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[译文]美国的言论自由危机

Censorship in America
美国的言论审查

作者:John Stossel @2015-10-14
翻译:Drunkplane
校对:小册子
来源:CREATORS.COMhttps://reason.com/archives/2015/10/14/censorship-in-america

Free speech matters
言论自由很重要

Support for the idea that it’s good to hear all opinions, even offensive ones, is thin. A plurality of Americans now support laws against “hate speech.”

“所有意见都听听是有好处的,哪怕是让人感到被冒犯的意见”——支持这种观点的声音已变得羸弱。如今大多数美国人支持立法针对“仇恨言论”。

Conservatives once wanted to ban Playboy magazine, violent rap lyrics and offensive depictions of Jesus. Leftists then were right to fight such bans, but today leftists encourage censorship in the name of “tolerance.”

保守派曾经试图禁止《花花公子》杂志、狂暴的说唱音乐和对耶稣的不敬描写。左派当时站出来与此等禁令作斗争是正确的,但如今他们却以“宽容”之名鼓励言论审查。

Scientist Matt Taylor helped land a probe on a comet for the first time in history. But because he explained his achievement while wearing a T-shirt that had cartoons of sexy women on it (designed by a female friend of his), writer Rose Eveleth of The Atlantic tweeted that Taylor “ruined” the comet landing. The public outcry against him was so great that he cried at an apologetic press conferen(more...)

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Censorship in America 美国的言论审查 作者:John Stossel @2015-10-14 翻译:Drunkplane 校对:小册子 来源:CREATORS.COMhttps://reason.com/archives/2015/10/14/censorship-in-america Free speech matters 言论自由很重要 Support for the idea that it's good to hear all opinions, even offensive ones, is thin. A plurality of Americans now support laws against "hate speech." “所有意见都听听是有好处的,哪怕是让人感到被冒犯的意见”——支持这种观点的声音已变得羸弱。如今大多数美国人支持立法针对“仇恨言论”。 Conservatives once wanted to ban Playboy magazine, violent rap lyrics and offensive depictions of Jesus. Leftists then were right to fight such bans, but today leftists encourage censorship in the name of "tolerance." 保守派曾经试图禁止《花花公子》杂志、狂暴的说唱音乐和对耶稣的不敬描写。左派当时站出来与此等禁令作斗争是正确的,但如今他们却以“宽容”之名鼓励言论审查。 Scientist Matt Taylor helped land a probe on a comet for the first time in history. But because he explained his achievement while wearing a T-shirt that had cartoons of sexy women on it (designed by a female friend of his), writer Rose Eveleth of The Atlantic tweeted that Taylor "ruined" the comet landing. The public outcry against him was so great that he cried at an apologetic press conference. 科学家Matt Taylor曾为史上首次探测器降落彗星表面做出贡献,但因为在解释该项成就时,他穿了一件印有性感卡通女郎的T恤(由Taylor的一位女性朋友所设计),《大西洋》杂志的评论员Rose Eveleth发推说Taylor“毁了”这一着陆计划。大众指责的声浪淹没了Taylor,让他在后来的致歉新闻发布会上一度落泪。 #134 Silicon Valley entrepreneur Brendan Eich created JavaScript and helped start Mozilla Firefox. But when activists discovered that he'd once donated $1,000 to support California's Proposition 8 banning gay marriage, they attacked him as "a hater." A year and a half later, Eich still can't find a job. 硅谷企业家Brendan Eich发明了JavaScriptScript语言并协助创建火狐浏览器。但是当活动家们发现他曾为禁止同性婚姻的加州8号提案捐献过1000美元后,他们便攻击他是“仇恨者”。之后一年半的时间里Eich都无法找到工作。 When Eich donated the money, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton opposed gay marriage, too. But in just five years, such opinions have become so "unacceptable" that a tech genius is ostracized by his own industry. Eich捐这笔钱的时候,奥巴马和希拉里同样反对同性婚姻。而仅仅过了五年,这样的反对声音便已如此“不可接受”,以至于一个技术天才竟被自己所在的行业所排斥。 As long as the leftist mobs don't use law or violence, they're still engaged in free speech. Private employers can impose most any speech rule they choose. The First Amendment applies only to government. But now some government officials are as eager to censor as the leftist mobs. 只要左派的暴民们不使用法律和暴力,他们的声讨也算是在行使言论自由。在自己的企业里,私人雇主大可以为言论立下各种规矩。第一修正案仅仅适用于政府,但现在一些政府官员却同左翼暴民一样渴望言论审查。 After the owners of Chick-fil-A said they oppose gay marriage, the mayors of Chicago, San Francisco and Boston said Chick-fil-A is "not welcome" in their cities. San Francisco's mayor said, "The closest Chick-fil-A is 40 miles away and I strongly recommend they not try to come any closer." 当Chick-fil-A【译注:美国的一家快餐连锁店】的老板们表示他们反对同性婚姻后,芝加哥、旧金山和波士顿的市长均表示他们的城市不欢迎Chick-fil-A。旧金山市长说“Chick-fil-A最近的分店离这儿有40英里远,我强烈建议他们不要再靠近了。” Since mayors may influence permits and zoning, their threats aren't idle. And no new Chick-fil-A outlets have opened in those cities. This is a clear violation of the First Amendment, although the politicians seem oblivious to that. 市长们能左右土地规划和经营许可的发放,因此他们的威胁并不仅仅是装腔作势。上述城市后来没有新开一家Chick-fil-A。这是对宪法第一修正案的明显违背,然而政客们却好像意识不到这一点。 Of course, much worse than today's left are those who censor through violence. Al Qaeda's magazine names people who should be killed, chirping, "A bullet a day keeps the infidel away." Writers and artists heed the threats. CNN, NBC and The New York Times will no longer show Mohammed cartoons. 当然,比起今日的左派,那些通过暴力实施“审查”的人要坏得多。基地组织的杂志聒噪着“一天一颗子弹,让异教徒滚蛋”,点出他们认为该杀者的名字。作家和艺术家忌惮这些威胁,CNN、NBC和《纽约时报》都不再刊登穆罕默德的画像了。 I was surprised that liberal commentators were so eager to cave in to the terrorists' threats. Chris Matthews said, "Wanting to pick a fight with Islam is insane." 自由派评论员如此轻易就屈服于恐怖分子的威胁,让我感到惊讶。Chris Matthews【译注:美国著名时事评论员】说,“试图挑起同伊斯兰世界的斗争是疯狂的。” Such cowardice just invites more censorship. 正是这种怯弱导致了更严格的审查。 When the TV series South Park was censored by its own network for depicting Mohammed, a fan of the show, liberal cartoonist Molly Norris, showed her support by drawing her own cartoons of Mohammed. For doing so, she received death threats. Fearing for her safety, she went into hiding. 当电视剧《南方公园》因为描写穆罕默德而遭受自家的有线电视网审查时,该剧的一位影迷——自由主义卡通作者Molly Norris——自行创作穆罕默德卡通形象,以示对该剧的支持,结果她收到死亡威胁。由于担心自己的安全,她躲了起来。 Columnist Mark Steyn was appalled that "Her liberal newspaper—the way they put it in announcing that she'd gone, ceased to exist, was: 'There is no more Molly.'" She hasn't been heard from in five years. 专栏作家Mark Steyn对Molly所在报社的反应感到惊骇。“她那自由派的报社在宣布她离开和人间消失的消息时,说的竟然是‘这里不再有Molly’”,之后五年都没有Molly的消息。 "The only way we're going to move to a real sense of freedom is if every time somebody puts a bullet in a cartoonist for drawing a cartoon of Mohammed," says Steyn, "every newspaper ... displays that picture." Steyn说,“要达到真正的自由只有一条路,那就是每当一个作家因为创作穆罕默德的卡通形象而吃到一颗子弹,每一家报社都刊登这幅作品。” Steyn argues that societies that censor create more violence by driving hate speech underground. "You can have a society with free speech where I call you names, and you do rude drawings of me, and I say you're a hater, and we hatey-hatey-hate each other," said Steyn on my TV special, "Censorship in America," but "the alternative is the Muslim world where there's no open debate, and so there's nothing left to do but kill and bomb and shoot." Steyn认为,一个压制仇恨言论的社会只会制造更多的暴力。“你可以选择一个言论自由的社会,我对你直呼其名,你画漫画丑化我,我骂你是个讨厌鬼,我们就这样嚷嚷着厌恶对方;”Steyn在我的电视特别节目“美国社会里的审查”里说,“你也可以选择穆斯林世界,那里没有公开的辩论,所以只剩下谋杀、爆炸和枪击可干。” Free speech matters. If we give in to those who would shut us up, the censors will push and push until we have no freedom left. If we're going to sort out which ideas are good and which are bad, everyone must be allowed to speak. 言论自由很重要。如果我们屈服于那些想让我们闭嘴的人,那言论审查终将把我们逼向自由丧尽的境地。如果我们要分辨哪些观点是好的,哪些是坏的,我们应该让每个人都可以发声。 作者John Stossel是 福克斯商业在线 的一位主持人。 (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]猪肉产业的政治游戏

A $60 million pork kickback?
一份6千万美金的猪肉回扣?

作者:Danny Vinik @ 2015-8
译者:陆嘉宾(@晚上不买白天买不到)
校对:沈沉(@你在何地-sxy)
来源:Politico,http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/08/a-60-million-pork-kickback-000210

Unhappy small farmers detect a racket in a pork branding deal—and the USDA signed off on it.
不幸的小农户们从一桩猪肉品牌服务交易中发现了诈骗行为,并且美国农业部还在这上面签了字。

Pork hasn’t been “the other white meat” for years—after a 24-year run as the centerpiece of billboards and the butt of jokes, the slogan was retired in 2011 and replaced with “Pork: Be Inspired,” a logo you might have seen on the apron of Ted Cruz as he grilled pork chops at the Iowa State fair last week.

猪肉已经很多年没有被称作“另一种白肉”【校注:1986年,鉴于当时消费者普遍接受了红肉不利健康的观念,全国猪肉委员会发起了一场旨在让消费者相信“猪肉是另一种白肉”的宣传活动】了——在当了24年的广告牌要点以及笑柄之后,这条广告语在2011年退休,取而代之的则是一条新标语:“猪肉,振奋人心”。你可能看过,Ted Cruz【校注:2016(more...)

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A $60 million pork kickback? 一份6千万美金的猪肉回扣? 作者:Danny Vinik @ 2015-8 译者:陆嘉宾(@晚上不买白天买不到) 校对:沈沉(@你在何地-sxy) 来源:Politico,http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/08/a-60-million-pork-kickback-000210 Unhappy small farmers detect a racket in a pork branding deal—and the USDA signed off on it. 不幸的小农户们从一桩猪肉品牌服务交易中发现了诈骗行为,并且美国农业部还在这上面签了字。 Pork hasn't been "the other white meat" for years—after a 24-year run as the centerpiece of billboards and the butt of jokes, the slogan was retired in 2011 and replaced with "Pork: Be Inspired," a logo you might have seen on the apron of Ted Cruz as he grilled pork chops at the Iowa State fair last week. 猪肉已经很多年没有被称作“另一种白肉”【校注:1986年,鉴于当时消费者普遍接受了红肉不利健康的观念,全国猪肉委员会发起了一场旨在让消费者相信“猪肉是另一种白肉”的宣传活动】了——在当了24年的广告牌要点以及笑柄之后,这条广告语在2011年退休,取而代之的则是一条新标语:“猪肉,振奋人心”。你可能看过,Ted Cruz【校注:2016年美国共和党总统提名竞争者之一】上周在爱荷华州博览会上烤猪排时穿的围裙上就有这条标语。 But the National Pork Board, a government-sponsored entity funded by a tax on hog farmers, still writes a check for $3 million every year to license the unused slogan—a bewildering payout that only makes sense, critics say, when you realize the money goes straight to an industrial pork lobby that has long been closely tied to the board. Farmers who pay for the board are crying foul, saying the deal amounts to a scheme to let the board skirt anti-lobbying laws and promote an agenda directly against their interests. 但是,“全国猪肉委员会”,这个资金来源于生猪养殖户所缴税收的政府资助实体,为了让这条已不再使用的广告语获得许可,每年仍会开出300万美元的支票。批评者说,这笔支出乍看的确令人困惑,不过当你意识到这些钱其实直接交给了一个和该委员会联系甚密的猪肉工业游说团体时,一切就都说得通了。给委员会付款的农户骂声一片,他们说这笔交易相当于一个阴谋,想要让委员会绕过反游说法,发起一项直接损害他们利益的议程。 “It’s a shell game,” said Hugh Espey, the executive director of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, who has been fighting for years to roll back the mandatory payments to the Pork Board. “这是个骗局,”Hugh Espey说道,他是“爱荷华州社区改善公民组织”的执行主任,多年来一直在努力争取减少缴纳给猪肉委员会的强制性付款。 Saying the U.S. Department of Agriculture should have recognized the deal as corrupt and blocked it, Espey and a group of small hog farmers, along with the Humane Society of the United States, sued the federal government to undo the deal and recoup the millions of dollars already paid for the defunct “other white meat” slogan. Earlier this month a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit allowed the suit to proceed. 由于认为美国农业部应该认定这笔交易为腐败行为并加以阻止,Espey和一群小型生猪养殖户连同“美国人道协会”一起状告联邦政府,要求撤销这笔交易,并且追回已经花在废弃广告语“另一种白肉”上的数百万美元。本月早些时候,哥伦比亚特区巡回上诉法院受理了这一上诉。 The deal sends $60 million over 20 years from the nonpartisan Pork Board to the slogan’s legal owner, the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), a lobby with which it once shared an office. Small farmers have long been unhappy about the close relationship between the two groups, and see the rich payments for a defunct slogan as an egregious example of the government taking their money and then letting it be siphoned off to an industry group. 20多年间,上述交易将6000万美元从无党派的“全国猪肉委员会”转移到广告语法定所有人“全国猪肉生产者理事会”(NPPC)这一游说团体手上,而双方曾经共用同一个办公室。小型农户早已对这两个组织的过从甚密心存不满,并且他们认为政府收了他们的钱之后任由其被转移到产业集团手中,而用在这条废弃广告语上的巨额花费就是一个非常恶劣的例子。 Many critics also see the deal as symptomatic of a far broader problem with the "checkoff" programs that have become common across the agricultural world, in which the government requires farmers to make regular payments to promotional boards. Checkoffs exist for dairy farmers, mushroom producers, and even popcorn processors. Critics say they violate economic freedom and distort the market; big corporate farmers, they allege, easily find ways to influence the boards and siphon the money off to push their own causes. 许多批评家还认为,这笔交易也反映了一个更为深远的问题,也就是农业界已经司空见惯的“缴款”方案。通过这一程序,政府要求农户们定期为广告牌支付费用。缴款方案涉及奶农,食用菌生产者,甚至还有爆米花生产者。批评者称这些做法违反了经济自由并扭曲了市场;他们还指控,大型农业公司很容易就能找到方法来影响各委员会,并抽取资金以用于他们自己的事业。 “In one sense, it’s a classic case of the larger producers are the more powerful political forces within these organizations,” said Dan Glickman, the Agriculture Secretary at the end of the Clinton administration who largely supports checkoff programs. “从某种意义上说,这是一个反映大型生产商在这些组织内享有更强大政治力量的典型案例,”Dan Glickman说道,他是克林顿政府后期的农业部长,基本上支持缴款制度。 For the unhappy hog farmers, the current problem started with the 1985 Pork Law, when Congress set up the National Pork Board and required all farmers to contribute. Today, hog farmers must hand over 40 cents out of every $100 in revenue from pork sales. The board uses the money, totaling nearly $100 million a year, to conduct research and promote the pork industry, but is not allowed to lobby. 对于那些不爽的生猪养殖户来说,目前的问题开始于1985年《猪肉法案》,当时国会设立了全国猪肉委员会,并要求所有农民作出缴纳。今天,生猪养殖户必须从每100美元的猪肉销售收入中交出40美分。委员会用这笔每年总额将近1亿美元的款项开展调查研究,促进猪肉产业发展,但不允许进行游说。 The main pork lobby is the National Pork Producers Council, which donated nearly a half million dollars to candidates in the 2014 midterms – mainly, its critics say, to press the interests of big corporate hog farms. Legally, it isn’t supposed to use Pork Board money for its lobbying activities. 主要的猪肉游说团体是全国猪肉生产者理事会,在2014年的中期选举中曾捐赠将近50万美元--根据批评者的说法,这主要是为了推进大型生猪养殖公司的利益。从法律上讲,它不应该将猪肉委员会的资金用于其游说活动。 But critics say the two groups have never been as separate as the law calls for, and now are essentially colluding through a deal that lets the Pork Board funnel money to the NPCC by assigning an absurdly inflated value to the “other white meat” slogan; the money then goes to promote the NPPC’s lobbying agenda. 但是批评者说这两个组织从未像法律规定那样保持分离,而且现在通过这笔为广告语“另一种白肉”设置荒谬天价的交易,猪肉委员会得以向NPPC输送资金,这也使得它们实质上是在串通。NPPC在获取了这笔资金之后便将之用于推动其游说议程。 The Pork Board referred comments about the case to the USDA. A spokesperson for the department said in an email that “the assessments and expenditures by the National Pork Board were proper,” but declined to discuss the case further. 猪肉委员会将关于这桩案件的意见提交给了美国农业部。该部一位发言人在一封电子邮件中表示“由全国猪肉委员会做出的评估和支出是妥当的,”但是他拒绝进一步讨论案情。 The NPPC and NPB have always been very close, so close that a 1999 Inspector General report said that the government had to put more space between the two entities to limit the pork lobby’s influence at the board. NPPC和NPB一直走的很近,以至于1999年的一份监察长报告称,政府需要在这两个实体之间设置更多的隔离,以限制猪肉游说团体对该委员会的影响。 “It's a little bit like these super PACs with campaigns. Same people doing the same thing,” Glickman said about problems with the pork checkoff in the late 1990s. “That wasn't what Congress intended.” “这有一点像竞选中的那些超级政治行动委员会。同样的人做同样的事情,”Glickman谈起1990年代末期的猪肉缴款问题是这么说的。“那并不是美国国会原来设想的。” Espey and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement have long fought the pork checkoff program, and once came close to eliminating it altogether. In 2000, opponents gathered enough signatures among hog farmers to force a referendum on the checkoff. More than 30,000 hog farmers voted; by 5 percentage points, they chose to kill the program. Espey和爱荷华州社区改善公民组织已经与猪肉缴款方案持续作战很久了,并且曾经一度接近将其彻底消灭。2000年,反对者们从生猪养殖户中收集到了足够的签名,推动发起了一场针对缴款的公投。超过30000名养猪农户参加了投票;以领先5%的优势,他们选择终止这个方案。 Glickman began dismantling it, but the NPPC challenged the referendum in court, and when the Bush administration took office that January, incoming USDA secretary Ann Veneman reversed Glickman’s decision. Instead, she crafted a “separation agreement” that overturned the referendum result but required the NPPC and NPB to adjust their operations so they were independent. Glickman开始着手撤销这个方案,但是NPPC在法庭上质疑了这次公投,而且在那年一月布什政府上台之后,新任农业部长Ann Veneman就推翻了Glickman的决定。相反,她起草了一份“分离协议”,推翻了之前的公投结果,但要求NPPC和NPB必须调整他们的运营方式以保持相互独立。 “It was window dressing. It was bullshit,” Espey said. “Essentially, she was throwing out our vote.” “这根本就是敷衍了事,胡说八道,”Espey说道。“实际上,她完全抛弃了我们的投票。” After the agreement, the NPB and NPPC made some changes. The NPPC could no longer be the NPB’s general contractor, meaning the Board had “to conduct its own programming and coordinate its own activities,” according to the NPB’s own video history. The two groups no longer shared an office and a number of staffers switched from the pork lobby to the board. To the NPB and NPPC, Espey and Co. were simply scapegoating the organizations for their own failures. 在达成协议之后,NPB和NPPC做出了一些改变。根据NPB自己的历史记录片,NPPC不再是NPB的总承包商,这意味着委员会必须“自行进行规划,自行协调其活动”。两个组织不再共用办公室,一部分员工也从猪肉游说团体转到了委员会工作。对于NPB和NPPC来说,Espey及其公司仅仅是在为他们自己的失败寻找替罪羊。 The NPPC, which declined comment for this piece, has always owned the “other white meat” slogan, and as part of the separation agreement, it licensed the slogan to the board for around $1 a year. In 2004, the NPB agreed to increase the annual licensing fee to $818,000 a year. Despite the success of “the other white meat” trademark, an agricultural economist recommended that the board not pay more than $375,000 a year to license the slogan, according to the complaint. 拒绝为本文提供评论的NPPC一直拥有“另一种白肉”这条广告语,根据“分离协议”,它将这条广告语以每年一美元的价格授权给了委员会。到了2004年,NPB同意将每年的授权费用提高到818000美元。控告显示,尽管“另一种白肉”这个标志十分成功,某农业经济学家仍然建议,委员会每年最多只能为这条广告语的授权支付375000美元。 In 2006, the NPB signed a deal to buy the slogan for $3 million a year for 20 years—a four-fold jump in price, even though almost no other group would conceivably have any interest in the slogan. 2006年,NPB签署了一项协议,在几乎没有任何其他组织有可能对这条广告语有任何兴趣的情况下,以每年300万美元——四倍跳价——购买了这条广告语的20年使用授权。 “Are the artichoke producers competing for the slogan "Pork: The Other White Meat"? No, I don't think so.” says Parke Wilde, an associate professor of food science and policy at Tufts University who has written extensively about the $60 million deal and considers it corrupt. “是洋蓟生产商在争夺‘猪肉:另一种白肉’这条广告语吗?不,我不这么认为。”Parke Wilde说道。他是塔夫茨大学的食品科学与政策副教授。关于这一6千万美金的交易,他写了大量文章,并且认为这就是腐败。 According to the plaintiffs, the $60 million valuation came from calculating the cost of creating a new tagline, not on the slogan’s market value. But several specialists contacted for this story suggested that with no other reasonable potential buyers, it’s a mistake to pay the full value. 据原告,这6千万美元的估值,是根据创建一个新的品牌口号的成本来计算的,而不是根据这条广告语的市场价值。但在本文写作过程中联系到的一些专家看来,在没有其他合理的潜在买家的情况下,支付全价是一个错误。 “If you’re the single buyer out there, you’d expect a deep discount and that deep discount would be at least 25 percent, perhaps 50 percent,” said Weston Anson, the chairman of CONSOR Intellectual Asset Management, a firm that specializes in valuing intellectual property. “如果你是市场上的唯一买家,你会期望一个非常高的折扣,而这个折扣至少是25%,或许有50%,”Weston Anson说道,他是CONSOR知识资产管理公司的董事长,这是一家专注知识产权定价的公司。 Even stranger, to observers, is that when the Pork Board retired the slogan five years later, it continued paying the $3 million to the pork lobby—despite having the right to cancel the deal with a year’s notice. 对于观察者来说更奇怪的是,在猪肉委员会将这条广告语停用了将近5年之后,尽管它拥有在提前一年告知的前提下取消这笔交易的权利,它依旧继续支付给了猪肉游说团体3百万美元。 “If they have that out, they should be taking it,” Anson said. “如果他们有抽身的机会,他们应该会把握住的,”Anson说。 The NPB says that the “other white meat” slogan still has value as a “heritage brand,” though Anson disagreed: “As best as we can determine, they are not using this brand at all. If that’s true, then this is not a heritage brand. Then, it’s a fallow brand—one that’s been retired—and would be difficult to value given that it has no income, no market presence and only residual awareness.” NPB表示“另一种白肉”这条广告语依旧具有作为“传承品牌”的价值,但安森并不同意:“即使是往最好的方向揣测,他们也根本没在使用这个品牌。如果这是真的,那这就不是一个传承品牌。这是一个已经退出市场的闲置品牌,给它定价会是一件困难的事情,因为它没有收入,没有市场占有率,只有残留的认知度。” Though the Pork Board is subject to federal oversight, what worries Espey and others is that it really operates like a private organization entitled to take farmers’ money, and then spend it out of view of the public – all with the blessing of the USDA. 虽然猪肉委员会受联邦政府监管,Espey和其他人真正担心的是,它实际上像一个有权收取农民金钱的私人组织那么运作,并且它还在公众的视野之外使用这些资金——这些都拜美国农业部所赐。 “The real problem with all of these check-offs is they depend on strict USDA oversight in order to achieve their purpose,” Matthew Penzer, a lawyer for the Humane Society, said. “In this case, that oversight has failed.” The Humane Society has long been critical of the pork lobby and the farming techniques of large pork producers. “这些缴款方案真正的问题在于,如果想要达到其目标,那将有赖于美国农业部的严格监督,” Matthew Penzer说道,他是人道协会的一名律师。“在这桩案件中,监管失效了。” 人道协会长期以来一直批评猪肉游说活动和大型猪肉生产者的养殖技术。 The suit, filed in 2012, was dismissed for lack of standing in 2013 but the appeals court reversed that dismissal on August 14. The government now has 45 days to appeal the circuit court ruling, before the case returns to the D.C. District Court for a ruling on its substance. In the meantime, the payments continue. 2012年提出的该诉讼在2013年由于缺乏诉讼资格被驳回,但是上诉法院在8月14日推翻了这次驳回。在案件返回到哥伦比亚特区地方法院裁定其实质内容之前,政府现在有45天时间对巡回法院裁决提出上诉。在此期间,支付在继续。 (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]花花公子为何告别裸体?

The fascinating economics behind Playboy’s decision to drop nudes from its magazine
花花公子杂志做出取消裸的决定背后迷人的经济学

作者:Timothy B. Lee @ 2015-10-13
译者:混乱阈值(@混乱阈值)
校对:小册子(@昵称被抢的小册子)
来源:Vox,http://www.vox.com/2015/10/13/9523879/playboy-nudity-no

On Monday, the New York Times reported on a development that sounds like an April Fool’s joke: Playboy magazine is going to stop publishing images of naked women.

周一,《纽约时报》报道了一条听起来像愚人节笑话的新闻:《花花公子》杂志将不再刊登裸女照片了。

But Playboy CEO Scott Flanders is serious. He believes the Playboy brand can transcend its salacious origins and become a lucrative vehicle for selling mainstream products. There’s already a wide variety of Playboy-branded clothing and jewelry out there, and the Playboy brand is particularly popular in China, where pornography is officially illegal.

然而花花公子的CEO Scott Flanders是认真的。他相信花花公子品牌能够超越自己的色情业出身,通过销售主流产品而获利。花花公子品牌的服装和珠宝早就款式繁多了。而且花花公子品牌在中国特别受欢迎,尽管色情业在中国是非法的。

Playboy tested this strategy out with the Playboy.com website, which has been free of explicit nudity since last year. The company says it’s been a big success, attracting a much bigger and younger audience. Now it’s hoping to expand on that success with what used to be the country’s most popular pornographic magazine.

花花公子已经开始在它的网站Playboy.com上试行这一新策略,该网站从去年开始就已经没有露骨的裸体照片了。公司声称此举已经获得了巨大成功,吸引到了比以前多得多且年轻得多的用户。现在公司正希望将成功扩展到这份一度是全国最具人气的色情杂志上。

Playboy is dropping explicit nudity from its flagship magazine
花花公子正把露骨的裸体从它的旗舰杂志中去除

Starting in March 2016, there won’t be any explicit nude images of women in the US edition of Playboy magazine.

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The fascinating economics behind Playboy's decision to drop nudes from its magazine 花花公子杂志做出取消裸的决定背后迷人的经济学 作者:Timothy B. Lee @ 2015-10-13 译者:混乱阈值(@混乱阈值) 校对:小册子(@昵称被抢的小册子) 来源:Vox,http://www.vox.com/2015/10/13/9523879/playboy-nudity-no On Monday, the New York Times reported on a development that sounds like an April Fool's joke: Playboy magazine is going to stop publishing images of naked women. 周一,《纽约时报》报道了一条听起来像愚人节笑话的新闻:《花花公子》杂志将不再刊登裸女照片了。 But Playboy CEO Scott Flanders is serious. He believes the Playboy brand can transcend its salacious origins and become a lucrative vehicle for selling mainstream products. There's already a wide variety of Playboy-branded clothing and jewelry out there, and the Playboy brand is particularly popular in China, where pornography is officially illegal. 然而花花公子的CEO Scott Flanders是认真的。他相信花花公子品牌能够超越自己的色情业出身,通过销售主流产品而获利。花花公子品牌的服装和珠宝早就款式繁多了。而且花花公子品牌在中国特别受欢迎,尽管色情业在中国是非法的。 Playboy tested this strategy out with the Playboy.com website, which has been free of explicit nudity since last year. The company says it's been a big success, attracting a much bigger and younger audience. Now it's hoping to expand on that success with what used to be the country's most popular pornographic magazine. 花花公子已经开始在它的网站Playboy.com上试行这一新策略,该网站从去年开始就已经没有露骨的裸体照片了。公司声称此举已经获得了巨大成功,吸引到了比以前多得多且年轻得多的用户。现在公司正希望将成功扩展到这份一度是全国最具人气的色情杂志上。 Playboy is dropping explicit nudity from its flagship magazine 花花公子正把露骨的裸体从它的旗舰杂志中去除 Starting in March 2016, there won't be any explicit nude images of women in the US edition of Playboy magazine. 从2016年3月开始,美国版《花花公子》杂志将不会再有任何露骨裸照了。 In 1953, Playboy made its mark by being one of the first mainstream magazines to feature pictures of nude women. In the pre-internet era, porn was a lot harder to obtain, so there was a big market for pornographic magazines. The magazine grew to more than 5 million subscribers by the 1970s and attracted a bunch of competitors. 在1953年,《花花公子》作为最早以裸女图为特色的主流杂志之一而名留史册。在前互联网时代,获得色情内容比现在要困难得多,因此色情杂志有很大的市场。到1970年代,《花花公子》已拥有超过五百万订户,并吸引了一堆竞争者。 But the internet has totally transformed the pornography industry. Today, any kind of porn you can imagine is just a Google search away, and in most cases is available for free. So over the past couple of decades, the value proposition of paying $19.95 a year to have a few dozen nude images delivered in dead-tree format each month has become less and less compelling. Today the magazine only has around 800,000 subscribers. 然而互联网彻底改变了色情业。如今,只需google搜索一下就能找到各种你能想到的色情内容,而且多数是免费的。因此,为了每月几十张纸质裸体图片而每年花19.95美元这种买卖,在过去几十年里越来越没吸引力了。现在《花花公子》只剩下大约80万订户了。 On the other hand, Playboy has always aspired to be more than just a pornographic magazine. Over the decades, those 5 million subscribers allowed Playboy to do interviews with a wide variety of famous people, including Martin Luther King Jr., Jimmy Carter, and Steve Jobs. 另一方面,一直以来《花花公子》所追求的都不仅仅是做一本色情杂志。过去数十年间,五百万的订户量让《花花公子》得以采访到众多名人,其中包括马丁·路德·金、吉米·卡特和史蒂夫·乔布斯。 There's a long-running joke about people "reading Playboy for the articles," but Playboy's non-pornographic content really has been pretty good over the years. Now it won't be such a joke anymore. Playboy will replace its explicit nude images with the kind of PG-13 images found in men's magazines such as Maxim and Stuff, and will beef up its coverage of other topics, including a new sex column and expanded coverage of the liquor business. “为了读文章而看《花花公子》”是个长盛不衰的老笑话,然而这么多年来《花花公子》的非色情内容确实非常不错。现在这笑话将不再是笑话了。《花花公子》将使用诸如《Maxim》和《Stuff》这样的男士杂志中的PG-13(13岁以下未成年人需在家长指导下阅读)级图片来替代露骨裸照,并将丰富其它话题的内容,这其中包括一个新的性爱专栏和增加对酒水生意的报道。 Cutting nudity from Playboy.com was a big success 将裸体从Playboy.com上移除获得了巨大成功 Playboy used to look like a conventional media company with a stable of magazines, websites, television stations, and so forth. But that business model hasn't done well in the internet age, and it reached its nadir in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. 花花公子曾经看起来像传统的媒体公司一样,拥有一批杂志、网站、电视台等。但这样的商业模式在互联网时代不太玩得转,并随着2008年的金融危机落到最低谷。 So the company began downplaying its media properties and focusing instead on promoting and licensing its iconic brand. And Flanders started to wonder whether distributing pictures of naked women was becoming a business liability. "You could argue that nudity is a distraction for us and actually shrinks our audience rather than expands it," he argued last year. 因此公司开始把重心从媒体资产中转移,转而将注意力集中在推广其偶像品牌及品牌授权使用。Flanders开始怀疑发布裸女图片是否成了公司的商业负累。“可以说,裸体内容让公司分心,事实上还减少而非增大了我们的读者数量”,去年Flanders如是说。 Lots of people are attracted to the risqué vibe of the Playboy brand, but there are situations in which outright pornography isn't allowed. Apple's App Store, for example, doesn't allow apps to have sexually explicit imagery, for example, nor do Facebook and Instagram. 很多人被花花公子品牌性感暧昧的气质吸引,但有些地方禁止直白的色情内容。例如苹果公司的应用商店不允许带有露骨性爱图像的应用上架,Facebook和Instagram也一样。 So last year, Playboy overhauled its primary website, Playboy.com, and took out all the explicit nudity (there are still plenty of racy near-nude shots of the type you'll find in other men's magazines). Playboy executives told the New York Times that this was a huge success: Traffic quadrupled, and the average age of readers fell from 47 to 30. 因此,花花公子去年对其主网站Playboy.com做了次大扫除,移除了所有露骨的裸体内容(网站上依然还有大量那种你会在别的男士杂志里看到的近乎裸体的火爆图片)。花花公子的管理层告诉《纽约时报》,此举获得了巨大成功:网站流量翻了四倍,读者的平均年龄从47岁下降至30岁。 In other words, young people who grew up in the porn-saturated world of the internet aren't that interested in Playboy.com as a place to get porn. And the existence of naked women on the site made it awkward to read Playboy articles at work — where many people spend time goofing off online — or share Playboy content on social media sites. Dropping the naked women dramatically expanded the potential audience for Playboy.com without significantly reducing its appeal. 换句话说,在充斥着色情内容的互联网世界中成长起来的年轻人们对通过Playboy.com获得色情内容这件事不感兴趣。网站上的裸女使得在工作场所阅读网站的文章——很多人在工作的时候偷闲上网——或在社交媒体网站上分享花花公子网站的内容变得很尴尬 。去除裸女这招在不严重影响网站吸引力的同时大幅扩展了Playboy.com的潜在用户群。 Playboy is trying to become a mainstream consumer brand 花花公子正努力成为一个主流消费品牌 More traffic and a younger audience are big successes in their own right, but even more importantly, the shift helps make the Playboy brand more mainstream. There's already a large demand for Playboy-branded merchandise, and Flanders is betting that that demand will grow even more if Playboy becomes less associated with explicit pornography in the minds of the public. 更大的网站流量和更年轻的用户,本身就是一个巨大的成功,而更重要的是,公司的转变使得花花公子品牌更加主流。花花公子品牌的商品本来就拥有很大的市场需求,而Flanders深信,如果在大众心目中花花公子与露骨色情联系不那么紧密的话,市场需求将获得更大增长。 The decision to drop nudity from the magazine is best seen in this light. The goal isn't so much to make the magazine itself more successful — though presumably its owners would like to do that — but to make the magazine a more effective sales tool for the Playboy brand more generally. 最好从这样的角度来看待将裸体从杂志中去除的决定:该举措的主要目标并非为了让杂志本身更成功——尽管杂志的所有人想必希望如此——而是为了使杂志成为更有效的营销工具,在更广范围内推动花花公子品牌商品的销售。 Playboy's magazine hasn't been a big money maker in years. Flanders told the New York Times that the US edition of the magazine lost around $3 million last year. But Playboy's efforts to cash in on its brand — and particularly its famous bunny logo — is paying big dividends. 花花公子的杂志已经有些年头没怎么赚钱了。Flanders告诉《纽约时报》,去年杂志的美国版亏损了大约3百万美元。但花花公子通过品牌——特别是公司著名的兔子商标——创收的努力目前正在带来巨额红利。 Playboy's brand is not only widely known in the West, but it's also surprisingly popular in China. Last year, Playboy-branded products generated $1.5 billion in revenues in China, about a third of the worldwide total. Playboy merchandise is available in 3,500 retail outlets in China — which is particularly remarkable because pornography is officially illegal there. 花花公子品牌不但在西方广为人知,在中国也出乎意料地受欢迎。去年,花花公子品牌产品在中国卖出了15亿美元,大约是其全球总收入的三分之一。花花公子的商品在全中国的3500个零售直营店有售——考虑到色情作品在中国并不合法,该业绩就特别值得称道。 Flanders hopes that making the magazine less porny and more mainstream will help make the Playboy-branded products more mainstream as well — and dramatically expand the market for them. Flanders希望杂志不那么色情并且变得更加主流,能使得花花公子品牌的产品也变得更主流——并为产品大幅扩展市场。 Playboy-branded pornography isn't going away 花花公子品牌的色情产品并未离开 There will no longer be naked ladies in Playboy magazine or at Playboy.com, but that doesn't mean we'll stop seeing explicit imagery distributed under the Playboy brand. 裸女将不再出现在《花花公子》杂志和Playboy.com网站上,但我们依然可以在花花公子的品牌之下,看到露骨图像。 In 2011, Playboy signed a deal with the internet porn company Manwin, since renamed MindGeek, to manage many of the company's online properties and television channels. Playboy later regained control over the Playboy.com site, but the rest of Playboy's pornographic empire, including the Playboy Plus subscription service and Playboy TV, continues to be operated by MindGeek. 2011年,花花公子与互联网色情公司Manwin签约,Manwin自此改名为MindGeek,并负责管理花花公子公司的网上资产和电视频道。后来花花公子又收回了Playboy.com网站的控制权,但花花公子色情帝国的其它资产包括Playboy Plus会员服务和Playboy TV将继续由MindGeek运营。 This might mean that Playboy can have the best of both worlds: It could enjoy the commercial benefits of a more mainstream image while continuing to profit indirectly from its pornography business. 这或许意味着花花公子将鱼与熊掌两者兼得:它将从一个更主流的形象获取商业收益,同时继续从其色情产业上间接获利。 On the other hand, if dropping pornography from its website pays big dividends for its licensing business, it's possible that Playboy will seek to shut down its other pornographic properties as well. That might be tricky, since Playboy's licensing agreement with MindGeek runs for 15 years (meaning Playboy might not get control back until 2026). But if Playboy becomes determined to separate itself fully from the pornography business, it might be able to cut a deal with MindGeek to end the deal early, or to choose a new brand name for its pornographic content. 另一方面,倘若将色情内容从网站去除能为其品牌授权业务带来巨大红利,那花花公子也可能关闭其它的色情产业。但这可能有些棘手,因为花花公子与MindGeek达成的授权协议有效期为15年(意味着花花公子在2026年之前可能无法取回控制权)。但假如花花公子决心剥离色情产业,他们或许可以和MindGeek商量提早终止协议,或者为其色情内容选择一个新品牌。 (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]瑞典的民粹浪潮

Sweden’s Populist Surge
瑞典的民粹浪潮

作者:Daniel Pipes @ 2015-8-26
译者:沈沉(@你在何地-sxy)
校对:小册子(@昵称被抢的小册子)
来源:Washington Timeshttp://www.danielpipes.org/16073/sweden-populist-surge

N.B.: This text differs in minor ways from the Washington Times version.
注意:此处文本与《华盛顿时报》发表版稍有不同。

According to the most recent poll, the innocuously-named but ferociously anti-establishment Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna or SD) has the largest support of any political party in Sweden. This news has potentially momentous implications not just for Sweden but for all Europe.

最近的民意调查显示,在瑞典各政治派别中,名称温和无害、但实际极端反建制的瑞典民主党(Sverigedemokraterna 或SD)获得了最高的支持率。这一消息不仅对瑞典,而且对全欧洲都可能有着极为重大的喻意。

3243The Sweden Democrats logo with the slogan “Security & Tradition.”
瑞典民主党的标志,图中口号是“安全与传统”

Sweden is a special place. One of the richest and most peaceful countries in the world (it has not been engaged in armed conflict for two centuries), until recently it was a remarkably homogenous society where socialism, with its optimistic assumption that people are born good and circumstances make them bad, worked and the government enjoyed great prestige. Swedish pride in the country’s accomplishments translates into an ethical superiority symbolized by the oft-heard claim to be a “moral superpower.”

瑞典很是独特。它是世界上最富有、最平静的国家之一(已有两百年未卷入任何武装冲突)。直到不久以前,瑞典仍是一个极为同质的社会,政府声望卓著,社会主义制度行之有效,这一制度乐观地假定人性本善,后天学坏。瑞典人对国家的成就极为自豪,这种自豪还转变成为一种道德优越感,其象征就是他们经常自称的“道德超级大国”。

This heritage has also inspired an intolerance of dissent, however; “Be quiet, follow the consensus, let the bureaucrats carry it out.” The country has become so notorious for its stifling faux-unanimity that I actually heard a Dane recently ask at a 标签:

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Sweden's Populist Surge 瑞典的民粹浪潮 作者:Daniel Pipes @ 2015-8-26 译者:沈沉(@你在何地-sxy) 校对:小册子(@昵称被抢的小册子) 来源:Washington Timeshttp://www.danielpipes.org/16073/sweden-populist-surge N.B.: This text differs in minor ways from the Washington Times version. 注意:此处文本与《华盛顿时报》发表版稍有不同。 According to the most recent poll, the innocuously-named but ferociously anti-establishment Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna or SD) has the largest support of any political party in Sweden. This news has potentially momentous implications not just for Sweden but for all Europe. 最近的民意调查显示,在瑞典各政治派别中,名称温和无害、但实际极端反建制的瑞典民主党(Sverigedemokraterna 或SD)获得了最高的支持率。这一消息不仅对瑞典,而且对全欧洲都可能有着极为重大的喻意。

3243The Sweden Democrats logo with the slogan "Security & Tradition." 瑞典民主党的标志,图中口号是“安全与传统”

Sweden is a special place. One of the richest and most peaceful countries in the world (it has not been engaged in armed conflict for two centuries), until recently it was a remarkably homogenous society where socialism, with its optimistic assumption that people are born good and circumstances make them bad, worked and the government enjoyed great prestige. Swedish pride in the country's accomplishments translates into an ethical superiority symbolized by the oft-heard claim to be a "moral superpower." 瑞典很是独特。它是世界上最富有、最平静的国家之一(已有两百年未卷入任何武装冲突)。直到不久以前,瑞典仍是一个极为同质的社会,政府声望卓著,社会主义制度行之有效,这一制度乐观地假定人性本善,后天学坏。瑞典人对国家的成就极为自豪,这种自豪还转变成为一种道德优越感,其象征就是他们经常自称的“道德超级大国”。 This heritage has also inspired an intolerance of dissent, however; "Be quiet, follow the consensus, let the bureaucrats carry it out." The country has become so notorious for its stifling faux-unanimity that I actually heard a Dane recently ask at a public forum, "Why has Sweden turned into the North Korea of Scandinavia?" 不过,这种传统也导致对异议的不宽容态度。“安静些,随大流,让官员们去做吧。”该国虚假的全民一致令人压抑,这一点早已臭名昭著,我最近还看到一个丹麦人在某公共论坛上问道:“为什么瑞典已经变成斯堪的纳维亚半岛的朝鲜?” Also, Sweden's history creates a no-crisis mentality that militates against the hard-headed, flexible responses needed to cope with current problems the country now faces, especially those connected to waves of mainly Muslim immigrants. As one interlocutor put it to me in Stockholm earlier this month, "Past success has led to current failure." For example, security in Sweden is well below what might find in a country like Bolivia, with few inclinations to make improvements, rendering Islamist violence all but inevitable. 这个国家的历史还塑造了一种不识危机的心性,妨碍了它采取冷静而灵活的回应手段来解决目前所面临的问题,特别是那些跟以穆斯林为主体的移民潮有关的问题。就像是本月初有人在斯德哥尔摩对我说过的那样,“过往的成功导致了今日的失败。”比如,瑞典的安保水平远远不如玻利维亚这类国家,而且看不到什么改善的意愿,所以伊斯兰暴力活动几乎不可避免。 In this stultification, the SD stands out because it offers the only political alternative. Proof of this came in December 2014, when the SD appeared to have the swing vote in a crucial budget vote between the left and right blocs in the country's unicameral legislature, the Riksdag – until all the other seven parties joined together in a grand coalition to deny it any influence. 在这潭无澜死水之中,瑞典民主党因为提供了唯一的政治替代选项而一枝独秀。证据出现于2014年12月,当时该国一院制立法机关瑞典议会的左右两派正在举行一场关键的预算表决,而瑞典民主党似乎掌握了关键的游离选票,最终,其余全部七个党联合起来组成一个超级联盟,以阻止瑞典民主党发挥任何影响。 As this act of desperation suggests, the Sweden Democrats offer a populist – and not, as usually described, a "far right" – brew of policies anathema to all the legacy parties: Foremost, it calls for assimilating legal immigrants, expelling the illegals, and reducing future immigration by at least 90 percent. It also forwards a number of other policies (concerning crime, defense, the European Union, and Israel) far outside the Swedish consensus and utterly obnoxious to the other parties. 这种绝地挣扎的行为表明,瑞典民主党提出的民粹主义——并非通常所说的“极右”——系列政策,令所有老派政党极其生厌:最重要的是,它要求同化合法移民,驱逐非法移民,并将未来的移民数量削减至少90%。它提出的大量其它政策(涉及犯罪、国防、欧盟和以色列)都远远背离瑞典人的既有共识,对其余政党来说面目极为可憎。

3245A subway ad in Stockholm that illustrates the Sweden Democrats' messaging 斯德哥尔摩地铁站展示瑞典民主党立场的广告

With good reason, the establishment hates and fears the SD, pedantically finding any possible fault with the party, starting with its alleged neo-fascist past (though fascist connections are not unique to SD) and going on to the tiniest foibles of its leadership. 主流当权派理所当然对瑞典民主党既仇视又恐惧,吹毛求疵地寻找该党的错误,开始是拿它过去被指是新法西斯主义说事(尽管并非只有瑞典民主党才跟法西斯主义有关联),然后发展到挑剔其领导人的小毛病。 Supporting the SD remains taboo. The national police commissioner once tweeted about "vomiting" on seeing the SD's leader; naturally, his staff dare not acknowledge their supporting for the party. But one officer estimated for me that 50 percent of the police vote SD. 支持瑞典民主党如今仍属禁忌。国家警察总监曾发表一条推文,称其因为遇到了瑞典民主党领导人而“作呕”;他的下属自然不敢承认支持该党。不过曾有警官跟我说,估计50%的警察把票投给了瑞典民主党。

3244The future national police chief's tweet about vomiting in response to the Sweden Democrats' leader. 未来的全国警察首脑关于他因瑞典民主党领导人而作呕的推文。

Despite being ostracized, the SD increasingly connects with Swedes (including some immigrants), giving it substantial electoral gains, roughly doubling its parliamentary vote every four years: from 0.4 percent in 1998 to 1.3 percent in 2002, 2.9 percent in 2006, 5.7 percent in 2010, and 12.9 percent in September 2014. And now, less than a year later, a YouGov poll shows it having nearly doubled again, to 25.2 percent, meaning that it leads the governing Social Democrats (who have only 23.4 percent support) and the major (nominally) right-wing party, the Moderates (with 21 percent). 尽管遭到排斥,但是瑞典民主党与瑞典人(包括部分移民)之间的呼应越来越紧密,因而收获了大量选票。它在议会选举中得到的选票大约每四年翻一倍:从1998年的0.4%到2002年的1.3%,2006年的2.9%,2010年的5.7%,再到2014年的12.9%。而现在,才过了不到一年,YouGov的一项民意调查显示这个数字又翻了将近一倍,到了25.2%,这意味着它已领先于执政的社会民主党(支持率仅23.4%)和主要的(有名无实的)右翼政党温和党(支持率21%)。 No less important, I learned in Stockholm, the intellectual and political climate has shifted. Journalists, policy specialists, and politicians all noted that ideas outside the mainstream just a year ago now receive a hearing. For example, four major newspapers have questioned the consensus in favor of high immigration. 同样重要的是,我在斯德哥尔摩发现,思想和政治气氛已然发生转变。记者、政策专家和政治家们都注意到,仅仅一年前都还处于主流之外的一些观念如今已有人倾听。比如,四家主要报纸已针对支持接纳大量移民的共识提出质疑。 Beside the surging SD vote, this shift results from several factors: the shocking rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which has altered the debate; continued upset at the December compact that excluded the SD from having its due parliamentary influence; and the receding memory of Anders Behring Breivik's 2011 murderous rampage in Norway. 除了瑞典民主党得票激增之外,这种转变还源于几个其它因素:伊斯兰国(ISIS)的惊人崛起,扭转了争论的态势;对去年12月阻止瑞典民主党在议会发挥其应有影响力的联合行动持续失望;对安德斯·贝林·布雷维克2011年在挪威制造残忍屠杀的记忆不断消退【译注:布雷维克是新纳粹分子】。 In all, it appears that denial and censorship can only continue for so long before the instinct of self-preservation kicks in. The Western country most prone to national suicide is possibly waking up from its stupor. If this change can take place in Sweden, the "North Korea of Scandinavia," it can, and likely will, occur elsewhere in Europe. 总而言之,一旦自我保护的本能开始起作用,看来排拒和审查就难以继续。这个最有可能走向“国家自杀”【译注:指以大量接纳异文化特别是伊斯兰文化移民并不加同化为政治正确】的西方国家可能正从麻木中醒来。如果这种变化可以发生在瑞典这个“斯堪的纳维亚半岛的朝鲜”,那么它就同样可以,而且很可能,出现在欧洲其它地方。 (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]数字媒体与互动性报告,2015

Snapshots of Connected and Interactive in 2015
数字媒体与互动性报告,2015

作者:Timothy Taylor @ 2015-8-21
译者:路嘉宾(@晚上不买白天买不到)
校对:小册子(@昵称被抢的小册子)
来源:CONVERSABLE ECONOMIST,http://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2015/08/snapshots-of-connected-and-interactive.html

For 20 years, Mary Meeker–now of the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers–has been presenting an annual overview of Internet trends that has become semi-legendary in the industry. If you’d like to listen to a speaker go through 196 Powerpoint slides in 25 minutes, the link to her presentation at the Internet Trends 2015–Code Conference on May 27, 2015 is here. If you just want the slides they are here. For those who like taking a drink from a fire hose of information, this presentation is for you.

20年来,现正供职于风险投资公司KPCB(凯鹏华盈)的玛丽·米克每年都会发布互联网发展趋势的年度报告,这已经成为了业界的半个传奇。如果你想通过扬声器听她用25分钟时间给你过一遍196页的PPT,她在2015年5月27日举行的code conference上关于2015年互联网发展趋势的演讲链接在这里。如果你只是想要幻灯片的话它们在这里。这些演讲资料是为那些喜欢从信息消防龙头里大喝一通的人准备的。

Here, I’ll just pass along a few slides that particularly caught my eye, on the general theme of how our interaction with media is evolving. The old model is about turning a station on or off, or going to a certain website to read what’s there. The new model is toward greater interactivity. For example, here’s a figuring that starts with the VCR and cable television back in the 1970s, as way in which users began to exercise more control over media, and points to the many ways in which this trend has expanded.

在这里,我将展示一些特别吸引我眼球的幻灯片,其宏观主题是关于我们与媒体的互动是如何演变的。旧的模式主要就是打开或者关闭一个电台/电视台,或者去某个网站阅读其中的内容。新的模式则具有更强的互动性。例如,这里有一幅以1970年代的盒式磁带录像机(VCR)及有线电视为起始的图表,说明用户如何开始对媒体有更多的控制,并且指出了这种趋势得以延续的许多途径。

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Snapshots of Connected and Interactive in 2015 数字媒体与互动性报告,2015 作者:Timothy Taylor @ 2015-8-21 译者:路嘉宾(@晚上不买白天买不到) 校对:小册子(@昵称被抢的小册子) 来源:CONVERSABLE ECONOMIST,http://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2015/08/snapshots-of-connected-and-interactive.html For 20 years, Mary Meeker--now of the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers--has been presenting an annual overview of Internet trends that has become semi-legendary in the industry. If you'd like to listen to a speaker go through 196 Powerpoint slides in 25 minutes, the link to her presentation at the Internet Trends 2015--Code Conference on May 27, 2015 is here. If you just want the slides they are here. For those who like taking a drink from a fire hose of information, this presentation is for you. 20年来,现正供职于风险投资公司KPCB(凯鹏华盈)的玛丽·米克每年都会发布互联网发展趋势的年度报告,这已经成为了业界的半个传奇。如果你想通过扬声器听她用25分钟时间给你过一遍196页的PPT,她在2015年5月27日举行的code conference上关于2015年互联网发展趋势的演讲链接在这里。如果你只是想要幻灯片的话它们在这里。这些演讲资料是为那些喜欢从信息消防龙头里大喝一通的人准备的。 Here, I'll just pass along a few slides that particularly caught my eye, on the general theme of how our interaction with media is evolving. The old model is about turning a station on or off, or going to a certain website to read what's there. The new model is toward greater interactivity. For example, here's a figuring that starts with the VCR and cable television back in the 1970s, as way in which users began to exercise more control over media, and points to the many ways in which this trend has expanded. 在这里,我将展示一些特别吸引我眼球的幻灯片,其宏观主题是关于我们与媒体的互动是如何演变的。旧的模式主要就是打开或者关闭一个电台/电视台,或者去某个网站阅读其中的内容。新的模式则具有更强的互动性。例如,这里有一幅以1970年代的盒式磁带录像机(VCR)及有线电视为起始的图表,说明用户如何开始对媒体有更多的控制,并且指出了这种趋势得以延续的许多途径。 meeker 1改 Of course, this change has now gone well beyond the ability to choose which movie to watch. Interactivity involves both individuals posting content, and looking at content posted by others. For example, YouTube reports that 300 hours of video are uploaded to the site every minute, Meeker offers a graph showing that Facebook is now up to 4 billion video views per day. 当然,这种变化早已远远超越了能选择观看哪部电影的程度。交互性既包括独立发布内容,也包括观看其他用户发布的内容。例如,Youtube报称每分钟有300小时时长的视频被上传到其网站上。Meeker则提供了一份图表,显示Facebook现在每天的视频浏览多达40亿次。 meeker 3改 Of course, this use of media isn't just about watching cat videos. It's more and more using mobile devices like smartphones or tablets for many purposes: news, directions, events, and more. 当然,如此使用媒体不仅仅是为了观看猫咪视频而已。有越来越多像智能手机和平板电脑这类的移动设备被用于各种各样的用途:新闻、导航、日程等。 meeker 5改 Indeed, many of the "millennials" in the 18-34 age bracket are umbilically attached to their smartphones. 的确,许多处于18至34岁年龄段的“千禧一代”就像胎儿对脐带那样依赖他们的智能手机。 meeker 4改 The upshot of these kinds of changes is a rapid growth in the time spent each day using digital media---expecially with mobile connections. US adults are now up to more than five hours a day with digital media, double the level of seven years ago. 这种变化带来的结果是每天消耗在数字媒体的时间快速增长,特别是当有移动网络的时候。美国的成年人如今每天接触数字媒体的时间可长达五个小时,是七年前的两倍。 meeker 2改 (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——

粪肥市场与城市卫生

【2015-12-10】

@baidu冷兵器吧 依靠以自豪感为目的的历史教育和许多义和团知识分子们,总是强调老欧洲粪便垃圾满地污水横流,街道如何狭窄等等,以此制造一种印象——虽然近现代我们是不行了,可是我们祖宗可比西方祖宗阔的多啦,不用去学什么鸟西方!但,中国真能嘲笑古代欧洲脏乱差吗? http://t.cn/RUsEyYH 中国能嘲笑古代欧洲脏乱差吗?

@战争史研究WHS:汉长安城至北周时“水皆咸卤,不甚宜人”,这个水指的是地下水。八百年间城市粪尿渗入地表,(more...)

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【2015-12-10】 @baidu冷兵器吧 依靠以自豪感为目的的历史教育和许多义和团知识分子们,总是强调老欧洲粪便垃圾满地污水横流,街道如何狭窄等等,以此制造一种印象——虽然近现代我们是不行了,可是我们祖宗可比西方祖宗阔的多啦,不用去学什么鸟西方!但,中国真能嘲笑古代欧洲脏乱差吗? http://t.cn/RUsEyYH 中国能嘲笑古代欧洲脏乱差吗? @战争史研究WHS:汉长安城至北周时“水皆咸卤,不甚宜人”,这个水指的是地下水。八百年间城市粪尿渗入地表,影响地下水质。所以隋朝才放弃汉长安城,在其南边营建大兴城 @whigzhou: 对佛山、汉口等商业城市和都城做个比较研究可能会有点意思,我毫无根据的猜,当行会在城市管理中起较大作用时,卫生条件会更好 @whigzhou: 另外,城市面积越大,屎尿处理越难,因为古代运输条件下,屎尿的市场价格随距离递减得极快,当有效供应半径内农民对屎尿的需求量超出城市生产量时,屎尿收购价格便是正的,无需额外激励,城镇和小城市大概可以满足这一条件,而上百万人的大都市就不好说了。 @whigzhou: 所以,同等人口规模下,居住密度越高,屎尿处理越容易,这可能和一般人都直觉相反  
千年等一淹

【2015-12-08】

@吴红波 出席了挪威外交部举办的“眼见为实”北极专题活动。北极正在加速融化已为不争事实。挪威官方讲,北极冰储量如全融化,将使海平面上升7米!不知你家海拔多高?看来治理气候变暖真的可不容缓了!

@南洋富商饱醉豚: 你们这些环保蠢货有多蠢。北极的冰若全化了,俄罗斯加拿大格陵兰可以移民80亿人口。而把沿海堤坝提高7米,实在是太省钱了,也就是到蓝翔找几个挖掘机工人。

@whigzhou: 这种幅度的海平面上升就算真的发生,也需要上千年时间,暖(more...)

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【2015-12-08】 @吴红波 出席了挪威外交部举办的“眼见为实”北极专题活动。北极正在加速融化已为不争事实。挪威官方讲,北极冰储量如全融化,将使海平面上升7米!不知你家海拔多高?看来治理气候变暖真的可不容缓了! @南洋富商饱醉豚: 你们这些环保蠢货有多蠢。北极的冰若全化了,俄罗斯加拿大格陵兰可以移民80亿人口。而把沿海堤坝提高7米,实在是太省钱了,也就是到蓝翔找几个挖掘机工人。 @whigzhou: 这种幅度的海平面上升就算真的发生,也需要上千年时间,暖球恐吓党总是假定世人会傻等千年等着被淹死 @whigzhou: 此类忽悠无非利用受众对尺度的不敏感,好像一千年后你的子孙们还会生活在同样的城市,住在同样的房子里,以同样的方式生产粮食,傻等在原地,完全无视因暖化而变得宜居的数千万平方公里土地 @whigzhou: 暖球党最离奇的说法是暖化会导致干旱增加,得烧掉多少历史书才能让人相信这一点啊,可不把地球都给烧热了~ @whigzhou: 真信暖球党的人里面,应该没什么有钱人,否则至少其中一部分早就冲到加拿大冻土带去买土地了吧,我还是那句话,愿赌才是真信  
千古一相

【2015-12-05】

@朱世巍 日本政府将采取强力措施促进农地集约化经营:对放弃耕种的土地增税;对长期出租的土地减税

@朱世巍:日本所面临的最艰巨问题,1是宪法,2个人口,3是农业。安倍似乎是真心要解决这三大难题——果然不是一个混日子的首相

@李佳苏勒Iridium: 咱大大战后第一相打底儿,千古一相封顶。看能做到哪儿。

@熊也餐厅: 不搞凯恩斯主义更好我得写信提醒他老一下。

@whigzhou: 这条政策比他的凯恩斯主义更蠢~

@whigzhou: 安倍就是个强国家主义者,只不过恰(more...)

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【2015-12-05】 @朱世巍 日本政府将采取强力措施促进农地集约化经营:对放弃耕种的土地增税;对长期出租的土地减税 @朱世巍:日本所面临的最艰巨问题,1是宪法,2个人口,3是农业。安倍似乎是真心要解决这三大难题——果然不是一个混日子的首相 @李佳苏勒Iridium: 咱大大战后第一相打底儿,千古一相封顶。看能做到哪儿。 @熊也餐厅: 不搞凯恩斯主义更好我得写信提醒他老一下。 @whigzhou: 这条政策比他的凯恩斯主义更蠢~ @whigzhou: 安倍就是个强国家主义者,只不过恰好是右翼国家主义而已 @李佳苏勒Iridium: 在你球村,五分之一的人生活在一个极权政权之下,没有人是能够独善其身的,你不咬蛇并不会保证蛇不咬你。共产党用黑金炸美国政客,关起门来搞自由主义行吗?门能关上吗?埃及之恶不在压榨费拉,而在腐蚀罗马。先发制人好 @whigzhou: 这些跟他愚蠢的经济政策有啥关系?自削国力以先发制人? @whigzhou: 要让日本恢复活力,有个(说起来)简单的办法:解除一切与土地和住房有关的用途管制、流通管制、租金管制,卖掉全部非军用国有土地,让房价降下来,等宅男宅女都住上大浩斯,就愿意生孩子了,补贴农业,保护耕地,惩罚弃耕,显然都与此背道而驰 @熊也餐厅:弃用雇佣终身制。弃日语讲英语。 @whigzhou: 终身雇佣、不肯破产之类是文化特性,政府管不了也不该管,但管制、补贴、财政政策是政府一手制订的  
文字与诗歌

【2015-12-03】

@whigzhou: 古代诗歌中大量使用的重复、排比、比兴、衬托等表现手法,都是前文字时代特色,功能在于以信息高冗余率来换取复制传播的保真度和抗干扰性,所以一旦文字和书写介质普及,这些手法的使用率就迅速下降。

@whigzhou: 无文字社会的巫术咒语也大量使用此类手法。

 

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【2015-12-03】 @whigzhou: 古代诗歌中大量使用的重复、排比、比兴、衬托等表现手法,都是前文字时代特色,功能在于以信息高冗余率来换取复制传播的保真度和抗干扰性,所以一旦文字和书写介质普及,这些手法的使用率就迅速下降。 @whigzhou: 无文字社会的巫术咒语也大量使用此类手法。  
私校经历与社会成就

【2015-12-02】

@海德沙龙 《私立学校与社会成就》在英国,43%的高级律师、54%的行政总监、51%的高级医生以及54%的新闻界领袖念过私立学校,而同时只有7%
的儿童在私校读书,那么私校经历与社会成就之间的关系,究竟是如何产生的?是因为富家子既容易上私校又容易晋身,还是私校帮助了晋身,还是别的原因?

@whigzhou: 作者没给出结论,但综合文章所提供的各方面数据,我得到的印象是:那些从小就表现出有出息迹象的孩子,家长(more...)

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【2015-12-02】 @海德沙龙 《私立学校与社会成就》在英国,43%的高级律师、54%的行政总监、51%的高级医生以及54%的新闻界领袖念过私立学校,而同时只有7% 的儿童在私校读书,那么私校经历与社会成就之间的关系,究竟是如何产生的?是因为富家子既容易上私校又容易晋身,还是私校帮助了晋身,还是别的原因? @whigzhou: 作者没给出结论,但综合文章所提供的各方面数据,我得到的印象是:那些从小就表现出有出息迹象的孩子,家长往往勒紧裤带也要送进私校,这一选择机制大概可以解释私校与社会成就之关系的大部分,剩下的小部分由私校经历本身所贡献。 @whigzhou: 果真如此的话,那差不多就是说:童年表现出有出息潜力的孩子,长大了往往真的会有出息,很平凡的事实嘛~  
革命小将

【2015-12-01】

@whigzhou: 美国校园似乎进入了一种末日狂欢般的景象,左派正声嘶力竭的向世人证明自己的蛮横和疯狂~ http://t.cn/RUeppl7

@whigzhou: 最近这些闹剧有意思的地方是,挨揍的大多也是白左,估计平时PC也没少讲,只是没想到革命小将闹得这么疯,火烧到自己身上了,结果抵抗起来也是毫无底气,真正有力的回应都来自校园外面,这就好比文革里被批斗也都不是什么好鸟,好人早就逃跑或(more...)

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【2015-12-01】 @whigzhou: 美国校园似乎进入了一种末日狂欢般的景象,左派正声嘶力竭的向世人证明自己的蛮横和疯狂~ http://t.cn/RUeppl7 @whigzhou: 最近这些闹剧有意思的地方是,挨揍的大多也是白左,估计平时PC也没少讲,只是没想到革命小将闹得这么疯,火烧到自己身上了,结果抵抗起来也是毫无底气,真正有力的回应都来自校园外面,这就好比文革里被批斗也都不是什么好鸟,好人早就逃跑或者黑五类了,顶多只有陪斗的份~  
殖民者与印第安人

过感恩节,“白人屠杀印第安人”的话题又冒了出来,大伯我也说两句。

1)所谓种族灭绝当然是胡扯,极左分子新近编造的“人民历史”,不值一驳;

2)殖民者与土著确实有不少冲突,其中一个重要原因是定居者与非定居者对土地权利有着截然不同的观念;

3)殖民早期这个问题并不太严重,因为相对于北美的广阔地域,殖民者人数极少,他们与土著所偏爱的生态位也十分不同;

4)殖民者与印第安人的关系因美国独立而大幅恶化,后来的西进运动(特别是铁路开始向西延伸后)更加剧了冲突,时而发展成战争;

5)这一(more...)

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过感恩节,“白人屠杀印第安人”的话题又冒了出来,大伯我也说两句。 1)所谓种族灭绝当然是胡扯,极左分子新近编造的“人民历史”,不值一驳; 2)殖民者与土著确实有不少冲突,其中一个重要原因是定居者与非定居者对土地权利有着截然不同的观念; 3)殖民早期这个问题并不太严重,因为相对于北美的广阔地域,殖民者人数极少,他们与土著所偏爱的生态位也十分不同; 4)殖民者与印第安人的关系因美国独立而大幅恶化,后来的西进运动(特别是铁路开始向西延伸后)更加剧了冲突,时而发展成战争; 5)这一转折的原因之一是人口增长,第二个原因也很重要:殖民者不再受英国政府的约束,在此之前,帝国的北美政策是,保障殖民者福祉的同时,尽可能拉拢印第安人,将其视为对抗法国和西班牙的盟友,所以需要约束殖民者过度向阿巴拉契亚以西扩张,至少扩张势头不要那么猛烈; 6)独立之后,在对待土著的态度上也分成两派,大致上,越是偏向精英主义的,越倾向温和友善政策,越是平民主义的,越倾向强硬敌对扩张政策,后者的代表是民主党之父安德鲁·杰克逊,其主要名声、成就和政治资本,就是打印第安人(顺便一提,联邦政府的系统性腐败也是从他开始的); 7)这两派的分歧让人想起罗马故事,格拉古兄弟也是民粹主义者,哥哥提比略想用土地改革(没收大地产分给失业穷人)讨好贫民,结果被打死了,十年后,弟弟想出了更好的办法:去掠夺新近归附小亚细亚属国的财富来给穷人发福利,这样既讨好了穷人,也不得罪贵族; 8)一般来说,一个强国,若民粹分子得势或上台,其邻国、友邦、属国的平民往往没好果子吃,希特勒和查韦斯就不说了,美国工会得势的年代,亚洲工人就不可能有现在这么多工作机会,美国工会的残余势力至今还在喊着要把就业机会夺回来;    
有关价值认同的两种态度

【2015-11-29】

@研二公知苗: 不是法国变了,法国一直是强制文化同化政策实施最彻底的国家,所有“强制世俗化”论者想过的招法国都对移民用过,德国不给土耳其劳工(甚至在德国出生的后代)公民权也保守诟病。不是所有问题都能靠骂左派解决。

@whigzhou: 对价值认同的要求和强制同化是两码事,虽然有时候听起来有点像

@whigzhou: 一种态度是:我们现有的共同体有赖于一些基本的价值认同,假如你不接受这些价值,我们就把你拒绝在共同体之外,假如你威胁到共同体,我们就要设法削弱、压制或消灭你,但我们未必有兴趣改造或同化你

(more...)
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【2015-11-29】 @研二公知苗: 不是法国变了,法国一直是强制文化同化政策实施最彻底的国家,所有“强制世俗化”论者想过的招法国都对移民用过,德国不给土耳其劳工(甚至在德国出生的后代)公民权也保守诟病。不是所有问题都能靠骂左派解决。 @whigzhou: 对价值认同的要求和强制同化是两码事,虽然有时候听起来有点像 @whigzhou: 一种态度是:我们现有的共同体有赖于一些基本的价值认同,假如你不接受这些价值,我们就把你拒绝在共同体之外,假如你威胁到共同体,我们就要设法削弱、压制或消灭你,但我们未必有兴趣改造或同化你 @whigzhou: 假如你们像Amish那样表明自己是无害的,那么尽管你们的文化和价值观和我们格格不入,也不妨碍我们容忍你存在,总之,这种态度是共同体自我中心的,而非普世主义的,共同体内外适用不同行为规范,对改造和同化他人没有兴趣,当然,假如他人主动追随和归化,那也是好的。 @whigzhou: 另一种态度是:人类拥有一组共同价值,它代表着文明和进步,是普世的,是公共之“善”,国家经由社会契约而具有了推行这些价值的当然合法性,它有义务将这些善推及于全人类,将每个人改造成合格公民 @whigzhou: 法左、马左、进步主义、五四青年,都是后一种倾向,当年的种族改良计划和优生学运动,都是左翼进步主义推动的,直到60年代之前,在美国推动种族主义政策最起劲的,也向来是进步左派 @whigzhou: 归结起来,两种态度的共同点是:都认识到社会制度需要一些价值共识,而根本的分歧点在于普世性,普世主义者认为,这些共同价值是基于共同人性的自然价值,生活在这些价值得到尊重的社会,是人与生俱来的自然权利,因而保护这些权利的规范是普适的自然法,不存在共同体内外之分。 @whigzhou: 回到法国的同化政策,最初,法左的普世主义要求他们去改造殖民地文化,结果只不过是破坏了当地传统,当北非移民大批涌入时,普世主义又让他们无法拒绝,结果只好用国家权力强行同化,当同化政策看起来也不管用时,多元化政策就被提了出来。 @whigzhou: 但欧式多元化其实并非多元文化共存,而是修正原有的价值共识,令其容纳新元素(伊斯兰),排挤旧元素(基督教),最终形成的文化仍是高度单一和排他性的,只是受排挤压制的少数派换了人 @谢小姜:移民难民来的时候有谁会说“我不接受你们的价值”? @whigzhou: 如果来自某个群体或某种文化的移民(统计上)总是违背入籍誓言并危及共同体,可以停止接纳这一来源的移民啊,共同体不是一定要接纳任何来源的移民  
超越邓巴数系列

#1:规模局限的含义
#2:扩张的动力
#3:祖先的记忆
#4:婚姻粘结剂
#5:青春的躁动
#6:武人的兴起
#7:暴力的垄断

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超越邓巴数#7:暴力的垄断

超越邓巴数#7:暴力的垄断
辉格
2015年11月2日

马克斯·韦伯(Max Webb)将国家定义为一种垄断暴力的实体,即,它宣称在其领地内,只有它自己或经它允许,才能合法的使用暴力;这一定义(或至少作为判别标准之一)被政治学家普遍采纳,它确实抓住了国家的核心特征,对暴力的垄断,是私人武装组织向国家转变过程中的关键一步,假如一个社会始终没有任何组织能做到这一点,它便处于无政府状态。

之所以会发生这样的转变,是出于利益最大化的需要,当武装组织从特定劫掠对象那里榨取财富时,假如他预期这是与对方的最后一次遭遇,那么最优策略便是洗劫一空,但是由于活动范围总是受限于地理、交通和生态条件,劫掠者往往只能从十分有限的一群受害者那里渔利,此时,竭泽而渔,毁坏潜在劫掠对象的生计,或将其吓跑,皆非最佳策略。

这一点和经济学家阿瑟·拉弗( 标签: | |

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超越邓巴数#7:暴力的垄断 辉格 2015年11月2日 马克斯·韦伯([[Max Webb]])将国家定义为一种垄断暴力的实体,即,它宣称在其领地内,只有它自己或经它允许,才能合法的使用暴力;这一定义(或至少作为判别标准之一)被政治学家普遍采纳,它确实抓住了国家的核心特征,对暴力的垄断,是私人武装组织向国家转变过程中的关键一步,假如一个社会始终没有任何组织能做到这一点,它便处于无政府状态。 之所以会发生这样的转变,是出于利益最大化的需要,当武装组织从特定劫掠对象那里榨取财富时,假如他预期这是与对方的最后一次遭遇,那么最优策略便是洗劫一空,但是由于活动范围总是受限于地理、交通和生态条件,劫掠者往往只能从十分有限的一群受害者那里渔利,此时,竭泽而渔,毁坏潜在劫掠对象的生计,或将其吓跑,皆非最佳策略。 这一点和经济学家阿瑟·拉弗([[Arthur Laffer]])就政府税收政策所提出的一条原理类似:当税率从低水平提升时,税入增加,但税率提升同时也在削弱税基,达到某个临界点之后,继续提高税率反而会减少税入;同样,在长期劫掠/勒索关系中,也存在一个相当于拉弗极限的最优剥削策略。 然而,要实施最优剥削策略,就必须垄断暴力,否则,你不竭泽而渔,别人也会,你精心呵护税基,结果却只是让竞争者占了便宜;为了避免这种特殊的公地悲剧,武装组织就需要在其势力范围内排除竞争者,从而将公地私有化,变成专属领地。 一旦垄断地位建立起来,这些组织的行为模式也随之而改变,索取定期贡赋将取代机会主义的劫掠行动,因为定期收保护费比伺机劫掠省事多了,遭遇的反抗也少得多,对于无力保护自己的弱者,纳贡也好过整日担惊受怕、生死难卜,固定的纳贡-保护关系对双方都是更有效率的安排,它避免了对抗所造成的阻值耗散,当然,这一安排的道德含义则另当别论。 实际上,取得优势地位的武装组织,只要有机会,总是会谋求在自己地盘内垄断暴力并建立此类纳贡保护关系,尽管我们很难追溯国家起源之前的这段发展,但从那些因各种原因而陷入无政府状态的社会中,可以看到这一模式反复出现,其中被研究的最多的一个例子,是西西里黑手党。 西西里的历史是被一连串形形色色的外来政权轮番转手的过程,就像一个成长过程中换了十几次爹妈的苦命孩子,民众对政权历来深怀疏离感和不信任;拿破仑战争期间英国人推行的土地改革逐渐瓦解了原有的封建体系,特别是长子继承制的废除,导致贵族的大地产不断分割,经过两代人之后,西西里的土地主数量从两千增加到了两万,和土地贵族相比,这些小地产主既无能力也无意愿保留他们的私人武装以维持地方秩序。 1860年的加里波第革命给了西西里本已脆弱不堪的社会秩序以致命一击,一时盗贼蜂起,但混乱并未持续太久,一种新型组织很快扮演起了地方秩序维护者的角色,它通常由一位权势人物(主要是早先替贵族打理地产的管家)网罗数十位追随者,组成恩主-门客关系,向当地土地主和商户勒索保护费,同时替他们防范盗贼,摆平争端,以及对抗政府管制和逃避关税。 如同其他黑社会组织一样,明确领地边界并在边界内实施垄断,是每个黑手党的头号诉求,领地之争也是各黑手党组织(名为“家族”,其实并非血缘组织)之间时而发生火并的主要原因;最常见的领地纷争,发生在一个家族为执行其保护任务而需要进入另一家族领地打击盗贼时,或者当某家族首领身亡,其旧“客户”安全信心动摇,转而向其他家族寻求保护时;为了减少领地纠纷,各黑手党家族还组成了被称为“委员会”的协调机构。 垄断暴力有着重要的制度含义,它迫使垄断者不得不扮演起纠纷裁决者的角色,而同时禁止针对其客户的同态复仇和自我执行等传统自力救济措施,因为这些措施很难和普通攻击或勒索行动区分开来,而后两种都是对他本人的直接挑战;比如甲从乙店里强行拿走几袋面粉,说是乙欠他的,于是乙向收了他保护费的丙求助,此时丙就必须查明实情之后才能决定如何行事,特别是当甲也是他的客户时,更不能单听偏信。 然而,等到自力救济既已发生,再要查明真相并实施矫正,就会变得非常困难,而且自力救济往往会发展成轮番报复和血仇循环,造成大量不可逆的后果,最初的是非曲直早已湮没于漫长纷争之中,后果更是无从矫正,如此一来,组织所提供的保护便失去了可信度,所以,可行的做法是干脆禁止自力救济(当然会有一些必要的豁免,比如紧急情况下的自卫),一切纠纷必须提交保护者裁决后才可实施矫正行动。 这样,保护组织便承担起了一种司法职能,它不同于传统部落社会常见的司法机制,后者的仲裁结果通常没有强制性,其约束力仅仅来自熟人社会的道德压力,因为这些社会缺乏拥有压倒性武力的组织可为裁决提供执行力,而且即便有这能力也未必有意愿,因为强制执行总要得罪一方,而社会秩序和其他公共品一样,大家都希望搭便车,却不愿为维护它而付出高昂代价,但垄断性保护组织就不同了,领地内的秩序直接关系到保护费收益,同时他也拥有执行能力。 对暴力的垄断不仅表现为抵御外部攻击和压制内部冲突,也体现在对对外攻击行动的约束上,因为攻击会招致报复,而报复行动常无差别的落在整个群体头上,这既抬高了保护成本,也会破坏保护组织与邻近组织的友好关系,从而危及其领地控制,所以只有符合组织外交策略的对外攻击才会被允许,假如没有这样的约束力,外交策略便无法展开;那个人人都是战士,谁都可以自由组队、自主选择对象发起攻击的时代,一去不复返了。 正如诺齐克在《无政府、国家与乌托邦》中所分析那样的,在某一群体内取得支配地位的保护组织,为了有效履行其保护责任,不得不约束所有群体成员的行为,无论是不是向其缴纳保护费的客户;结果,无论出于裁决纠纷的需要,还是约束行动的需要,保护组织必须向群体成员施加一套行为规范,它将部分取代原先由自发协调所形成的社会习俗。 至此为止,政治学家用于识别一个国家的那些元素,已逐一就绪了:一个职业化的统治团队,一块边界明确的领地,对暴力的垄断,常规化的财政来源,向社会成员施加一套行为规范,具有强制执行力的司法系统;从霍布斯自然状态中,巨人利维坦正森然浮现。 在此过程中,并没有自由人自愿向利维坦让渡权利这样的事情,只有威胁和恐惧之下基于利益考虑所达成的均衡,一些社会契约论所宣称的让渡契约,只是基于后来才出现的政治伦理,为将国家起源过程合理化而作出的理论虚构,这些伦理原则显然不存在于前国家社会,因而不可能被用来规范最初的让渡和缔约过程,相反,它们是国家所建立的和平秩序长期持续的结果,有些甚至只是近代化过程的新近产物。 国家的诞生改变了社会结构的发展方向和节奏,将大型社会的组织从社会关系协调问题转变成了政治组织和控制经营问题,统治团队无须与被统治的各群体保持熟人关系,只须通过定期征收赋税、裁决纠纷和惩罚叛逆来反复宣示统治权,在文官系统建立起来之后,核心权力集团甚至无须与下层官僚保持熟人关系,只须确保他们既可履行职责又不掌握武力即可。 只要能组建起一个紧密合作且拥有压倒性武力的统治团队,便可通过征服既有的、已经略具规模的定居社会而创建大型国家;在15世纪以前,秘鲁高原从未有过比酋邦更大的政治实体,每个酋邦约几万人,印加帝国的创建者只用了数十年时间,便逐个征服了这些酋邦,建立了一个拥有上百万平方公里领土、上千万臣民的帝国,这还是在没有车马和文字的条件下做到的。 在有了更强大的武器(特别是进攻武器)、更好的交通和通信工具、基于文字的更高效管理与控制手段之后,征服将更迅速,统治也更有效,所以,伴随着每一次重大技术和组织创新,就会有一轮大型国家创建运动,秦灭六国从长平之战算起也只用了40年,最后决战只花了10年,成吉思汗家族在三代之内就征服了大半个文明世界,如此快速而大跨度的征服,说明征服者根本不需要和被征服者具有文化同质性,而这是以往维系社会的必要纽带。 大型国家在其广阔领地中所建立的和平秩序,将众多小社会连结成了大社会,尽管占人口多数(常有90%左右)的农民仍生活在村镇庄园等小型熟人社会,但和平条件下变得更繁荣的分工和贸易,也孕育了许多更具流动性的专业阶层,武士、文官、行商、工匠、艺人,其活动范围和社会关系都突破了旧有的社区边界和家族结构,他们不仅在各社群之间建立了交流网络和联系纽带,也创造了一种全国范围的共同文化和通用语。 春秋战国时期“士”阶层的兴起演示了这一效果,士最初源自那些在宗法制下难有出头机会的诸侯幼子们,因为长子继承制,幼支小宗的地位随世代更替而不断跌落,特别是当土地充分开发、领地扩张也达到极限之后,次级分封无法继续,小宗子弟为维持其社会地位,必须发展某种专业技能,以求服务于某位领主。 早期的士大多是武士,因为武人是最早分化出的专业阶层,但逐渐的,他们发现还有众多专业技能可以发展,于是有了文士、谋士、策士、术士、方士……,最终形成所谓诸子百家;得益于贵族之间广泛的姻亲关系,他们都能在各国找到接待和庇护者,有能力周游列国寻找效力机会,因而这一阶层变得极具流动性,到战国时,他们已在各国取代世袭公卿的地位,也正是在此期间,该阶层创造并代表了华夏共同文化和民族认同。 这样,至少对于精英阶层,他们所面对并且感知到的,俨然已是个六合四海、布履星罗、轮运辐集、熙熙攘攘的大社会了。