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How the Elites Lost Their Grip
精英如何喪失了掌控地位
In 2019 America's 1% behaved badly—and helped bring about a reckoning with capitalism.
2019年，美國1%的精英階層表現不佳——甚至引發了民眾對資本主義的重新審視。
By Anand Giridharadas
文/阿南德·吉里達達斯
On march 29, 2003, at a wedding reception in the Harvard Faculty Club,
2003年3月29日，在哈佛大學教師俱樂部舉行的一場婚宴上，
Lawrence W. Reed gave a toast in honor of the friend whom he was serving as best man—one Joseph P. Overton.
身為伴郎的勞倫斯·W·里德向他的新郎朋友，一位名叫約瑟夫·P·奧弗頓的男子祝酒。
Overton had worked at Dow Chemical;
奧弗頓曾在陶氏化學工作，
he had since become an executive at a free-market, small-government think tank in central Michigan.
后來，他去了密歇根州中部某主張自由市場、小規模政府智庫做了一名高管。
Among his duties at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy was raising money,
在麥基納克公共政策中心，他的工作內容包括籌集資金，
and in doing so, he had made a brochure that would become his legacy.
而就在籌集資金的過程中，他收集了一本小冊子，一本后來成了他留給世人的遺產的小冊子。
Overton was trying to describe the role of think tanks in a society,
奧弗頓試圖對智囊團在一個社會中扮演的角色加以描述，
and he posited an idea that would come to be called the Overton window.
為此他提出了一個理論，這個理論就是后來的“奧弗頓之窗”。
In a given society, at a given moment, there is a range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream.
該理論認為，在一個特定的社會，特定的時刻，政治上能被主流社會接受的政策其實是有一個范圍的。
(A 70% top tax rate and a 20% top tax rate are both within this window in America today; abolishing taxes is not.)
(就比如，在當今美國，20%和70%的最高稅率都在這個接受范圍之內，取消稅收則不在這個范圍內。)
Generally, the theory went, politicians will only propose ideas that fall within the window.
該理論認為，政客們一般只會提位于這個范圍內的建議。
It falls to think tanks (and others) to propose unpopular things outside of the window
提不在這個范圍內也不受歡迎的建議，
in the hope of shifting the window and making the previously unthinkable achievable.
以期對這個范圍做出調整，讓之前連想都不敢想的事情成為可能是智庫（及其他人）的責任。
Overton was an ardent libertarian who pushed ideas like school choice—
奧弗頓是一位充滿激情的自由論者，擇校等想法就是他提出來的——
and, according to Reed's wedding toast, he had on occasion resorted to more extreme methods of moving the window of the possible,
而且，里德在婚禮祝酒詞中提到，他有時會采取更為極端的辦法調整上述接受范圍，
"including the time," Reed recounted that day,
“就比如那次，”里德回憶說，
"we flew in a Cessna 172 in broad daylight at treetop level 150 miles into war-torn Mozambique
“我們在光天化日之下坐著塞斯納172型飛機擦著樹梢飛往戰火紛飛的莫桑比克境內距離邊境線150英里（241km)的地方，
to assist armed rebels fighting the Marxist regime there."
去協助武裝叛軍與當地的馬克思主義政權斗爭那次。”
Overton died just weeks after his wedding.
奧弗頓新婚不到幾周便離開了人世。
Were Overton still alive, he would be pushing 60—
如果他還活著，現在應該已近花甲之年了——
and might be aghast to learn that his "window," having become famous after his death,
他提出的“窗口”論幫他贏得了身后名，如今，這一理論已經被用來形容
is now invoked to describe America's great, unlikely backlash against the system he defended so ardently: capitalism.
美國對他曾經熱心捍衛的資本主義體制發起的強烈抵制了（這樣的事原本根本不可能發生），若得知此事，他估計會大感錯愕。
A democratic socialist—Bernie Sanders—is among the top contenders to be the next Democratic nominee for U.S. President.
民主社會主義者伯尼·桑德斯是下一任民主黨總統候選人的頭號競爭者之一。
His rival and fellow Senator, Elizabeth Warren, is also among the top tier of candidates,
他的競爭對手、參議員伊麗莎白·沃倫也是第一梯隊的候選人之一，
declaring herself a capitalist who wishes to transform American capitalism as we know it,
沃倫宣稱自己是一名希望通過征收財產稅，實施綠色新政，
with a wealth tax, a Green New Deal and the elimination of private health insurance.
取消私人醫療保險等舉措改變美國資本主義現狀的資本家。
A more centrist candidate, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., illustrated the shifting winds when he recently declared
最近，比沃倫更中間派的候選人，印第安納州南本德市市長皮特·巴蒂吉格宣稱，
that "neoliberalism is the political-economic consensus that has governed the last 40 years of policy in the U.S. and U.K.
“新自由主義是過去40年來一直主宰著美國政策和英國政策的政治-經濟共識。
Its failure helped to produce the Trump moment.
其失敗幫助推動了特朗普時代的到來。
Now we have to replace it with something better."
現在我們必須用更好的思想來取代它。”
譯文由可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。
