation and yelled out, “It’s a turkey shoot” as he charged in, holding his gun. He got shot right through the hand and into the neck and kept going. He took a terrorist out, chased another one into the hallway, who then blew himself up, and did it to another guy, who blew himself up on stage. Our amplifiers were a gory mess. 我和很多出离愤怒的巴黎人交流过,但是这些主要都是警察和军人。在袭击期间,一个警察终于意识到这不是人质劫持,他持枪突入,并且大叫,“这是土耳其射击!”。他被子弹穿过手,击中脖子,仍然进击。他撂倒了一个恐怖分子,在走廊追击另一个。那恐怖分子就自爆了。之后又追击另一个,那人在舞台上自爆。我们的扩音器上血肉模糊。 Did that cop live? 那警察生还了吗? Yes, I met him in triage. I hung out with him. Great guy. 是的。我在急救站见过他。我们后来又聚了一次。很好的人。 You went to the hospital? 你进医院了? I had pieces of teeth and human bone pulled out of my face. A girl got shot right next to me by the shooter at the top of the stairs who I had met earlier. She stepped one step in front of me and her head just exploded. It blew pieces of her teeth and skull into my face. 从我的脸上取出了牙齿和人骨碎片。我旁边的女生被楼梯顶上我早先见过的枪手击中了,她在我面前踉跄了一下,接着她的头爆开了。她的牙齿和头骨碎片扎进了我的脸。 Why don’t we hear about this? 为何我们没听到此事? The media wants to summarize it, and important details get lost. The most important detail being when they started shooting, they were already inside. If they were hanging out enough to let three people go, then they knew security dudes. They knew bouncers. They knew doormen. 媒体想要总结事件,而重要的细节则丢失了。最重要的细节是,在他们开始射击时,他们早已经混入内部了。如果他们让三个人混入都能保持隐蔽,那他们一定认识保安。他们认识门卫。 Do you think a percentage of the security staff was Muslim? 你认为有一定比例的保安人员是穆斯林? I know they were. Look, security guards backstage are notorious for being dicks. They check your ID every few minutes and nobody goes back and forth without being checked, even if you’re in the band. This guy didn’t care what we did. He didn’t even look at me. 我知道他们其中一些是。听着,后台保安一般以严格著称。他们没几分钟就会查验你的证件。没人能不被检查来回穿梭,即使你是乐队的一员。而这次后台保安则不管我们是干什么的,他甚至没看我。 The only time he seemed remotely interested in us was when he said to my girlfriend, “Do you speak French?” and “Where are you from?” She said she was from Texas and he was getting frustrated because that’s not what he meant. Then she said, “I’m American” and he lost interest. I honestly think he was trying to determine if she was Arab or not. She’s Mexican and she could easily pass for Lebanese and I think he was going to warn her if she was Muslim. 唯一一次他看来对我们稍有兴趣是他问我女友“你说法语吗?”以及“你从哪里来?”她说她从德州来,而他则感到沮丧,因为这不是他所要问的。然后女友说“我是美国人。”他就失去了兴趣。坦率的说,我认为他试图判定她是不是阿拉伯人。她是个墨西哥人,很容易被错认成黎巴嫩人。我认为如果女友是穆斯林,他当时会警告她。 I kept opening up the back door to smoke and that’s usually a big no-no because of the sound ordinances. I’ve played there before and opening up that door to smoke got you in big trouble. This time, the security guy walks right past me and anxiously looks down the alleyway in either direction. 我让后门开着以便抽烟,通常这是绝不允许的,因为噪声管制。以前我在这里演奏过,开门抽烟会给你带来大麻烦。这次,保安径直从我身边走过,焦虑的打量通道的各个方向。 Maybe one of the reasons the cops are so much more pragmatic about this threat is that they are the ones who have to go into Les Banlieues and confront these people. Naïveté is a luxury they can’t afford. 也许对恐怖威胁,警察的态度现实得多的原因之一是,他们正是那些要去市郊移民聚居区,面对穆斯林的人。幼稚是他们负担不起的奢侈品。 When the cops went in after the attack, they shut down, what, 450 mosques? They found recruitment material in every single one of them. What the fuck is wrong with us that we don’t know about that? 当袭击后警察进入聚居区时,他们沉默了,什么,450个清真寺?他们在它们中的每一个都发现了招募材料。我们到底是怎么了,竟然不知道这事? Parisians think everyone is innocent, but the cops don’t. They even investigated you. 巴黎人认为每个人都是无辜的,但是警察不这么想。他们甚至会调查你。 I was a person of interest, yes. They interrogated me for four days. I ended up helping them a lot by getting cell-phone footage. It was the cops and the FBI who asked me about the promoter and the security. This isn’t something I brought up to them. 我是个需要被调查的人,是的。他们盘问了我四天。最终我通过现场手机视频帮了他们很多。是警察和FBI问了我关于演出组织者和保安的问题。这不是我提出来的。 We had eight police officers in our audience that night. They all had the same conversation with their wives, which was “Should I bring my gun or not?” All of them said no. When we went back and played Paris again they stood in the same places they stood at the original show and they opened their jackets and showed me their guns as if to say, “Not tonight, motherfucker.” It was beautiful. 当晚观众中有八个警察。他们全都和太太有过相同的对话,“我应该带枪吗?”。太太们全都说不。当我们回到巴黎再次演出的时候,他们站在我以前演出时他们站过的地方,而且他们打开外套,向我展示他们的枪,好像在说,“今晚狗杂种们休想再搞事”。真赞。 Islam is crying wolf about Islamophobia in order to anesthetize us and make us easier prey. 对伊斯兰恐惧症,伊斯兰教不断叫嚷“狼来了”,为了麻痹我们,使我们更容易被猎杀。 They know there’s a whole group of white kids out there who are stupid and blind. You have these affluent white kids who have grown up in a liberal curriculum from the time they were in kindergarten, inundated with these lofty notions that are just hot air. Look at where it’s getting them. 他们知道有一大群白人孩子都是愚蠢和无知的。有大堆的白人孩子自幼儿园起,就成长于自由派课程中,沉浸在热空气般虚无不切实际的幻想中。看看这些白孩子将要面对的吧。 (编辑:辉格@whigzhou) *注:本译文未经原作者授权,本站对原文不持有也不主张任何权利,如果你恰好对原文拥有权益并希望我们移除相关内容,请私信联系,我们会立即作出响应。

——海德沙龙·翻译组,致力于将英文世界的好文章搬进中文世界——

[译文]以色列的共产主义土壤

Israeli Marxism
以色列的马克思主义

作者:Steven Plaut @ 2011-8-7
译者:Tankman
校对:hkustliqi
来源:FrontPage Mag,http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/100988/israeli-marxism-steven-plaut

It is difficult to explain to people living outside of Israel, and especially to Americans, the extent to which Israelis truly believe in communism.

很难对生活于以色列之外的人,尤其是美国人,解释清楚以色列人信仰共产主义的程度之深。

Sometimes they call it socialism, but they basically mean communism.

有时他们称其为社会主义,但是基本上他们指的就是共产主义。

This is not to say that they behave as communists in their private lives. Quite the contrary, Israelis live as the ultimate ideal of capitalism. They are enormously individualist. They are exceptionally good at starting and managing businesses, and of development and marketing innovations. Israel as a country has more start-up businesses than all of Europe. It registers more patents than any European country.

这并非指他们在自己的私人生活中像共产主义者那么行动。恰恰相反,以色列人像资本主义的终极典范那样生活。他们很大程度上是个人主义者。他们极其善于创建和管理企业,并对开发和推销创新也很在行。作为一个国家,以色列拥有比整个欧洲更多的创业公司。它的专利注册数也比任何一个欧洲国家多。

Yet those very same Israelis, who demonstrate every day their skills in succeeding in markets, hate markets. The word(more...)

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Israeli Marxism 以色列的马克思主义 作者:Steven Plaut @ 2011-8-7 译者:Tankman 校对:hkustliqi 来源:FrontPage Mag,http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/100988/israeli-marxism-steven-plaut It is difficult to explain to people living outside of Israel, and especially to Americans, the extent to which Israelis truly believe in communism. 很难对生活于以色列之外的人,尤其是美国人,解释清楚以色列人信仰共产主义的程度之深。 Sometimes they call it socialism, but they basically mean communism. 有时他们称其为社会主义,但是基本上他们指的就是共产主义。 This is not to say that they behave as communists in their private lives. Quite the contrary, Israelis live as the ultimate ideal of capitalism. They are enormously individualist. They are exceptionally good at starting and managing businesses, and of development and marketing innovations. Israel as a country has more start-up businesses than all of Europe. It registers more patents than any European country. 这并非指他们在自己的私人生活中像共产主义者那么行动。恰恰相反,以色列人像资本主义的终极典范那样生活。他们很大程度上是个人主义者。他们极其善于创建和管理企业,并对开发和推销创新也很在行。作为一个国家,以色列拥有比整个欧洲更多的创业公司。它的专利注册数也比任何一个欧洲国家多。 Yet those very same Israelis, who demonstrate every day their skills in succeeding in markets, hate markets. The word "socialism" carries enormously romantic and positive implications for Israelis. Especially among educated (non-Russian-born) Israelis. The word capitalism is something of an obscenity for most Israelis. 然而,这些每天展示着在市场中如鱼得水技能的以色列人却讨厌市场。对以色列人来说,“社会主义”这个词带有极大的浪漫和正面意味,尤其是在受过教育的以色列人之中(在俄国出生的以色列人除外)。资本主义这个词则对大部分以色列人带有某些侮辱意味。 I suspect that someone arrested for assault could get himself off in court if he claimed the victim had called him a capitalist, it being a form of hate speech. The Israeli media invariably use the word "capitalism" in conjunction with the word piggish. (Ironically, the one exception is the business editor of Haaretz, who supports market capitalism, while the rest of the same newspaper yearns for communism.) 我怀疑因人身侵害被逮捕的人如果宣称受害人称其为资本主义者,他也许能让自己被当庭释放。称人为资本主义者算得上一种仇恨言论。以色列媒体一成不变的把“资本主义”这个词和贪婪一词搭配使用。(讽刺的是,有个例外是Haaretz的商业编辑,他支持市场资本主义,然而同一份报纸的其他同仁们则痴迷于共产主义。) The only conceivable form of market economy in the minds of the Israeli chattering class is "piggish capitalism." You would not believe the portion of Israeli professors and intellectuals who use that expression. The head of the Histadrut, Israel's largest organized crime family, uses it, being a loyal believer in piggish communism. 有话语权的以色列中产们头脑中能够想象的市场经济的唯一形式是“贪婪的资本主义”。你甚至难以相信以色列教授和知识分子中使用这个词的比例。以色列最大的有组织犯罪集团【译者注:一个工团组织】Histadrut的领袖,也用着这个词,充当着贪婪的社会主义的忠实信徒。 In normal countries, pointing out that someone is a card-carrying member of the communist party is usually more than enough to discredit that person. Not in Israel. Carriers of communist party membership cards do so with pride. Most of the members of the history department at Tel Aviv University are such communists. So are oodles of other academics. 在正常国家,指出某人是共产党的活跃成员常常意味着对此人的侮辱。但在以色列不是这样。共产党的活跃分子骄傲的公开身份。大多数特拉维夫大学历史系的成员是共产主义分子。其他学术机构也有大批类似现象。 On the one hand, the operation of markets is what makes Israel a successful viable country, one incidentally that experienced almost no implosion at all during the global financial collapse of the past 4 years. But on the other hand, markets are things Israelis claim they want suppressed. Literate Israelis insist in unison that markets are what is wrong with the world, and suppressing markets is the answer to Israel's problems. Markets are evil, rewarding selfishness. Benevolent governmental bureaucrats controlling the economy are what is needed. 一方面,市场运作使以色列成为一个成功的有活力的国家,而且在全球金融崩溃的过去四年中,它几乎没有受到一点影响。但另一方面,市场是以色列人宣称想要压制的那类事物。以色列的智识阶层一致坚持市场导致了世界的种种问题,而压制市场则是解决以色列各种问题的答案。市场是邪恶的,鼓励自私的。善意的政府官僚管制经济是必需的。 Not every Israeli, mind you. Russian-Israelis, who today are maybe a fifth of the population, have no patience for those preaching the wonders of communism. And they are notably absent in the current "social justice" rallies and marches, or what I have been calling the Woodstock along the Yarkon Festival. 并不是每个以色列人都这么。俄罗斯以色列人,如今也许占到人口的五分之一,对鼓吹共产主义奇迹的人没有耐心。他们明显地缺席当下各种“社会正义”的集会游行,或者被我称为雅孔河边的伍德斯托克狂欢的Yarkon 节会【编注:雅孔河是以色列主要河流,流经行政首府特拉维夫,河边常有集庆】。 Orthodox Jews rarely mouth the slogans of nostalgia for Bolshevik central planning of markets, although there are exceptions. (The commentator on the Torah portion in Maariv cannot get enough of communism and insists that suppressing piggish-capitalism is the highest form of Jewish ethics.) 正统派犹太教徒很少装腔作势的唠叨那些对布尔什维克中央计划经济心存怀旧之情的口号,虽然也有例外。(晚报Torah板块的评论员宣扬起共产主义总是没个够,并坚持认为压制贪婪资本主义是犹太伦理的最高形式。) Israeli academics are almost universally anti-capitalism. I am on the list of a chat list of Israeli social science faculty members, and for the past few weeks it has carried hundreds of postings yearning for socialist controls and denouncing capitalism. The posteurs universally fantasize about Israel adopting Scandinavian-style "socialism." 以色列学术界也几乎普遍地反资本主义。我本人被列在以色列社会科学教职人员的聊天通讯录上,过去几周,我从这个联系列表上收到了几百份向往社会主义管制和批评资本主义的传单。这些传单全是鼓吹把以色列改造成斯堪迪纳维亚式“社会主义”的狂想。 Putting aside some doubts as to how pleasant life really is in Scandinavia (witness Norway recently), Scandinavian "socialism" is actually not. It is essentially free markets mixed with very high tax rates and a gargantuan welfare state providing cradle-to-grave welfare services at state expense. 先不提一些疑问:斯堪迪纳维亚的生活是否真正那么快活(看看最近的挪威),斯堪迪纳维亚式“社会主义”其实并不美好。它其实是自由市场制度混合了极高的税率和从摇篮到坟墓的繁多福利,这些福利由政府提供和付费。 In other words, Scandinavia has always been far more capitalistic countries than Israel, certainly of Israel was before the 1980s. In addition, Israel has always provided Scandinavian-style welfare state services, but without the freeing of markets and liberalization of production that characterized Scandinavia. 换句话说,斯堪迪纳维亚国家其实一直比以色列更接近资本主义,特别是比80年代以前的以色列。而且,以色列已经提供了斯堪迪纳维亚式的政府福利,但却没有斯堪迪纳维亚特征的市场自由化和生产力解放。 Academic economists generally do not join the antlered herds in pining for bolshevism, but there are exceptions. Israeli economists are among the few who know what a market is, what a price is, what a wage is. The protesters never know these things. 学术界的经济学家们总的来说没有加入坚持布尔什维克主义的群落,但也有些例外。以色列经济学家位列少数知道什么市场,什么是价格,什么是工资的人当中。抗议者则从来不知道这些东西是什么。 But Israel has a long history of academic prostitution and one can always find a few academic economists willing to endorse the most idiotic "ideas" of those who understand nothing about economics, if it earns them a shekel or advances their careers. 但是以色列的学术婊源远流长,你总能发现几个经济学家愿意为那些根本不懂经济的人的愚蠢“理念”背书,只要这能够带给他们经济利益或改善其职业前途。 Hence the most passionate supporter of RAISING the minimum wage is "economist" Avishai Braverman, the guy who turned Ben Gurion University into Hamastan, and one can find similar cases of street-walking economists endorsing rent controls, nationalizations, and other fundamental axioms of economic Bolshevism. 所以提高最低工资的最热忱支持者是“经济学家”Avishai Braverman。该人让本·古里安大学变成了反以色列的先锋。你也可发现类似的例子,如一些站街经济学家支持租金管制、国有化、和一些基本的布尔什维克主义经济原则。 Most people are not aware of it but Israel began its existence as a country with a system of Bolshevik central control. In its first years Ben Gurion implemented a system of massive nationalization and near-universal price and wage controls. It differed little from the economic structure created by Lenin. 尽管大部分人没有意识到,但是以色列国从建国伊始,便拥有一个布尔什维克主义的中央计划系统。在立国的头十年,本·古里安实现了一个系统,来进行大规模国有化和几乎全面的价格及工资管制。 这几乎和列宁创建的经济系统没有区别。 Ben Gurion got away with it for a while because of the War of Independence and the national emergency. Like in that old joke about how communism in the Sahara would produce a shortage of sand, by the early 1950s everything in Israel was in shortage, buying anything and everything involved endless Soviet-style queues, and most products could only be obtained in the black markets. 由于立国战争和全国紧急状态,本·古里安曾一度逃脱了共产主义的诅咒。如那个撒哈拉的共产主义怎样能让沙子产生短缺的笑话一样【注:米尔顿·弗里德曼曾说:假如你把撒哈拉交给政府经营,我们很快会面临沙子短缺】,在50年代早期,以色列的一切物资都陷于短缺。购买任何一切东西都免不了无尽的苏联式排队,而且大部分产品只能够在黑市里弄到。 To Ben Gurion's credit, he realized by the early 1950s that the system of Bolshevik controls was unworkable. Curiously, Lenin had also understood this and took steps to dismantle the controls, except that he died and was replaced by Stalin before serious reform took place in the Soviet Union. Lenin called his plan for partial de-Bolshevikation of the economy the "New Economic Plan" or NEP, exactly the SAME name adopted by Ben Gurion for HIS reforms in the early 1950s. (No coincidence!) 本·古里安的功劳是,他在1950年代早期认识到布尔什维克计划经济行不通。令人奇怪的是,列宁也曾认识到这点,并采取了放松管制的措施,只是他去世了,而斯大林在任何深度改革实施之前就接管了权力。列宁把他的部分去布尔什维克经济计划称作“新经济计划”(New Economic Plan,NEP),和本·古里安在50年代早期实施的改革计划的名称一模一样。(这可不是巧合!) While most price controls were ended, other forms of economic Bolshevism were retained by Ben Gurion and his MAPAI party comrades. Huge portions of Israeli industry were nationalized, and much of what was left was semi-nationalized and grossly mismanaged by turning it over to the Histadrut trade union federation. 尽管大多数价格管制被终结了,其他布尔什维克主义的经济措施则仍被本·古里安和他的工党同志们保留了下来。当时以色列工业的很大比例被国有化,而剩下部分中很多被半国有化,而且把这些企业交给Histadrut工团照管造成了严重的经营不善。 Economic policy sought to suppress competition everywhere. It strived to maximize the number of monopolies and cartels in the economy. The government controlled enormous amounts of resources, which it handed out as political favors, often to cronies and party oligarchs. Tax rates were enormous and sometimes exceed 100%. Profits by enterprises were derived mainly from government subsidies and handouts. 经济政策曾试图在所有地方抑制竞争,它努力要最大程度的增加经济中垄断和卡特尔组织的数目。政府曾控制了巨量资源,并按政治偏好进行分配,这些资源常流向亲信和寡头。那时税率极高,有时甚至超过100%。企业利润曾主要依靠政府补贴和帮扶。 Government policy was protectionist and anti-competitive. The capital market was suppressed and nationalized. The government's working philosophy demanded that Israelis essentially turn all their income, savings, and wealth over to the government, and then the government bureaucracy would take care of the needs of the public and of citizens. 政府政策曾非常偏向保护主义和抑制竞争,资本市场则被抑制和国有化。政府的工作哲学要求以色列人实际上把他们所有的收入、储蓄和财富交给政府照管,然后政府官僚将会照顾公共和公民的所需。 The result was a Third World economy, albeit one dominated by a political system that actually involved elections and parliamentary processes. Israel was pauperized by the Bolshevism. It remained poor and underdeveloped. 结果就是,尽管被一个拥有选举和代议程序的政治体系所统治,经济上却仍是第三世界。以色列被共产主义弄的赤贫。而后也仍然贫困落后。 Things only began to change in a significant manner in the 1970s. Israel was being coerced into liberalizing its economy and removing some of the socialist controls because of Israel joining and signing various international trade agreements. The treaty partners refused to allow the Israeli government to continue its policies. The long period of zero growth following the Yom Kippur War also woke some people up to the necessity of having a functional economy. 70年代,事情才开始明显转变。以色列在那时被强制要求经济自由化,并除去一些社会主义管制,因为它需要加入和签署一些国际贸易协定。缔约国拒绝允许以色列政府继续其政策。在赎罪日战争后的长时期零增长,也让一些人意识到亟需一个能够有效运转的经济。 In the 1950s and 1960s it was not unusual for people to lump Israeli economic policies and conditions together with those in Egypt and other Third World backwaters. 在50和60年代,人们把以色列的经济政策和状况混同于埃及和其他死气沉沉的第三世界并不奇怪。 Things changed remarkably starting in the 1980s. Most of the nationalized industry was privatized, largely because state enterprises were losing so much money. Partly, this was due to the change in public willingness to tolerate the controls. Partly it was because of the growing number of people who had taken freshmen economics and understood the idiocy of Bolshevik controls. Partly, it was because of the growth of high tech, which the government could not control or understand. Partly, it was because of international trade treaty pressures. 直到80年代开始,情况才开始发生显著改变。大多数国有企业被私有化了,很大程度上因为国有企业的亏损如此之巨。部分地是因为容忍管制的公众意愿改变了。部分是因为越来越多的人受了基本经济学教育,并理解了布尔什维克管制的愚蠢。部分是因为高科技产业的发展,而政府并不能理解或者控制这些产业。部分是因为国际贸易压力。 There are still plenty of Bolshevik controls in place. Israel has a single-payer health system with four tightly regulated HMO-style providers. It works a lot better than you would expect, for some extraneous reasons (Israel has a young population that eats well and huge numbers of MDs). 目前仍有很多的布尔什维克管制。以色列拥有一个政府全包的医疗系统和四个被严密管制的医疗保险集团。因为一些外部因素,该系统运作的比你预期的好得多(以色列拥有年轻的人口结构,饮食健康,医生数量也很多。) There are still oodles of monopolies and cartels. Agriculture is still largely anti-competitive and inefficient, dominated by government-erected cartels. Taxes are too high. The government owns a large portion of the land in the country. Some sectors are still distorted by protectionism, especially food. 目前仍然存在很多垄断和卡特尔。农业仍然被政府设立的卡特尔控制,很大程度上是反竞争和低效的。税率太高。在国内,政府拥有很大比例的土地。一些部门仍被保护主义扭曲,尤其是食物。 The Woodstock on the Yarkon protesters are by and large leftist secularist Israelis demanding a return to the Bolshevik controls of the 1950s. They pine for the shortages and the rationing of that era because they figure that in a shortage THEY will be granted priority. 在Yarkon节日嘉年华上的抗议者完全就是要求回到50年代布尔什维克管制的左派世俗主义者。他们渴慕那时代的短缺和票证,因为他们觉得在那种短缺中,他们会被优先供给。 The central demand of the protesters is rent controls. This will end up destroying the Israeli housing stock and pauperizing elderly owners of rental property who purchased those units with the intention of earning rental income in their old age. Like in New York and other cities having rent controls, the controls will create shortages, where the true cost of obtaining rental housing actually goes UP, not down. 抗议者的核心诉求是租金管制。这最终会破坏以色列的房屋供给,并且让老迈的房东陷入赤贫。这些房东为了收租养老的缘故买了这些房子。如同纽约和其他有租金管制的城市那样,管制会产生短缺,而租到房子的真实成本实际上提高了,而不是降低了。 The protesters pine for the Soviet steppes. They demand other forms of price controls so that Israel can turn into a Brezhnev-era style of country, where people spend their days waiting in lines for commodities in perpetual and growing shortage. They want markets to be suppressed, where squads of social justice commandos can decide who gets to live in which apartment, who gets to consume those commodities in shortage, and who earns what. 抗议者们仍怀念着苏联的大平原。他们要求其他形式的价格管制,让以色列回到如勃涅日涅夫时代那样的国家。在那里有无尽的日益增长的短缺,人们为了购物整日排队。他们希望市场被抑制,而社会公正的斗士们有权决定谁搬进哪一个公寓,谁消费短缺中的那些商品,谁赚得什么。 They insist that wages be set based on what the protesters think people deserve to earn. Since there is not a single person in Israel who earns what he thinks he deserves to earn, this amounts to a demand for a Soviet-style wage board that fixes wages for all professions, starting with those who are on strike, like the MDs. 他们坚持说工资要基于抗议者认为人们理应挣多少而设定。因为在以色列没有任何人挣着自认为理应得到的数目,这就导致需要一个苏式工资系统,对所有职业设定固定工资,从罢工的人群开始,比如医生们。 In other words, wages in the opinion of the protesters do not have to clear markets and signal where shortages and surpluses are. Wages should be arbitrary measures of "fairness." Try to imagine just what happens when half the jobs in Israel attract no applicants because the fair wages there are insufficient to draw workers, while the other jobs have six applicants for each position because the fair wages there are much too high to clear the market. Try to imagine what life would be like if a Marxist sociologist or a caring social worker were appointed as economic dictator to decide all economic matters and decisions in Zion. 另一方面,抗议者认为工资没必要让市场均衡并发挥信号作用,以显示何处短缺,何处过剩。工资应该是“公平”的武断标准。试想以色列有一半职位都不能吸引到申请者,因为所谓的公平工资不能够吸引工人,而同时以色列的另外一半工作每个职位有六个申请人,因为所谓的公平工资远高于市场均衡水平,将会发生什么?试想一个马克思主义社会学家或一个慈善社工被任命为经济独裁者,来负责锡安的所有经济事务和决策,会发生什么? Every society on earth and every society in human history has people living in hardship and in poverty. There are poor people in all countries, including Scandinavia. Mankind has not discovered an innovation that eliminates poverty and hardship. 地球上的每个社会,乃至人类历史上每个社会,都有生活在艰难困苦中的人们。所有的国家都有穷人,包括斯堪迪纳维亚。人类尚未能发现一种创新,能消灭贫穷和困苦。 Yet the caring dreamers about Bolshevism along Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv (note the irony of the name) demand an instant magic pill that will eliminate all hardship and inequality. And the failure of the government to provide one is proof that the evil "tycoons" are in charge and preventing the government from serving the people. 然而,和布尔什维克主义相关的爱心白日梦人士沿着特拉维夫的罗斯柴尔德大道(请注意这街名的讽刺性)要求一个立即奏效的神奇药方,来消除贫穷和困苦。而政府没能提供这个药方,则是邪恶的“权贵”在掌权并阻止政府服务人民的证据。 "People not profits" is the slogan of choice used by those who are too stupid to understand that the only way to make producers serve the people and produce things the people want is for them to make profits doing so. Outlaw profits and you create mass starvation. 让厂商服务人民和创造人民需要的产品的唯一途径是让他们借此获得利润,而太蠢不能理解这点的人们则打出了“为人民而不是为利润”的口号。取缔利润,那么你就创造了大饥荒。 The tycoon fetish continues to dominate the protests. I have suggested that Mikey Lerner even change the name of his idiotic magazine from Tikkun to Tycoon. Many Israeli tycoons, at least outside high-tech, were made tycoons because of sweetheart deals with the political establishment, particularly back in the days of MAPAI socialism. 权贵迷信继续主导着这些抗议。我已经建议Mikey Lerner把他白痴杂志的名字从改正(Tikkun )改为权贵(Tycoon )。很多以色列的权贵,至少在高科技产业之外,是被政治既得利益者的幕后交易创造出来的,尤其是回溯到工党社会主义时期。 The other irony is that the only "reform" the protesters have extracted from Netanyahu is the setting up of "Planning Speed-up Commissions." And the most ironic part of this irony is that the main effect of those commissions will be to fatten up the "tycoons." 更讽刺的是,抗议者从内塔尼亚胡那里得到的唯一“改革”就是设立一些“规划加速委员会”。并且这一讽刺的最尖锐的部分是:这些委员会的主要作用将是让“权贵”脑满肠肥。 Israel's municipal planning and regulation of construction is a fever swamp of corruption and inefficiency. It takes two years to get a license to put windows in your porch and you may have to bribe city officials to get it. The endless bureaucratic pencil pushing and bickering does indeed slow down construction, affecting housing prices and availability. 以色列的建筑业市政规划管理部门是腐败和低效的温床。给你的门廊加上窗户需要两年时间办理许可证,而你可能不得不贿赂市政官员来拿到它。无穷的官僚系统的文书案牍和磨嘴皮的确减慢了建筑业发展,影响了房屋的价格和供给。 At the same time, these planning dinosaurs DO allow a certain amount of public involvement and intervention, especially when it comes to combating corrupt sweetheart dirty deals between municipalities and construction contractor "tycoons." Corrupt municipal officials are constantly attempting to get approval for construction projects that will enrich contractor cronies, even when these are illegal, harmful to the public interest, ugly, and in some case built on public park lands and beaches. The officials attempt to bend zoning laws and regulations to "help their buddies." 同时,这些计划经济恐龙允许一定的公共介入和干涉,尤其是人们反对市政机构和有背景的建筑承包商之间的内幕交易的时候。腐败的市政官员一直试图为建筑项目拿到许可,这些项目可以让有关系的承包商致富,即使它们是非法可耻的,有害公共利益的,而且有时是在公园和公共海滩上建造。这些官员试图扭曲法律和规制,来“帮助他们的兄弟”。 As a sop to the demonstrators, Netanyahu has proposed and the Knesset just passed the creation of "Planning Speed-Up Commissions," to cut through the red tape and bureaucracy. The problem with the idea is simple: it will still take two years and possibly some bribes if you want to put a window pane on your porch. 作为对示威者的安抚,内塔尼亚胡提出了创建一些“规划加速委员会”,议会批准了这个动议,想要削减繁文缛节和官僚主义。这个主意的缺陷很明了:未来如果你想要在自己的门廊上开一扇窗,还是需要两年,也许还要一些贿赂。 But the oligarchs will be able to use the Speed Up mechanism to push aside public opposition and suppress sensible zoning and planning regulations. The oligarchs are also being offered by Netanyahu public lands at below-market prices, where Netanyahu insists this will lower housing prices. The reality, as any freshman econ student can tell you, is that it will not lower housing prices by a shekel, and instead will only inflate the profits of the cronies getting in on the deal. 但寡头们将能用加速机制来置公众抗议于不顾,压制合理的区域规划和管制。寡头也能够拿到内塔尼亚胡提供的低于市场价的公地,内塔尼亚胡坚称这能降低房价。就如任何经济系一年级学生能告诉你的那样,事实是这不会让房价降低一个子儿,反倒会增加参与项目的关系户公司的利润。 ABOUT STEVEN PLAUT 关于作者 Steven Plaut is a native Philadelphian who teaches business finance and economics at the University of Haifa in Israel.  He holds a PhD in economics from Princeton.  He is author of the David Horowitz Freedom Center booklets about the Hamas  and Jewish Enablers of the War against Israel. Steven Plaut是一位土生土长的费城人。他在以色列的海法大学教授商务金融和经济学。他拥有普林斯顿经济学博士学位。他是David Horowitz自由中心的作者,撰写了一些小册子,讲述哈马斯和一些犹太人积极促成针对以色列的战争。 (编辑:辉格@whigzhou) *注:本译文未经原作者授权,本站对原文不持有也不主张任何权利,如果你恰好对原文拥有权益并希望我们移除相关内容,请私信联系,我们会立即作出响应。

——海德沙龙·翻译组,致力于将英文世界的好文章搬进中文世界——

[译文]那些本可避免的痛苦

A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Government Compensation of Kidney Donors
政府补贴捐肾者的成本效益分析

作者:Alex Tabarrok @ 2015-11-25
译者:Eartha(@王小贰_Eartha)
校对:小册子(@昵称被抢的小册子)
来源:Marginal Revolution,http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/11/a-cost-bene%EF%AC%81t-analysis-of-government-compensation-of-kidney-donors.html

The latest issue of the American Journal of Transplantation has an excellent and comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of paying kidney donors by Held, McCormick, Ojo, and Roberts.

最新一期【(more...)

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A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Government Compensation of Kidney Donors 政府补贴捐肾者的成本效益分析 作者:Alex Tabarrok @ 2015-11-25 译者:Eartha(@王小贰_Eartha) 校对:小册子(@昵称被抢的小册子) 来源:Marginal Revolution,http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/11/a-cost-bene%EF%AC%81t-analysis-of-government-compensation-of-kidney-donors.html The latest issue of the American Journal of Transplantation has an excellent and comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of paying kidney donors by Held, McCormick, Ojo, and Roberts. 最新一期【译注:即2015年第十期】的《美国移植杂志》刊登了一篇由Held, McCormick, Ojo, 与 Roberts合著的文章,出色且全面地描述了关于支付捐肾者报酬的成本效益分析。 Earlier, Becker and Elias estimated that a payment of $15,000 per living donor would be sufficient to eliminate the US waiting list. The authors adopt a larger figure of $45,000 for living donors and $10,000 for deceased donors and find that even at these rates paying donors generates benefits far in excess of costs. 早些时候,Becker与 Elias就估算过,如果向每位活体捐赠者支付15,000美元,就会有足够的捐赠者来满足全美的肾脏移植需求。上述论文的作者们在分析中采用了更高的补贴数额,给予活体捐献者45,000美元,遗体捐献者10,000美元。结果显示,即使以这样的高价格补贴捐献者,其产生的效益也远超过成本。 In particular, a program of government compensation of kidney donors would provide the following benefits (quoting from the article): 具体而言,政府补贴捐肾者的计划将会带来下列好处(摘自该文章):
  • Transplant kidneys would be readily available to all patients who had a medical need for them, which would prevent 5000 to 10 000 premature deaths each year and significantly reduce the suffering of 100 000 more receiving dialysis.
  • 所有有医疗需求的患者都能够顺利地获得肾脏移植,每年将会挽救5,000至10,000例早逝患者,并为超过100,000名依赖透析的患者极大地减缓病痛。
  • This would be particularly beneficial to patients who are poor and African American because they are considerably overrepresented on the transplant waiting list. Indeed, it would be a boon to poor kidney recipients because it would enable them to reap the great benefits of transplantation at very little expense to themselves.
  • 穷人和非裔病患将尤其从中受益,因为他们在移植等候名单中明显占据了多数。对于贫苦的肾脏移植接受者来说,这的确是一件好事,因为这将使得他们能以非常低的价格享受到肾脏移植的巨大好处。
  • Because transplant candidates would no longer have to spend almost 5 years receiving dialysis while waiting for a transplant kidney, they would be younger and healthier when they receive their transplant, increasing the chances of a successful transplantation.
  • 因为移植接受者将不必再依赖透析等待近5年,他们接受移植的时候也会更加年轻与健康,移植的成功率将会得到提高。
  • With a large number of transplant kidneys available, it would be much easier to ensure the medical compatibility of donors and recipients, which would increase the success rate of transplantation.
  • 由于有大量的肾脏可供移植,捐献者与受移植者在医学上的相容性会更容易得到保障,这也会提高移植的成功率。
  • Taxpayers would save about $12 billion each year. Dialysis is not only an inferior therapy for end-stage renal disease (ESRD), it is also almost 4 times as expensive per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) gained as a transplant.
  • 纳锐人将因此每年节省大约120亿美元。对末期肾衰竭(ESRD)患者来说,肾透析不仅是一种次等的治疗方法,而且延长每个经质量调整寿命年(QALY)的花费,几乎是肾移植的四倍。【译注:QALY是一种经调整的期望寿命,其计算方式是将实际年数乘上该健康状态下的效用价值。如果在效用价值为5的健康状态持续3年,QALY就等于1.5,相当于保持1.5年的完美健康状态。】
(编辑:辉格@whigzhou) *注:本译文未经原作者授权,本站对原文不持有也不主张任何权利,如果你恰好对原文拥有权益并希望我们移除相关内容,请私信联系,我们会立即作出响应。

——海德沙龙·翻译组,致力于将英文世界的好文章搬进中文世界——

[译文]纽约美甲工的悲惨故事

The New York Times’ Nail Salons Series Was Filled with Misquotes and Factual Errors. Here’s Why That Matters. (Part 1)
《纽约时报》美甲沙龙系列文章充满征引错误和事实错误。我们来看看这事为什么要紧。(第一弹)

作者:Jim Epstein @ 2015-10-27
译者:沈沉(你在何地-sxy)
校对:Tankman
来源:Reason ,https://reason.com/blog/2015/10/27/new-york-times-nail-salon-unvarnished

Reporter Sarah Maslin Nir’s investigative series violated the standards of responsible journalism.
记者Sarah Maslin Nir的系列调查报道违反了负责任新闻报道的规范。

A two-part series in The New York Times on nail salons has brought sweeping changes to an industry dominated by Korean and Chinese immigrants. Written by reporter Sarah Maslin Nir, the series, which ran in print on May 10 and 11, focused on the plight of nail salon manicurists in New York City and Long Island. It depicted a community of immigrant workers paid shockingly low wages to beautify the fingers and toes of affluent New Yorkers while inhaling toxic fumes that cause miscarriages and cancer.

《纽约时报》关于美甲沙龙的前后两篇报道给这个由韩国移民和中国移民主导的产业带来了深远影响。这一系列报道由记者Sarah Maslin Nir撰写,发表于5月10日和11日,集中讲述了纽约市和长岛美甲沙龙里美甲师的窘困境况。在它所描绘的画面里,一群移民工人为了点极度微薄的工资,呼吸着能够导致流产和癌症的有毒气体,为纽约的富人们修饰手指和脚趾。

Nir, who spent 13 months on the project, said in an interview that she initially pitched the story as an “expose,” adding that the “great lesson” readers should come away with is that there’s “no such thing as a cheap luxury.” The only way “you can have something decadent for a cheap price is by someone being exploited.” (My Reason colleague, Elizabeth Nolan Brown, wrote a critique of Nir’s series shortly after it was published.)

Nir在这篇报道上耗费了13个月时间。在接受采访时她说,最初设计这个故事就是为了“曝光”。她还补充说,读者应从该报道中得到一个“重大教训”:世上并不存在“所谓的廉价奢华”。“廉价的放纵奢靡”只能用一个办法得到,那就是“某人遭到剥削”。(我在Reason的同事Elizabeth Nolan Brown在Nir的系列见报不久就写了一篇批评文章。)

The “great lesson” here is actually something different. I’ve spent the last several weeks re-reporting aspects of Nir’s story and interviewing her sources. Not only did Nir’s coverage broadly mischaracterize the nail salon industry, several of the men and women she spoke with say she misquoted or misrepresented them. In some cases, she interviewed sources without translators despite their poor English skills. When her sources’ testimonies ran counter to her narrative, she omitted them altogether.

但事实上,这里应被视为“重大教训”的,是另外一件事。过去几周,我都在重新报道Nir的故事的方方面面,并重新采访其信源。Nir的报道不仅明显扭曲了美甲沙龙产业,而且,曾与之交谈的几位男女还说她错误引用了他们的话或对他们描绘有误。有时候,尽管信源的英语水平很低,她在采访时也没有带翻译。如果信源的说法与她的故事有所抵触,她就会彻底无视这类说法。

The second article lent the Times’ imprimatur to unproven theories, while committing science journalism’s cardinal sin of highlighting alarmist anecdotes that aren’t representative of systematic research.

系列文章中的第二篇则让《时报》为未经验证的理论提供了官方认可,该文犯下了科学新闻的核心重罪:突出强调危言耸听者所提供的那些不能代表系统研究的小道消息。

If it hadn’t had real-world consequences, the series—and subsequent attempt by Nir and her editors to parry criticism—wouldn’t be worth such intense scrutiny. But the day after the first article appeared in the print edition of the Times, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) announced a new multi-agency task force to inspect nail salons. In August, Cuomo issued an emergency order mandating that salons purchase a new form of insurance called a “wage bond” so that if owners are discovered paying their employees less than the legally required wage, the workers have recourse to collect.

两篇文章及随后Nir及其编辑为了回避批评所做出的种种努力本不值得用心细细考察,但是它们对真实世界的影响实在太大了。首篇文章在《时报》印刷版登出来的第二天,Andrew Guomo州长(民主党-纽约州)就宣布成立一个新的多部门联合特别小组,负责调查美甲沙龙。8月,Guomo签发了一条紧急命令,责令各沙龙购买一种叫做“工资保证金”的保险,一旦店主支付雇员的工资低于法定要求,工人们就有办法收账。

The rush to legislate based solely on the Times’ shoddy reporting has hurt the industry. New nail salons, “which used to open every week in New York,” have stopped appearing, according to Aiming Feng, an accountant and leading business advisor to nail shops.

这种仅仅基于《时报》劣质报道就做出的匆忙立法已经对这一行业造成伤害。据身为会计师和顶尖的美甲业商业顾问Aiming Feng所说,新的美甲沙龙已经停止开业,“此前纽约可是每周都会有新店开张”。

Salons once provided a steady source of jobs for undocumented immigrants; now many owners say they’ll hire only legal workers who’ve completed an occupational licensing program because they’re afraid of getting in trouble.

美甲沙龙曾为非法移民提供了一个稳定的工作来源。但是,许多店主说,他们以后只会雇佣完成了执业执照课程的合法工人,因为他们担心惹麻烦。

In September, two industry groups filed a discrimination lawsuit over the wage-bond mandate in New York State Supreme Court on the grounds that the state has unfairly singled out an Asian-dominated industry.

9月,有两个行业团体就工资保险令向纽约州最高法院提起歧视诉讼,理由是州政府此举单独针对由亚裔主导的行业,很不公平。

Another group has organized multiple protests, including a demonstration on October 6 in front of The New York Times Company’s offices in midtown Manhattan. “Apology Now, Fire Nir!” was printed on one sign at the protest; “Shame On You New York Times, Your Lies (more...)

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The New York Times’ Nail Salons Series Was Filled with Misquotes and Factual Errors. Here’s Why That Matters. (Part 1) 《纽约时报》美甲沙龙系列文章充满征引错误和事实错误。我们来看看这事为什么要紧。(第一弹) 作者:Jim Epstein @ 2015-10-27 译者:沈沉(你在何地-sxy) 校对:Tankman 来源:Reason ,https://reason.com/blog/2015/10/27/new-york-times-nail-salon-unvarnished Reporter Sarah Maslin Nir's investigative series violated the standards of responsible journalism. 记者Sarah Maslin Nir的系列调查报道违反了负责任新闻报道的规范。 A two-part series in The New York Times on nail salons has brought sweeping changes to an industry dominated by Korean and Chinese immigrants. Written by reporter Sarah Maslin Nir, the series, which ran in print on May 10 and 11, focused on the plight of nail salon manicurists in New York City and Long Island. It depicted a community of immigrant workers paid shockingly low wages to beautify the fingers and toes of affluent New Yorkers while inhaling toxic fumes that cause miscarriages and cancer. 《纽约时报》关于美甲沙龙的前后两篇报道给这个由韩国移民和中国移民主导的产业带来了深远影响。这一系列报道由记者Sarah Maslin Nir撰写,发表于5月10日和11日,集中讲述了纽约市和长岛美甲沙龙里美甲师的窘困境况。在它所描绘的画面里,一群移民工人为了点极度微薄的工资,呼吸着能够导致流产和癌症的有毒气体,为纽约的富人们修饰手指和脚趾。 Nir, who spent 13 months on the project, said in an interview that she initially pitched the story as an "expose," adding that the "great lesson" readers should come away with is that there's "no such thing as a cheap luxury." The only way "you can have something decadent for a cheap price is by someone being exploited." (My Reason colleague, Elizabeth Nolan Brown, wrote a critique of Nir's series shortly after it was published.) Nir在这篇报道上耗费了13个月时间。在接受采访时她说,最初设计这个故事就是为了“曝光”。她还补充说,读者应从该报道中得到一个“重大教训”:世上并不存在“所谓的廉价奢华”。“廉价的放纵奢靡”只能用一个办法得到,那就是“某人遭到剥削”。(我在Reason的同事Elizabeth Nolan Brown在Nir的系列见报不久就写了一篇批评文章。) The "great lesson" here is actually something different. I've spent the last several weeks re-reporting aspects of Nir's story and interviewing her sources. Not only did Nir's coverage broadly mischaracterize the nail salon industry, several of the men and women she spoke with say she misquoted or misrepresented them. In some cases, she interviewed sources without translators despite their poor English skills. When her sources' testimonies ran counter to her narrative, she omitted them altogether. 但事实上,这里应被视为“重大教训”的,是另外一件事。过去几周,我都在重新报道Nir的故事的方方面面,并重新采访其信源。Nir的报道不仅明显扭曲了美甲沙龙产业,而且,曾与之交谈的几位男女还说她错误引用了他们的话或对他们描绘有误。有时候,尽管信源的英语水平很低,她在采访时也没有带翻译。如果信源的说法与她的故事有所抵触,她就会彻底无视这类说法。 The second article lent the Times' imprimatur to unproven theories, while committing science journalism's cardinal sin of highlighting alarmist anecdotes that aren't representative of systematic research. 系列文章中的第二篇则让《时报》为未经验证的理论提供了官方认可,该文犯下了科学新闻的核心重罪:突出强调危言耸听者所提供的那些不能代表系统研究的小道消息。 If it hadn't had real-world consequences, the series—and subsequent attempt by Nir and her editors to parry criticism—wouldn't be worth such intense scrutiny. But the day after the first article appeared in the print edition of the Times, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) announced a new multi-agency task force to inspect nail salons. In August, Cuomo issued an emergency order mandating that salons purchase a new form of insurance called a "wage bond" so that if owners are discovered paying their employees less than the legally required wage, the workers have recourse to collect. 两篇文章及随后Nir及其编辑为了回避批评所做出的种种努力本不值得用心细细考察,但是它们对真实世界的影响实在太大了。首篇文章在《时报》印刷版登出来的第二天,Andrew Guomo州长(民主党-纽约州)就宣布成立一个新的多部门联合特别小组,负责调查美甲沙龙。8月,Guomo签发了一条紧急命令,责令各沙龙购买一种叫做“工资保证金”的保险,一旦店主支付雇员的工资低于法定要求,工人们就有办法收账。 The rush to legislate based solely on the Times' shoddy reporting has hurt the industry. New nail salons, "which used to open every week in New York," have stopped appearing, according to Aiming Feng, an accountant and leading business advisor to nail shops. 这种仅仅基于《时报》劣质报道就做出的匆忙立法已经对这一行业造成伤害。据身为会计师和顶尖的美甲业商业顾问Aiming Feng所说,新的美甲沙龙已经停止开业,“此前纽约可是每周都会有新店开张”。 Salons once provided a steady source of jobs for undocumented immigrants; now many owners say they'll hire only legal workers who've completed an occupational licensing program because they're afraid of getting in trouble. 美甲沙龙曾为非法移民提供了一个稳定的工作来源。但是,许多店主说,他们以后只会雇佣完成了执业执照课程的合法工人,因为他们担心惹麻烦。 In September, two industry groups filed a discrimination lawsuit over the wage-bond mandate in New York State Supreme Court on the grounds that the state has unfairly singled out an Asian-dominated industry. 9月,有两个行业团体就工资保险令向纽约州最高法院提起歧视诉讼,理由是州政府此举单独针对由亚裔主导的行业,很不公平。 Another group has organized multiple protests, including a demonstration on October 6 in front of The New York Times Company's offices in midtown Manhattan. "Apology Now, Fire Nir!" was printed on one sign at the protest; "Shame On You New York Times, Your Lies Kill Our Shops," read another. Another protest is scheduled at 11a.m. today in front of the Times building. 另有一个团体则已经组织了多次抗议,包括10月6日在纽约时报公司位于曼哈顿中城的办公室外面所举行的示威。抗议活动中打出的一个标语上写着“立刻道歉、开除Nir”;另有一个标语则是“纽约时报你不知羞耻、你们的谎言害死我们的店”。按照计划,今天11点在时报大厦前面将举行另外一场抗议活动。 I'm not the first reporter to scrutinize Nir's reporting. In July, Richard Bernstein, a 24-year veteran of the Times who left the paper in 2006, published "What the Times Got Wrong About Nail Salons" in the online edition of The New York Review of Books. His knowledge of the industry comes through his wife, Zhongmei Li, who owns and manages two nail salons in Manhattan. 我并是不第一个仔细检讨Nir报道的记者。曾为《时报》工作24年并于2006年离职的老前辈Richard Bernstein已在《纽约书评》在线版上发表文章“时报在美甲沙龙问题上犯了什么错”。他对这一行业的了解来自他的妻子Zhongmei Li,Li在曼哈顿拥有并管理着两家美甲沙龙。 Bernstein charged that Nir's story focused on a small segment of the industry while ignoring the vast majority of nail salons, which pay above the minimum wage and hire only licensed manicurists. His piece specifically challenged the Times' claim that the Asian-language newspapers are "rife" with manicurist ads offering shockingly low wages. After Bernstein's story appeared, the Times' editors penned a public letter offering new evidence to support Nir's claim. Bernstein指责Nir在报道中只注意了该行业的一隅,忽视了大多数美甲沙龙,它们的薪酬高于最低工资,并且只录用拥持证美甲师。针对《时报》关于亚州语言报纸“充斥”着工资极低的美甲师招聘广告的说法,Bernstein在文章中还专门提出质疑。此文问世之后,《时报》编辑又撰写了一封公开信,提供新的证据支持Nir的说法。 As I'll explain, the Times editors mistranslated and misconstrued that new evidence, which actually validates Bernstein's argument. 下文我将解释,《时报》的编辑们对这一新证据的翻译和解释都有误,该证据实际上证实了Bernstein的论点。 Nir and her editors declined my interview requests. Instead, a Times spokesperson provided a prepared statement, asserting that the paper is "extremely proud" of the series and pointing to the high number of labor violations discovered by Cuomo's inspection task force since the series appeared. Nir及其编辑拒绝了我的采访请求。反倒是《时报》有个发言人提供了一份事先准备好的声明,坚持说该报为这两篇报道感到“非常骄傲”,并且援引了报道问世后由Cuomo的特别调查小组所发现的大量违法用工案例。 Those labor violations don't reveal what the Times claims they do. In its zeal to cite the government's ex post vindication of its own reporting, the paper further obfuscated what's really happening in the industry. 这些违法用工并不能展现《时报》认为它们所能展现的情况。通过热情征引政府在其报道之后所提供的事后证词,时报进一步模糊了这一行业中正在发生的实情。 My look at Nir's reporting and its shortcomings will appear in three installments. First, I'll revisit the Times' back-and-forth with Bernstein and explain why the paper's claim that manicurists are paid shockingly low wages is based on shoddy research and misconstrued evidence. 我对Nir报道及其缺陷的检查将分为三个部分呈现。首先,我要再次分析《时报》与Bernstein之间的交锋,并解释为什么说该报关于美甲师工资极低的断言只是基于劣质的调研和曲解的证据。 Next, I'll look at Cuomo's inspection task force, the fines and violations being handed out to salon owners, and how the governor's actions have had the unintended consequence of making it harder for undocumented immigrants to get jobs in nail salons. (That article is now online here.) 然后,我会考察Cuomo的特别调查小组、沙龙店主接到的罚款和违章,以及州长的行动如何产生了意料之外的后果,使得非法移民比之前更难在美甲沙龙找到工作。(第二弹在线阅读地址在这里。 ) The third installment will look at the Times' claim that chemicals present in nail salons are causing cancer and miscarriages, which is based on nonexistent evidence. (Click here to read part three.) 第三部分要考察的则是《时报》的一个说法:美甲沙龙中的化学物质正在导致癌症和流产。这一说法全无依据。(可通过以下链接阅读第三弹。) Job Ads "Paying So Little" They "Appear To Be a Typo" 招聘广告“工资极低”“还以为是印刷错误”。 In an early paragraph in the Times' first story in the nail salon series, we read: 在《时报》关于美甲沙龙的系列文章第一篇中,我们在前面几段中可以读到以下说法:
Asian-language newspapers are rife with classified ads listing manicurist jobs paying so little the daily wage can at first glance appear to be a typo. Ads in Chinese in both Sing Tao Daily and World Journal for NYC Nail Spa, a second-story salon on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, advertised a starting wage of $10 a day. The rate was confirmed by several workers. “亚洲语言报纸充满了列有美甲师招聘的分类广告,日薪极低,初看起来还以为是印刷错误。“NYC美甲Spa”是曼哈顿上西区一家位于二楼的沙龙,在《星岛日报》和《世界日报》上的中文广告中给出的起薪是10美元一天。好几位工人证实确为这一价格。”
Richard Bernstein, who rightly called this paragraph a "linchpin" of Nir's first article, was incredulous that anyone would advertise a day wage of $10 given that his wife must guarantee wages of about ten times that to attract qualified applicants. So he went looking through the classifieds in back issues of the Chinese-language newspaper, The World Journal, and couldn't find a single ad that mentioned wages under $70 per day. He found one ad offering to pay between $110 and $130 per day. Richard Bernstein极为正确地把这一段叫做Nir首篇文章的“要害之处”。他不相信有任何人会在广告中登出日薪10美元的工资,因为他的妻子必须保证提供大约10倍左右的工资才能吸引到合格的应聘者。所以他就去翻阅《世界日报》这份中文报纸过刊中的分类广告,结果没能找到任何一个广告所提工资低于70美元一天。其中一份广告甚至愿意支付110到130美元的日薪。 Other than the $10 ad that Nir references—which I'll return to in a moment—Nir doesn't cite any other specific ads paying wages so low they "appear to be a typo." But after Bernstein highlighted this passage in The New York Review of Books, Times editors Dean Baquet, Wendell Jamieson, and Michael Luo co-signed a letter defending Nir's reporting. Nir除了提到这一10美元广告之外(下文会再来讨论这个问题),并没有引用过任何其他工资极低以至于让人“以为是印刷错误”的特定广告。但在Bernstein在《纽约书评》上突出强调了这一段之后,《时报》的编辑Dean Baquet, Wendell Jamieson和Michael Luo一起签署了一封公开信,捍卫Nir的报道。 Their letter cites three more ads to support Nir's claim: 这封信又提到另外三份广告,以支撑Nir的说法:
One [ad] from June 19, 2014, in the World Journal, for example, showed a starting wage of $40 a day for "small job"…Another ad from July 17, 2014 in The World Journal also showed a $40 a day wage. And another one from April 17, 2014 showed a pay range of $40 to $90 a day. These examples were taken from a random sampling of days. “比如,在《世界日报》2014年6月19日的一份广告里,一份‘小工作’的起薪是40美元每天……《世界日报》2014年7月17日的另外一份广告,也开出了40美元的日薪。另外一份2014年4月17日的,则提到日薪在40美元至90美元之间。这些例子只是我们从随机选择的日子里看到的。”
The Times editors also posted high-resolution copies of the three ads to the photo-sharing site Flickr, but, somewhat suspiciously, the Chinese characters are out of focus and my translator couldn't decipher them. So I went to The World Journal's headquarters in Queens and obtained new copies of the ads, which I've posted here. 《时报》编辑还把这三份广告的高清复印件放到了图片分享网站Flicker上面,但有些可疑的是,上面的中文却没有对好焦,我的翻译都看不清。所以我去了《世界日报》位于皇后区的总部,找到了这些广告的新拷贝,将它们贴在这里。 The ads don't say what the Times editors claim they do. Two of the ads they cite actually say that a mani/pedi costs $40 at the salon, not that a worker would be paid $40. Why include such a detail in a job ad? It implies big tips. 这些广告并没有表达《时报》编辑宣称它们所表达的那层意思。他们所提到的广告中,其中有两份实际说的是在沙龙中做一次指甲/趾甲全套需花费40美元,而不是说工人工资是40美元。为什么广告中要提到这种细节?因为它意味着小费很高。 The first one translates as: "UV gel, big jobs, experienced small jobs, and cosmeticians. Flushing pickup and drop-off. Mani/Pedi $40 with commission, good percentage tips, may file taxes." 第一份广告翻译如下:“UV胶、大工、熟手小工兼美容。法拉盛接送。手脚$40,多提成。好小费。可报税。” The second one reads: "Seeking UV gel experienced big jobs, small jobs, and cosmeticians. Pickup and drop-off at Flushing, Mani/Pedi $40 or more, expensive jobs." 第二份广告说的是:“请UV大工,经验小工,兼美容。开车,法拉盛接送。手脚$40,多大脚。” 40ad Both ads were posted by Michael Ling, the owner of a nail salon in Fairfield, Connecticut. (The World Journal is a regional paper). In an interview conducted through a translator, Ling confirmed that what the ad said is correct. He included the price of a mani/pedi to entice potential employees by indicating that the store serves a wealthy, and likely generous, clientele. 登广告的是Michael Ling,他是康涅狄格州费尔菲尔德一家美甲沙龙的店主(《世界日报》是一家区域性报纸)。在有翻译在场的采访中,Ling确认广告所言没错。他将做指甲/趾甲全套的价格写进去是为了表示店里服务的都是富裕且可能很慷慨的客户,以吸引潜在雇员。 The third ad the Times editors produced in response to Bernstein offers a wage of "$40-90." I interviewed the salon owner who posted that ad, David Lee. His shop went out of business in 2014, in part, he says, because he struggled to attract enough qualified manicurists. Lee says he was offering full-time workers a base salary of $90 per day and part-time workers $40 per day. 《时报》编辑为回应Bernstein而找出的第三份广告提供的工资是“40至90美元”。我采访了刊登这一广告的沙龙店主David Lee。他的沙龙已经于2014年停业,据他所说,部分的是因为他奋力想要吸引足够的合格美甲师。Lee说他给全职员工支付的底薪是每天90美元,而兼职工则是每天40美元。 The $10 Ad 日薪10美元的广告 The only remaining evidence that the Asian-language newspapers are "rife" with ads listing "jobs paying so little the daily wage can at first glance appear to be a typo" is the $10 ad Nir specifically referenced. 亚洲语言报纸“充斥”着“日薪极低,初看起来还以为是印刷错误”的广告,这种说法现在只剩下唯一的证据了,那就是Nir特别提到的日薪10美元的广告。 "[I]t’s not clear whether the reporter saw the ad at all," Richard Bernstein wrote in the New York Review of Books. “完全不知道记者有没有看到这份广告。”Richard Bernstein在《纽约书评》上如是说。 It turns out Nir did see the ad, but once again it doesn't say what the Times claimed it does. The day Bernstein's article appeared, Nir posted an image of the ad to Twitter: 结果是,Nir确实看过这份广告,但这里也一样,这份广告并没有表达《时报》宣称它所表达的意思。Bernstein的文章出来的当天,Nir就在Twitter上贴出了这份广告的图像: CKy_g1TUMAALDjACKzcWrzUMAEBFhr
The ad that "doesn't exist" according to @R_Bernstein & @nybooks who calls me a liar & didn't bother to interview me — Sarah Nir (@SarahMaslinNir) July 25, 2015 @R_Bernstein和@nybooks 宣称这份广告“并不存在”,说我是骗子,却不愿意费心采访一下我 —— Sarah Nir (@SaraMaslinNir)2015年7月25日
That ad (Nir later tweeted a magnified version) actually offers to pay manicurists $75 per day in base pay; under that, it notes that "apprentices," or "trainees," can earn $10 per day. What does it mean to be a "trainee?" Was Nir wrong to leave that detail out? 这份广告(Nir后来曾在Twitter上贴出其放大版)实际上给美甲师开出的底薪是每天75美元;后面则提到“学徒”或“实习工”每天可以赚到10美元。“实习工”是什么意思?Nir对这一细节的忽略有错吗? "Lest there be confusion...these are not the equivalent of unpaid summer interns at a magazine," wrote the Times editors in their defense of Nir's reporting. "Interviews by Ms. Nir and her team with employees of the salon confirmed that these were essentially beginning workers, doing the same jobs as others in the salon," they wrote. “不要误解……他们跟没有薪酬的杂志暑期实习生并不一样”,《时报》编辑在他们为Nir报道的辩护中如此写道。他们还说,“Nir小姐及其团队经与沙龙雇员交谈证实,实习工本质上就是新手,在沙龙里做的事与其他人没有什么不同。” But the salon owner who posted the ad disputes the Times’ characterization—as does one former apprentice who answered that $10 ad back in 2014. 但是,刊登这一广告的沙龙店主可不同意《时报》的描述。同样,一位在2014年曾答复过这份日薪10美元广告的前学徒工也不同意。 "We would never let them touch customers," said Yun Jun Long, the former owner of NYC Nail Spa, in an interview conducted through a translator. "If the customer is spending money, you can't stick them with an inexperienced worker." (Long's salon went out of business a month after the Times' story appeared, which he attributes to the negative publicity. He's now helping to organize the recent protests.) “我们绝不会让他们接触顾客”,“NYC美甲Spa”的前店主Yun Jun Long在有翻译在场的一次采访中如是说。“如果顾客花了钱,你不能让一个没有经验的员工去应付他们。”Long的沙龙在《时报》报道出来一个月之后停业了,他认为原因就是负面名声。他现在正帮忙组织近期的抗议活动。 The $10, he says, was meant to cover subway fare and lunch, and those who signed on could come and go as they pleased. During slow periods they could practice on other employees or receive lessons from Long's wife and mother-in-law—partners in the business who also worked in the store. 他还说,广告里提到的10美元只是为了提供地铁票和午餐,并且受雇的人来去自如。如果店里不忙,他们就可以在其他员工身上做练习,或者跟着Long的妻子和岳母(都是Long的生意合伙人,同时也在店里工作)学习。 At my request, Long put me in touch with Jay, a 28-year old undocumented immigrant and former trainee at NYC Nail Spa who asked that I not include his full name. Through a translator, Jay confirmed that he never worked on a customer for the two weeks when he was making just $10 per day. 应我的请求,Long帮我联系上了Jay。Jay是个28岁的无证移民,曾在“NYC美甲Spa”当过实习工。他要求我不提及其全名。通过翻译,Jay向我证实,在每天只赚取10美元的两个星期中,他从没有给任何顾客做过美甲。 Nir has said on Twitter that she visited NYC Nail Spa six times. (Long recalls seeing her come into the store just once.) Even if that's true, it wouldn't be surprising if she misreported what was actually going on in the shop; at several points in her coverage, Nir muddled what apprenticeship programs of this sort are all about. Nir在Twitter上曾说,她到“NYC美甲Spa”访问过6次(而Long记得她只到过店里1次)。即便这是真的,她对店里的真实情况的报道会出错,也并不令人生奇;在报道中的数个地方,她都没有搞清这种学徒计划到底是什么意思。 The main character in the first installment of the series was a 20-year-old Chinese immigrant named Jing Ren, who also went through an apprenticeship program. Without any prior experience doing nails, she got a job working unpaid for her first three months. Ren was also initially asked to pay $100 to the owner of her salon for teaching her basic skills. 在这个系列报道的第一部分中,主要人物是一个20岁的中国移民,名叫任静。任静也参加过学徒计划。在此前没有任何美甲经验的情况下,她找到了一份工作,头三个月没有工资。一开始,她还被要求向她所在沙龙的店主支付100美元,因为后者要教她基本技能。 Times readers may find this practice reprehensible, but Nir left out background details that might lessen their outrage. These apprentice programs are an alternative to going through one of the New York State-certified nail training programs, where tuition is about $1,000 and students must complete 250 hours of formal training before getting licensed. 《时报》的读者可能觉得这种做法应该谴责。但是Nir在此略去了一些背景细节,而这些细节有可能能够缓解读者的愤慨。如果不参加这种学徒计划,你就得全程参加由纽约州批准的美甲培训计划之一,费用大约1000美元,而学员必须在完成250小时的正式培训之后,才能得到执照。 It was technically illegal to work as a manicurist without completing one of these training programs when Nir was doing her reporting. (In July, two months after the Times series appeared, the state passed a bill creating a legal pathway to learn on the job, which I'll discuss in the next installment in this series.) 在Nir进行报道的时候,如果没有完成任何一个此类培训计划就去做美甲师,严格来说是非法的。(7月份,也就是《时报》的系列报道面世两个月之后,纽约州通过了一项法律,为边做边学提供了合法通道。关于这一点,我将在第二弹中加以讨论。) This type of arrangement is by no means an industry norm, but some salon owners flouted the law because they had more customers than employees; generally, the demand for skilled labor outpaces the number of licensed manicurists the beauty schools can mint. They got away with it because enforcement was lax. 这种办法绝非行业通例,一些沙龙店主对这一法律并不以为然,因为他们的顾客比雇员要多。一般来说,对熟练劳工的需求会超过美容学校能够生产生的持证美甲师的数量。店主们之所以能够铤而走险,是因为执法并不严格。 Like Jay, Jing Ren had the option of spending about a month and a half studying at a state-certified school and paying $1,000 to learn her craft. Instead, she opted to pay $100 and work for no pay for three months. It’s not clear that Nir ever asked Ren why she made that choice. 任静跟Jay一样,本可以选择去一个由州政府批准的学校学习这门技术,所费时间大约是一个半月,而价格则是1000美元。不过,她选择的是花费100美元,不领工资上班3个月。我们不清楚Nir是否追问她做出这种选择的理由。 Jay, who was in debt when he started as a trainee at NYC Nail Spa, couldn't afford beauty school. The apprenticeship program worked out for him: Now he's employed as a manicurist at a salon in New Jersey, where his daily base pay is $90, not including tips. Jay刚开始在“NYC美甲Spa”做实习工时已经负债累累,无法支付美容学校的费用。学徒计划对他很有帮助。他如今在新泽西的一家美甲店里被聘为美甲师,每天的底薪是90美元,此外还有小费。 The apprenticeship program also worked out for Jing Ren, who by the end of the Times story was making $65 a day in base compensation. 学徒计划对任静也很有帮助,在《时报》报道的结尾,她的底薪已经是每天65美元了。 Are Apprenticeship Programs Prevalent in the Nail Industry? 美甲行业中学徒制很流行吗? Nir declares that "[Jing Ren's] deal was the same as it is for beginning manicurists in almost any salon in the New York area." (Italics mine.) Nir宣称,“在纽约地区几乎所有沙龙中,刚刚入行的美甲师都需要经历类似任静的这种交易。”(斜体为本文所加。) Yet she provides no proof for this statement, and all the available evidence indicates that Ren's deal was unusual. There are 30,610 licensed manicurists in New York State, all of whom would have had no need for an apprenticeship program. According to the Korean-American Nail Salon Association, there are more than 7,000 shops. 但她没有为这一断言提供任何证据,而所有可以找到的证据都表明,任静所做的交易并不寻常。纽约州有30610位持证美甲师,他们就无需学徒计划。根据“韩裔美国人美甲沙龙协会”的信息,美甲店超过7000家。 Nir supports this claim with anecdotal examples, including a disputed paragraph about a shop called May's Nail Salon, located on 14th Street: Nir为这一说法提供的支撑都是些道听途说的个例,其中有一段涉及位于十四街一家叫做“小梅美甲沙龙”的,就很有争议:
Step into the prim confines of almost any salon and workers paid astonishingly low wages can be readily found. At May's…new employees must pay $100, then work unpaid for several weeks, before they are started at $30 or $40 a day, according to a worker. A man who identified himself as the owner, but would give his name only as Greg, said the salon did not charge employees for their jobs, but would not say how much they are paid. 走进几乎任何一家沙龙的整洁隔间,很容易就能找到工资低得惊人的员工。在小梅美甲店,一个员工说,新员工要先交100美元,接下来需要免费工作几周,然后才开始日薪30-40美元的工作。一个自称店主的男人只愿意透露自己叫Greg,他说他们不要求员工交钱换工作,但拒绝透露员工工资。
The owner of May's Nail Salon is actually a woman named Bao Mei Fitzgibbons, who goes by "Mei." Greg, who Nir mistook as the owner, is an employee at the shop. Nir could easily have found Fitzgibbons' name by searching New York State's online corporation and business entity database. 小梅美甲店的店主实际上是个女的,叫做Bao Mei Fitzgibbons,大家管她叫“梅”。而被Nir误认为店主的Greg则是店里的一个雇员。如果Nir搜索一下纽约州的“公司与企业单位在线数据库”,她就能轻松找到Fitzgibbons的名字。 Fitzgibbons says she was never interviewed by Nir, and scoffed when I asked if she charges new employees $100. "Think about it," Fitzgibbons says, "you work for me and I charge you $100?" The framed licenses of Fitzgibbons' employees are prominently displayed on the wall of her shop, indicating that they went through the official, state-authorized training program. Fitzgibbons说Nir从来没有采访过她,当我问她是不是向新员工收取100美元时,她连连冷笑。“你想想嘛”,她说:“你为我工作,然后我收你100美元?”Fitzgibbons把雇员们的执照装裱好,显眼地挂在门店的墙上,以表明他们都完整接受过正式的、经州政府认可的培训计划。 Fitzgibbons says she observed Nir come into her store and engage one of her manicurists in conversation without a translator. According to Fitzgibbons, the woman, who barely speaks English, later said that she was misquoted in the Times. The manicurist says she told Nir—again according to Fitzgibbons—that there are salons out there that charge trainees $100; she didn't say that May's is one of them. Fitzgibbons说她注意到Nir进了她的店子,并与她的美甲师之一进行了交谈,当时没有翻译。Fitzgibbons还说,被采访的女性基本不会说英语,后来还表示《时报》错误引用了她的话。这位美甲师说(这里还是根据Fitzgibbons的说法),她告诉Nir的是,有些沙龙会向实习工收取100美元,她没说梅的店也是如此。 (On my behalf, Fitzgibbons reached out to the manicurist interviewed by Nir, who no longer works at the store. Fitzgibbons says the woman declined my interview request on the grounds that "she doesn't want publicity.") (Nir采访过的这位美甲师现已不再在Fitzgibbons的店里工作。应我的请求,Fitzgibbons联系了她。Fitzgibbons说她拒绝了我的采访请求,原因是“她不想曝光”。) In another case, Nir spent time reporting at a salon that hires only licensed manicurists trained at a beauty school but left it out of her coverage. 另外,Nir还曾花费时间在一家只雇佣受过美容学校培训的持证美甲师的沙龙里采访,但在文章中却没有提及。 ThinkPink is a small chain of nail salons in Manhattan run by Eun Hye Lee (she goes by "Grace"), who says she was interviewed by Nir. Lee, who is careful to maintain her books to the letter of the law, granted my request to inspect her payroll records. They showed that one experienced manicurist at ThinkPink's West Village branch had earned $680 in base pay, plus $216 in overtime, totaling $896 for a 48.5 hour week. A beginning manicurist in the same shop earned $493 for a 39-hour workweek, or $12.64 per hour. ThinkPink是曼哈顿一家小型美甲连锁店,经营者叫做Eun Hye Lee(人们叫她Grace)。她表示曾接受过Nir的采访。Lee恪守法律条文的规定,很仔细地记有账本,并惠允我查阅她的薪酬发放记录。记录表明,一个在ThinkPink西村分店工作的熟练美甲师,某星期工作48.5小时,赚到底薪680美元,另外还有216美元加班费,共896美元。在同一门店,某位刚入行的美甲师某周工作39小时,赚得493美元,每小时合12.64美元。 Lee says Nir first interviewed her at ThinkPink in 2014. Several months later, she returned unannounced and asked for a pedicure. She struck up a conversation with her manicurist, a Chinese immigrant named Xiao Su, who goes by Zoey. Lee说Nir第一次采访她是在2014年,在ThinkPink店里。几个月后,Nir没打招呼就来到店里,请人给她修脚。之后她就和美甲师谈了起来,她的美甲师是位来自中国的移民,叫做小苏,大家都叫她Zoey。 Lee put me in touch with Su, who no longer works at ThinkPink. She said in a phone interview that she told Nir that the pay at ThinkPink was "very good" and that Lee was a good boss who's always "very nice." She declined to tell Nir her salary, deeming it a rude question. Su, who emigrated from China in 1997, is a licensed technician who attended manicurists' school. Lee帮我联系上了小苏,她如今已不在ThinkPink工作。她在电话采访中说,她告诉过Nir,ThinkPink的薪酬“很可观”,而且Lee是个好老板,总是“特别友善”。她拒绝向Nir告知自己的薪水,认为这种追问是失礼。小苏1997年从中国移民到美,上过美甲师学校,是位持证技师。 Neither ThinkPink, nor Nir's interview with Lee, were mentioned in the Times' coverage. 关于ThinkPink以及Nir对Lee的采访,《时报》的报道均没有提及。 More Evidence of Low Wages? 更多低薪证据? To gauge the average pay for manicurists, Nir might have turned first to the federal government's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The agency reported that in 2014, manicurists in New York's metropolitan area earned an average hourly wage of $9.19 per hour. It also reports an annual mean wage of $19,110. 要估计美甲师的平均薪酬,Nir本该首先求助联邦劳工统计局(BLS)。根据该局2014年报告,纽约大都市区范围内的美甲师赚取的平均时薪是9.19美元。报告里还提到,他们的平均年薪为19110美元。 BLS data, which is routinely cited in the Times, is subject to error and certainly overly precise. But in this case, these figures are the best information available. And the numbers indicate that the average manicurist earns above the minimum wage. BLS的数据经常被《时报》引用,当然包含有错漏之处,有时则显得过分精确。但就当前争论而言,这些数据是我们可以拿到的最可靠信息。数据表明,美甲师的工资平均而言高于最低工资。 Instead of citing the BLS' numbers, however, Nir relied on her own survey that included "more than 100 workers." In fact, other than the classified ads, this is her main piece of evidence that the "vast majority" of salon workers earn less than the minimum wage. 但是,Nir却没有引用BLS的数据,而是依靠自己针对“超过100位工人”的调查。事实上,“绝大部分”美甲店员工工资低于最低工资这一说法的主要证据,除了分类广告之外,就是她的这一调查了。 Nir collected the data on the streets of Queens early in the morning, where salon owners (mostly from Long Island) often pick up manicurists in vans and drive them to work, and in chats that she struck up with manicurists (many of whom aren't native English speakers) while having her nails done. Nir是在清晨的皇后区大街上收集到这些数据的,那正是沙龙店主(主要来自长岛)用面包车来接美甲师并把他们送到工作地点的时候,也有一些是在做指甲时通过和她的美甲师(其中大多数人母语非英语)交谈获得的。 In an interview with the Times about her series after it appeared, Nir says she kept "detailed spreadsheets" with this information. I asked for a copy of these spreadsheets. She declined my request. 在系列文章面世之后接受《时报》采访时,Nir说她保存有这些信息的“详细表格”。我曾问她索要一份,遭到了她的拒绝。 Gathering data of this sort is inherently difficult, even for professionals. Pollsters at organizations like Gallup, Pew, and BLS strive to reach population samples that mirror the broader communities they're studying. They carefully frame questions in an unbiased manner, and only impartial interviewers do the asking. Under the best of circumstances, figures derived with these methods are imprecise and reporters generally cite them along with a margin of error. 即便对于专家,此类数据收集工作也有着内在的困难。在盖洛普、皮尤和BLS等组织工作的民意测验专家都要辛苦奔忙,以使自己的人口样本能够反映他们所研究的更大群体。他们以一种无偏的方式小心设计问题,而且只找不带偏见的访谈者来提问。在最好的情况下,以这种方法得到的数据都并不精确,记者在引用它们的时候通常也会附带些许错误。 Economists are skeptical of the wage survey data collected by the BLS because it's based on trust and memory. (How many hours did you work last week?) The gold standard in wage data—reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis—is derived from documentation that companies are required to provide the government related to unemployment insurance. 经济学家并不太相信BLS收集的工资调查数据,因为这项调查基于信任和记忆。(比如,请问你上周工作了多长时间?)工资数据的优质标准是联邦经济分析局的报告,它来自于各公司按要求提供的与失业保险有关的文件。 The Times might have hired a polling firm to improve on the BLS' finding. Instead, it relied on Nir's survey, which was drawn from a non-representative sample and carried out by a reporter who won't share her methodology, question phrasing, or tabulated results. There’s simply no reason to believe that Nir’s data presents an accurate, representative picture of nail industry wages. 《时报》本来可以请一家调查公司来改进BLS的发现。不过,它选择依靠Nir的调查,而该调查的抽样并不具备代表性,而负责实施的记者又不愿意公开其方法、提问措辞或调查结果表格。我们没法相信Nir的数据呈现出了美甲行业工资的准确且有代表性的图景。 Also, Nir’s report doesn’t discuss gratuities. In fact, nowhere does the Times coverage attempt to gauge average daily tips in the industry or what workers actually take home in total compensation. 另外,Nir的报告还没有提及小费。事实上,《时报》的报道没有一处地方试图估计一下美甲行业的日均小费是多少,或者员工们拿到手的总报酬是多少。 This is like writing a 7,000-word piece on what waiters make for a living but focusing only on base compensation. "There should have been several paragraphs on the subject," says Aiming Feng, the accountant and business consultant who counts about 50 nail salons as clients. (Feng also volunteers once a week at once a week at the Lin Sing Association, a social service organization in Manhattan's Chinatown, where he helps manicurists with legal and tax issues.) 这就像是写篇7000字的文章描述餐厅服务员们以何为生,却只关注他们的底薪。“应该花几个段落讨论下这个问题”,Aiming Feng说,他是一位会计兼商业顾问,大概有50家美甲沙龙是他的客户。(Feng也是曼哈顿唐人街一家叫做“Lin Sing协会”的社会服务组织的志愿者,他每周服务一次,帮助美甲师们解决法律和税务问题。) Feng says that during "sandal season" at many shops tips equal or exceed base compensation. Feng说,一到“凉鞋季”,许多店里的小费能够追平甚至超过底薪。 Another "Damning" Piece of Evidence? 另一条“确凿” 罪证? Nir offers more proof that the "vast majority" of manicurists earn less than the minimum wage: a two-sentence summary quote derived from an interview with Sangho Lee, the president of the Korean-American Nail Salon Association. 关于“绝大多数”美甲师工资低于最低工资,Nir有更多证据:一条两句话的总结,引用来自她对Sangho Lee的采访。Lee是“韩裔美国人美甲沙龙协会”的主席。 Nir writes: Nir写道:
[Lee] declined a request to address issues of underpayment. So many owners do not pay minimum wage, he said, that he believed answering any questions would hurt the industry. “Lee拒绝回应我关于报酬过低问题的提问。他说,许多店主支付不到最低工资,所以他觉得回答此类问题会伤害到整个行业。”
In their letter defending Nir's reporting, the Times editors highlighted Lee's testimony as among "the most damning findings." 在为Nir的报道辩护的公开信中,《时报》的编辑们强调,Lee的证词是“罪证确凿的发现”之一。 These two sentences came from the roughly two-and-a-half hours Nir spent interviewing Lee on two occasions. First, she met with him in person at the Association's office in Flushing, Queens with a Korean translator named Jiha Ham present. She later did a follow-up interview over the phone without a translator. According to Lee, Nir's paraphrase of his statement comes from the second interview. 这两句话来自于Nir对Lee的采访,两次采访总长大概有两个半小时。第一次,她亲自去皇后区法拉盛该协会的办公室拜访Lee,当时有一位韩国翻译Jiha Ham在场。后来,她又在电话里做了一次跟踪访谈,这次没带翻译。根据Lee的说法,Nir转述的他的言论发生于第二次访谈。 Lee says that he was misquoted. "I told her that like any industry, there are nail salons that pay less and have worse conditions," he said. "Then I told her that even though 80 to 90 percent of the industry pays much more than the minimum wage, it would inappropriate for me to say anything negative about the industry as the president of the leading industry association." Lee说他遭到了错误引用。“我告诉她的是,跟许多行业一样,也有些美甲沙龙存在薪酬较低、条件恶劣的情况”,他说,“然而,我还告诉她,尽管行业中有80%到90%的薪酬水平远高于最低工资,让我发表关于这一行业的负面看法也是不恰当的,因为我是一个十分重要的行业协会的主席。” Is Lee telling the truth that Nir distorted his comments? Since there were no third-party witnesses to the conversation, there's no way to know. But it's hard to believe that Lee would disparage the nail salon industry. Lee有关Nir曲解了他的言论的说法是否真实?由于谈话时并没有第三方见证人在场,我们不得而知。但我们很难相信Lee会诋毁整个美甲行业。 Founded 28 years ago, the Korean-American Nail Salon Association's mission is to promote best practices in the industry. It has 1,200 dues-paying member stores. A thick glossy magazine published annually by the Association includes letters from elected officials lauding nail salons for their contribution to the local economy. The group also awards an annual $1,000 scholarship to six college students whose parents work as manicurists in its members' shops. 成立于28年之前的韩裔美国人美甲沙龙协会致力于在整个行业中推广最好的做法。它拥有1200家缴纳会费的成员店。协会每年出版一份厚厚的有光纸杂志,上面还刊登有经选举上任的官员因美甲沙龙对地方经济作出贡献而撰写的表扬信。该团体每年还给父母为成员门店美甲师的6位大学生提供各1000美元的奖学金。 So why would the president of an industry organization undo decades of hard public relations work by making a "damning" statement to a Times reporter? Maybe Nir misconstrued his remarks: Lee barely speaks English, and yet Nir interviewed him over the phone without a translator on the line. 因此,为什么一位行业组织主席会破坏几十年来的公共关系辛苦成果,向《时报》记者提供这种“罪证确凿”的陈述呢?也许Nir误会了他的说法。Lee的英语非常不好,而Nir却不请翻译就通过电话采访了他。 How the Times Responded to a Salon Owner's Attempt to Correct the Record 当沙龙店主试图更正记载时,《时报》是如何回应的呢 Nir writes that at Iris Nails on Manhattan's Upper East Side "longtime workers described starting out at wages of $30 and $40 a day." Nir写道,在位于曼哈顿上东区的“艾丽斯美甲”店,“长期工人说他们的起步工资是每天30或40美元。” It's hard to believe that even beginning manicurists at Iris Nails would earn such meager pay. Located in one of New York City's wealthiest neighborhoods, Iris is the type of shop manicurists aspire to work at for the generous tips. 即便是艾丽斯美甲店里的美甲师新手拿到这么低的工资,那也很难令人置信。艾丽斯开在纽约市最富有的街区之一,是所有美甲师都渴望去工作的地方,因为小费很慷慨。 When reporting the story, Nir left a message for Iris Nails' owner, a Korean immigrant named Alex Park. He says he didn't return her message because he didn't understand the nature of the request. 在报道这一故事的时候,Nir给艾丽斯美甲的店主留了一则消息。这位名叫Alex Park的韩国移民说,他并没有回复,因为他没搞明白Nir的请求是什么意思。 When Park attempted to defend his reputation after the article appeared, the Times thwarted his efforts. The whole episode highlights the power imbalance between the Times and an immigrant community lacking in media savvy. 文章出来以后,Park试图捍卫自己的名声,而《时报》挫败了这一企图。整个剧情凸显了《时报》与缺乏媒体经验的移民群体之间的权力不平衡。 Park emphatically denies that his workers earn so little in base pay. He estimates that his lowest-level employees earn about $180 a day, including tips, and his most experienced employees can earn as much as $400 per day including tips and commission. (Park declined to allow me to examine his wage statements.) Park断然否认他的员工所赚取的底薪如此之低。据他估计,最底层的雇员每天大约能挣到180美元,其中包含小费,而最熟练的雇员最多时每天能挣到400美元,其中包括小费和提成。(Park拒绝让我查看他的工资详单。) After the article appeared, Park hired attorney Daniel Kim to contact the Times and demand a correction. Kim had a back and forth with the company's assistant general counsel, David McCraw. (Through a spokesperson, McGraw declined my request for an interview.) The paper refused to alter the online version of the article, and it didn't investigate the truthfulness of Park's claim. Instead, Kim says, McCraw agreed that the Times would print a letter to the editor written by Park. 文章见报后,Park就聘请律师Daniel Kim联系纽约时报,要求进行更正。Kim和时报公司的助理法律总顾问David McCraw来来回回接触了多次。(McCraw通过发言人拒绝了我的采访请求)。时报拒绝更改文章的在线版本,也没有调查Park说法的真实性。作为替代,Kim说,McCraw同意在《时报》上刊登Park写给编辑的一封信。 Kim shared with me the letter Park submitted to Sue Mermelstein, an editor in the paper's letters department: Kim向我展示了Park写给时报读者来信部编辑Sue Mermelstein的信件:
To the Editor: 致编辑: Your recent article "The High Price of Pretty Nails" will damage my business, Iris Nails. It seems that you needed a nail salon in a well-heeled neighborhood and targeted my business. 你们最近刊发的“漂亮指尖的高昂代价”一文将会伤害我的企业,即艾丽斯美甲。你们似乎就是想找到这么一家位于富裕街区的美甲沙龙,然后瞄准了我的企业。 I am preparing to retire after having worked for more than 22 years without any incident. Many of the employees in this type of services business have learned, earned and moved on to open their own shops. I have always treated all of my employees fairly and never took advantage of them. 我工作22年了,从未发生任何事故,现在正准备退休。在这类服务性企业工作过的许多雇员都已经学到东西、赚到钱并且更进一步经营起他们自己的门店。在对待自己的员工方面,我从来都很公平,从未占过他们便宜。 There is no employee who receives $30 to $40 a day on a full-time basis. There is no employee who receives below the minimum wages required by the State of New York. In fact, most of our employees make double of minimum wages including tips. 根本就没有全职员工每天只能获得30到40美元的事。也没有任何员工拿到的工资低于纽约州规定的最低工资水平。事实上,把小费包含在内,我的大多数员工能赚到最低工资的两倍。 Korean-American business owners in New York are very hard-working people. We have dedicated our lives to whichever field afforded us an opportunity to prosper and live out the American dream. I write this letter with great sorrow and anger. 生活于纽约的韩裔美国人店主都很吃苦耐劳。只要某个领域能够给我们提供机会,让我们走向成功并实现美国梦,我们都会全身心地投入进去。写这封信的时候,我心中充满悲伤和愤怒。
The Times did print a version of the letter on May 17—but with notable changes. 《时报》5月17日确实刊登了此信件的一个版本,但改动颇大。 First, it cut out Park's assertion that the paper had erred in its reporting. These three sentences were dropped: 首先,它删除了Park认为该报之前报道出错的观点。删去的是以下三句话:
There is no employee who receives $30 to $40 a day on a full-time basis. There is no employee who receives below the minimum wages required by the State of New York. In fact, most of our employees make double of minimum wages including tips. 根本就没有全职员工每天只能获得30到40美元的事。也没有任何员工拿到的工资低于纽约州规定的最低工资水平。事实上,把小费包含在内,我的大多数员工能赚到最低工资的两倍。
In their place, the Times added a new sentence that reads, "I am committed to abiding by the law in paying my employees." In other words, the rewrite makes it sound as if Park was conceding that the Times' reporting on his store was not only correct, but that it inspired him to reform his illegal practices. 在这个地方,《时报》插入了一个新句子,内容是:“在支付员工工资方面,我决心遵从法律规定。”换句话说,这一改写让Park听起来像是在承认《时报》关于他的美甲店的报道很正确,不仅如此,他似乎还受此激励,准备改变之前的非法做法。 Times editor Sue Mermelstein said in a phone interview that there was an extensive back-and-forth with attorney McGraw over the wording of the letter. "We don't have the resources to go out and check the facts," she says, "and we didn't want to let him make a statement that we felt was inaccurate." 《时报》编辑Sue Mermelstein在接受电话采访时说,在该信件的措辞方面,曾与律师McGraw进行过大量的意见交换。“我们没有办法去检验事实”,她说,“而且我们也不想让他发表一个我们觉得并不准确的声明。” So they decided to cut out Park's contention that the coverage was inaccurate and replaced it with a line that McGraw "felt comfortable with because it's not a factual statement." 所以他们决定删除Park关于报道不真实的观点,并用McGraw“觉得舒坦”的一句话取而代之,因为“这句话不是在陈述事实。” The Times ran the new wording by Kim and Park, and they signed off on it. Attorney Kim doesn't recall the specific details, but says his client decided not to pursue the matter any further because he's "afraid of The New York Times." 《时报》把新的措辞发回Kim和Park征求意见,他们在上面签字了。律师Kim不再记得具体细节,但是他说,他的客户决定不再继续追究这一事件,因为他“害怕《纽约时报》”。 Did the Times Get the Story Right Anyway? 《时报》的故事究竟是对是错? Nir's claim that manicurists earn shockingly low wages was based on mistranslated and misconstrued classified ads, anecdotes and interviews contested by her sources, and an anecdotal survey that she used in place of official data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nir关于美甲师工资极低的说法,依据只有翻译错误和理解错误的分类广告、道听途说和遭到其信源反驳的采访,另外还有她弃劳工统计局官方数据不用而进行的一次业余调查。 Yet did she still get the story right? In response to Nir's critics, the Times has pointed to the high number of minimum wage violations reported by the state Department of Labor since the article appeared. 但是,她的故事仍然还是对的吗?在回应对Nir的批评时,《时报》又指出该文发表以后由州劳工部提供的违反最低工资法的超高案例数。 In the next piece in this series, I'll scrutinize those violations and explain why, in fact, they don't show what the Times claims. (That article is now online here.) 在本系列的下一篇中,我将仔细考察这些违法案例,并解释为什么它们事实上并没能证明《时报》的说法。(此文已经上线。) (编辑:辉格@whigzhou) *注:本译文未经原作者授权,本站对原文不持有也不主张任何权利,如果你恰好对原文拥有权益并希望我们移除相关内容,请私信联系,我们会立即作出响应。

——海德沙龙·翻译组,致力于将英文世界的好文章搬进中文世界——

不会有太大差别

【2016-07-04】

@whigzhou: 常有人说,人类个体间99.5%的DNA是相同的,所以我们在遗传上不会有太大差别,这么说的人对数字不太敏感,0.5%的单核苷酸差异意味着每200个碱基中就有一个是不同的,每个基因平均2000个碱基对,平均可能摊上10个差异,实际上没那么多,那是因为编码段受自然选择约束,变异率低于非编码段,

@whigzhou: 但这一极简单计算即表明,不同个体的每个基因都*有机会*是不同的,只要他们各自的种系发生历史(more...)

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【2016-07-04】 @whigzhou: 常有人说,人类个体间99.5%的DNA是相同的,所以我们在遗传上不会有太大差别,这么说的人对数字不太敏感,0.5%的单核苷酸差异意味着每200个碱基中就有一个是不同的,每个基因平均2000个碱基对,平均可能摊上10个差异,实际上没那么多,那是因为编码段受自然选择约束,变异率低于非编码段, @whigzhou: 但这一极简单计算即表明,不同个体的每个基因都*有机会*是不同的,只要他们各自的种系发生历史上所面临的选择压力不同,就很可能不同,而且每个基因可能有多个不同之处。 @whigzhou: 理解这一点的最佳类比是程序代码,把DNA想象成一个软件的源代码,其中98.5%是注释,剩下1.5%是有用编码,现在为它建立一亿个副本,拷贝时平均每200个字符随机出现一个拷贝错误,然后将无法正常工作的副本剔除,剩下能工作的副本会表现出多大功能差异? @whigzhou: 没写过代码的同学可以考虑做菜,让使用同样主料的两道菜味道变得十分不同,需要在调料上有多大不同?从寡淡无味变成巨咸无比需要几克盐?从不辣变成超辣需要几克辣椒汁?制造难以忍受的麻味需要几克花椒汁?  
Game of Thrones

【2016-07-01】

@whigzhou: 喜欢Game of Thrones首先是因为一条底线:不迎合恶俗趣味,不落大俗套,其次是一条顶线:三观很赞,封建价值观和骑士精神得到颂扬,各种乌托邦理想主义逐个被嘲讽,实在难得。

@whigzhou: 好莱坞大俗套之一:一个坏结果必定是某个坏人在邪恶动机驱使下通过不端行为所造成,即多重同态:人是坏的,动机是恶的,行为是不端的,结果是坏的。

@whigzhou: 纯真爱情高于责任?被关门屠灭了。无条件和平主义?全吊死在树上了。社会平等与道德纯(more...)

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【2016-07-01】 @whigzhou: 喜欢Game of Thrones首先是因为一条底线:不迎合恶俗趣味,不落大俗套,其次是一条顶线:三观很赞,封建价值观和骑士精神得到颂扬,各种乌托邦理想主义逐个被嘲讽,实在难得。 @whigzhou: 好莱坞大俗套之一:一个坏结果必定是某个坏人在邪恶动机驱使下通过不端行为所造成,即多重同态:人是坏的,动机是恶的,行为是不端的,结果是坏的。 @whigzhou: 纯真爱情高于责任?被关门屠灭了。无条件和平主义?全吊死在树上了。社会平等与道德纯洁乌托邦?神权专制。解放者之名可以让权力意志毫无约束?女拿破仑。 @whigzhou: 最近两季里我最喜欢的形象是麻雀教,这个隐喻真是太棒了,里面可以看到很多东西的影子,大主教的表演也非常到位,特别是他谦卑的姿态、慈祥的面容,谆谆的口吻、和阴森恐怖的氛围,完美结合。 @whigzhou: 第六季最让我失望的是挑了个歪嘴软蛋演青年Ned,不久前看到篇文章 http://t.cn/R5R4CZO 说新一代演员里已经找不出男子气十足的了,不是没需求,需求一直很旺盛,就是没供给了,看来是真的。 @天无邪:可是龙妈不是乌托邦吗。。 @whigzhou: 是啊,所以这还是个悬念,假如最后一季以龙妈光荣胜出收场,并且被赋予极为正面的解放者形象,那我对该剧的好感就没了,算我一厢情愿 @胸达咪: 喷了,龙妈废个奴就乌托邦了,贵右活在部落时代吗 @whigzhou: 喷个屁,废奴是好事,问题在于她目空一切乾纲独断法力无边那股劲,往高说就是拿破仑,往低说就是带两个太监微服私访扫灭贪官救黎民于水火的横店乾隆爷,你国人民最喜欢了~