評論
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You know, in the Middle Ages, in England, when you met a very poor person, that person would be described as an "unfortunate"
你知道，在中世紀的英國，當你遇見一個非常窮苦的人，你會認為他“不走運”，
literally, somebody who had not been blessed by fortune, an unfortunate.
直接地說，那些不被幸運之神眷顧的人，不幸的人。
Nowadays, particularly in the United States, if you meet someone at the bottom of society,
現如今，尤其在美國，如果人們遇見一些社會底層的人，
they may unkindly be described as a "loser."
他們被刻薄地形容成“失敗者”。
There's a real difference between an unfortunate and a loser,
“不走運”和“失敗者”中間有很大的差別，
and that shows 400 years of evolution in society and our belief in who is responsible for our lives.
這表現了四百年的社會演變，我們對誰該為人生負責看法的改變。
It's no longer the gods, it's us. We're in the driving seat.
神不再掌握我們的命運，我們掌握自己的人生。
That's exhilarating if you're doing well, and very crushing if you're not.
如果你做的很好，這是件令人愉快的事。相反的情況，就很令人沮喪。
It leads, in the worst cases -- in the analysis of a sociologist like Emil Durkheim
社會學家Emil Durkheim分析發現，
it leads to increased rates of suicide.
這提高了自殺率。
There are more suicides in developed, individualistic countries than in any other part of the world.
追求個人主義的發達國家的自殺率高過于世界上其它地方。
And some of the reason for that is that people take what happens to them extremely personally
原因是人們把發生在自己身上的事情全當作自己的責任，
they own their success, but they also own their failure.
人們擁有成功，也擁有失敗。
Is there any relief from some of these pressures that I've been outlining? I think there is.
有什么方法可以解決剛才提到的這些焦慮呢？是有的。
I just want to turn to a few of them. Let's take meritocracy.
我想提出幾項。先說“功績主義”。
This idea that everybody deserves to get where they get to, I think it's a crazy idea, completely crazy.
也就是相信每個人的地位忠實呈現他的能力，我認為這種想法太瘋狂了。
I will support any politician of Left and Right, with any halfway-decent meritocratic idea; I am a meritocrat in that sense.
我可以支持所有相信這個想法的，無論是左傾還是右傾的政治家，我同樣相信功績主義。
But I think it's insane to believe that we will ever make a society that is genuinely meritocratic; it's an impossible dream.
但我認為一個完全徹底以能力取決地位的社會是個不可能的夢想。
The idea that we will make a society where literally everybody is graded,
這種我們能創造一個每個人的能力都忠實地被分級的想法，
the good at the top, bad at the bottom, exactly done as it should be, is impossible.
好的就到頂端，壞的就到底部，而且保證過程毫無差錯，這是不可能的。
There are simply too many random factors:
這世上有太多偶然的契機：
accidents, accidents of birth, accidents of things dropping on people's heads, illnesses, etc.
不同的機運，出身，疾病，從天而降的意外等等。
We will never get to grade them, never get to grade people as they should.
我們卻無法將這些因素分級，無法完全忠實的將人分級。
