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But no, I never went to college. I've slept in some strange places, but the library wasn't one of them. I studied rock and roll and I grew up in Dublin in the 70s; music was an alarm bell for me. It woke me up to the world. I was 17 when I first saw The Clash, and it just sounded like revolution. The Clash were like: "This is a public service announcement--with guitars." I was the kid in the crowd who took it at face value. Later I learned that a lot of the rebels were in it for the T-shirt. They'd wear the boots but they wouldn't march. They'd smash bottles on their heads but they wouldn't go to something more painful like a town hall meeting. By the way I felt like that myself until recently.
我沒上過大學，我在一些陌生的地方睡過覺，但圖書館除外。我學的是搖滾音樂，在70年代的都柏林長大。音樂對我來說如同警鐘，它喚醒了我，讓我開始關注這個世界。我17歲那年第一次見到碰撞樂隊，他們的音樂聽起來像一次革新。這支樂隊“用吉他演奏音樂，性質卻是公益事業。”而我當時只是人群中的一個看熱鬧的小孩。后來我了解到，許多反叛者加入這支樂隊只是為了得到一件T恤衫。他們會穿靴子，但他們不游行。他們會往頭上砸瓶子，但不會去市政議會廳這些讓人感到痛苦的地方。順便說一句，就在前不久，我也喜歡那樣做。
I didn't expect change to come so slow. So agonizingly slow. I didn't realize that the biggest obstacle to political and social progress wasn't the Free Masons, or the Establishment, or the boot heal of whatever you consider "the Man" to be. It was something much more subtle. As the provost just referred to, a combination of our own indifference and the Kafkaesque labyrinth of "no's" you encounter as people vanish down the corridors of bureaucracy.
我沒有料想到變革來得如此之慢，慢得讓人痛苦。我也沒有意識到，政治和社會進步的最大障礙不是共濟會，不是國教會，也不是權勢集團，而是一些更為微妙的東西。就像院長剛剛說到的，是我們自身的冷漠和荒謬而令人困惑的事物的結合，就像人們在官僚主義的道路上迷失自己的那種感覺一樣。
