評論
打印
Is America going to decline like other great nations have before? The author thinks not, arguing that the type of society being created in America is quite unlike any that has gone before it. Read what he has to say and see whether you agree.
美國是否會如同歷史上其他強國一樣走向衰亡？作者持否定觀點，認為美國創(chuàng)建的社會模式不同于任何已出現(xiàn)的社會模式。讀一讀他的觀點，看看你是否同意。
America as a Collage
美國大拼盤
Ryzsard Kapuscinski
里扎德·卡普欽斯基
The mere fact that America still attracts millions of people is evidence that it is not in decline. People aren't attracted to a place of decline. Signs of decline are sure to be found in a place as complex as America: debt, crime, the homeless, drugs, dropouts. But the main characteristic of America, the first and most enduring impression, is dynamism, energy, aggressiveness, forward movement.
僅看美國依然吸引著千百萬人這一事實就足以證明美國并未衰落。人們不會被吸引到一個衰落的地方。在美國這樣一個錯綜復雜的國家，當然能看到衰落的跡象，如債務、犯罪活動、無家可歸者、吸毒、逃避現(xiàn)實社會的人。但美國的主要特征，亦即它給人的最初的、最持久的印象，卻是充滿活力、生機勃勃、不斷進取、積極向上。
It is so hard to think of this nation in decline when you know that there are vast regions of the planet which are absolutely paralyzed, incapable of any improvement at all.
如果你知道世界上有廣大地區(qū)完全處于癱瘓狀態(tài)，無法取得任何進步時，那就難以想象這個國家在衰落。
It is difficult for me to agree with Paul Kennedy's thesis in The Rise and Fall of Great Powers that America must inevitably follow historical precedent. That's the way history used to be -- all powerful nations declined and gave way to other empires. But maybe there is another way to look at what is happening. I have a sense that what is going on here concerns much more than the fate of a nation.
我很難同意保羅·肯尼迪在《列強之興衰》中的論點， 即美國將不可避免地重蹈歷史覆轍。歷史一直如此循環(huán)—強國衰落，為新興的帝國所取代。但或許我們能從另外一個角度看待正在發(fā)生的一切。我有種感覺，這個國家正在發(fā)生的一切不僅僅關乎一國之命運。
It may be that the Euro-centered American nation is declining as it gives way to a new Pacific civilization that will include, but not be limited to, America. Historically speaking, America may not decline, but instead fuse with the Pacific culture to create a kind of vast Pacific collage, a mix of Hispanic and Asian cultures linked through the most modern communication technologies.
以歐洲為中心的美國或許是在衰落，正由一個新的太平洋文化所取代，這一文化包括但并不局限于美國。從歷史的角度來看，美國或許不會衰落，相反，它將與太平洋文化相融合，創(chuàng)建一種廣泛的太平洋拼盤文化，一種依靠最現(xiàn)代的通訊技術連接的拉丁文化與亞洲文化的混合文化。
Traditional history has been a history of nations. But here, for the first time since the Roman Empire, there is the possibility of creating the history of a civilization. Now is the first chance on a new basis with new technologies to create a civilization of unprecedented openness and pluralism. A civilization of the polycentric mind. A civilization that leaves behind forever the ethnocentric, tribal mentality. The mentality of destruction.
傳統(tǒng)意義上的歷史一直是各個國家的歷史。但在美國，自羅馬帝國以來，首次出現(xiàn)了創(chuàng)建一個文化的歷史的可能?，F(xiàn)在第一次有了這樣一個機遇，在新的基礎上用新技術創(chuàng)建一個有著前所未有的開放性的多元文化。一個有著多種精神中心的文化。一個永遠拋棄種族中心主義心態(tài)、部落心態(tài)的文化。那是一種破壞性的心態(tài)。
Los Angeles is a premonition of this new civilization.
洛杉磯就是這一新興文化的先兆。
Linked more to the Third World and Asia than to the Europe of America's racial and cultural roots, Los Angeles and southern California will enter the twenty-first century as a multiracial and multicultural society. This is absolutely new. There is no previous example of a civilization that is being simultaneously created by so many races, nationalities, and cultures. This new type of cultural pluralism is completely unknown in the history of mankind.
洛杉磯以及南加州與第三世界和亞洲的聯(lián)系要比與美國的民族、文化之根歐洲的聯(lián)系密切，因此將以一個多民族、多元文化的社會進入世紀。這是一種全新的現(xiàn)象。一個文化由如此之多的種族、民族和文化同時創(chuàng)建，這樣的先例從未有過。這種新型的文化多元化在人類歷史上聞所未聞。
America is becoming more plural every day because of the unbelievable facility of the new Third World immigrants to put a piece of their original culture inside of American culture. The notion of a "dominant" American culture is changing every moment. It is incredible coming to America to find you are somewhere else -- in Seoul, in Taipei, in Mexico City. You can travel inside this Korean culture right on the streets of Los Angeles. Inhabitants of this vast city become internal tourists in the place of their own residence.
由于來自第三世界的新移民所具有的將本族文化融入美國文化的令人難以置信的本領，美國正變得越來越多元化。美國有“主導”文化的概念時刻在改變。來到美國，你會不可思議地發(fā)現(xiàn)自己身在別地—來到了漢城，臺北，墨西哥城。你在洛杉磯街頭行走， 就可以感受到韓國的文化氛圍。這個大城市的居民成了自己居住地的游客。
There are large communities of Laotians, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Mexicans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Iranians, Japanese, Koreans, Armenians, Chinese. We find here Little Taipei, Little Saigon, Little Tokyo, Koreatown, Little Central America, the Iranian neighborhood in Westwood, the Armenian community in Hollywood, and the vast Mexican-American areas of East Los Angeles. Eighty-one languages, few of them European, are spoken in the elementary school system of the city of Los Angeles.
這里有規(guī)模很大的社區(qū)，住著老撾人、越南人、柬埔寨人、墨西哥人、薩爾瓦多人、危地馬拉人、伊朗人、日本人、韓國人、亞美尼亞人以及中國人。這里我們能找到小臺北、小西貢、小東京、韓國城、小中美洲、威斯特伍德的伊朗人社區(qū)、好萊塢的亞美尼亞人社區(qū)，以及東洛杉磯墨西哥裔美國人范圍很大的居住區(qū)。洛杉磯市的小學系統(tǒng)共使用81種語言，其中鮮有歐洲語言。
This transformation of American culture anticipates the general trend in the composition of mankind. Ninety percent of the immigrants to this city are from the Third World. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, 90 percent of the world's population will be dark-skinned; the white race will be no more than 11 percent of all human beings living on our planet.
美國文化的這一變化預示著人類構成的普遍趨勢。洛杉磯市90%的移民來自第三世界。到21世紀初，90%的世界人口將是深膚色的；所有生活在地球上的人中，白人不會超過11%。
Something that can only be seen in America: In the landscaped, ultraclean high-technology parks of northern Orange County there is a personal computer company that seven years ago did not exist. There were only strawberry fields where the plant is. Now, there is a 500$ million company with factories in Hong Kong and Taiwan as well.
只有在美國才會出現(xiàn)這種情況：在北部桔縣環(huán)境作過美化的、超凈的高科技園區(qū)，有家年前尚不存在的個人電腦公司。公司的所在地那時還是草莓地。如今，這是一家有著5億美元資產(chǎn)、在香港和臺灣都設有工廠的大公司。
The company was founded by three young immigrants -- a Pakistani Muslim and two Chinese from Hong Kong. They only became citizens in . Each individual is now probably worth 30$ million.
這家公司由位年輕的移民創(chuàng)辦—一位巴基斯坦穆斯林和兩位來自香港的中國人。他們年才成為美國公民。如今他們每個人的身價都可能值3千萬美元。
Walking through this company we see only young, dark faces -- Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, Mexicans -- and the most advanced technology. The culture of the work force is a mix of Hispanic-Catholic family values and Asian-Confucian group loyalty. Employment notices are never posted; hiring is done through the network of families that live in southern California. Not infrequently, employees ask to work an extra twenty hours a week to earn enough money to help members of their extended family buy their first home.
在這家公司走走，我們看到的都是年輕的深膚色面孔—越南人、柬埔寨人、老撾人和墨西哥人—還有最先進的技術。員工文化混合著拉丁美洲天主教的家庭價值觀念和亞洲儒家的效忠集體的觀念。招聘從來不張貼告示；用人都是通過在南加州居住的家庭網(wǎng)絡完成的。雇員常常會要求一周加班20小時，好多賺錢幫助大家庭成員購買房屋。
In Los Angeles, traditional Third World cultures are, for the first time, fusing with the most modern mentalities and technologies.
在洛杉磯，第三世界國家的傳統(tǒng)文化首次與最先進的理念和技術相融合。
Usually, the contact between developed and underdeveloped worlds has the character of exploitation -- just taking people's labor and resources and giving them nothing. And the border between races has usually been a border of tension, of crisis. Here we see a revolution that is constructive.
發(fā)達國家與不發(fā)達國家的關系通常有剝削榨取這一特點—掠奪勞力和資源，不給任何回報。種族交界處往往是關系緊張的交界處，是危機的交界處。而在這里，我們看到了一場建設性的革命。
This Pacific Rim civilization being created is a new relationship between development and underdevelopment. Here, there is openness. There is hope. And a future. There is a multicultural crowd. But it is not fighting. It is cooperating, peacefully competing, building. For the first time in four hundred years of relations between the nonwhite Western world and the white Western world, the general character of the relationship is cooperation and construction, not exploitation, not destruction.
這一創(chuàng)建中的環(huán)太平洋文化是發(fā)達與不發(fā)達之間一種新型的關系。這里有開放精神。這里有希望，有前途。這里是一個多元文化的群體，但沒有沖突，而是進行合作，進行和平競爭，進行建設。在非白種人的西方世界與白種人的西方世界400多年的關系史上，雙方關系的基本特性第一次表現(xiàn)為合作與建設，而不是剝削，不是破壞。
Unlike any other place on the planet, Los Angeles shows us the potential of development once the Third World mentality merges with an open sense of possibility, a culture of organization, a Western conception of time.
不同于世界上任何其他地方，洛杉磯向我們表明，第三世界的心態(tài)一旦與充滿機會的開放精神相融合，與有條有理的文化相融合，與西方的時間觀念相融合，就會具有發(fā)展的潛能。
For the destructive, paralyzed world where I have spent most of my life, it is important, simply, that such a possibility as Los Angeles exists.
對那個我在其間度過大半生的破壞性、停滯不前的社會來說，說實在話，存在著洛杉磯這樣一種發(fā)展前景意義十分重大。
To adjust the concept of time is the most difficult thing. It is a key revolution of development.
調(diào)整時間觀念最為困難。這是發(fā)展的一個關鍵變革。
Western culture is a culture of arithmetical time. Time is organized by the clock. In non-Western culture, time is a measure between events. We arrange a meeting at nine o'clock but the man doesn't show up. We become anxious, offended. He doesn't understand our anxiety because for him, the moment he arrives is the measure of time. He is on time when he arrives.
西方文化是計算時間的文化。時間由時鐘來安排。在非西方文化中，時間是以事件與事件之間的間隔來計算。我們安排在9點開會，但人沒來。我們焦急不安，感到很生氣。他無法理解我們?yōu)楹文敲唇辜?，因為對他而言，他到達的一刻才算時間。他到了，就是準時了。
In 1924, the Mexican philosopher José Vasconcelos wrote a book dreaming of the possibility that, in the future, all races on the planet would merge into one type of man. This type of man is being borne in Los Angeles, in the cultural sense if not the anthropological sense. A vast mosaic of different races, cultures, religions, and moral habits are working toward one common aim. From the perspective of a world submerged in religious, ethnic, and racial conflict, this harmonious cooperation is something unbelievable. It is truly striking.
1924年，墨西哥哲學家荷塞·伐斯岡薩雷斯在他的一本著作中，夢想著未來地球上所有不同種族都融合成一種類型人的可能性。在文化的意義上，即便不是在人種的意義上，這樣一種類型的人正在洛杉磯誕生。由不同種族、不同文化、不同宗教和不同道德行為組成的巨大合成體正奔向一個共同的目標。世界充滿著宗教的、種族的、民族的沖突，從這個角度來看，這種融洽的合作令人難以置信。的確令人矚目。
What is the common aim that harmonizes competing cultures in one place?
使得在一個地區(qū)的相互競爭的文化和諧共存的共同目標是什么呢？
It is not only the better living standard. What attracts immigrants to America is the essential characteristic of American culture: the chance to try. There is a combination of two things that are important: culture and space. The culture allows you to try to be somebody -- to find yourself, your place, your status. And there is space not only in a geographical sense, but in the sense of opportunity, of social mobility. In societies that are in crisis and in societies which are stagnant -- or even in those which are stable -- there is no chance to try. You are defined in advance. Destiny has already sentenced you.
目標不僅僅是更高的生活水準。吸引移民前來美國的是美國文化的主要特性：有嘗試的機會。文化與空間這兩個重要方面結合了起來。文化使你得以想辦法出人頭地—去發(fā)現(xiàn)自我，找到自己的位置、自己的地位。還有空間，不僅僅是地理意義上的空間，更是指機會，指社會身份的流動性。在充滿危機的社會中，在停滯不前的社會中—甚至在那些穩(wěn)定的社會中—沒有嘗試的機會。你一生已被預先決定。命運已經(jīng)將你注定。
This is what unites the diverse races and cultures in America. If the immigrant to America at first fails, he always thinks, "I will try again." If he had failed in the old society, he would be discouraged and pessimistic, accepting the place that was given to him. In America, he's thinking, "I will have another chance, I will try again." That keeps him going. He's full of hope.
正是這一點，使得美國的不同種族和文化連結在一起。如果美國移民開始時遭遇失敗，他總是想：“我要再試一下?！比绻谠瓉淼纳鐣性庥鍪。蜁バ判模兊帽^失望，接受自己所處的地位。在美國，他想的是：“我還會有機會，我還要試一下?！边@使他堅持下去。他充滿了希望。
