【TED演讲221】怎样才能“不念过去，不畏将来！”

It's a fateful moment in history. We've seen divisive elections, divided societies and the growth of extremism -- all fueled by anxiety and uncertainty. "Is there something we can do, each of us, to be able to face the future without fear?" asks Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. In this electrifying talk, the spiritual leader gives us three specific ways we can move from the politics of "me" to the politics of "all of us, together." The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more.

怎样解救我们的极端主义？强烈的相信亦或不信？美国大选应该投谁一票？怎样选择自己的人生伴侣？怎样摆脱对未来“我”的境况的担忧？答案可能令你惊奇，答案其实就在于“我”本身。“不念过去，不畏将来”真的可行？

演说者：Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

演说题目：不念过去，不畏将来！

想看【视频】演讲，请点下面这些链接: （NO.221)

 中英文对照翻译

"These are the times," said Thomas Paine, "that try men's souls." And they're trying ours now. 

"这些时刻，" 托马斯·潘恩说，“考验着人们的灵魂。”而现在，我们正被考验着。

So is there something we can do, each of us, to be able to face the future without fear? I think there is. And one way into it is to see that perhaps the most simple way into a culture and into an age is to ask: What do people worship? People have worshipped so many different things -- the sun, the stars, the storm. Some people worship many gods, some one, some none. 

所以有没有什么我们每个人都 力所能及的事情，来使得我们能够 毫无恐惧的直面未来呢？我觉得有。一种方法是，深入了解一种文化，一个时代的最简单的方法 是询问：人们崇拜什么。人们崇拜过许多不同的事物—— 太阳，星星，风暴。有些人崇拜许多神，有些人信仰一个神，有些人是无神论者。

In the 19th and 20th centuries, people worshipped the nation, the Aryan race, the communist state. What do we worship? I think future anthropologists will take a look at the books we read on self-help, self-realization, self-esteem. 

在19到20世纪，人们崇拜国家，崇拜雅利安人种，崇拜共产主义。我们崇拜什么呢？我认为，未来的人类学家会研究我们阅读的书籍，关于自我帮助，自我实现，自尊心。

They'll look at the way we talk about morality as being true to oneself, the way we talk about politics as a matter of individual rights, and they'll look at this wonderful new religious ritual we have created. You know the one? Called the "selfie." And I think they'll conclude that what we worship in our time is the self, the me, the I. 

他们会看我们如何谈论道德—— 真实的直面自己； 看我们如何谈论政治——这关乎个人权益； 然后，他们会看向我们创造的这个 新的宗教仪式。你知道那是什么吗？它的名字叫做“自拍”。而我想他们会得出这样的结论：在我们这个时代，我们崇拜自我，崇拜自己，崇拜“我”。

So I think the simplest way of safeguarding the future "you" is to strengthen the future "us" in three dimensions: the us of relationship, the us of identity and the us of responsibility. 

所以，我想，守护“你”未来的 最简单的方法是，从三个维度 来加强“我们”的未来：我们的关系，我们的身份，和我们的责任。

So let me first take the us of relationship. And here, forgive me if I get personal. Once upon a time, a very long time ago, I was a 20-year-old undergraduate studying philosophy. I was into Nietzsche and Schopenhauer and Sartre and Camus. I was full of ontological uncertainty and existential angst. It was terrific. 

我先来讲讲我们的关系。在这一部分，如果我开始 讲起自己的私事，请原谅。曾几何时，很久很久以前，我是一个20岁的大学生，学习哲学。我沉迷于 尼采，叔本华，萨特，加缪。我充满了本体论的不确定性 和存在的焦虑。这太了不起了。

I was self-obsessed and thoroughly unpleasant to know, until one day I saw across the courtyard a girl who was everything that I wasn't. She radiated sunshine. She emanated joy. I found out her name was Elaine. We met. We talked. We married. And 47 years, three children and eight grandchildren later, I can safely say it was the best decision I ever took in my life, because it's the people not like us that make us grow. And that is why I think we have to do just that. 

我沉迷于自我，而且感到非常不悦，直到有一天我看见，在庭院的那一端，有一个女孩，她的性格和我完全相反。她是个小太阳发着光。她散发着快乐。我发现她的名字叫伊莱恩。我们见了面。我们聊天。我们结婚了。而四十七年后，三个子女和八个孙辈后，我能够自信的说，这是我做过的最正确的决定，因为只有不像我们的人才能让我们成长。而这也是为什么我认为，我们必须那么做。

And actually, every time we hold out the hand of friendship to somebody not like us, whose class or creed or color are different from ours, we heal one of the fractures of our wounded world. That is the us of relationship. 

而事实上，每一次我们伸出手，和一个不像自己的人建立友谊，他们的颜色和我们完全不同，我们治愈了 我们这个伤痕累累的世界上 的一个部件。这就是关系中的我们。

Second is the us of identity. Let me give you a thought experiment. Have you been to Washington? Have you seen the memorials? Absolutely fascinating. There's the Lincoln Memorial: Gettysburg Address on one side, Second Inaugural on the other. You go to the Jefferson Memorial, screeds of text. 

第二件事是我们的身份。让我给你们一个思维实验。你去过华盛顿吗？你看见过纪念碑吗？绝对令人震撼。有林肯纪念碑：一边写着葛底斯堡演说，另一边写着第二次就职演说。你去到杰弗森纪念碑，一段文字。

Martin Luther King Memorial, more than a dozen quotes from his speeches. I didn't realize, in America you read memorials. Now go to the equivalent in London in Parliament Square and you will see that the monument to David Lloyd George contains three words: David Lloyd George. 

马丁路德金纪念碑，十几条他的演讲中的选段。我并没有意识到，在美国，你读纪念碑。现在，到伦敦的国会广场，你会看见，大卫·劳埃德·乔治的纪念碑，写着三个单词：大卫·劳埃德·乔治。

And at the same time, immigration is higher than it's ever been before. So when you tell a story and your identity is strong, you can welcome the stranger, but when you stop telling the story, your identity gets weak and you feel threatened by the stranger. And that's bad. 

同时，移民越来越多。所以当你有很强的身份认识的时候，你可以欢迎外来者，但当你不再讲故事，你的身份变弱了，而你感到受到了威胁。这很不好。

I tell you, Jews have been scattered and dispersed and exiled for 2,000 years. We never lost our identity. Why? Because at least once a year, on the festival of Passover, we told our story and we taught it to our children and we ate the unleavened bread of affliction and tasted the bitter herbs of slavery. So we never lost our identity. 

我告诉你，犹太人被流放，散落到世界各地2000多年。我们从来没有丧失自己的身份。为什么？因为至少每年一次，在Passover节，我们讲我们的故事，将它传给我们的孩子。我们吃折磨的面包，吃苦的草药。所以我们从没有失去自己的身份。

I think collectively we've got to get back to telling our story, who we are, where we came from, what ideals by which we live. And if that happens, we will become strong enough to welcome the stranger and say, "Come and share our lives, share our stories, share our aspirations and dreams." That is the us of identity. 

我想，我们需要讲过去的故事，我们是谁，从哪里来，相信什么理论。如果这发生了，我们会变得更强，能够欢迎陌生人，说，“来，分享我们的生活，”“分享我们的故事，”“分享我们的志向和梦想。”这是我们的身份。

That, too, is magical thinking, because the only people who will save us from ourselves is we the people, all of us together. And when we do that, and when we move from the politics of me to the politics of all of us together, we rediscover those beautiful, counterintuitive truths: 

那也是神奇的思路。因为，只有我们自己才能拯救自己，我们所有人一起。当我们这样做的时候，当我们从个人政治转变成我们的政治，我们重新发现了这些美丽的真相：

that a nation is strong when it cares for the weak, that it becomes rich when it cares for the poor, it becomes invulnerable when it cares about the vulnerable. That is what makes great nations. 

一个强大的国家它会关心弱者它在关心穷苦的时候才会富有。当它关心弱势的时候，才会变得坚强。这才是成功的国家的秘诀。

So here is my simple suggestion. It might just change your life, and it might just help to begin to change the world. Do a search and replace operation on the text of your mind, and wherever you encounter the word "self," substitute the word "other." So instead of self-help, other-help; instead of self-esteem, other-esteem. 

所以我有个简单的建议。它或许就能改变你的生活。或许能改变这个世界。在你的脑海中，搜索、替换，而当你发现“我”一词的时候，把它换成“他人”。所以把帮助自己变成帮助他人，自我实现变为他人实现。

：

: