2016年08月发表的文章(21)

[译文]什么鸭玩意儿!

What the Duck?
你鸭的!

作者:Drew Magary @ 2013-11-17
译者:沈沉(@你在何地-sxy)
校对:babyface_claire(@许你疯不许你傻)
来源:GQ,http://www.gq.com/story/duck-dynasty-phil-robertson

How in the world did a family of squirrel-eating, Bible-thumping, catchphrase-spouting duck hunters become the biggest TV stars in America? And what will they do now that they have 14 million fervent disciples? Our Drew Magary toured the Louisiana backwater with Phil Robertson and the Duck Dynasty gang to find out.

究竟是出于什么缘故,才会使得这样一个捕食松鼠、大肆宣扬圣经、口头禅滔滔不绝的猎鸭大家庭成了全美最耀眼的电视明星?现拥1400万狂热信徒,他们又会做些什么?为解答这些问题,本刊记者Drew Magary在路易斯安那的穷乡僻壤走访了Phil Robertson及《鸭子王朝》一伙人。

……

Let’s start with the crossbow, because the crossbow is huge. I’m sitting in the passenger seat of a camo-painted ATV, rumbling through the northern Louisiana backwoods with Phil Robertson, founder of the Duck Commander company, patriarch at the heart of A&E’s smash reality hit Duck Dynasty, and my tour guide for the afternoon.

首先说说手弩,因为它实在太大了。当时我坐在一辆涂了迷彩的全地形车的副驾位置上,跟Phil Robertson一起颠簸在路易斯安那北部的老林中。Robertson是“鸭司令”公司的创始人,A & E有线台极为轰动的热播真人秀《鸭子王朝》的核心家长,也是我本次午后之旅的导游。

There are seat belts in this ATV, but it doesn’t look like they’ve ever been used. Phil is not wearing one. I am not wearing one, because I don’t want Phil to think I’m a pussy. (Too late!) The crossbow—a Barnett model equipped with a steel-tipped four-blade broadhead arrow—is perched on the dash between us. It looks like you could shoot through a goddamn mountain with it.

车上配有安全带,但似乎从来没人用过。Phil没系。我也没系,因为我可不想让Phil看扁。(然而太迟了……)手弩就趴在我俩之间的仪表板上。那是只巴内特弩,装备有一根箭头钢制、四向开刃的阔首箭。它看上去会让你觉得拿着它就可以他妈的射穿一座山。

“That’ll bury up in you and kill you dead,” Phil says.

“这东西能把你射穿,彻底干掉你”,Phil说。

The bow is cocked and loaded, just in case a deer stumbles in front of us and we need to do a redneck drive-by on the poor bastard, but the safety is on. SAFETY FIRST. Still, Phil warns me, “You don’t want to be bumping that.”

弓已装好,扳机已扣上,万一有野鹿突然跑到我们的车子面前,那我们就需要在这倒霉蛋身上玩一场红脖式飞车射击了。但保险栓还是拉上了。安全第一!不过,Phil还是告诫我,“你最好还是不要碰到它。”

As we drive out into the woods, past a sign that reads parish maintenance ends, Phil is telling me all about the land around us and how the animals are a glorious gift from God and how blowing their heads off is part of His plan for us.

随着我们驱车驶入丛林,把一个写着“县政府维护界”的牌子甩在后面,Phil(more...)

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What the Duck? 你鸭的! 作者:Drew Magary @ 2013-11-17 译者:沈沉(@你在何地-sxy) 校对:babyface_claire(@许你疯不许你傻) 来源:GQ,http://www.gq.com/story/duck-dynasty-phil-robertson How in the world did a family of squirrel-eating, Bible-thumping, catchphrase-spouting duck hunters become the biggest TV stars in America? And what will they do now that they have 14 million fervent disciples? Our Drew Magary toured the Louisiana backwater with Phil Robertson and the Duck Dynasty gang to find out. 究竟是出于什么缘故,才会使得这样一个捕食松鼠、大肆宣扬圣经、口头禅滔滔不绝的猎鸭大家庭成了全美最耀眼的电视明星?现拥1400万狂热信徒,他们又会做些什么?为解答这些问题,本刊记者Drew Magary在路易斯安那的穷乡僻壤走访了Phil Robertson及《鸭子王朝》一伙人。

……

Let's start with the crossbow, because the crossbow is huge. I'm sitting in the passenger seat of a camo-painted ATV, rumbling through the northern Louisiana backwoods with Phil Robertson, founder of the Duck Commander company, patriarch at the heart of A&E's smash reality hit Duck Dynasty, and my tour guide for the afternoon. 首先说说手弩,因为它实在太大了。当时我坐在一辆涂了迷彩的全地形车的副驾位置上,跟Phil Robertson一起颠簸在路易斯安那北部的老林中。Robertson是“鸭司令”公司的创始人,A & E有线台极为轰动的热播真人秀《鸭子王朝》的核心家长,也是我本次午后之旅的导游。 There are seat belts in this ATV, but it doesn't look like they've ever been used. Phil is not wearing one. I am not wearing one, because I don't want Phil to think I'm a pussy. (Too late!) The crossbow—a Barnett model equipped with a steel-tipped four-blade broadhead arrow—is perched on the dash between us. It looks like you could shoot through a goddamn mountain with it. 车上配有安全带,但似乎从来没人用过。Phil没系。我也没系,因为我可不想让Phil看扁。(然而太迟了……)手弩就趴在我俩之间的仪表板上。那是只巴内特弩,装备有一根箭头钢制、四向开刃的阔首箭。它看上去会让你觉得拿着它就可以他妈的射穿一座山。 "That'll bury up in you and kill you dead," Phil says. “这东西能把你射穿,彻底干掉你”,Phil说。 The bow is cocked and loaded, just in case a deer stumbles in front of us and we need to do a redneck drive-by on the poor bastard, but the safety is on. SAFETY FIRST. Still, Phil warns me, "You don't want to be bumping that." 弓已装好,扳机已扣上,万一有野鹿突然跑到我们的车子面前,那我们就需要在这倒霉蛋身上玩一场红脖式飞车射击了。但保险栓还是拉上了。安全第一!不过,Phil还是告诫我,“你最好还是不要碰到它。” As we drive out into the woods, past a sign that reads parish maintenance ends, Phil is telling me all about the land around us and how the animals are a glorious gift from God and how blowing their heads off is part of His plan for us. 随着我们驱车驶入丛林,把一个写着“县政府维护界”的牌子甩在后面,Phil一路都在跟我介绍周边的土地,说动物们是上帝赠与的极好礼物,又说把它们爆头是他为我们此行准备的计划之一。 "Look at this," he says, gesturing to the surrounding wilderness. "The Almighty gave us this. Genesis 9 is where the animals went wild, and God gave them wildness. After the flood, that's when he made animals wild. Up until that time, everybody was vegetarian. After the flood, he said, 'I'm giving you everything now. Animals are wild.'" “看看这个”,他说,手指着我们周围的荒野。“上帝把它赐予了我们。动物们走向野生是在《创世纪》第9章,上帝赐予了它们荒野。是在洪水之后,他才让动物们野生的。直到那时以前,所有人都吃素。洪水以后,上帝就说,‘我把一切都赐予你们。动物是野生的。’” There's a fly parked on Phil's long beard. It's been there the whole ride, and I desperately want to pluck it out, but I decide against it. Along with the crossbow, there's a loaded .22-caliber rifle rattling around in the footwell. Phil的长胡子上停着一只苍蝇。整个行驶过程中,它一直都在那儿,我极度想要把它抓走,但最终还是决定不这么干。除了手弩之外,车上还有支已经装上弹药的点22口径步枪在脚坑里一直晃荡。 And yet, much like the 14 million Americans who Nielsen says tune in to Duck Dynasty every week—over 2 million more than the audience for the Breaking Bad finale—I am comfortable here in these woods with Phil and his small cache of deadly weaponry. He is welcoming and gracious. 不过,跟Nielsen所说的每周都收看《鸭子王朝》的1400万美国人(比《绝命毒师》大结局的观众还要多200万)一样,我跟Phil及他的一小批致命武器藏品一起呆在丛林中时,感到非常舒适。他热心好客、和蔼可亲。 He is a man who preaches the gospel of the outdoors and, to my great envy, practices what he preaches. He spends most of his time out here, daydreaming about what he calls a "pristine earth": a world where nothing gets in the way of nature or the hunters who lovingly maintain it. No cities. No buildings. No highways. 他是一个户外运动的布道者,而且令我非常嫉妒的是,他实践了他所传之道。他大部分时候都呆在这里,梦想存在一个他称为“原始地球”的地方:整个世界没有任何东西会妨碍自然,或者妨碍那些细心维护自然的猎人。没有城市。没有建筑。没有高速公路。 Oh, and no sinners, too. So here's where things get a bit uncomfortable. Phil calls himself a Bible-thumper, and holy shit, he thumps that Bible hard enough to ring the bell at a county-fair test of strength. If you watch Duck Dynasty, you can hear plenty of it in the nondenominational supper-table prayer the family recites at the end of every episode, and in the show's no-cussing, no-blaspheming tone. 哦,还得没有罪人。说到这里事情就有点尴尬了。Phil称自己是个圣经狂人,而且我的神啊,他宣扬圣经的力度都可以把县农贸市场的力量测试钟给敲响了。如果你也看《鸭子王朝》,那你就能听到很多,包括他们一家在每集节目结尾时的晚餐桌前都会念诵的无宗派祈祷文,以及整个节目不乱诅咒、不亵渎神明的语气。 But there are more things Phil would like to say—"controversial" things, as he puts it to me—that don't make the cut. (This March, for instance, he told the Christian-oriented Sports Spectrum magazine that he didn't approve of A&E editing out "in Jesus" from a family prayer scene, even though A&E says that the phrase has been uttered in at least seventeen episodes.) 但Phil想要表达的东西更多,用他自己的话说,那都是些“有争议的”事情,而这些就不太符合要求了。(比如,今年三月,Phil就跟具有基督教倾向的《运动光谱》杂志说他并不赞成A&E台将“奉耶稣”一语从家庭祷告镜头中剪辑掉的做法,尽管A&E台宣称这一词汇已经在至少17集节目中被他们提到过。) Out here in these woods, without any cameras around, Phil is free to say what he wants. Maybe a little too free. He's got lots of thoughts on modern immorality, and there's no stopping them from rushing out. Like this one: 在这种丛林之中,周围没有摄像机,Phil拥有了想说啥就说啥的自由。可能还有点过分自由了。他对于现代的道德败坏想法甚多,根本无法阻止它们脱口而出。比如: "It seems like, to me, a vagina—as a man—would be more desirable than a man's anus. That's just me. I'm just thinking: There's more there! She's got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I'm saying? But hey, sin: It's not logical, my man. It's just not logical." “在我看来,作为一个男人,阴道似乎要比男人的后门更可爱。我就是这样。我的想法就是:那可要好多了!她能给我提供更多东西。我的意思是,别这样,男人们!你明白我在说什么吧?但世上就是会有罪恶。这没道理,兄弟。这就是没道理。” Perhaps we'll be needing that seat belt after all. 我想我们终究还是需要把安全带系好。

……

The Duck Dynasty origin story is the mighty river from which all other Robertson-family stories flow. And it is an awesome story, one that improves the more it is told, so here is my stab at it: 《鸭子王朝》的起源故事是一条滔滔大河,Robertson家族此后所有的故事都发源于此。这是一个精彩的故事,而且每讲一次就会愈加完美一次,所以让我来试着叙述一下: Phil Robertson grew up bone poor in the northwest corner of this state—a place where Cajun redneck culture and Ozark redneck culture intersect—to a manic-depressive mother and a roughneck father. Phil Robertson成长于该州西北角一个极度贫困的家庭,当地乃是卡真人红脖文化【译注:卡真人是路易斯安那州的法国后裔。】与欧扎卡红脖文化【译注:欧扎卡山区位于密苏里南部与阿肯色和俄克拉荷马交界处。】的交汇之处。他的母亲患有狂躁抑郁症,父亲则是一个大老粗。 He was a star quarterback in high school and earned a scholarship to play at Louisiana Tech, but quit after one season because football interfered with duck-hunting season. The guy who took his roster spot at Tech was Terry Bradshaw, because that's how these kinds of stories go. 高中时代,他是个明星四分卫,后来获得奖学金在路易斯安那理工大学校队打球。但一个赛季以后他就退学了,因为橄榄球赛季和猎鸭季节相互冲突。在理工大学校队球员名册上顶替他位置的是Terry Bradshaw【译注:著名四分卫】,因为所有这类故事都有这种情节走向。 Phil On Growing Up in Pre-Civil-Rights-Era Louisiana Phil谈民权时代以前的路易斯安那成长经历 "I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I'm with the blacks, because we're white trash. We're going across the field.... They're singing and happy. “我从未亲眼看过对任何黑人的虐待。一次都没有。我们住的地方全是农民。黑人们都为农民工作。我跟他们一起锄棉花。我跟黑人是一边的,因为我们都是穷苦白人。我们横穿田野……他们兴高采烈地歌唱。 "I never heard one of them, one black person, say, I tell you what: These doggone white people—not a word!... Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues." “我从未听他们,从未听任何一个黑人说过,嘿,我跟你说,这些他妈的白人——我从未听过此类说辞……这是在补贴以前,在福利制度以前。你要问:他们开心吗?他们是虔诚的、开心的;根本没人丧气埋怨。” According to Phil's autobiography—a ghostwritten book he says he has never read—he spent his days after Tech doing odd jobs and his evenings getting drunk, chasing tail, and swallowing diet pills and black mollies, a form of medicinal speed. In his midtwenties, already married with three sons, a piss-drunk Robertson kicked his family out of the house. 根据Phil的自传——该书由影子写手完成,Phil称自己从未读过——他从理工大学退学后,白天做零工,晚上则喝个大醉、拈花惹草、吞服减肥药和“黑玛丽鱼”(一种药物兴奋剂)。20多岁时,他已经结婚,并生有3个孩子,某次酩酊大醉后将家人全部赶出了自己的房子。 "I'm sick of you," he told his wife, Kay. But Robertson soon realized the error of his ways, begged Kay to come back, and turned over his life to Jesus Christ. “我看见你就烦”,他这么跟他老婆Kay说。但Robertson很快就意识到这种生活方式的错误,求Kay回家,并将自己的生命托付给了耶稣基督。 In 1972, with Jesus at the wheel, Robertson founded the Duck Commander company, which sold a line of custom-made duck-hunting calls that quickly became popular among avid hunters for their uncanny accuracy in replicating the sound of a real duck. 1972年,在耶稣的指引下,Robertson创办了“鸭司令”公司,出售一种定制的猎鸭哨子。这种哨子很快就在贪婪的猎人中流行开来,因为它能出奇精准地再现真鸭子的声音。最终,他将公司的一半卖给了自己现年41岁的儿子Willie。 He eventually sold half the company to his son Willie, now 41, and together they made a DVD series about the family's duck hunts, which led to a show on the Outdoor Channel, which led to Duck Dynasty on A&E, which led to everything blowing right the fuck up. 他们还一起录制了一个DVD系列,内容是全家的猎鸭活动,此举促使他们后来在“户外频道”上过一期节目,又催生了A&E台的《鸭子王朝》,而后者则促成了此后所有名声大噪的一切。 The show—a reality sitcom showcasing the semiscripted high jinks of Phil, his brother "Uncle Si," his four sons, Alan, Willie, Jase, and Jep, and the perpetually exasperated but always perfectly accessorized Robertson-family ladies—has become the biggest reality-TV hit in the history of cable television, reportedly earning the family a holy shit worthy $200,000-an-episode paycheck. 《鸭子王朝》是个真人秀情景剧,剧中展现的是Phil,他的兄弟“Uncle Si”和他4个儿子Alan、Willie、Jase和Jep之间半编排半自发的嬉笑怒骂,以及永远怒气冲冲但又总是穿戴整齐完美的Robertson家族的女士们。该剧已经成为有线电视史上最为成功的真人秀热播节目。据报道,这一家子收获了每集20万美元的天价报酬。 It's a funny, family-friendly show, with "skits that we come up with," as Phil describes the writing process. They plunder beehives. They blow up beaver dams. And when the Robertson-family ladies go up to a rooftop in a hydraulic lift, you just know that lift will "accidentally" get stuck and strand them. 这个节目既逗乐又适合家庭观看,据Phil介绍其写作过程,其中“有些搞笑是我们想出来的”。他们偷蜂巢。他们炸河狸坝。如果Robertson家族的女士们想要通过液压升降机爬到屋顶上去,你就知道升降机肯定会“突然”卡住,把她们困在里面。 But the show, whose fifth season premieres on January 15, is just one part of the family's pop-cultural dominance. In 2013 four books written (kind of!) by Robertson family members made the top ten on the New York Times nonfiction best-seller list. 该剧第5季将在1月15日首播,但它还只是Robertson家族在流行文化界统治地位的一个侧面。2013年,Robertson家族成员写作(请自行加上引号!)的4本书进入了《纽约时报》畅销书非虚构类前十榜单。 Another book—penned by Jase Robertson and detailing his Christian rebirth at age 14, his struggle to forgive his father's past behavior, and his young daughter's struggle through five facial-reconstruction surgeries to overcome a severe cleft lip and palate—is forthcoming and destined to make it five best-sellers. 还有一本马上要出的书——由Jase Robertson写作,详述他本人14岁时经历的基督教新生、他如何努力原谅其父过去的所作所为、他的小女儿为了治疗严重的唇腭裂如何挣扎着经历5次面部修复手术——也注定要成为第5本畅销书。 There's also a book of devotionals somewhere in there, along with Duck Dynasty themed birthday cards, bobblehead dolls, camo apparel (pink camo for the ladies), Cajun-spice seasoning, car fresheners, iPhone games (from the press release: "As players successfully complete the challenges, their beards grow to epic proportions and they start to transform from a yuppie into a full-blown redneck!"), and presumably some sort of camouflage home-pregnancy test. 这家人的作品清单里还有一本关于宗教仪式的书,此外还有《鸭子王朝》主题生日卡片、大头塑像、迷彩服(女士还有粉红迷彩)、卡真香料调味品、车用空气清新剂、iPhone游戏(游戏的新闻稿称,“如果玩家成功完成挑战,他们的胡子就会长到极为浓密,于是他们就会开始从雅皮转变为一个货真价实的红脖!”),可能还有某种具有伪装性的居家验孕办法。 It's easy to see the appeal. The Robertsons are immensely likable. They're funny. They look cool. They're "smarter than they look," says sportswriter Mark Schlabach, who co-writes the family's books. 他们的吸引力显而易见。Robertson一家子极为可爱。他们很搞笑。他们看起来很酷。他们“比看上去要聪明得多”,体育作家Mark Schlabach说道,他参与了写作该家族的书籍。 And they are remarkably honest both with one another and with the viewing audience: Phil's old hell-raising, Si's traumatic stint in Vietnam, the intervention that the family staged for Jep when he was boozing and doing drugs in college (Phil placed him under house arrest for three months)—all of it is out in the open. The more they reveal, the more people feel connected to them. 而且,他们对于彼此以及对于收看节目的观众也极为诚实。Phil曾经的捣蛋胡闹、Si在越南的痛苦岁月、Jep大学期间嗜酒嗜毒时全家为他而安排的干预矫治(Phil把他软禁在家中长达3个月)等等,所有这些都公之于众。他们展示给人的越多,人们就越是觉得自己与他们有共鸣。 And then, of course, there is their faith, which plays no small role here. During the family's initial negotiations about the show with A&E, Jase told me, "the three no-compromises were faith, betrayal of family members, and duck season." 当然,此外还有就是他们的信仰,这也发挥了不小的作用。Jase告诉我,在家族与A&E台最初就节目进行交涉时,“我们绝不让步的有三样,那就是信仰、背叛家族成员和猎鸭季节。” That refusal to betray their faith or one another has been a staple of every media article about the Robertson family. It's their elevator pitch, and it has made them into ideal Christian icons: beloved for staking out a bit of holy ground within the mostly secular, often downright sinful, pop culture of America. 拒绝背叛信仰、拒绝背叛彼此,已经成为了所有关于Robertson家族的媒体文章的共同主题。这就是他们的“电梯演讲”【译注:指推销自己的简短自我介绍】,使他们成为了完美的基督徒典范:因为在通常都很世俗、经常纯属邪恶的美国流行文化界圈出了一小块圣洁土壤而受到人们钟爱。

……

Phil Robertson's house is located in the sticks about twenty miles outside the city of Monroe (pronounce it mun-roe). It's a rather small house—the kind of place its owner would proudly call "humble." The kitchen table is covered with big plastic tubs of cinnamon rolls and mini muffins. There are candy dishes filled to the brim, bricks of softening butter, and packages of jerky made from unknown animals, sent by unnamed fans. (I tried some, and it was awesome.) Phil Robertson的家安在距门罗市大约20英里的边远地区。房子相对较小——主人很可以骄傲地称这种住所为“寒舍”。厨房餐桌上摆满了大塑料盆装的肉桂饼和迷你松糕。还有满到冒尖的糖果盘子、快要融化的黄油块以及一包包由不知名粉丝送来的不知何种动物的肉干(我试吃了一些,味道棒极了)。 Just inside the front door, a giant flat-screen TV shows Fox News on mute at all times, and a bunch of big squishy sofas are arranged in a rectangle around it. 一进前门,就可以看到一个巨大的平面屏幕电视机,不间断地静音播放Fox News。好几个松垮垮的沙发就呈矩形摆放在电视机周围。 Si Robertson is sitting on the couch facing the TV. Jep Robertson, age 35, the youngest son, curls up in a recliner in the corner with a pistol strapped to his waist. He barely speaks, like a countrified Silent Bob. Si Robertson坐在正对电视机的沙发上。35岁的Jep Robertson是最小的儿子,蜷缩在角落里的一条躺椅上,腰上别支手枪。他很少说话,就像是个乡村版的“沉默的鲍勃”【译注:美国制片人Kevin Smith创造的虚拟人物,沉默寡言】。 Jase, 44, and Willie share a love seat while Phil lounges barefoot on a camo-patterned recliner in the far corner of the room. Two dogs share the recliner's footrest with Phil's heavily callused bare feet. He has severe bunions, so his big toes jut in at forty-five-degree angles. 44岁的Jase和Willie一起坐在一张双人沙发上,而Phil则赤脚躺在房间最远处角落里的一张涂着迷彩图案的躺椅上。两只狗跟Phil那长满老茧的赤脚一同靠着脚垫。他患有严重的拇囊炎,所以大脚趾根呈45度角突出【编注:据某些医生认为,拇囊炎和长期穿不合脚的鞋有关,比如特别窄的尖头皮靴。】。 The main TV room is cluttered with mismatched furniture and photos hung haphazardly on the walls. And Phil looks like part of the clutter himself, as if he'd been wedged into that recliner a while back by some absentminded homeowner who didn't know where else to put him. 放电视机的主客厅里胡乱摆放着互不搭配的家具,墙上随意挂着些照片。Phil本人看起来似乎就是杂物之一,就好像是之前某个心不在焉的房主不知道要把他摆哪里,所以就塞进了那个躺椅中。 When I walk into the TV area, no one makes a move to get up—the Robertson men greet you as they would a friend who just came back from a beer run. Not only are the Robertsons among the most famous people in the country, they also happen to be among the most recognizable. 我走进电视房时,没人做出什么要起来的动作。Robertson家的男人欢迎你的方式,就像他们对待一个刚买啤酒回来的朋友一样。Robertson一家不但是全县最出名的人物之一,他们也是最好认的人之一。凭着那些大胡子,你在一英里以外都能认出他们。 You can spot them from a mile away with those beards. Imagine Johnny Depp walking around every day in his Jack Sparrow costume and you begin to get an idea of how much they stand out. It's gotten to the point that they say they can't fly commercial anymore. 想象一下约翰·尼德普天天顶着杰克船长的那套装扮四处晃悠,你就能大体理解他们有多么突兀显眼。这事已经发展到了他们说他们再也不能乘坐普通民航的程度。 "You been hunting yet this year?" Phil asks me, by way of introduction. “今年你打过猎?”Phil这么问我,算是引见。 I have not. In fact, I confess to Phil, I've never been hunting before. But I have fired a gun! NOT A TOTAL LIGHTWEIGHT, GANG! 没有。事实上,我跟Phil坦白说,我还从未打过猎。但是开过枪!绝不是完全的废材,酷! "Si went this morning and killed three squirrels," says Phil. "They're delicious. One of the best meats there is in the woods, I'll tell you that. Very clean animal." He nods toward Uncle Si, who, with his mangy ponytail, looks very much like the squirrels he hunts. “Si今天早上去了,杀了三只松鼠”,Phil说。“太美味了。我跟你说,这可是丛林中最美的肉食之一。非常干净的动物。”他朝Uncle Si点点头,后者顶着一条脏兮兮的马尾辫,看起来倒是蛮像他猎杀的松鼠。 Phil On Why He Voted Romney in 2012 Phil谈他2012年为什么给罗姆尼投票 "If I'm lost at three o'clock in a major metropolitan area...I ask myself: Where would I rather be trying to walk with my wife and children? One of the guys who's running for president is out of Chicago, Illinois, and the other one is from Salt Lake City, Utah. [Editor's note: Romney is from Boston, not Salt Lake City.] Where would I rather be turned around at three o'clock in the morning? I opted for Salt Lake City. I think it would be safer." “如果我早上三点在一个大都市区迷路了……我会问我自己:我更想带着我的妻子和孩子朝哪个方向走?竞选总统的人中有一个来自伊利诺斯的芝加哥,另一个来自犹他的盐湖城[原文编辑注:罗姆尼来自波士顿,而不是盐湖城]【译注:罗姆尼虽不是来自盐湖城,但确实是摩门教徒。】。凌晨3点钟,我应该朝哪个方向走?我选择盐湖城。我觉得这样安全些。” Even though he's in the far corner of the room, Phil dominates the house. There are times when he doesn't look you in the eye while he's speaking—he looks just off to the side of you, as if Jesus were standing nearby, holding a stack of cue cards. Everyone else in the room just stares at his phone, or at the TV, or holds side conversations as Phil preaches. 尽管他只是远远地坐在房间的角落里,但Phil仍俯视着整个屋子。有时候,他在跟你说话时并不会和你对视,他的视线会朝向你的左右两边,就好像耶稣正手拿一堆提示卡站在旁边一样。Phil布道时,屋子里的其他人要么就盯着自己的手机,要么就盯着电视机,要么就继续和其他人单独说话。 "We're Bible-thumpers who just happened to end up on television," he tells me. "You put in your article that the Robertson family really believes strongly that if the human race loved each other and they loved God, we would just be better off. We ought to just be repentant, turn to God, and let's get on with it, and everything will turn around." “我们都是些圣经狂人,只是碰巧跑到电视上去了而已”,他跟我说。“你写的文章要说一说,Robertson一家人确实非常相信,如果人类能够爱彼此同时爱上帝,我们就会过得更加好。我们就是应该悔改、应该皈依上帝。只要我们努力如此,一切都会好转。” What does repentance entail? Well, in Robertson's worldview, America was a country founded upon Christian values (Thou shalt not kill, etc.), and he believes that the gradual removal of Christian symbolism from public spaces has diluted those founding principles. (He and Si take turns going on about why the Ten Commandments ought to be displayed outside courthouses.) He sees the popularity of Duck Dynasty as a small corrective to all that we have lost. 悔改意味着什么?关于这事,在Robertson的世界观里,美国的建国基础是基督教价值观(“不可杀人”等等)。而且他认为,将基督教符号从公共空间中逐步清除的做法已经冲淡了这些建国原则。(他和Si轮流喋喋不休地谈论为什么应该将十诫摆在法院外边。)他将《鸭子王朝》的风靡视作对我们所丢弃之物的一点点矫正。 "Everything is blurred on what's right and what's wrong," he says. "Sin becomes fine." “何为是?何为非?一切都模糊了”,他说。“罪恶通行无阻。” What, in your mind, is sinful? 在你心目中,什么是有罪? "Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men," he says. Then he paraphrases Corinthians: "Don't be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won't inherit the kingdom of God. Don't deceive yourself. It's not right." 他说,“首先是同性恋,然后就从那开始分化。兽交,跟这个女的那个女的厮混,然后又跟那个女的这群男的厮混。”然后他改述《哥林多前书》:“不要自欺。无论是奸淫的、拜偶像的、做男妓的、行同性恋的冒犯者、贪婪的、醉酒的、造谣的、行骗的,他们都不能承受神的国。不要自欺。这是不对的。” During Phil's darkest days, in the early 1970s, he had to flee the state of Arkansas after he badly beat up a bar owner and the guy's wife. Kay Robertson persuaded the bar owner not to press charges in exchange for most of the Robertsons' life savings. ("A hefty price," he notes in his memoir.) I ask Phil if he ever repented for that, as he wants America to repent—if he ever tracked down the bar owner and his wife to apologize for the assault. He shakes his head. 在他过往的黑暗日子里,1970年代早期,Phil曾将一个酒吧店主及其妻子打成重伤,自己不得不逃离阿肯色。Kay Robertson说服酒吧店主不起诉,代价是付出了Robertson一辈子攒下的大部分积蓄。(“沉重的代价”,他在自传中说。)我问他,如果他要美国悔改,那他是否曾为此悔改过,是否曾追寻那个店主及其妻子的下落并为其袭击行为致歉。他摇了摇头。 "I didn't dredge anything back up. I just put it behind me." “我不会在任何旧事上徘徊。我会径直将它们丢在脑后。” As far as Phil is concerned, he was literally born again. Old Phil—the guy with the booze and the pills—died a long time ago, and New Phil sees no need to apologize for him: 在Phil看来,他已经真真切切地重生了一次。旧的Phil,那个饮酒嗑药的Phil,很久以前就已死去,新的Phil不觉得有必要帮他道歉。 "We never, ever judge someone on who's going to heaven, hell. That's the Almighty's job. We just love 'em, give 'em the good news about Jesus—whether they're homosexuals, drunks, terrorists. We let God sort 'em out later, you see what I'm saying?" “谁会上天堂,谁会下地狱,在这个问题上我们从不、绝不对人加以评判。这是上帝的事务。我们只需爱他们,向他们传递关于耶稣的好消息,不管他们是同性恋、酒鬼还是恐怖分子。我们让上帝以后来挑选他们,你知道我什么意思吗?” Okay, so perhaps it's not exactly shocking that a deeply religious 67-year-old hunter from rural Louisiana would have, shall we say, enthusiastic ideas about what constitutes good Christian morality. That's the unspoken red-state appeal of Duck Dynasty. They're godly folk. "Real" folk. 好吧。所以,一个信仰极为真诚的67岁路易斯安那乡下猎人会对什么是好的基督教伦理这一问题抱有(也许可以说)极为狂热的想法,这也许并不是特别令人震惊。这是《鸭子王朝》对于红州不言而喻的感染力。他们是一帮虔诚的老百姓。“真正的”老百姓。 It helps explain why people flock to Monroe in droves to visit the Duck Commander store (which, shockingly, does not sell firearms). It's why Willie Robertson can walk out of work on a regular Thursday afternoon and be greeted by a cheering crowd that seemingly stretches back to the horizon. He shows me a video of the crowd on his phone. 它可以解释,为什么人们会成群结队地涌入门罗市,只为参观“鸭司令”的门店(令人惊讶的是,店里并不出售武器)。这也是为何当Willie Robertson在某个平常的周四下午歇工后会受到一大群人欢呼致意,拥挤的人群似乎要延伸到天边去。他用手机向我展示了人群的视频。 "This was one day just in the summer," he says. "I was just going in my car to go home. " “这就只是夏日的一天”,他说。“我只是朝我的车子走去,准备回家。” Does it ever wear you down? 这是否会让你疲倦? "Oh yeah." “嗯。” Willie has just come back from Washington, D.C., where he accepted an award at the Angels in Adoption Gala. (He and his wife, Korie, adopted a biracial child named Will and are dedicated advocates of the practice.) As we speak, there's a film crew outside the house, prepping for a State Farm ad that the family will be shooting here on the property tomorrow. Willie刚从华盛顿回来,他去“收养天使庆典”上领了一个奖。(Willie和妻子Korie领养了一个混血儿,叫做Will,两人都是领养行为的热情拥护者。)我们交谈的时候,屋子外头还有一个制片组,正在为全家人明天将在这片宅子上拍摄的一个“州立农业保险公司”广告做准备。 The Robertsons receive more than 500 media requests a day, and Willie had to negotiate down to four shooting days a week with A&E just so the family would have a bit of breathing room. Phil knows it won't last. He can already see that the end is near, and he's prepared for it. 每天,Robertson一家都会收到500多份媒体请求,Willie则需要和A&E台商量,将拍摄日减少到每周4天,以便全家能稍微有一些喘息空间。Phil知道事情不会一直如此。他已经预见到,快要到头了,而且正在为之做准备。 "Let's face it," he says. "Three, four, five years, we're out of here. You know what I'm saying? It's a TV show. This thing ain't gonna last forever. No way." “承认吧”,他说。“三年、四年、五年,我们肯定会停的。你知道我什么意思不?这只是个电视节目。这种东西不会永远持续。绝不可能。” When the show runs its course and the production trucks drive off the Robertson property for good, there will be nothing keeping Phil from his greater mission. He could step back if he felt like it, given that he's now a very wealthy man. He could stay in these woods and live out the rest of his days hunting. But he has a flock now. He and the other Robertson men happily tour the country, giving speeches and hosting Bible studies. 如果节目寿终正寝,摄制组的大卡车彻底离Robertson一家人的领地而去,那时候将没有任何事物能够阻止Phil去履行他那更伟大的使命。如果他愿意,他可以退隐,因为他现在已经非常富有。他可以呆在这些林子里,余生全用来打猎。但是他现在有了一批教徒。他和Robertson家的其他男人一起,愉快地在全国巡回,发表演讲,主持圣经研究。 I ask Jep Robertson later on if the second generation of Robertson men shares Phil's views on sin and morality. "We're not quite as outspoken as my dad, but I'm definitely in line," he says. "If somebody asks, I tell 'em what the Bible says." 我后来曾问过Jep Robertson,在罪行和道德问题上,Robertson家的第二代男人是否跟Phil持有一样的观点。“我们并不像爸爸那样坦率直言,但我绝对是跟随着他的”,他说。“如果有人问我什么事,我会告诉他圣经怎么说。” When Uncle Si went to Conway, Arkansas, recently for a paid appearance, 20,000 people showed up. It led the local news that night in Little Rock. The show is merely the platform. The end goal is to save souls. And the Robertson family is more than happy to sacrifice a little privacy out here in the woods—visitors regularly congregate outside Phil's security gate hoping for a glance at the family— to spread the good word. Uncle Si最近参加阿肯色州康威市的一次商业登台时,有20000人出席。该活动在小石城当晚的地方新闻中大放异彩。演出只是一个平台。最终目的是拯救灵魂。而且,为了传播上帝的好消息,Robertson一家非常乐意在这片林子里牺牲一点隐私——参观者经常会聚集在Phil的防盗闸前面,盼望着能窥探一下这个家庭。 "For the sake of the Gospel, it was worth it," Phil tells me. "All you have to do is look at any society where there is no Jesus. I'll give you four: Nazis, no Jesus. Look at their record. Uh, Shintos? They started this thing in Pearl Harbor. Any Jesus among them? None. Communists? None. Islamists? Zero. That's eighty years of ideologies that have popped up where no Jesus was allowed among those four groups. Just look at the records as far as murder goes among those four groups." “为了福音,这么做是值得的”,Phil跟我说。“你只需要看看那些没有耶稣的社会。我给你举4个。纳粹,没有耶稣。看看他们的历史。呃,神道教?他们搞出了珍珠港这档子事。他们有耶稣吗?没有。共产主义者?没有。伊斯兰主义者?零。这4个群体中有80年不允许耶稣出现,结果就冒出了这么些意识形态。只需要看看这4个群体中谋杀蔓延的记录。” Phil On Health Insurance Phil谈医疗保险 "Temporary is all you're going to get with any kind of health care, except the health care I'm telling you about. That's eternal health care, and it's free.... I've opted to go with eternal health care instead of blowing money on these insurance schemes." “你从任何医疗保健上面得到的,都只能是暂时的。除非你采用我跟你说的这种医疗保健,那就是永恒医疗保健,而且它是免费的……我选择采用永恒医疗保健,不会把钱浪费在那些保险计划上头。” For what it's worth—and since I actually looked it up—the violent-crime rate here in America has plummeted since 1990, even as church attendance has stayed the same. And, of course, Phil is conveniently ignoring centuries upon centuries of war, bloodshed, and human enslavement committed in the name of Christ. 或可加以参考的是——我确实查证过——美国的暴力犯罪率自1990年以来已经大幅下降了,尽管去教堂的人数并没有什么变化。而且,Phil显然随手就把历史上数个世纪里以基督的名义犯下的种种战争、杀戮和奴役他人等行为给忽略了。 But I doubt any of that would sway Phil. And anyway, I'm a guest in his house and he is my welcoming host, so I smile politely and nod like the milquetoast suburban WASP that I am. 但是,我怀疑所有这些都不会动摇Phil。而且,不管怎样,我是到他家作客的,他又是个好客的主人,所以我一直礼貌地笑着,恰如其分地像个城郊盎格鲁萨克逊白人新教徒那样温驯地点头。 If you can't reconcile some of the things Phil says with his otherwise friendly demeanor—perhaps because you are gay, or a duck—I don't blame you. And I don't blame Duck Dynasty for keeping the show safely apolitical, ensuring smooth digestion for a mass audience. 如果你没法很好地调和Phil的部分言论与他的另外一些友好举止——也许因为你是同性恋,或者你是只鸭子——我并不会怪你。我也不怪《鸭子王朝》一剧刻意小心地保持其非政治性质的做法,这是为了确保大众受众能够毫无阻碍地接受它。 While Phil proselytizes, I lean over to Willie, who is playing a video game on his phone. 在Phil推销其宗教信仰的时候,我侧身探向Willie,他正在手机上玩电子游戏。 Boy, it's hard to get a word in with him! 哎呀,要在他面前插进一句话可真难啊! Willie nods knowingly, barely looking up. I get the sense he's heard all this before, many, many times. It's taken me a while to figure out that you can cut Phil off and it's not rude. He's like a sidewalk preacher. One look from a stranger is all he needs to delve into the story bank and dole out his sermon. You can stop and listen for a bit, and then move on if you like. So even though he's rolling, I change the subject. Willie会意地点点头,基本没看我。于是我就知道,他之前肯定已经听过这些话了,而且是很多很多次。我费了好一会儿才明白,你可以直接打断Phil的话,他不会觉得你粗鲁。他就像是那些呆在路边的布道者。只要有陌生人看他一眼,就足够让他深入到他自己的故事库里,开始他的讲道。你可以驻足一会,稍微听听,然后想走就走。所以尽管他还在滔滔不绝,我却换了一个话题。 You know what, Phil? Maybe we should just go shoot some stuff. Can we do that? 你知道吗,Phil?也许我们应该直接跑去射点东西。行不? "Oh yeah. You betcha we can." “当然行。这还用问吗?”

……

The Robertson family spread is a 20,000-acre stretch of Louisiana floodplain. At first glance, it looks like an untouched expanse of rural wilderness. It is not. Phil stops the ATV in the middle of the trail, which runs atop a levee that he built himself, to show me a vast field of pink wild flowers. He crumbles one of the wild flowers and shows me the black seeds inside. Robertson家族散居在路易斯安那20000英亩的大片洪泛平原上。乍一看,此地就像是一个未经开发的辽阔荒野。但它不是。Phil半路中停住了他的全地形车,我们行驶的小径就修在他自己建的一条堤坝上。Phil带我去看一大片的粉红色银莲花。他捏碎其中一个,让我看里面的黑色种子。 "See them little black seeds? See that? That's what ducks eat. They love that. It's called Pennsylvania smartweed. So we basically grow either natural vegetation or plants, or augment it, and we flood it." In other words, the Robertsons are a legit farm-to-table family. Real pre-hipster shit. “看到那些小小的黑色种子没有?看到不?鸭子就吃那个。它们很喜欢。这叫做宾夕法尼亚荨麻。所以我们基本上要么就是种天然的植被,要么就是种作物,或者帮助其增长,然后就把它们放水淹起来。”换句话说,Robertson一家可是正统的从农场到餐桌的家庭。真正是颓废派出现之前的做派。 When the waters from the nearby Ouachita River flood, it creates an ideal place to feed ducks. Which means it's also the ideal place to kill ducks, who fly all the way from the Canadian prairies just to find themselves at the wrong end of Phil's shotgun. 当附近的沃希托河洪水泛滥时,这里就成了一个饲养鸭子的理想场所。这也意味着,它同样是猎杀鸭子的理想场所。鸭子们从加拿大的大草原上一路飞过来,却发现自己错误地撞到了Phil的枪口。 "Whack 'em and stack 'em," as he says. And if the river doesn't flood during the sixty-day duck season between November and January, Robertson has a pipeline installed to flood the lowlands anyway so that they don't lose a day of hunting. “啪一下、堆起来”,他是这么说的。如果在11月至1月之间的60天猎鸭季节之内,河里没有涨水,那么Robertson就会装上一根管子,总之要把低洼地带淹没起来,这样他们就不会浪费一天打猎机会。 The ecology here has been so perfectly manipulated that it feels as if two giant hands reached down from the sky and molded the land itself, an effect that I'm sure would please Phil. Whatever you think of Phil's beliefs, it's hard not to gaze upon his cultivations and wonder if you've gotten life all wrong. 这里的生态营造得如此完美,以至于你会觉得好像是有两只巨手从天而降亲自塑造了这片大地。我想这肯定让Phil特别愉悦。无论你怎么看待Phil的信仰, 当你看着他种植的东西时,你几乎总会纳闷自己的生活是不是都错了。 This is life as summer camp. It's gorgeous, in a way that alters you on an elemental level. I feel it when I breathe the air. I feel it when I survey the enormity of the space around me. I shouldn't be sitting around the house and bitching because the new iOS 7 touchscreen icons don't have any fucking drop shadow. I should be out here, dammit! Killing things and growing things and bringing dead things home to cook! There is a life out in this wilderness that I am too chickenshit to lead. 这是一种夏令营似的生活。它无比动人,会从最根本的层面上改变你。我呼吸的时候,有这种体会。我纵览周边的无垠空间时,有这种体会。我不应该在屋子里呆着,为那见鬼的新版iOS 7触屏图标没有阴影效果而满腹牢骚。我应该跑到这儿来,该死的!杀点东西、种点东西,然后带点打死的东西回家煮!这片荒野中有一种生活方式,而我胆小懦弱、无力体验。 As we speed along, a speck of mud gets on my shirt—OMG MUD EWW SO GROSS!—and I flick it away. Meanwhile, Phil sits next to me, and his whole life is caked in mud. He's been out here plunging his hands into the earth and ripping the heads off ducks while I've been in suburbia with my thumb up my ass. I feel both inadequate and ungrateful. There's only one way to absolve myself, I figure, and that is to shoot the fuck out of this crossbow. 疾驰而过的时候,一小块泥巴溅到了我的衬衫上——天啦!泥巴!呃,太恶心啦!——我把它给弹走了。这时,Phil就坐在我旁边,他的整个人生就凝结在泥巴里。当我在郊区呆着没事抠屁眼的时候,他却一直呆在这片荒野中,双手扒进泥土里,撕扯鸭子们的脑袋。我既感到自己人生不够完整,又感到自己不知感恩。我想,只有一种办法能赦免我自己,那就是拿着这只手弩射他妈的几发。 Can I shoot the crossbow? And the rifle, for that matter? 我能不能射射这只手弩?还有那条步枪? "It's ready to go," he says. "Let's see what you can shoot at." “已经弄好了”,他说。“看看你能射到什么。” Since it isn't duck season yet, and since there are no deer around, Phil tosses out a bottle of water from the ATV for me to target. I grab the .22 first, step out of the vehicle, and nail it dead on. first shot. I AM THE HUNTER. 因为现在还没到猎鸭季节,而且周围也没有野鹿,所以Phil从车上往外边扔出一瓶水,让我去瞄准。我先拿起那条点22步枪,爬出车子,十分精准地击中了它。第一枪。我是个猎人! Time for the crossbow. Phil steps in front of the ATV to move the bottle so that I have a clear shot. I jokingly pantomime grabbing at the crossbow to shoot him. 接着是手弩。Phil跑到车子前面去挪动那只瓶子,以便让我能看得更清。我开玩笑地打手势,假装拿着弩要去射他。 Just stay there, Phil! That's perfect! 就呆在那儿,Phil!很好! He laughs and pats his pant leg: "That's why I keep an extra sidearm here." 他笑了,拍拍自己的裤腿。“这就是为啥我要额外在这里再放一支小手枪。” Phil hands me the bow, and I try to get a bead on the bottle through the scope. I close my eyes just as I'm squeezing the trigger. I hear the rush of the arrow and open my eyes in time to see the bottle jump up and start bleeding water down into the swamplands. The arrow is stuck a foot deep in the muck. I feel so very alive. Phil把弩交给我,我试着用瞄准器的准星去对那只瓶子。扣下扳机时,我闭上了眼睛。我听到箭支射出去的声音,睁开眼睛,就看到瓶子飞了起来,正往底下的沼泽地里漏水。箭支没地足有一英尺。我感到活力十足。 Phil nods in approval. "What do they call you where you're from? Deadeye? Let me guess: You were a mischievous boy when you were younger." I was indeed. Perhaps I should have stayed that way. Phil赞赏地点点头。“在你们那边,人们管你叫啥?我猜,是‘神射手’?你小的时候肯定是个淘气的孩子。”我确实是。也许我应该一直保持那样。 "So you and your woman: Are y'all Bible people?" “那么,你和你的女人,信圣经的吗?” Not really, I'm sorry to say. 恐怕不是,很遗憾地说。 "If you simply put your faith in Jesus coming down in flesh, through a human being, God becoming flesh living on the earth, dying on the cross for the sins of the world, being buried, and being raised from the dead—yours and mine and everybody else's problems will be solved. And the next time we see you, we will say: ‘You are now a brother. Our brother.' So then we look at you totally different then. See what I'm saying?" “只要你能相信耶稣通过一个人的形式以肉身降临,相信上帝变成肉身,生活在地球上,为着世上的罪恶而死在了十字架上,被埋进土里又死而复生。那么你的问题、我的问题、所有其他人的问题就都解决了。下次我们再看到你,我们就会说:‘你现在是兄弟。我们的兄弟’。那时候我们看待你就会完全不同了。知道我什么意思不?” I think so? 大概知道? We hop back in the ATV and plow toward the sunset, back to the Robertson home. There will be no family dinner tonight. No cameras in the house. No rowdy squirrel-hunting stories from back in the day. There will be only the realest version of Phil Robertson, hosting a private Bible study with a woman who, according to him, "has been on cocaine for years and is making her decision to repent. I'm going to point her in the right direction." 我们跳回车上,车子朝着夕阳颠簸,往Robertson家开回去。今晚不会有家庭晚餐。家里不会有摄像机。不会有人叽叽喳喳地讲述白天猎松鼠的故事。只会有最真实版本的Phil Robertson,他将举办一个私人的圣经学习会。另外一位参与者是个妇女,据Robertson说,“她多年来一直吸食可卡因,正决定悔改。我会为她指明正确的方向。” It's the direction he would like to point everyone: back to the woods. Back to the pioneer spirit. Back to God. "Why don't we go back to the old days?" he asked me at one point. But now, I'm afraid, I must get out of the ATV and go back to where I belong, back to the godless part of America that Phil is determined to save. 这方向是他愿意为任何人指明的:回归丛林;回归拓荒者的精神;回归上帝。“为什么不能回到老时光呢?”他曾这样问我。但是,我想我现在必须离开他的全地形车,回到属于我的地方、回到Phil下定决心要去拯救的那个不虔诚的美国去了。 (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——

总会起作用

【2016-08-10】

@海德沙龙 《噩梦般的底特律教育系统》 底特律自70年代以来就在持续衰败,居民不断逃离,工厂和住宅区一个个沦为废墟,犯罪率攀至榜首,随之一起沦落的还有它的公立教育系统,学生大量流失,出勤率、毕业率和学习成绩快速下降,然而这些学校的开支却并未减少,它正在从一个教育机构变成教师救济所…

@whigzhou: 选择机制总会起作用,问题是在哪个层次上起作用,假如你阻止自由市场在个体和企业层次上起选择作(more...)

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【2016-08-10】 @海德沙龙 《噩梦般的底特律教育系统》 底特律自70年代以来就在持续衰败,居民不断逃离,工厂和住宅区一个个沦为废墟,犯罪率攀至榜首,随之一起沦落的还有它的公立教育系统,学生大量流失,出勤率、毕业率和学习成绩快速下降,然而这些学校的开支却并未减少,它正在从一个教育机构变成教师救济所… @whigzhou: 选择机制总会起作用,问题是在哪个层次上起作用,假如你阻止自由市场在个体和企业层次上起选择作用,那么其他选择机制便会在产业、组织、城市、地区、国家等层次上起作用。  
[译文]噩梦般的底特律教育系统

Real Reform for Detroit’s Kids
为底特律孩子做真正的改革

作者:Steven Malanga @ 2015-05-05
译者:babyface_claire(@许你疯不许你傻)
校对:hkustliqi
来源:http://city-journal.org/html/real-reform-detroits-kids-14433.html

It’s time to break up the city’s dysfunctional school system.
是时候打破这座城市功能失调的学校系统了。

Even as it tries to revive itself after emerging from bankruptcy, Detroit faces a new crisis: it had to shut down many of its schools this week because of a sickout by teachers. The Detroit Federation of Teachers engineered the stoppage to pressure the Michigan legislature to agree to a $715 million aid package—without which, Detroit schools could run out of money by June.

即使底特律在摆脱破产之后试图重整,它还是面临着新的危机:由于教师的托病旷工,本周许多学校被迫关闭。底特律教师联合会策划了这次罢工,以便向密歇根州议会施压让它同意一个7.15亿美元的援助项目——没有它,底特律的学校在六月就会破产。

Michigan governor Rick Snyder wants to tie the aid to reforms that would bring new leadership to the troubled system, but some legislat(more...)

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Real Reform for Detroit’s Kids 为底特律孩子做真正的改革 作者:Steven Malanga @ 2015-05-05 译者:babyface_claire(@许你疯不许你傻) 校对:hkustliqi 来源:http://city-journal.org/html/real-reform-detroits-kids-14433.html It’s time to break up the city’s dysfunctional school system. 是时候打破这座城市功能失调的学校系统了。 Even as it tries to revive itself after emerging from bankruptcy, Detroit faces a new crisis: it had to shut down many of its schools this week because of a sickout by teachers. The Detroit Federation of Teachers engineered the stoppage to pressure the Michigan legislature to agree to a $715 million aid package—without which, Detroit schools could run out of money by June. 即使底特律在摆脱破产之后试图重整,它还是面临着新的危机:由于教师的托病旷工,本周许多学校被迫关闭。底特律教师联合会策划了这次罢工,以便向密歇根州议会施压让它同意一个7.15亿美元的援助项目——没有它,底特律的学校在六月就会破产。 Michigan governor Rick Snyder wants to tie the aid to reforms that would bring new leadership to the troubled system, but some legislators are skeptical—with good reason. Snyder’s plan represents the fifth major reform agenda in the last 30 years for the Detroit Public Schools, which have been plagued by lousy leadership, a reform-resistant union, and a shortage of resources. Instead of a new plan for an old system, it’s time for Snyder and Michigan’s legislators to try something new. 密歇根州长Rick Snyder想把这个援助项目与一项改革挂钩,这项改革将把新领导班子引入这个陷于困境的系统,但是一些议员对此持怀疑态度——而且有很好的理由。Snyder的计划是过去30年里底特律公立学校的第五大改革议程,而底特律公立学校一直被糟糕的领导,抵抗改革的工会和资源短缺所困扰。 是时候让Snyder和密歇根立法委员会尝试一些新的方法,而不只是用个新瓶装旧酒。 Detroit’s public schools began their decline in the 1970s, as middle class residents fled the city. Even as the educational challenges increased, however, the system’s bureaucracy grew and grew. The board of education gained a reputation for financial mismanagement, fostering the impression that Detroit’s schools were being operated as a jobs program for adults, rather than to educate kids. 随着中产阶级逃离底特律,这座城市的公立学校从1970年代就开始衰退。尽管教育挑战加剧,这个系统的官僚主义却日积月累。教育委员会得到了财务管理不善的名声,造成了一种底特律的学校是以给成年人提供就业计划而运作,而不是教育孩子的印象。 By the late 1980s, the system ran a $180 million deficit, with a high school dropout rate of 50 percent and daily absenteeism averaging almost 20 percent of all students. The state brought in new management to stabilize the school system’s budget. 到1980年代末,教育系统有着1.8亿美元的财政赤字,高中辍学率高达50%,平均每天的缺席人数几乎占所有学生的20%。州里曾引进新的管理办法来稳定学校系统的预算。 Education reforms followed. Some principals gained the freedom to select their own curriculum and staff. A bitter teachers’ strike undermined these reform efforts, shuttering schools for 26 days in September of 1992. As one school board member told the press: “[The strike] hit the reform effort upside the head like a two-by-four.” 教育改革随后也被实行了。有些校长获得了选择他们自己的课程和员工的自由。一次激烈的教师罢工破环了这些改革措施,使得学校在1992年9月不得已被关闭26天。一个学校董事会成员告诉媒体,“(这次罢工)给了改革努力当头一棒。” The school district continued to drift. Controversy erupted when the board mishandled $1.5 billion in borrowed money meant to renovate schools. In 1997, then-governor John Engler proposed dissolving the board of education and turning the system over to a new group appointed by Mayor Dennis Archer. 学区继续脱离正轨。由于学校董事会对借来用于修缮学校的15亿美元管理不当,争议再度触发。1997年,时任州长John Engler提议解散学校董事会,把这个机构变成由市长Dennis Archer掌管的一个新部门。 In September 1999, however, the teachers struck again, this time for nine days, in opposition to Archer’s reform proposals, which included a merit-pay system tied to classroom performance. Archer wound up dropping the idea. 然而,在1999年9月,教师再次罢工,这次为期9天,以此反对Archer的改革提议。罢工提议包括了一个与课堂表现相关联的绩效工资制度。Archer最终放弃了他的改革设想。 Five years later, with the system showing little progress in educating students, frustrated Detroit residents voted for yet another reform plan, this time giving management of the schools back to an elected school board. That decision proved disastrous; the district’s finances quickly deteriorated. 五年之后,随着该系统显示出在教育学生方面进展甚微,沮丧的底特律居民投票支持另一个改革计划,这次把管理学校的权力还给了一个选举产生的学校董事会。这一决定被证明是灾难性的,该地区的财政状况迅速恶化。 In September 2006, teachers went on strike yet again, this time over proposals to freeze pay and require greater health-care contributions. By 2009, the district faced a $259 million deficit, as the new board failed to cut costs to respond to a rapid enrollment decline. Governor Jennifer Granholm seized control of the Detroit school district in February 2009 and installed a financial manager to right the ship. 2006年9月,教师再次罢工,这次针对的是冻结薪水和要求更多的医保缴款。到2009年,由于新的学校董事会在入学率快速下降的同时却没能消减支出,该地区面临着一个2.59亿美元的财政赤字。在2009年2月,州长Jennifer Granholm控制了底特律的学区,并指定了一个财务经理来挽回局势。 An audit discovered hundreds of employees getting paid for no-show jobs and salaries allocated to dead people. Obama education secretary Arne Duncan called the district a “national disgrace.” The system’s graduation rate had plunged to 25 percent, and in 2009, its students registered the lowest scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress tests since the exams have been given. 一个审计员发现有上百员工通过不用出勤的工作获得报酬,甚至有工资分配给死人。奥巴马的教育部长Arne Duncan称这个学区为“国家的耻辱”。这个学校系统的毕业率跌至25%。在2009年,它的学生得到了自从国家教育进展评估测试开展以来的最低分。 The state of Michigan has maintained control since 2009, but progress has been halting, in part because of the school system’s institutional dysfunction. The recalcitrant teachers’ union has successfully resisted many reforms. And Detroit’s bankruptcy, which left the city short of resources, hasn’t helped. Residents keep fleeing the city, and students keep leaving the school system. Enrollment is down to just 49,000, from 168,000 in 2000. 自从2009年来,密歇根州政府一直控制着学校系统,但是进展已经停滞,部分是由于学校系统的制度障碍。顽固的教师工会已成功抵制许多改革。底特律的破产,致使城市资源短缺,对此无所助益。居民一直在逃离这座城市,学生一直在离开学校系统。入学人数从2000年的16万8千跌落至仅有4万9千。 Facing these challenges, Snyder recently appointed the respected former bankruptcy judge Steven Rhodes to try and right the system’s finances. But Rhodes isn’t an educator, and Detroit’s kids desperately need better schools. Snyder should recognize by now that they won’t get them from the sclerotic and inept public system. 面临这些挑战,Snyder最近任命备受尊敬的前破产法官Steven Rhodes尝试修正学校系统的财政状况。然而Rhodes并不是教育家,底特律的孩子迫切需要更好的学校。Snyder现在应该意识到, 这些孩子不会从僵化且无能的公共学校系统得到良好的教育。 There is another way. In recent years, dozens of charter schools have been established in Detroit, attracting tens of thousands of city students. In fact, charter schools now enroll more students in Detroit than the public school system does. Snyder should aim higher—toward the complete elimination of traditional public schools in favor of an all-charter model. 还有另一种途径。近年来,底特律建立了许多特许学校,吸引着成千上万的城市学生。事实上,在底特律,现在特许学校比公立学校系统招收的学生更多。Snyder应该追求更高的目标,支持用一个全特许学校模式来彻底取代传统的公立学校。 Too radical? Not for New Orleans, which took this path after Hurricane Katrina, transitioning from its 120-school public education system to one dominated by charter schools. To bring about the transformation, New Orleans turned to the Louisiana Recovery School District (RSD), a state body instituted to take over failing schools. 太过激进?对新奥尔良来说不是。在卡崔娜飓风之后,新奥尔良采取这种方式把120所公立学校系统转化为一个特许学校系统。为了完成这次转变,新奥尔良求助于路易斯安那州复苏学区(RSD) 这一接管失败学校的州立机构。 After Katrina, the RSD became the public school operator in New Orleans. By 2007, some 60 percent of the city’s kids were enrolled in charters. New Orleans phased out its last government schools in 2015, effectively completing the changeover to an all-choice system. Graduation rates and test scores have rallied impressively. And it’s all happened in a network of schools that educates nearly as many children as Detroit does. 在卡崔娜飓风之后,RSD成了新奥尔良公立学校的管理者。到2007年,大约60%的城市孩子进入了特许学校。在2015年,新奥尔良逐步淘汰了最后的公立学校,有效的完成了向一个完全自由择校系统的转换。毕业率和考试成绩的上涨令人印象深刻。这都是发生在一个教育着与底特律同样多孩子的教育网络内。 Not surprisingly, charter schools in Detroit have their opponents. In fact, some critics are using the latest crisis to undermine charters, proposing to limit their ability to expand. Michigan should be doing exactly the opposite—phasing out Detroit’s reform-impervious public school system, encouraging local groups and charter operators from around the country to open more schools, and giving all Detroit residents the opportunity to escape the toxic grip of the city’s disastrous educational system. 不足为奇的是,特许学校在底特律有他们的反对者。事实上,一些批评家利用最新的危机来削弱特许学校并提议限制他们的扩张。密歇根州应该做的恰恰相反,逐步淘汰底特律无力改革的公立学校系统,鼓励地方团体和来自全国各地的特许经营者开放更多的学校,给所有底特律居民机会逃避这个城市有毒的灾难性的教育系统。 Steven Malanga is the senior editor of City Journal, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and the author of Shakedown: The Continuing Conspiracy Against the American Taxpayer. Steven Malanga是城市期刊的高级编辑,曼哈顿研究院的高级研究员,著有《勒索:对美国纳税人的持续阴谋》。 (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]休斯顿:美国机会之城

America’s Opportunity City
美国的机会之城

作者:Joel Kotkin, Tory Gattis @ 2014-夏
译者:尼克基得慢(@尼克基得慢)
校对:babyface_claire(@许你疯不许你傻)
来源:City Journal,http://city-journal.org/html/america%E2%80%99s-opportunity-city-13662.html

Lots of new jobs and a low cost of living make Houston a middle-class magnet.
许多的新工作和低廉的生活成本使得休斯敦成为一个对中产阶级有着强大吸引力的城市。

David Wolff and David Hightower are driving down the partially completed Grand Parkway around Houston. The vast road, when completed, will add a third freeway loop around this booming, 600-square-mile Texas metropolis.

David Wolff和David Hightower正驱车行驶在部分完工的环休斯敦花园大道上。完工之后,这条宽阔道路会成为围绕这座蓬勃发展的600平方英里德州大城市的高速公路第三环。

Urban aesthetes on the ocean coasts tend to have a low opinion of the flat Texas landscape—and of Houston, in particular, which they see as a little slice of Hades: a hot, humid, and featureless expanse of flood-prone grassland, punctuated only by drab office towers and suburban tract houses.

住在海岸城市的唯美主义者通常不喜欢平坦的德州地貌——尤其是休斯敦的地貌,他们将之视为一小片地狱:一片炎热潮湿且毫无特点的广阔区域,有洪水泛滥的草地,点缀着单调的办公大楼和郊区风格的大片房屋。

But Wolff and Hightower, major land developers on Houston’s outskirts for four decades, have a different outlook. “We may not have all the scenery of a place like California,” notes the 73-year-old Wolff, who is also part owner of the San Francisco Giants. “But growth makes up for a lot of imperfections.”

但是作为从业四十年的休斯敦郊区主要土地开发商,Wolff和Hightower有着不同的观点。“我们或许没有像加州那样的全部景色,”同时也是旧金山巨人队的共有者的73岁的(more...)

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America’s Opportunity City 美国的机会之城 作者:Joel Kotkin, Tory Gattis @ 2014-夏 译者:尼克基得慢(@尼克基得慢) 校对:babyface_claire(@许你疯不许你傻) 来源:City Journal,http://city-journal.org/html/america%E2%80%99s-opportunity-city-13662.html Lots of new jobs and a low cost of living make Houston a middle-class magnet. 许多的新工作和低廉的生活成本使得休斯敦成为一个对中产阶级有着强大吸引力的城市。 David Wolff and David Hightower are driving down the partially completed Grand Parkway around Houston. The vast road, when completed, will add a third freeway loop around this booming, 600-square-mile Texas metropolis. David Wolff和David Hightower正驱车行驶在部分完工的环休斯敦花园大道上。完工之后,这条宽阔道路会成为围绕这座蓬勃发展的600平方英里德州大城市的高速公路第三环。 Urban aesthetes on the ocean coasts tend to have a low opinion of the flat Texas landscape—and of Houston, in particular, which they see as a little slice of Hades: a hot, humid, and featureless expanse of flood-prone grassland, punctuated only by drab office towers and suburban tract houses. 住在海岸城市的唯美主义者通常不喜欢平坦的德州地貌——尤其是休斯敦的地貌,他们将之视为一小片地狱:一片炎热潮湿且毫无特点的广阔区域,有洪水泛滥的草地,点缀着单调的办公大楼和郊区风格的大片房屋。 But Wolff and Hightower, major land developers on Houston’s outskirts for four decades, have a different outlook. “We may not have all the scenery of a place like California,” notes the 73-year-old Wolff, who is also part owner of the San Francisco Giants. “But growth makes up for a lot of imperfections.” 但是作为从业四十年的休斯敦郊区主要土地开发商,Wolff和Hightower有着不同的观点。“我们或许没有像加州那样的全部景色,”同时也是旧金山巨人队的共有者的73岁的Wolff提到。“但是经济增长弥补了许多不完美之处。” A host of newcomers—immigrants and transplants from around the United States—agree with that assessment. Its low cost of living and high rate of job growth have made Houston and its surrounding metro region attractive to young families. According to Pitney Bowes, Houston will enjoy the highest growth in new households of any major city between 2014 and 2017. 许多新来者——外国移民和美国本土移居者——都同意Wolff的评价。低生活成本和高职位增长率使休斯敦和周围城区对年轻家庭很有吸引力。据Pitney Bowes公司预测,2014年到2017年期间,休斯敦将会享有所有大城市中最高的新住户增长率。 A recent U.S. Council of Mayors study predicted that the American urban order will become increasingly Texan, with Houston and Dallas–Fort Worth both growing larger than Chicago by 2050. 最近一份美国市长委员会的研究预测,美国的城市秩序越来越德州化,休斯敦和达拉斯-沃思堡(Dallas–Fort Worth)的城市规模在2050年前都会超过芝加哥。 The Grand Parkway, Wolff points out, continues Houston’s pattern of outward development. The vast ExxonMobil campus being built in the far northern suburbs—and surrounded by its own master-planned community, Springwoods Village—will eventually be the nation’s second-largest office development, after Manhattan’s Freedom Tower. Houston is already home to numerous planned communities with bucolic-sounding names: Cinco Ranch, Bridgeland, Sienna Plantation, the Woodlands, and Sugar Land. Wolff 指出,花园大道延续了休斯敦的外向型发展模式。位于北部远郊正在修建的巨大的埃克森美孚校园最终将会成为仅次于曼哈顿自由塔的美国第二大办公楼, 周围环绕着埃克森美孚自己总体规划的社区,Springwoods Village。休斯敦已经拥有众多名字听起来田园风格的规划社区:Cinco Ranch, Bridgeland, Sienna Plantation, the Woodlands, 和Sugar Land。 “Open space is the most precious amenity,” says Wolff, a primary developer of the Energy Corridor, a Houston neighborhood boasting 22 million square feet of office space and housing the headquarters of such key energy firms as BP America, ConocoPhillips, and CITGO. “What we are creating here is a place where business can grow and people can afford to live. This is the key to Houston.” Indeed, the Houston model of development might be described as “opportunity urbanism.” “开放空间是最宝贵的生活设施”, 作为Energy Corridor——一个休斯敦社区,拥有2200万平方英尺办公空间并且容纳了诸多重要能源公司的总部,如BP美国、康菲和CITGO——主要开发商的Wolff 说道。“我们在这正在创造的是一个商业能发展、人们能有钱生活的地方。这是休斯敦的关键所在。”确实,休斯敦发展模式可以被描述为“都市化机会”。 Houston’s economic success over the past 20 years—and, more remarkably, since the Great Recession and the weak national recovery—rivals the performance of any large metropolitan region in the United States. For nearly a decade and a half, the city has been adding jobs at a furious pace—more than 600,000 since early 2000, and 263,000 since early 2008. 休斯敦过去20多年的经济成功——并且从大衰退和疲弱的全国性复苏以来越发明显——超过了美国任何其他大都市区的表现。在大约15年时间里,这座城市以极快的速度创造着工作机会——2000年初以来超过60万,2008年初以来为26.3万。 The greater New York City area, by contrast, has added just 103,000 jobs since 2008, and Los Angeles, Chicago, Phoenix, Atlanta, and Philadelphia remain well below their 2008 levels in total jobs. In fact, Los Angeles and Chicago, like Detroit, have fewer jobs today than they did at the turn of the millennium. 对比之下,规模更大的纽约都市区自2008年以来仅创造了10.3万份工作机会,而且洛杉矶、芝加哥、凤凰城、亚特兰大和费城的总工作机会远低于它们2008年的水平。事实上,正如底特律那样,洛杉矶和芝加哥现在拥有的工作机会已经少于世纪之交那时了。 And many of Houston’s jobs pay well. Using Praxis Strategy Group calculations that factor in the cost of living as well as salaries, Houston now has the highest standard of living of any large city in the U.S. and among the highest in the world. Indeed, the average cost-of-living-adjusted salary in Houston is about $75,000, compared with around $50,000 in New York and $46,000 in Los Angeles. 而且很多休斯敦的工作薪水颇高。根据实践战略集团(Praxis Strategy Group)的推算,同时考虑生活成本和薪资,休斯敦目前拥有全美所有大城市中最高的生活标准,而且也是全世界最高的城市之一。事实上,休斯敦按生活成本调整后的薪水是大约7.5万美元,相比之下纽约为约5万美元,洛杉矶为4.6万美元。 Personal household income has risen 20 percent since 2005 in Houston, compared with 14 percent in New York, 11 percent in Los Angeles, and less than 9 percent in Chicago. Former Federal Reserve economist Bill Gilmer notes that, except during the energy bust of the mid-1980s, Houston’s per-capita income growth has outpaced the nation’s since the late 1960s. 从2005年以来,休斯敦的个人家庭收入已经上涨20%,相比之下纽约为14%,洛杉矶为11%,芝加哥为不到9%。前美联储经济学家Bill Gilmer提到,自1960年代末以来,除1980年代中期能源业危机期间【编注:原油价格在1979年第二次石油危机期间升至顶峰,1982年开始下跌,1986年暴跌至1973年第一次能源危机前的水平,此后直到2005年之前始终未能回到历史最高点。】,休斯敦的人均收入增长已经超过了全美水平。 Not surprisingly, given Houston’s reputation as an oil town, much of the job growth in its metro region (known as Greater Houston) is tied to energy—particularly, to the technological revolution now reshaping that industry. Once widely derided as a “colony” of California- and New York–based companies, Houston has increasingly become the location of choice for American energy firms. 不出所料,考虑到休斯敦作为石油城的名声,这一都市区(被称为大休斯敦区)相当部分的工作机会增长跟能源有关——特别是跟正在重塑该行业的技术革命【编注:即页岩革命】有关。虽然曾被广泛嘲笑为总部设在加州和纽约的公司的“殖民地”,休斯敦已经越来越多的成为美国能源公司的总部所在地。 In 1960, for example, Houston was home to only one of the nation’s top energy firms; by 2013, it was home to 22 from the Fortune 500, more than all other cities combined—and that doesn’t include major non-headquarter locations for ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, and BP. This past spring, Occidental Petroleum, Los Angeles’s last major energy firm, announced plans to move to Houston’s Uptown district, near the famed Galleria. 例如在1960年,仅有一家美国顶级能源公司的总部设在休斯敦;截至2013年,22家世界五百强企业总部设在休斯敦,超过其他城市的总和——这还不包括作为埃克森美孚、壳牌、雪佛龙和BP的主要非总部所在地。今年春季,作为洛杉矶最后一个大能源公司,西方石油公司宣布了迁往休斯敦城郊区域的计划,靠近著名的Galleria商场。 Since 2001, the energy industry has been directly responsible for an increase of 67,000 jobs in Houston, and it now employs more than 240,000 people in the area. These jobs include many technical positions, one reason that the region now boasts the highest concentration of engineers outside Silicon Valley. 从2001年开始,休斯敦的能源产业已经直接产生了6.7万份工作的增长,现在该区域的能源行业已经雇佣了超过24万人。这些工作包含了许多技术岗位,一个原因就是这一区域的工程师密度现已成为硅谷之外最大的了。 Since 2001, Houston has seen a 24.1 percent growth in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) employment, compared with less than 5 percent growth in New York and San Francisco. The jobs should keep coming: Gilmer estimates that $25 billion to $40 billion in new petrochemical facilities is on its way to Greater Houston. 自从2001年以来,休斯敦在STEM(科学,技术,工程和数学)雇佣上经历了24.1%的增长,相比之下纽约和旧金山增长率不足5%。工作机会还会增长:Gilmer推测将有250亿到400亿美元的新建石化设施会在大休斯敦地区崛起。 “Oil and gas used to feel old, but that’s changing,” suggests Samina Farid, cofounder of Merrick Systems, a 25-year-old oil-services firm with 45 employees. “Younger people are coming into the business because they see opportunities to use new technologies that can really make a difference.” Farid’s firm is one of the thousands of smaller companies—including a group of new, tech-savvy start-ups—that serve the energy industry. “石油和天然气以前给人感觉很老气,但是它们正在改变,” Merrick Systems的联合创始人Samina Farid提到,Merrick Systems是一家拥有45名员工和25年历史的石油服务公司。“年轻人正加入能源行业,因为他们看见了应用能真正带来改变的新技术的机会。” Allison Lami Sawyer, the 29-year-old president of Rebellion Photonics, is part of a movement of younger professionals clustering in the area, many of them in the city’s inner ring. “I came here kicking and screaming,” said the British-educated Alabama native, whose nine-person company, mostly engineers and scientists, provides image-sensing equipment to firms such as Exxon. “But this was the place to be—it works well to be in the oil and gas capital of the world if that’s who you are selling to.” Allison Lami Sawyer,29岁的Rebellion Photonics总裁,是往该区域聚集的年轻专家中的一员,大部分年轻专家住在城市内环。“我当初很不情愿地来到这里,”这位受英式教育的亚拉巴马州土著说道,他的九人公司主要由工程师和科学家构成,为埃克森之类的公司提供图像传感设备。“但这是休斯敦以前的情况——如果你想在石油天然气的资本世界中兜售产品,休顿斯是理想之地。” Houston has embraced not only the energy industry’s white-collar professional jobs but also its well-paying blue-collar industrial positions. The city has seen a surge in mid-skills jobs (usually requiring a certificate or a two-year degree) in fields such as manufacturing, logistics, and construction, as well as energy. 休斯敦不仅拥有能源行业白领专家的工作机会,也拥有薪资不菲的蓝领产业工人职位。这座城市见证了诸如制造业、物流业、建筑业和能源业等领域内中等技能工作(通常要求一份执照或者两年的学位)的爆发性增长。 Many of these jobs pay more than $100,000 a year, and since 2007, according to calculations derived from the Bureau of Labor Statistics by the Praxis Strategy Group’s Mark Schill, Houston led the 52 major metropolitan areas in creating them, at a rate of 6.6 percent annually. In contrast, these jobs have declined by more than 10 percent in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco, which have not been friendly to such industries. 很多这类工作的年薪超过十万美元,而且根据实践战略集团(Praxis Strategy Group)的Mark Schill对劳工统计局数据的分析,休斯敦从2007年起就以每年6.6%的中等技能工作增长率领跑52个大都市区。相比之下,纽约、洛杉矶、芝加哥和旧金山的此类工作已经减少了超过10%,这几个地区一直对这些行业不友好。 Trade is robust. The Port of Houston, connected with the Gulf of Mexico by the 50-mile Houston Ship Channel, is now the nation’s Number One export hub, feeding off the energy revolution and expanding economic exchange with Latin America. Mexico and Brazil are by far the port’s largest trading partners. 贸易正如火如荼。休斯敦港通过50英里的休斯敦航道与墨西哥湾相连,得益于能源革命和与拉美经济交流的扩大,现已成为美国的头号出口中心。墨西哥和巴西是目前休斯顿港的最大贸易伙伴。 Houston’s port business has grown almost fourfold since 2000—far faster than either New York’s or Los Angeles’s. Port officials estimate that the trade sector contributes $500 billion in economic activity and more than 1 million jobs to the state of Texas annually. 休斯敦的港口生意自2000年以来几乎已经增长四倍——远快于纽约和洛杉矶的港口。港口官员认为,港口贸易部门为经济活动贡献了5000亿美元的产值,而且每年为德州增加100万工作机会。 Houston is also home to the Texas Medical Center, the largest concentration of hospitals and research institutions in the world and, by itself, the metro region’s third-largest source of jobs—employing 106,000 people, including 20,000 physicians, scientists, and other professionals. 休斯敦也是德州医学中心(TMC)——世界上最大的医院和研究机构综合体的所在地,此中心也是该都市区第三大工作来源——雇佣了包括2万名医生、科学家和其他专家在内的10.6万人。 Fifty-two separate medical institutions are located on the campus, equal in size to Chicago’s Loop. It currently has over 28.3 million square feet of office space, more than the downtowns of both Houston and Los Angeles. By the end of 2014, TMC top officials predict, the area will be the nation’s seventh-largest business district. 52个单独的医疗机构位于与芝加哥环区同等规模的园区内。它目前拥有超过2830万平方英尺的办公空间,比休斯敦和洛杉矶的商业区都大。TMC的高级官员预测,这一区域将在2014年末成为美国第七大商业区。 Houston is neither the libertarian paradise imagined by many conservatives nor the antigovernment Wild West town conjured by liberals. The city is better understood as relentlessly pragmatic and pro-growth. 休斯敦既不是许多保守派想象中的自由意志主义者的天堂,也不是自由派臆想的反政府狂野西部城镇。这座城市更应被理解为是冰冷的实用主义的和促进经济增长的。 Bob Lanier, the legendary three-time Democratic mayor who steered the city’s recovery from the 1980s oil bust, when the metro region bled more than 220,000 jobs in just five years, epitomized this can-do spirit. Bob Lanier 是这种充满干劲精神的典型代表,当1980年代的休斯敦地区在短短五年内减少了超过22万份工作时,这位连任三届传奇般的民主党市长带领这座城市从石油业危机中恢复过来。 Lanier was more interested in building infrastructure and promoting growth than in regulation and redistribution. That focus remains strong today. “Houston is getting very comfortable with itself and what it is,” says retired Harris County judge Robert Eckels. “We are a place that has a big idea—supporting and growing through private industry, and that’s something everyone pretty much accepts.” Lanier更喜欢修建基础设施、促进经济增长,而不是推动立法、实行再分配。这种偏向现在仍然很强烈。“休斯敦对于自身现状很满意,”退休的Harris县法官Robert Eckels说道。“我们是一个有远大理想的地方——通过支持私营企业来实现自身发展,这是这里每个人都深以为然的道理。” Low taxes are part of that idea. Texas has no income tax, as Governor Rick Perry frequently points out to businesses in other states, and its average state and local tax burden is 11th-lowest in the nation. New York, New Jersey, and California, by contrast, impose the three highest state tax burdens in the nation. 低税也是这理念的一部分。正如德州州长Rick Perry经常给其他州的生意人所说的那样,德州没有所得税,而且它的平均州税和本地税负担是全美第11低的。相比之下,纽约、新泽西和加州是全美州税负担前三名。 The friendly tax environment is one reason that Houston ranked as the most affordable city to do business in a recent survey of global metropolitan areas by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Partnership for New York City. It means a lot more money in their employees’ pockets, too. A family of three making $150,000 moving from New York City to Houston would save upward of $8,000 in taxes, an analysis conducted by the District of Columbia found. 最近由普华永道(PricewaterhouseCoopers)和纽约合伙人(the Partnership for New York City)发起的全球都市区调查中,休斯敦被评为最容易做生意的城市,其中一个原因就是友好的税收环境。这也意味着更多的钱落进雇员的口袋里。一份由哥伦比亚特区主持的分析报告发现,一个从纽约搬到休斯敦的收入15万美元的三口之家可以省下高达八千美元的税费。 An even bigger component of Houston’s growth, however, may be its planning regime, which allows development to follow the market instead of top-down government directives. The city and its unincorporated areas have no formal zoning, so land use is flexible and can readily meet demand. 然而,休斯敦的经济增长可能更多来自它的规划制度,遵从市场规律而不是自上而下的政府指令来促进发展。休斯敦和周围未并入地区没有正式的边界,所以土地使用很灵活而且能很好地迎合需求。 Getting building permits is simple and quick, with no arbitrary approval boards making development an interminable process. Neighborhoods can protect themselves with voluntary, opt-in deed restrictions or minimum lot sizes. Architect and developer Tim Cisneros credits the flexible planning system for the city’s burgeoning apartment and town-home development. 获得建筑许可简单迅速,没有专横的审批委员会使得土地开发变成没完没了的恼人流程。社区可以通过自愿的可选的限制性契约或者最小批量方法来保护自己。建筑师兼开发商Tim Cisneros将这座城市迅速崛起的公寓和联排住宅的开发归功于灵活的规划系统。 “There are a lot of people who come here for jobs but don’t want to live, at least not yet, in the Woodlands,” he notes. “We can respond to this demand fast because there’s no zoning, and approvals don’t take forever. You could not do this so fast in virtually any city in America. The lack of zoning allows us not only to do neat things—but do them quickly and for less money.” “有很多人为工作来到这里,但却不想住在伍德兰(Woodlands),至少现在还不想。”他提到。“我们可以迅速对这种要求做出回应,因为这里没有区域划分,审批也不会耗时太久。事实上,你在美国任何其他城市都不可能如此快速地获得审批。无区域划分让我们不仅做实事,而且做得迅速且省钱。” The flexible planning regime is also partly responsible for keeping Houston’s housing prices low compared with those of other major cities. On a square-foot basis, according to Knight Frank, a London-based real-estate consultancy, the same amount of money buys you almost seven times as much space in Houston as it does in San Francisco and more than four times as much as in New York. (See “Houston, New York Has a Problem,” Summer 2008.) Houston has built a new kind of “self-organizing” urban model, notes architect and author Lars Lerup, one that he calls “a creature of the market.” 相比其他大城市,灵活的规划制度也在某种程度上使得休斯敦房价较低。据位于伦敦的不动产咨询公司Knight Frank统计,以每平方英尺计,你花同样的钱在休斯敦能买的空间几乎七倍于旧金山,四倍于纽约。(参阅“休斯敦,纽约有一个问题”,2008年夏。)建筑师兼作者Lars Lerup表示,休斯敦已经建立起了一种新型的“自组织”城市模式,他称之为“市场的产物”。 Some cities—such as Los Angeles—grow as a progression of larger communities around a relatively small core. Others—such as New York and Chicago—form dependent communities surrounding a dynamic central core. Houston is different: it revolves around a patchwork of centers, such as the aforementioned Woodlands, home to some 40,000 residences and more than 50,000 jobs. 一些城市——比如洛杉矶——发展成一系列围绕相对较小中心的较大社区。其它城市——比如纽约和芝加哥——则形成了依赖并围绕唯一动态核心的社区。休斯敦与两者都不同:它是围绕着一系列中心的拼图,比如说之前提到的拥有4万居民和超过5万份工作的伍德兰(Woodlands)。 Other centers exist within the city limits, but Houston also retains a strong core that never imploded, as did those of so many American cities. The city turns the whole debate that dominates urban thinking today—whether to grow the suburbs or downtown—on its head. Rather than advocate one kind of housing, Houston prides itself on providing choices. 城市边界内还有着其他中心,但是休斯顿也保留了一个从未衰退的强大核心区,正如许多美国城市那样。这座城市让左右今日城市思维的整个辩论——是发展郊区还是中心商业区——变得易如反掌。休斯敦自豪于提供各种住房选择,而不是大力推进任何一种住宅形式。 In fact, as the city’s outer suburban ring has grown—last year attracting roughly 80 percent of all new home buyers—the downtown has also boomed. The city’s vibrant inner ring, notes demographer Wendell Cox, grew 3 percent during the last decade—four times the average in the top 15 metropolitan areas and more than Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia. 事实上,随着城外的郊区不断发展——去年吸引了约80%的新房买家——城区也在繁荣向前。人口统计学家Wendell Cox提到,这座城市生机勃勃的内环在过去十年增长了3%【编注:大概是指人口增长。】——4倍于15个大都市区的平均水平,也高于芝加哥、洛杉矶、纽约和费城。 “Most cities would die for our in-fill,” says Jeff Taebel, director of Community and Environmental Planning at the Houston-Galveston Area Council (HGAC). No one would mistake downtown Houston for midtown Manhattan, true; but it represents 6 percent of the region’s jobs—a proportion 2.5 to 4.5 times greater than one finds, say, in downtown Los Angeles or Phoenix. Houston’s experience refutes the popular notion that urban density and central city development require heavy regulation. “大部分城市都会渴望我们这种重建”休斯敦-加尔维斯顿地区议会(HGAC)中的社区与环境规划主任Jeff Taebel说到。没人会把休斯敦市中心误认为曼哈顿中心区,前者确实不如后者繁华;但是休斯敦市中心贡献了整个区域6%的工作机会——这一比例是洛杉矶或费城市区的2.5-4.5倍。休斯敦的经验驳斥了城区密度和中心城区发展需要严厉管制的流行观念。 Houston’s housing-market flexibility has also benefited some of the city’s historically neglected areas. The once-depopulating Fifth Ward has seen a surge of new housing—much of it for middle-income African-Americans, attracted by the area’s long-standing black cultural vibe and close access to downtown as well as the Texas Medical Center. 休斯敦房地产市场的灵活性也有益于部分历史上被忽略的地区。曾经人口负增长的第五区现在新房激增——很多新房都是为中等收入的非裔美国人所有,他们被该区长久的黑人文化氛围和靠近市区与德州医疗中心的位置所吸引。 Rather than worry about gentrification, many locals support the change in fortunes. “In Houston, we don’t like the idea of keeping an image of poverty for our neighborhood,” explained Rev. Harvey Clemons, chairman of the Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation. “We welcome renewal.” 许多当地人都支持这种财富转变,而不是去担心衰败社区的中产化升级会排挤贫穷居民。“在休斯敦,我们不喜欢那种保持自己社区贫穷形象的想法,”第五区社区重建局的主席,牧师Harvey Clemons解释道, “我们欢迎事物更新。” By allowing and encouraging development in the inner ring and on the fringe, the city increases its attractiveness to younger people, who want to live close to the urban core, while also providing affordable suburban housing. “Houston thrives because it has someplace for young people to stay inside the city but also offers an alternative when they get older. Just because you grow up doesn’t mean you have to leave the region,” notes Gilmer, now head of the Institute for Regional Forecasting at the University of Houston. 通过允许、鼓励内环和外围的发展,这座城市提高了对于那些想住在市中心附近的年轻人的吸引力,同时也为提供了其他人负担得起的郊区住房。“休斯敦之所以繁荣发展是因为它既提供了年轻人在城里生活的地方,也提供了当他们变老时的去处。你变老了并不意味着你必须要离开这城市,”休斯敦大学的区域预测学会会长Gilmer说到。 Houston’s explosive economic growth has engendered another kind of boom: a human one. Between 2000 and 2013, Greater Houston’s population expanded by 35 percent. In contrast, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago grew by 4 percent to 7 percent. 休斯敦经济的爆发式增长已经产生了另一种形式的迅速发展:人口的增长。2000年到2013年期间,大休斯敦地区的人口增加了35%。相比之下,纽约、洛杉矶、波士顿、费城和芝加哥仅增长了4-7%。 These figures reflect emerging migration patterns. Texas once sent large numbers of people to California and the East Coast, but now, considerable numbers of New Yorkers, San Franciscans, and Los Angelenos are picking up stakes and heading for Houston, Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio. 这些数字反映了正在浮现的移居模式。德州曾有很多人去往加州和东海岸,但是现在,相当数量的纽约人,旧金山人和洛杉矶人正带着财产向休斯敦、达拉斯、奥斯丁和圣安东尼奥进发。 As it grows, Houston’s ethnic demography is shifting. Two decades ago, Houston struggled to attract foreign-born immigrants, as did Texas generally. But since the 1990s, Texas’s immigration rates have surpassed the national average. 随着休斯敦的发展,它的少数种族人口也在转变。二十年前,休斯敦很难吸引到外国移民,整个德州也普遍如此。但是自从1990年代以来,德州的移民率已经超过全国平均值。 Over the past decade, Houston added 440,000 foreign-born residents, the second-most in the country, while New York, with more than three times the population, added 660,000. In a dramatic sign of changing trends, Houston attracted more than three times as many foreign-born immigrants as did Los Angeles, which is more than double its size. 在过去十年里,休斯敦增加了44万外国出生的居民,数量全国第二,而有着超过三倍人口的纽约增加了66万。这种变化趋势的重要信号就是,休斯敦吸引了超过洛杉矶三倍的外国移民,而洛杉矶的规模是休斯敦的两倍。 “This is the big deal for immigrants,” suggests HGAC’s Taebel. “We are a very attractive place for working-class people to settle.” The immigrant surge has turned what was once a conventional Southern city into a multiracial melting pot. “这对移民来说是件大事,” HGAC的Taebel表示。“我们是一个非常吸引工薪阶层人们前来定居的地方。”激增的移民已经把一座曾经保守的南方城市转变为多种族熔炉。 Indeed, a 2012 Rice University study claimed that Greater Houston is now the most ethnically diverse metro region in America, as measured by the balance between four major groups: African-American, white, Asian, and Hispanic. Hispanics alone constitute nearly half the core city’s population, while the Asian population has surged almost fourfold; whites constitute barely a quarter of the total. The entire Greater Houston metro region—roughly 6.3 million people—is now 60 percent nonwhite, up from 42 percent in 1990. 事实上, 2012年莱斯大学的一份研究声称,通过衡量四个主要族群之间的平衡:非裔美国人、白人、亚裔和拉丁裔,大休斯敦区现已成为美国种族多样性程度最高的都市区。仅拉丁裔就贡献了核心城区人口的近一半,同时亚裔人口激增了几乎四倍;白人仅占总人口的四分之一。整个大休斯敦都市区——大约630万人——在1990年有42%是非白人种族,如今增长到了60%。 Houston’s new diversity is not confined to one neighborhood or district. Suburban Sugarland is over 35 percent Asian and home to one of the nation’s largest and most elaborate Hindu temples. “This place is as diverse as California,” notes David Yi, a Korean-American energy trader who moved to the city from Los Angeles in 2013 and lives in the suburb of Katy, west of the central core. 休斯敦如今的种族多样性并不局限在一个社区或者区域。郊区的糖城超过35%都是亚裔,还拥有美国最大最精美的印度寺庙之一。“这地方跟加州一样多元化,”韩裔美国能源交易商David Yi提到,他于2013年从洛杉矶搬到休斯敦并住在中心区西侧的凯蒂城(Katy)郊区。 “But it is affordable, with good schools. Our kids, who are learning Spanish, can afford to stay and have a house, which is not the case in California.” Pearland, located 17 miles south of downtown, has also become a draw for upwardly mobile minorities and immigrants. “但是这边房子是能支付得起的,而且有着很好的学校。我们正学习西班牙语的孩子也有能力留在这里并买套房子,而加州情况就不一样了。”位于市中心以南17英里的梨城也成为了吸引向上流动的少数族裔和移民的地方。 “This is very different from Dallas, where I grew up, which was very segregated,” notes African-American entrepreneur Carla Lane, president of Lane Staffing, which works with energy, construction, and other local firms. “My daughter has a totally different experience—many of her friends are white, Hispanic, or Asian. Living out in Pearland, you can have that experience, and then you cross Highway 6 and you see people with big hats, boots, and straw in the mouth. That’s Houston to a tee.” “这里与我从小长大的达拉斯很不同,达拉斯是各自独立的,”非裔美国企业家、Lane Staffing公司主席Carla Lane说到,Lane Staffing与能源、建筑和其他当地公司都有合作。“我女儿有着完全不同的经历——她的很多朋友是白人、拉丁裔或者亚裔。在梨城生活,你会有这样的体验,当你越过6号高速公路,你会看到戴着大帽子、穿着大靴子、嘴上还有稻草的人们。这恰恰就是休斯敦。” Immigration is driving growth but also creating new challenges. Though skilled immigrants are beginning to flock to Houston, observes former state demographer Steven Murdock, Texas’s immigrants also include many lower-skilled workers, primarily because of the state’s proximity to Mexico. 移民促进了经济增长但是也带来了新的挑战。虽然如前联邦人口统计学家Steven Murdock观察的那样,技术移民正开始蜂拥向休斯敦,但是德州的移民里也包括很多低技能工作者,主要因为德州靠近墨西哥。 Leaders in the petrochemical and construction industries complain about looming shortages in the skilled trades. A dearth of plumbers and electricians is already affecting construction of new housing, offices, and industrial facilities, impinging on developers’ ability to expand, despite a thriving housing market. 石化和建筑行业的领导者抱怨即将到来的技术行业人才短缺。尽管房地产市场火爆,但管道工和电工的短缺已经影响了新房子、办公室和工业设施的建设,限制了开发商扩大生产的能力。 “We have all these jobs but not the people in the pipelines,” says Marshall Schott, associate vice chancellor at Lone Star community college. “Sure, we have need for more geologists and engineers; but by an order of magnitude, we need skilled workers such as welders and machinists. These jobs pay $80,000 a year, a lot better than being a barista at Starbucks.” “我们有这些工作机会却没有可用之人,”孤星社区大学的助理副校长Marshall Schott说。“我们确实需要更多地质学家和工程师;但是我们更需要十倍数量的技术工人,如焊工和机械工。这些工作年薪8万美元,比在星巴克当一个咖啡师要好多了。” To address these shortfalls, many companies have invested in workforce training programs, some in collaboration with local high schools as part of “cooperative education,” where students go to school part-time and work part-time. “This is a typically Houston solution—very pragmatic,” Mike Temple, director of the Gulf Coast Workforce Board, points out. “We are trying to tell kids that it’s not only what you know but also what you can do.” 为了解决这些短缺问题,许多公司已经投资了劳动力培训项目,一些与当地高校合作作为“共同教育”的一部分,这些项目的学生半工半读。“这是很典型的休斯敦式解决方法——很务实,”墨西哥湾沿岸劳动力委员会主管Mike Temple指出。“我们正尽力告诉孩子,你不仅要懂得知识,也要运用。” Enrollment at Houston’s largest community college, Lone Star, has exploded 58 percent, to 78,000 students, in just the past five years, and the college expects it to reach 100,000 students by 2018. 休斯敦最大社区大学,孤星社区大学的注册人数在过去5年暴涨了58%,达到了7.8万名学生,而且它预期2018年会达到10万名学生。 Often attacked for under-investing in education, Houston has actually shown encouraging educational progress. Many of the schools in the outer rings, often predominantly white and Asian, perform well in state performance rankings. Houston Independent School District, the largest district in Texas and seventh-largest in the country, has won the Broad Prize for urban education twice. 虽然常被批评对教育缺乏投资,但休斯敦事实上已经显示出了在鼓励教育上的进展。外环的很多以白人和亚裔为主的学校在联邦成就排名中表现不错。作为德州最大、全国第七大的学区,休斯敦独立学区已经两次赢得城区教育大奖了。 Houston has also been called “the Silicon Valley of education reform,” with several highly successful charter school networks such as KIPP, Harmony, and YES Prep setting up shop in the city. 休斯敦也被称为“教育改革的硅谷”,有一些十分成功的特许学校网络在城里了设立办事处,如KIPP、 Harmony和 YES Prep。 These schools and others within the Houston Independent School District will have much to do with Houston’s future success, which, in Murdock’s view, will come down to “how well minorities are going to do.” Murdock is optimistic, in part, because Houston’s minorities share the city’s basic culture of faith in hard work as a means of upward mobility. 这些学校和其他休斯敦独立学区内的学校跟休斯敦未来的成功息息相关,在Murdock看来,这也会影响到“少数族裔未来的表现”。在某种程度上,Murdock对此持乐观态度,因为休斯敦的少数族裔继承了这座城市的基本文化,相信向上层流动的方法就是努力工作。 According to Rice University’s Houston Area Survey, 85 percent of Houstonians—including 79 percent of blacks and 89 percent of Hispanics—agreed with the statement “if you work hard in this city, eventually you will succeed.” Nationwide, this sentiment is shared by only 60 percent of those surveyed. 根据莱斯大学的休斯敦地区调查,85%的休斯敦人——包括79%的黑人和89%的拉丁裔——同意“如果你在这座城市努力工作,最终你会成功”的说法。而全国范围内,这种观点只有60%的被调查者认同。 Not everyone is impressed by Houston’s growth and prospects. Critics dismiss the city’s development model as a disaster for the environment, quality of life, and civic culture. For the most part, they regard Houston as a cultural desert—a throwback to the sprawling postwar model of many American cities. “When one asks to see the social center of Houston,” scoffs architect Andrés Duany, “one is taken to the mall.” 休斯敦的发展和前景并没有让所有人都印象深刻。批评者将这座城市的发展模型斥为一场环境、生活质量和城市文化的灾难。多数情况下,他们都将休斯敦视为文化沙漠——倒退回了许多美国城市战后那种无计划模型。“当有人想要看休斯敦的社会中心,”建筑师Andrés Duany嘲弄道,“他就会被带去商场。” But such statements don’t reflect a city where opportunity urbanism is shaping an impressively vibrant cultural landscape. A 2012 survey by Economic Modeling Specialists International (EMSI) of the city’s creative economy found 146,000 jobs, generating an annual economic impact of $9.1 billion. 但是这些说法并不能反映这座城市的真实情况,注重机会的城市化正塑造一种其勃勃生机令人印象深刻的文化地貌。一份2012年由国际经济建模专家(EMSI)对城市创新经济的调查发现了14.6万份工作,每年产生了91亿美元的经济效益。 Houston is projected to have the largest gain in arts-related jobs by 2016 of any city in the study. Arts and culture expenditures totaled almost $1 billion per year in 2010, with total event attendance topping 16 million—numbers sure to grow, with almost 150,000 people per year moving into Greater Houston. 研究预测,到2016年休斯敦在艺术相关工作上的收益会超过所有被调研城市。2012年全年的艺术和文化支出总计约10亿美元,活动参与总人数以1600万高居榜首——随着每年大约15万人移居大休斯敦地区,这个数目肯定还会增加。 The city boasts permanent professional resident companies in all of the major performing arts, including opera, ballet, symphony, and theater, and its theater district has more seats than any rival in the country, except for New York’s. Houston’s 18 museums attract 8.7 million visitors a year. This is no cultural backwater. 这座城市在所有主要的表演艺术领域都涌现了大批常驻专业公司,包括歌剧、芭蕾、交响乐和戏剧,并且它的剧院区拥有的座位比除纽约外的任何城市都要多。休斯敦的18个博物馆每年吸引870万游客。这才不是文化的倒退。 With their higher real incomes and lower taxes, Houstonians dine out substantially more than residents of any other major American city—and they’ve got lots of options. “You used to go to New Orleans for food and music,” notes Chris Williams of Lucille’s, a cutting-edge Houston restaurant that serves sophisticated Southern food. “Now you go down the block.” 因为有更高的收入和更低的税费,休斯敦人外出用餐的次数明显多于其他任何美国城市的居民——而且他们有多样的选择。“你过去习惯去新奥尔良寻访美食和音乐,”Lucille’s餐厅的Chris Williams说到,Lucille’s是休斯敦一家提供精致南方食物的高端餐厅。 Taylor Francis, a 24-year-old advertising executive who moved recently from the Bay Area, points to restaurants like Underbelly, a popular Beard Prize–winning restaurant in the fashionable Montrose district. “My friends in the Bay Area rarely go out because it’s too expensive,” he said. “All their money goes to rent—but here, I can live in a roomy place and go out. There’s something attractive about that.” Taylor Francis是一位24岁的广告经理,刚从湾区搬到休斯敦,他指着类似Underbelly(一家很受欢迎的位于时髦的蒙特罗斯区的餐厅,曾获Beard奖)的餐厅说,“现在你只需走过街区就能找到美食。”他说:“我在湾区的朋友很少外出娱乐,因为太贵了。所有的钱都用来付房租了——但是在这里,我可以住在宽敞的地方,也可以外出娱乐。这点很吸引人。” Houston’s leaders hope to lure more young people like Francis away from coastal cities such as Portland, Boston, New York, and Los Angeles. The city is building one of the nation’s most extensive bike systems and constructing a $215 million park system along its long-disdained bayous. 休斯敦的领导人希望吸引更多的像Francis这样的年轻人远离像波特兰、波士顿、纽约和洛杉矶这样的沿海城市。这座城市正在打造全国最大规模之一的自行车系统,而且沿着长时间被鄙弃的长沼建设着价值2.15亿美元的停车系统。 Marcus Davis, who grew up in the hardscrabble Fifth Ward, says that growth is simply part of the Houstonian ethos. “This place is pure opportunity, including for African-Americans,” he said at his successful and usually crowded restaurant, the Breakfast Klub, just outside downtown. 在贫瘠的第五区长大的Marcus Davis说,追求增长已是休斯敦人精神特质的一部分。“这地方是真正的机会之城,即使对非裔美国人来说也是,”他在自己位于市中心外的餐厅Breakfast Klub里如是说,该餐厅很成功且常常人满为患。 Davis’s customer base includes young professionals and middle-class families. “This is a place where everyone wants to figure out how to do business. And since Houstonians like to do things over food, having a restaurant can be very lucrative.” Davis的顾客组成中包括年轻专家和中产之家。“这是一个人人都想搞清如何做生意的地方。因为休斯敦人喜欢做跟食品相关的事情,所以开家餐厅是十分有利可图的。” The growth-friendly attitude is what holds everything together in Houston, and it will be crucial whenever the next slowdown comes—when oil prices could drop, say, to below $100 a barrel. It remains to be seen whether a large influx of newcomers to Greater Houston from the ocean coasts will clamor, as they have elsewhere—notably, in Colorado—for a more controlled, high-regulation urban environment. 增长友好的态度将休斯敦的一切凝聚在一起,无论下次的增速减缓发生在何时,这态度至关重要——比如说,当油价降至低于100美元一桶时。从沿海城市移居到大休斯敦地区的大批新来者是否会像别的地方一样,特别是科罗拉多,引发对城市环境更多管控的呼吁?尚不得而知。 For now, though, most Houstonians see the city as a place that works—for minorities and immigrants, for suburbanites and city dwellers—and few want to fix what isn’t broken. “The key to Houston’s future is to keep thinking about how to be a greater city,” notes David Wolff as he passes a new set of towers off the Grand Parkway. “This road, it wouldn’t be built in many places. People might talk about these things, but in most places, they don’t get done. In Houston, we don’t just talk about the future—we’re building it.” 然而就现在而言,大多数休斯敦人都认为这城市运转正常——对于少数族裔和移民,对于郊区居民和城市居民来说都是如此——无人想去修复那未坏的东西。“休斯敦的未来关键在于要不断思考如何成为一座更伟大的城市,” 当David Wolff在花园大道上经过一幢幢新大楼时说道。“在许多地方,这条路根本不会建成。人们或许会谈论这些事情,但是大多数地方都不会真正实施。在休斯敦,我们不仅仅谈论未来——我们正在创造未来。” Joel Kotkin is a City Journal contributing editor and the R. C. Hobbs Fellow in Urban Studies at Chapman University. Tory Gattis writes the Houston Strategies blog, which covers topics including transit, economy, quality of life, city identity, and development and land-use regulations. Joel Kotkin是《城市杂志》的特约编辑,同时也是查普曼大学城市研究R. C. Hobbs研究员。Tory Gattis撰写了《休斯敦策略》博客,主题涵盖了运输、经济、生活质量、城市身份和发展与土地使用规则。 (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]司法竞争如何带来自由

When Courts Compete for ‘Business,’ Liberty Wins
当法庭之间争夺“生意”时,自由就是赢家

作者:Sheldon Richman @ 2015-12-06
译者:Luis Rightcon(@Rightcon)
校对:沈沉(@你在何地-sxy)
来源:Reason,https://reason.com/archives/2015/12/06/competition-produces-liberty

Those who insist that market anarchism cannot work because it lacks a monopolistic court of final jurisdiction are wrong.
那些坚持认为市场无政府主义因为缺乏垄断性法庭的终审管辖而行不通的想法是错误的

Considering that what liberty we continue to enjoy in the West is a product in large part of competing legal institutions operating within overlapping jurisdictions hundreds of years ago, it’s curious that so many libertarians still believe such an order—an essential feature of free-market, or natural-law, anarchism—would be inimical to liberty. Why wouldn’t that which produced liberty be up to preserving it?

考虑到我们在西方所持久享受的自由其实很大一部分是数百年前管辖界限互相重叠的司法制度之间相互竞争的结果,很奇怪的是,现在却有许多自由意志主义者依然相信这样一种秩序——核心特征是自由市场、或自然法、或无政府主义——将对自由不利。为什么那些产生了自由本身的事物无法承担起维持自由的责任呢?

When I say that competition produced liberty, I of course do not mean that liberty was anyone’s objective. Yet liberty emerged all the same, as if by an “invisible hand.” That’s how things often work. Good (and bad) consequences can be the result of human action but not of human design (to use a favorite phrase of F. A. Hayek’s, which he borrowed from the Scottish Enlightenment thinker Adam Ferguson).

当我说竞争产生自由时,我当然并不是说自由是谁人的目标。然而自由还是一样产生了,就像一只“看不见的手”创造出来的一样。这就是很多情况下事物的运作方式。好的(和坏的)后果可能是人类行为而不是人类设计的结果(这是哈耶克从著名苏格兰启蒙主义思想家Adam Ferguson那里借用的口头禅)。

We should be delighted to know that something so wonderful as liberty can emerge(more...)

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When Courts Compete for 'Business,' Liberty Wins 当法庭之间争夺“生意”时,自由就是赢家 作者:Sheldon Richman @ 2015-12-06 译者:Luis Rightcon(@Rightcon) 校对:沈沉(@你在何地-sxy) 来源:Reason,https://reason.com/archives/2015/12/06/competition-produces-liberty Those who insist that market anarchism cannot work because it lacks a monopolistic court of final jurisdiction are wrong. 那些坚持认为市场无政府主义因为缺乏垄断性法庭的终审管辖而行不通的想法是错误的 Considering that what liberty we continue to enjoy in the West is a product in large part of competing legal institutions operating within overlapping jurisdictions hundreds of years ago, it's curious that so many libertarians still believe such an order—an essential feature of free-market, or natural-law, anarchism—would be inimical to liberty. Why wouldn't that which produced liberty be up to preserving it? 考虑到我们在西方所持久享受的自由其实很大一部分是数百年前管辖界限互相重叠的司法制度之间相互竞争的结果,很奇怪的是,现在却有许多自由意志主义者依然相信这样一种秩序——核心特征是自由市场、或自然法、或无政府主义——将对自由不利。为什么那些产生了自由本身的事物无法承担起维持自由的责任呢? When I say that competition produced liberty, I of course do not mean that liberty was anyone's objective. Yet liberty emerged all the same, as if by an "invisible hand." That's how things often work. Good (and bad) consequences can be the result of human action but not of human design (to use a favorite phrase of F. A. Hayek's, which he borrowed from the Scottish Enlightenment thinker Adam Ferguson). 当我说竞争产生自由时,我当然并不是说自由是谁人的目标。然而自由还是一样产生了,就像一只“看不见的手”创造出来的一样。这就是很多情况下事物的运作方式。好的(和坏的)后果可能是人类行为而不是人类设计的结果(这是哈耶克从著名苏格兰启蒙主义思想家Adam Ferguson那里借用的口头禅)。 We should be delighted to know that something so wonderful as liberty can emerge unintentionally. It should give us hope for the future; if the libertarian movement is deficient, we need not assume that liberty has no chance. (I have more to say about liberty as an unintended consequence in the context of Magna Carta here.) 得知像自由那样美好的事物会非意图地产生,我们应该感到高兴。这会给我们的未来带来希望;如果自由意志主义运动是有缺陷的,我们却不必认为自由已经没有了机会。(关于自由在《大宪章》语境中是个意外产物,我还有更多的话要说,戳这里。) Many authors from the 18th century onward have written about the unintended good consequences of competition, i.e., the absence of central control. They emphasized that in the West the rivalries between church and state, between nobles or parliament and crown, and between nation-states yielded zones of liberty that endure to this day, however diminished in particular matters. 18世纪以来,许多作者已经描写过竞争(即中央控制的缺失)所带来的意外好处。他们强调,西方世界中教会和世俗国家的斗争,贵族或议会和王权的斗争,以及民族国家之间的斗争,产生了延续至今的自由空间,不管这一空间在一些特定方面衰减得有多么厉害。 Competition among legal institutions—courts and bodies of law—within overlapping jurisdictions played a large role in this centuries-long beneficent process. These of course are not examples of anarchism; on the contrary, states existed. But competitive overlapping legal regimes are an element of market anarchism. 管辖界限互相交错的司法制度——各法庭和各法体【编注:一个法体是指有着独特渊源和内在一致性的一组法律规则,比如衡平法、海事法、战争法分属不同法体。】——之间的竞争在这场持续数个世纪的有益历程中扮演了重要角色。这些当然不是无政府主义的例证,恰恰相反,国家是存在的。但是司法制度之间的交叉竞争是市场无政府主义的一个组成元素。 So where a state coexisted with a polycentric legal order, we may say, with Bryan Caplan, that there existed "less than the minimum" state, that is, something that fell short of the nightwatchman state favored by limited-government libertarians. 所以当一个国家存在一种多中心的法律秩序时,我们可以用Bryan Caplan的话来说,这里就存在着一种“比最小国家更弱一点”的国家,也就是说,比喜欢有限政府的自由意志主义者所期待的守夜人政府更弱一点的东西。 A good place to read about competition in law and dispute resolution is Todd J. Zywicki's highly accessible Northwestern University Law Review article "The Rise and Fall of Efficiency in the Common Law: A Supply-Side Analysis." Todd J.Zywicki发表在Northwestern University Law Reviews上的文章“普通法中的效率兴衰史:一种供给侧分析”是一篇了解法律和争端解决机制中的竞争情形的深入浅出的文章。 An important feature that "influenced the common law's evolution," Zywicki writes, "was the competitive, or 'polycentric,' legal order in which the common law developed. During the era that the common law developed, there were multiple English courts with overlapping jurisdictions over most of the issues that comprise the common law. As a result, parties potentially could bring a particular lawsuit in a variety of different courts. In turn this created competition among these various courts for business." 一个“影响到了普通法进化的重要特征”,Zywicki写到:“是竞争性的,或者说是“多中心”的法律秩序,普通法就是在其中演化的。在普通法产生的时代,在构成普通法的绝大多数问题上都有很多管辖界限重叠的英格兰法庭(存在竞争)。结果就是当事人有可能从很多不同的法庭中选择一个来进行特定的诉讼。于是,这些法庭之间就产生了生意上的竞争。” The idea of courts competing for "business" sounds strange to modern ears, but it was commonplace before the 20th century. (The extent of private arbitration in international commerce is largely unappreciated.) 对于现代人来说,法庭在“生意”方面进行竞争这个想法听起来很怪,但是在二十世纪之前这是很常见的。(在这方面,私人仲裁在国际贸易中的普及程度并没有受到应有的注意)。 Zywicki's paper shows that the common law, which featured this competition, was efficient in the eyes of those who used its services. Monopoly is inefficient even (especially?) in matters of security, dispute resolution, and justice. Moreover, it's a mistake, as Hayek explains in Law, Legislation, and Liberty (volume 1)  to assume that government is the source of law. Zywicki的论文指出,有这种竞争特色的普通法在那些使用其服务的人们眼中是有效的。垄断性司法甚至(或者说尤其是?)在安全、调解纠纷和司法制裁方面都是效率低下的。此外,哈耶克在《法律、立法与自由》中指出,认为政府是法律源头的想法是极其错误的。 Moves away from competition and the common law, then, aren't adequately explained by shortcomings in its services to its consumers. Political ambition provides a more satisfactory explanation. (In the case of the criminal law, see this.) 因此,对司法竞争性与普通法传统的偏离,单从当事人所得服务有所欠缺这一角度是不能充分解释的。政治野心是一个更为令人满意的解释(至于刑法的情况,参见这里) Zywicki draws on the legal historian Harold Berman, who wrote, "Perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of the Western legal tradition is the coexistence and competition within the same community of diverse jurisdictions and diverse legal systems." Zywicki引用了法律史学家Harold Berman的话:“也许西方法律传统的最与众不同之处在于多样化的司法管辖权和多种法律体系在同一个共同体内部共存和竞争。” The legal philosopher Lon L. Fuller went further: "A possible objection to the view [of law] taken here is that it permits the existence of more than one legal system governing the same population. The answer is, of course, that such multiple systems do exist and have in history been more common than unitary systems." (Emphasis added.) 法哲学家Lon L.Fuller进一步指出:“对这种(法律)概念的一个可能的反对意见是,它允许多个司法体系管辖同一个人群。当然,对此的回答是:这样的重合体系确实存在,并且在历史上比一元化的(司法)体系更为常见”。 The limited-government libertarian who insists that market anarchism cannot work because it lacks a monopolistic court of final jurisiction is like the apocryphal aerodynamicist who calculated that a bumblebee couldn't possibly fly. One needed only to point out the window, saying, "Behold!" Likewise, the anarchist need only point to history. 有些相信有限政府的自由意志主义者坚持认为,市场无政府主义行不通,因为它缺乏能够实行最后裁决的垄断性法院。这就像假冒的空气动力学家计算得出大黄蜂根本无法飞起来一样。实际上我们只需要朝窗外指指说:“看呐!”。同样,无政府主义者只需要拿出历史事实。 Berman also wrote (quoted by Zywicki), "The same person might be subject to the ecclesiastical courts in one type of case, the king's courts in another, his lord's courts in a third, the manorial court in a fourth, a town court in a fifth, [and] a merchants' court in a sixth." This sounds as though the courts were not really competitive, but rather that the variety of courts constituted specialization and a division of labor. Berman又写道(引用自Zywicki):“同样的一个人可能在某种案子中服从于宗教法庭,在另外一种案子中则可能服从国王的法庭,也可能是其领主的法庭,又可能是庄园的法庭,城镇法庭,甚至是商人法庭。”听起来好像各个法庭并不存在真实的互相竞争关系,不同法庭之间存在专业区分和劳动分工。 But that inference would be wrong. To see this we may turn to a keen contemporaneous observer, Adam Smith. In The Wealth of Nations Smith notes that despite a de jure division of labor, courts in fact competed with one another, even to the point of entrepreneurially finding ways to lure cases from other courts. 但是这样的推断是错误的。为了了解这一点,我们可以求助于同时代的一位敏锐观察者,亚当·斯密。在《国富论》中,斯密提到,尽管从法理上来说,法庭之间存在劳动分工,但事实上他们是相互竞争的,竞争甚至到了多方钻营以从其他法庭中诱拐案件的程度。 Why do this? Because the courts obtained their revenues from fees paid by parties to cases. The more cases a court heard, the more money it earned, a state of affairs that Smith, no anarchist of course, approved of: "Public services are never better performed than when their reward comes only in consequence of their being performed, and is proportioned to the diligence employed in performing them." 为什么要这样做呢?因为法庭的经费来自案件各方所支付的费用。一个法庭开审的案件越多,那么得到的金钱就越多,斯密当然不是一位无政府主义者,但他赞成这样的一种状态:“公共服务办好才给予酬劳,并且按勤勉的程度决定酬额,这样才能办好。” Smith described the legal environment of his day: 斯密这样描述他那个时代的法律环境:
The fees of court seem originally to have been the principal support of the different courts of justice in England. Each court endeavoured to draw to itself as much business as it could, and was, upon that account, willing to take cognisance of many suits which were not originally intended to fall under its jurisdiction. 英格兰各法院最初似乎主要仰赖于法院诉讼费。各法院都尽可能兜揽诉讼事件,那怕本来不是归自己管辖的案件,也乐于受理。例如,单为审理刑事案件而设的高等法院,居然接受民事案件,而以原告声称被告对他所行不义是犯了非法侵害罪或轻罪为受理的口实。 The court of king's bench, instituted for the trial of criminal causes only, took cognisance of civil suits; the plaintiff pretending that the defendant, in not doing him justice, had been guilty of some trespass or misdemeanour. The court of exchequer, instituted for the levying of the king's revenue, and for enforcing the payment of such debts only as were due to the king, took cognisance of all other contract debts; the plaintiff alleging that he could not pay the king because the defendant would not pay him. 王室特别法院的设立,本来单是为了征收国王收入和强制人民偿清对于国王所欠债务的。但它后来居然受理关于一切其他契约债务的诉讼,原告陈诉的理由是,被告不偿还对他的债务,所以他不能偿还对国王的债务这个理由。 In consequence of such fictions it came, in many cases, to depend altogether upon the parties before what court they would choose to have their cause tried; and each court endeavoured, by superior dispatch and impartiality, to draw to itself as many causes as it could. 由于这种种的假托,结果许多案件,究竟归哪个法院审理,全由诉讼当事人选择,而各法院要想为自己方面多多招徕诉讼案件,也在审理上力求迅速公平。 The present admirable constitution of the courts of justice in England was, perhaps, originally in a great measure formed by this emulation which anciently took place between their respective judges; each judge endeavouring to give, in his own court, the speediest and most effectual remedy which the law would admit for every sort of injustice. [Emphasis added.] 英格兰今日的法院制度,是值得赞赏的,但一探其究竟,恐怕在很大程度上须归因于往昔各法院法官的相互竞争,对一切不正当行为,各个力求在自己法院就法律许可的范围内给予最迅速最有效的救济这个事实。
Zywicki also quotes from Smith's Lectures on Jurisprudence: Zywicki也引用了斯密在《法学讲稿》中的话:
Another thing which tended to support the liberty of the people and render the proceedings in the courts very exact, was the rivalship which arose betwixt them. 另一件倾向于支持人民的自由和使得法庭程序更为严谨的事务,是法庭之间的竞争关系。
It may be argued that the state provided a backdrop to the competitive legal order, such that a forum of last resort was always available. This argument loses its force, however, when one realizes, as Edward Stringham teaches, that private dispute-resolution procedures arose in matters where states abstained from involvement, such as the nascent stock markets. (For more on the weakness of the "shadow of the State" argument, see this.) 有人可能会认为,竞争性的法律秩序总有国家站在后面,因此终极的裁决平台总是存在。然而,就如Edward Stringham教导的那样:当国家放弃参与时,私人的纠纷解决程序才会出现,就像最初的股票市场那样。只要意识到这一点,上述论调就变得苍白无力。(关于“国家的影子”论调的弱点,详见这里)。 "In short," Zywicki sums up, "a market for law prevailed, with numerous court systems competing for market share in order to increase their fees. This competitive process generated rules that satisfied the demand of consumers (here litigants) for fairness, consistency, and reasonableness." “总而言之,”Zywicki总结道:“法律市场繁盛起来了,很多法庭系统为市场占有率和从中所获费用进行竞争。这一竞争过程产生了符合顾客(这里指诉讼当事人)对公平性、一致性和合理性的需求的规则。” Bumblebees fly and reasonably pro-freedom dispute resolution emerges without the state, no matter what a cloistered theoretician may think. 不论纸上谈兵的理论家们怎样思考,大黄蜂会飞,公道的、促进自由的纠纷解决方式无需国家也能产生。 (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]为何精神分裂症患者那么爱抽烟

Schizophrenia: No Smoking Gun
精神分裂症:缺乏“冒烟”的确凿证据

作者:Scott Alexander @ 2016-01-11
译者:沈沉(@你在何地-sxy)
校对:小册子(@昵称被抢的小册子)
来源:Slate Star Codex,http://slatestarcodex.com/2016/01/11/schizophrenia-no-smoking-gun/

[Note: despite how some people are spinning this, tobacco is still really really bad and you should not smoke it]
【请注意:尽管许多人言之凿凿,但烟草真的真的还是很不好,不应该抽烟。】

I.

Schizophrenics smoke. A lot. Depending on the study, about 60-80% of schizophrenics smoke, compared to only about 20% of the general population. And they spend on average about 27% (!) of their income on cigarettes. Even allowing that schizophrenics don’t make much income, that’s a lot of money. Sure, schizophrenics are often poor and undereducated and have other risk factors for smoking – but even after you control for this, the effect is still pretty strong.

精神分裂症患者抽烟,而且很多。根据某项研究,大约60%至80%的精神分裂症患者会抽烟,与之相比,总人口中只有约20%。而且,他们在烟草上的花费大约占到其收入的27%(!)。即便考虑到精神分裂症患者收入不高,这也是一大笔钱。无疑,精神分裂症患者通常都很穷、受教育程度不高,并且还有其他导致其吸烟的风险因素,但即便把所有这些都加以控制,精神分裂症与抽烟之间的统计关系还是很强。

Various people have come up with various explanations. Cognitively-minded people say that schizophrenics smoke as a maladaptive coping strategy for the anxiety caused by their condition. Pharmacologically-minded people say that schizophrenics smoke because smoking accelerates the metabolism of antipsychotic drugs and so makes their side effects go away faster. Pragmatically-minded people say that schizophrenics smoke because they’re stuck in institutions with nothing to do all day. No points for guessing what the Freudians say.

许多人已经为此提出过许多各种解释。关注认知的人说,精神分裂症患者抽烟,是对该疾病所致焦虑的不良应对策略。关注药理的人会说,他们抽烟是因为抽烟会加快抗精神病药物的代谢,从而能够促使其副作用更快消失。更为务实的人会说,他们抽烟是因为他们被困在了整日无所事事的社会福利机构里面。猜测弗洛伊德主义者的说法就没必要了。

But all these theories have problems. Sure, schizophrenics are often institutionalized, but even the ones at home smoke a lot. Sure, some schizophrenics are often on antipsychotics, but even the ones who aren’t on meds smoke a lot. Sure, schizophrenics are anxious, but we don’t see people with Generalized Anxiety Disorder having 80% smoking rates.

但所有这些理论都存在问题。毫无疑问,精神分裂症患者通常都被社会福利机构收容,但即便是那些散居在家的也抽很多烟。毫无疑问,有些精神分裂症患者经常服用抗精神病药,但即便是那些不服药的也抽很多烟。毫无疑问,精神分裂症患者很焦虑,但我们并没有在患有广泛性焦虑障碍的人群中看到80%的吸烟率。

As usual, (more...)

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Schizophrenia: No Smoking Gun 精神分裂症:缺乏“冒烟”的确凿证据 作者:Scott Alexander @ 2016-01-11 译者:沈沉(@你在何地-sxy) 校对:小册子(@昵称被抢的小册子) 来源:Slate Star Codex,http://slatestarcodex.com/2016/01/11/schizophrenia-no-smoking-gun/ [Note: despite how some people are spinning this, tobacco is still really really bad and you should not smoke it] 【请注意:尽管许多人言之凿凿,但烟草真的真的还是很不好,不应该抽烟。】 I. Schizophrenics smoke. A lot. Depending on the study, about 60-80% of schizophrenics smoke, compared to only about 20% of the general population. And they spend on average about 27% (!) of their income on cigarettes. Even allowing that schizophrenics don’t make much income, that’s a lot of money. Sure, schizophrenics are often poor and undereducated and have other risk factors for smoking – but even after you control for this, the effect is still pretty strong. 精神分裂症患者抽烟,而且很多。根据某项研究,大约60%至80%的精神分裂症患者会抽烟,与之相比,总人口中只有约20%。而且,他们在烟草上的花费大约占到其收入的27%(!)。即便考虑到精神分裂症患者收入不高,这也是一大笔钱。无疑,精神分裂症患者通常都很穷、受教育程度不高,并且还有其他导致其吸烟的风险因素,但即便把所有这些都加以控制,精神分裂症与抽烟之间的统计关系还是很强。 Various people have come up with various explanations. Cognitively-minded people say that schizophrenics smoke as a maladaptive coping strategy for the anxiety caused by their condition. Pharmacologically-minded people say that schizophrenics smoke because smoking accelerates the metabolism of antipsychotic drugs and so makes their side effects go away faster. Pragmatically-minded people say that schizophrenics smoke because they’re stuck in institutions with nothing to do all day. No points for guessing what the Freudians say. 许多人已经为此提出过许多各种解释。关注认知的人说,精神分裂症患者抽烟,是对该疾病所致焦虑的不良应对策略。关注药理的人会说,他们抽烟是因为抽烟会加快抗精神病药物的代谢,从而能够促使其副作用更快消失。更为务实的人会说,他们抽烟是因为他们被困在了整日无所事事的社会福利机构里面。猜测弗洛伊德主义者的说法就没必要了。 But all these theories have problems. Sure, schizophrenics are often institutionalized, but even the ones at home smoke a lot. Sure, some schizophrenics are often on antipsychotics, but even the ones who aren’t on meds smoke a lot. Sure, schizophrenics are anxious, but we don’t see people with Generalized Anxiety Disorder having 80% smoking rates. 但所有这些理论都存在问题。毫无疑问,精神分裂症患者通常都被社会福利机构收容,但即便是那些散居在家的也抽很多烟。毫无疑问,有些精神分裂症患者经常服用抗精神病药,但即便是那些不服药的也抽很多烟。毫无疑问,精神分裂症患者很焦虑,但我们并没有在患有广泛性焦虑障碍的人群中看到80%的吸烟率。 As usual, I’m more biologically-minded, so I find it interesting that some of the genes that most commonly turn up as linked to schizophrenia – especially CHRNA3, CHRNA5, and CHRNA7 – are in nicotine receptors. Indeed, some of them are also the genes identified as risk factors for smoking. 我素来更倾向从生物学方面考虑,所以我发现了一个有趣之处,那就是部分最经常被与精神分裂症联系在一起的基因,特别是CHRNA3、CHRNA5和CHRNA7,都能在尼古丁受体上找到。 Further, there’s a lot of evidence that schizophrenic people actually feel better and have fewer symptoms when they’re smoking. Further, schizophrenics tend to gravitate toward cigarettes with higher nicotine content, and smoke them in ways that maximize nicotine absorption. 实际上,部分此类基因同时也被确认为影响吸烟的风险因素。此外,大量证据表明,精神分裂症患者在吸烟时确实会更加舒坦、更少症状。此外,精神分裂症患者一般会较喜欢尼古丁含量更高的烟草,而且吸烟时会设法尽量吸收更多的尼古丁。 It seems like part of the problem with schizophrenia is that the brain’s nicotine system isn’t working well. Smoking supplements nicotine and makes the system run smoother, so schizophrenics feel better when they smoke and continue to do so. This is the widely accepted self-medication hypothesis. 精神分裂症的问题似乎部分在于患者大脑的尼古丁系统运转不良。吸烟能够补充尼古丁,从而让这一系统运转更加顺畅,所以精神分裂症患者在吸烟时会感觉更加良好,并且乐此不疲。这就是受到广泛认同的“自发用药假说”。 I like this because it’s a really elegant example of…I don’t know what you’d call it…memetic evolution? Nobody knew that nicotine helped schizophrenia, nobody told the schizophrenics that, but they sort of naturally gravitated to an effective treatment for their condition by going in the direction of things that make them feel better, even going so far as to unknowingly gravitate toward cigarette brands with more nicotine. 我喜欢这一假说,因为它真是模因进化(我不知道你们如何称呼它)的一个极好例证。原先并没人知道尼古丁有助于缓解精神分裂症,没人这么告诉患者,但他们通过追随让他们感觉良好的事物,可以说是自然地找到了有效的治疗方法,甚至不自觉地偏爱尼古丁含量更高的烟草品牌。 They did all of this before psychiatry had any idea why they were doing it, and in the face of constant protests that it was stupid and useless. This should be a warning to anyone who’s too quick to tell patients that their coping strategies are maladaptive. 早在精神病学对其做法之缘由有任何了解之前,他们就已经在这么做了,尽管当时人们一直批评这种做法既愚蠢又无用。有些人会过于仓促地认为患者的应对策略调整不佳,上述事实应当能让这些人引以为戒。 But there’s a much more important question here: does smoking cause schizophrenia? How about prevent it? 但此处还有一个更为重要的问题:吸烟会导致精神分裂症吗?又会不会防止精神分裂症呢? II. First, the causation argument. Gurillo et al do a meta-analysis and conclude that “daily tobacco use is associated with increased risk of psychosis and an earlier age of onset of psychotic illness. The possibility of a causal link between tobacco use and psychosis merits further examination”. That is, schizophrenics are already smoking much more at the moment their schizophrenia starts. This suggests that maybe smoking is helping to cause the schizophrenia? 首先来看因果论证。Gurillo等人做了一个荟萃分析,得出结论认为:“每日使用烟草与精神病风险的增加和精神疾病发病年龄的提早均有关。烟草使用和精神病之间存在因果关系的可能性还需要进一步研究。”也就是说,精神分裂症患者在初次发病时就已经在大量抽烟了。这是否意味着吸烟有可能增加患精神分裂症的风险? All nice and well, except for a few things. First, this study ignores the possibility that the genes that cause schizophrenia might also cause increased smoking, even though we have some evidence that this is true (actually, it doesn’t ignore this, it mentions it, but uses it as a reason why a schizophrenia-smoking link is more plausible). 听上去很好,就是有一点点问题。首先,该研究忽略了一种可能性,即导致精神分裂症的基因可能也会导致烟瘾增加,而我们在这方面有一些证据。(实际上该研究并没有忽略这种可能性,而是有所提及,但只是把它作为精神分裂症与吸烟有关联这一说法更可信的理由)。 Second, we know that people who will later develop schizophrenia are seen as kind of odd even before they come down with the disease, and it’s possible that they’re already in some unusual brain state that smoking helps relieve. Third, this study is not controlled – meaning that we’re totally helpless before factors like “people destined to later develop schizophrenia are often poor, and poor people smoke more”. 第二,我们知道,有些后来得了精神分裂症的人早在得病之前就看起来似乎有点奇怪,可能那时候他们的大脑就已经处于某种不正常状态,而吸烟能帮助缓解这种状况。第三,该项研究没有进行对照控制,也就是说如果把某些因素考虑进去,比如“后来注定会得精神分裂症的人通常很穷,而穷人通常抽烟更多”等,我们就无力回答。 And fourth, another study shows exactly the opposite. 还有,第四,另一项研究有完全相反的发现。 Zammit et al (thanks to @allfeelsallthetime for the tip) looks at 50,000 teenage Swedish conscripts, then follows them throughout their lives to see which ones do or don’t get schizophrenia. They find that without adjusting for confounders, smokers are more likely to get schizophrenia. Zammit等人(感谢网友@allfeesallthetime提示)选取了50000个应征入伍的瑞典青少年,然后终身追踪他们,观察哪些会得精神分裂症,哪些不会。他们发现,如果不就混杂因子【编注:混杂因子是指同时导致A与B两个因子,从而使得A与B表现出相关性的因子。】作出调整,吸烟者便看起来更可能得精神分裂症。 But when you do adjust for confounders, smokers are less likely to get schizophrenia, (hazard ratio 0.8, p = 0.003) and heavy smokers are much less likely to get schizophrenia (hazard ratio 0.5)! A dose-dependent relationship was found between smoking and protection from schizophrenia. This is really interesting. 但如果你就混杂因子作了调整,吸烟者得精神分裂症的可能性相对就会较低(风险比为0.8,p=0.003),而重度嗜烟者患精神分裂症的可能性相对而言非常低(风险比为0.5)!在吸烟与避免精神分裂症之间居然找出了这种与剂量相关的关系,真是非常有意思。 Why do we find such different results from these two studies? The only explanation I can think of is that the second study controls for various factors including cannabis use, personality variables, IQ, past psychiatric diagnoses, and place of upbringing (thanks @su3su2u1 for the tip) and the first study controls for zilch. 为什么两项研究会得出如此不同的结论?我能想到的唯一解释就是,第二项研究对照控制了许多不同因素,包括吸食大麻、个性差异、智商、既往精神病诊断史、成长地点等(感谢网友@su3su2u1提示),而第一项研究没做任何控制。 In fact, we find that the second study’s uncontrolled numbers are not that different from the first study’s uncontrolled numbers, and that the only difference is that the second study then went on to control for confounders and get the opposite result. Controlling for more things is not always better, but controlling for a few things that previous studies and common sense suggest are very relevant is pretty superior to just leaving the data entirely unprocessed. Advantage very much second study. 实际上,我们发现第二项研究中未进行控制的因子数目跟第一项研究中未进行控制的因子数目没有多大出入,两者唯一的差别就是第二项研究进一步控制了混杂因子,然后就得出了相反的结论。控制的因子并不总是越多越好,但对此前研究和基本常识都认为,对非常相关的一些事项进行控制,比对数据完全不加任何处理的做法要好得多。第二项研究因而拥有压倒优势。 III. Unlike certain people on Facebook, I fucking hate science. Let me explain why. 跟Facebook上的某些人不同,我真他妈讨厌科学。让我来解释解释。 The first study here, Gurillo et al, was published ten years after the second study. Since it is a meta-analysis, it included the second study in it. The authors of the first study definitely read the second study. They just didn’t care. 此处提到的Gurillo等人所做的第一项研究,发表于第二项研究完成后的10年之后。由于它是一个荟萃分析,所以它的对象包括了第二项研究。该研究的作者们必定读过第二项研究。他们只是毫不在乎。 Nowhere in the first study does it say “By the way, we read this other study that got the opposite results from us, let’s try to figure out why, oh, it was because they controlled for things and we didn’t, maybe that should call our findings into question.” 第一项研究从未在任何地方说过:“此外,我们读到了另外一项研究,其结论与我们的正相对立;我们来看看原因是什么,哦,原来是因为他们对一些事项进行了控制而我们没有,这也许会对我们的发现构成质疑。” You know what they did do? They listed the second study as finding that smoking increased schizophrenia risk, because the rules of their meta-analysis said they would only take uncontrolled data, and so they did. You can read this entire study, which cites the second study no fewer than six times, without hearing at all about the fact that the second study got the opposite result using likely better methodology. 你知道他们实际干了什么吗?他们将第二项研究列为吸烟增加精神分裂症患病风险的发现之一,因为他们做荟萃分析的一项原则是只采用未控制的数据,他们也真是这么做的。你们可以读读其全文,它引用第二项研究不下六次,但在任何地方你都看不到它提及第二项研究利用可能更好的方法得出了完全相反的结论这一事实。 Then they go on to conclude that: 然后,他们在结论中说:
Cigarette smoking might be a hitherto neglected modifiable risk factor for psychosis, but confounding and reverse causality are possible. Notwithstanding, in view of the clear benefits of smoking cessation programs in this population, every effort should be made to implement change in smoking habits in this group of patients. 吸烟可能是引发精神病的可改造风险因素之一,这一点迄今为止一直为人所忽略。但是,混杂偏差和反向因果关系也有可能存在。尽管如此,考虑到在这一人群中实施戒烟计划的明显好处,我们应该全面努力,促使这一病患群体改变吸烟习惯。
Clear benefits! Every effort! Aaaaaaah! 明显好处!全面努力!啊哈哈哈哈! I mean, I know where they (and the Lancet editors, who write a glowing comment backing them up) are coming from. Smoking is bad because lung cancer, COPD, etc. But now we have these things called e-cigarettes! They deliver nicotine without tobacco! As far as anyone knows they carry vastly less risk of cancer, COPD, etc. If nicotine actually prevents schizophrenia rather than causing it, that is the sort of thing we should really want to know. And instead we’re just getting this “We should make schizophrenia patients stop smoking, because smoking is bad”. 我说,我知道他们(以及《柳叶刀》的编辑们,他们写了篇热情洋溢的评论支持前者)的出发点在哪儿。吸烟不好,因为会导致肺癌、慢性阻塞性肺炎等等。但我们现在已经有了所谓的电子烟!它们无需烟草就能提供尼古丁。如果尼古丁确实会预防而不是导致精神分裂症,这种事应该是我们确实想要明白知晓的。但是,我们听到的却是这样一些话:“我们应该让精神分裂症患者停止抽烟,因为抽烟不好。” Look. I am not going to come out and say that there’s great evidence that nicotine decreases schizophrenia risk. There’s one study, which other studies contradict. I happen to think that the one study looks better than its competitors, but that’s my opinion and I have nowhere near the evidence I would need to feel really strongly about this. 注意,我不是跳出来说有很强的证据表明尼古丁有助于减少精神分裂症患病风险。有一项研究这么说,还有许多研究跟它有抵触。我只是凑巧觉得,这项研究似乎比其他研究做得更好,当然这只是我的个人看法,要说我对这一想法的信念有多强烈,那根本还缺乏必要的证据支持。 But I feel like we are very far from the point where we know enough to be pushing people at risk of schizophrenia away from nicotine, and light-years away from the point where we can use phrases like “clear benefits”. 但是,我也认为,要说我们已经具备了足够的知识,以催促有精神分裂症患病风险的人远离尼古丁,那我们现在还差得远;要说使用“明显好处”一类的说法,那我们还差着很多光年。 Possibly I am an idiot and missing something very important. But if this is true, I wish the authors of the new study, and the editors of The Lancet, would have acknowledged the existence of the conflicting study and patiently explained to their readership, many of whom are idiots like myself, “Here’s a study that looks better than ours that seems to contradict our results, but here’s why our study is nevertheless far more believable.” That’s all I ask. 也许我是个笨蛋,忽略了一些非常重要的事情。但如果真是如此,我就希望上述新研究的作者们,以及《柳叶刀》的编辑们,能够承认与他们有相互冲突的研究存在,并能耐心地向读者们解释,因为许多读者跟我一样是笨蛋。“有项研究看起来比我们做得好,结论与我们的相反,但我们的研究仍然更可信,理由如下。”这才是我希望看到的。 No matter how much of an idiot I am, I can’t possibly imagine how that wouldn’t be a straight-out gain. 不管我有多么傻,我也根本无法想象,这么做怎么会不是一件彻头彻尾的好事。 PS: Cigarette smoking definitely decreases your risk of Parkinson’s Disease. Parkinson’s is similar to schizophrenia in that both involve dopamine. But schizophrenia involves too much dopamine and Parkinson’s too little, so the analogy could go either direction. 附:吸烟绝对会减少你患帕金森症的风险。帕金森症跟精神分裂症有些类似,两者都涉及到多巴胺。只是,精神分裂症是多巴胺过多,而帕金森症则是过少,所以该类比可以指向两个方向。【译注:即吸烟可能会减低,也可能会增加精神分裂症的风险。PPS: Tobacco smoking is definitely still bad! Nothing in here at all suggests that tobacco smoking has the slightest chance of not being a terrible decision! 又附:吸烟仍然绝对有害!本文没有任何地方说吸烟有可能不是个糟糕的决定,没门。 (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。

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