白光泉与黑森林

　　很久没有动笔写博了，我的博客几乎不转载，都是自己思考的结晶。一直想过一种沉思的生活，笔耕不缀，为什么停笔，自己也不想追究。可能是事情太多了，这样安慰自己是不足取的。父亲有几个学生，都过着一种多头的生活，父母兄弟、老婆小孩、家庭事业，无一不能兼顾，想来是他们已经有了深厚的能力积累，如此，做事才可以得心应手。与他们相当我的底子应该说并不厚，但我认为这不是关键的差距。因为三人行必有我师，每个人身上都具备他人没有的优点。差距也许在性格方面，但细想又不是，自觉是个海纳百川的人，没有不能宽容的人与事。有个人曾经写信给我说，没在哪个男人脸上见过如我般灿烂的笑容。文艺复兴时的伟大笑匠拉伯雷云，笑乃是一种武器，的确，笑容就是坚强内核的外在表现。那么，疲惫的问题出在哪里？可能是因为在我身上发生了信仰的错位。所谓信仰，其核心按我父亲的概括就是两个字——超越。这是人类伟大的探求——超越自我。“人类已经完成了从猿猴到人的进化，可现代人却比猿猴还要猿猴。”（尼采语）问题就在于我一度不想再超越。如果说中国人没有信仰，那是在说中国人没有超越。中国有文化没历史，只是中国人自己不知道，知道了嘴上也会加以否认——这是一种中国人赖以生存的表演。谁道破这个前提，谁就让全体中国人“下不来台”，下不了这个中国人赖以生存的表演的谎言舞台。这舞台又是一个染缸，不进入这个染缸接受调染，人的心灵就会愈发孤独。毕竟，你凭什么能有一抹与别人不一样的炫丽颜色。

     一个笑容可以感染一切的人在这个染缸里会比任何人都孤独。可以享受这份孤独，但不能改变信仰，不能停止超越。宁愿接受此世永恒的自我救赎，这一决定已然得到父亲的首肯。我对他说，您对我进行的自由化教育不不单让我体会这种此世的赎罪，您自己也承担着教育的风险。父亲回应说：你能明白这一点，是我最大的宽慰。他同时告诉我，贯彻自由主义的美国社会能够达到如今这种成熟、健康、富足的生活，也是经历了种种磨难的。如今我也在体会，体会那种“磨难”。为什么加引号？那是因为我觉得那磨难竟是一种快乐，一种因为将要超越自我而获得的快乐。

     我就要这样快乐地、体悟地、灿烂笑着地过一种有信仰的生！超越自我的生活！

I live in an eternal confession every day, for that I have felt so sorry for misunderstanding of what you had done to me. All of these mean you were suffering from hard choice between life and love.

You said that life is fine, but why I see sorrow in your eyes which used to be so brilliant that make me consider you as my Northern Star. At that moment, love is blind that I knew it and I was blind for you. At this moment, however, I have already had nothing to give,either my life or my love. Don’t be sad and don’t cry, take care of yourself without mine.

　　假期看了篇外语言情小说，故事梗概如下：女主人公风华绝代，男主人公玉树临风，二人还都聪明绝顶。所不同者，女入世，男出世尔。要命的是，这俩（音lia, 三声）货骨子里都他娘的是情种，感情上都没少受伤（貌似女伤得比男重，毕竟是女人），于是二人上演了一出人间活剧，纠纠葛葛、缠缠绵绵、分分合合，闹腾得不亦乐乎，把各自有限的聪明才智投入到了无限的索取对方感情的事业中。从二人行为看，女的是仰脸婆，男的是低头汉，这两种人都极其可怕的干活，中国地方哲学教育我们，万不可得罪这两种人，否则会死得很难看。这两人掐起架来，后果可想而知——两败俱伤。这俩货最后都精疲力竭，只好偃旗息鼓，分道扬镳了。

　　对于这个故事，本人想做个小结。若一言以蔽之，此出闹剧全然违反沙翁三一律，即错误时间、错误地点、错误人物造成悲剧的诞生。时间错误是指男的虽然年轻，但尚无自己的一片天空；而女的虽然也还年轻，但却已经过了能“把自己最美好的时光给对方”的年纪。错误地点是指，二人所到处，无不是灯红酒绿的花花世界，人何以堪！说到人的对错，那可有的白话（音糊）了。对于人来讲，那容貌、那才智、那欲望，都意味着什么呢？有人说，折腾来倒腾去，入殓成土，不过繁华一梦，我看犯不着这么悲观；有人说，此生翻手为云，覆手为雨，我已快活过了一世矣，管球的死后天塌地陷，我看也不能这样玩世不恭；还有人说，不立基于无为之有为乃是浮夸，不经历过有为而归于无为则是平庸，我认为这境界还真没几个人能臻至。不沾沾以自喜，不汲汲以从时，难矣、难矣。不论美丑、不论愚智、不论贫富，所要者，凡有自己独一无二、或多彩多姿或平凡安定的生命轨迹。错欤对欤，见仁见智罢了。

　　生在世，须微笑面对。若还计较成败得失，还轻易喜怒哀乐，则为道行不够。对待所谓的不合理事物的不二法门，就是给龟儿子们一个漂亮的背景。道不同我就不奉陪了。夏虫不可语冰。哈哈，苦兮乐兮，不求吾谁与归。

　　谨以此文，献给我过去、现在、永远都那啥那啥的blah, blah, blah…

What our society suffers from today is the absent of consensus about what it and life in it ought to be. Such consensus cannot be gained from society’s present stage, or from fantasies about what it ought to be. For that the present is too close and diversified, and the future too uncertain, to make believable claims about it. A consensus in the present hence can be achieved only through a shared understanding of the past, as Homer’s epics informed those who lived centuries later what it meant to be Greek, and by what images and ideals they were to live their lives and organize their society.

今天我们的社会所遭受的最大折磨是缺乏对社会及社会生活应然状态的共同看法。这种共同看法无法从社会的当前阶段或对社会应然状态的想象中获得。因为现在太过接近，太过多变，而未来则太不确定，无法形成一个可信的共同看法。因之，对当前共同看法只能通过对过去的共同理解来获得，就像荷马史诗使几个世纪后的人们知晓希腊人和他们生存并组建社会所依赖的想像与理念，道理是一样的。

Most society derive consensus from a long history, a language all their own, a common religion, common ancestry. The myths by which they live are based on all of these. But the United States is a country of immigrants, coming from a great variety of nations. Latterly, it has been emphasized that an asocial, narcissistic personality has become characteristic of Americans, and that it is this type of personality that makes for the lack of well-being, because it prevents us from achieving consensus that would counteract a tendency to withdraw into private world. In this study of narcissism, C says that modern man, “tortured by self-consciousness, turn to new therapies not to free himself of his personal worries but to find meaning and purpose in life, to find something to live for”. There is widespread distress because national morale has declined, and we have lost an earlier sense of national vision and purpose.

大部分社会都从漫长的历史、共同的语言、共同的信仰、共同祖先那里得到社会应然状态的共识。这些都是社会所赖以存活的神话的基础。但美国是一个移民国家，他们来自各不相同的民族。而且，人们强调说，非社会性的、自恋的人格已经成为美国人的典型特征，正是这种人格导致了不幸。因为它阻止我们达成共识，这种共识可以抵制逃避到个人世界的性情。在这种对自恋的研究中，Ｃ说，现代人“被自我意识所扭曲，转而通过新疗法去寻找生活的目标，这种疗法寻求生命的意义与目的，却不能把人从个人焦虑中解放出来。国家士气低落造成了群体性焦虑，我们已失去了从前的以国家为出发点和目的的观念。

Contrary to rigid religions or political beliefs, as found in totalitarian societies, our culture is one of the great individual differences, at least in principle and theory. But this leads to disunity, even chaos. Americans believe in the value of diversity, just because ours is a society based on individual diversity, it needs consensus about dominating ideas more than societies based on uniform origin of their citizens. Hence, if we are to have consensus, it must be based on a myth- a vision- about a common experience, a conquest that made us Americans, as the myth about the conquest of Troy formed the Greeks. Only a common myth can offer relief from the fear that life is without meaning or purpose. Myths permit us to examine our place in the world by comparing it to a shared idea. Myths are shared fantasies that form the tie that binds the individual to other members of his group. Such myths help to ward off feelings of guilt, isolation, anxiety and purposelessness- in short, they combat isolation and the breakdown of social standards and values.

　　与极权主义社会中的僵化的宗教信仰或政治信念不同，我们的文化是极为个人化的文化之一，至少在理论和原则上如此。但这导致不团结，甚至混乱。美国人相信多样性的价值，只是因为我们的社会以个人方面的多样性为基础，相比以成员的相同起源为基础的社会，我们的社会更需要关于主导意见的共识。因此，如果说我们想要达成共识，这共识必须以关于共同经验的神话（即一种想像）为基，征服使我们成为美国人，正像征服特洛伊的神话使希腊人得以形成。只有共同的神话能释然因生活没有意义与目的而产生恐惧。这种神话有助于防止负罪感、孤独感、焦虑感、无目的感——简而言之，神话抵制孤独和社会标准与价值的失范。

In 1784, five years before he became president of the United States, George Washington, 52, was nearly toothless. So he hired a dentist to transplant nine teeth into his jaw – having extracted them from the mouths of his slaves.

　　一七八四年，距乔治·华盛顿成为美国总统还有五年，那时他五十二岁，牙齿几乎全部掉光。所以他雇了一名牙医帮他植牙，九颗牙齿全部来自他的奴隶的口腔。

That’s a far different image from the cherry-tree-chopping George most people remember from their history books. But recently, many historians have begun to focus on the roles slavery played in the lives of the founding generation. They have been spurred in part by DNA evidence made available in 1998, which almost certainly proved Thomas Jefferson had fathered at least one child with his slave Sally Hemings. And only over the past 30 years have scholars examined history from the bottom up. Works of several historians reveal the moral compromises made by the nation’s early leaders and the fragile nature of the country’s infancy. More significantly, they argue that many of the Founding Fathers knew slavery was wrong – and yet most did little to fight it.

这与历史书留给大部分人的华盛顿砍樱桃树的印象大为不同。但是最近，许多历史学家开始关注奴隶制在“建国一代”的生活出所起的作用。历史学家们一定程度上受到了一九九八年得出的ＤＮＡ证据的驱策。该证据几乎确定无疑地证实托马斯·杰弗逊与他的女奴莎莉·海明斯至少育一个孩子。只用了三十年的时间，学者们就对建国一代的奴隶史做了彻底的调查。一些史学家的著作揭示出美国早期领导人的道德妥协和这个国家新生期的脆弱本质。更为重要的是，他们坚称，许多建国之父虽明白奴隶制的错误性，却未做任何与其抗争之事。

More than anything, the historians say, the founders were hampered by the culture of their time. While Washington and Jefferson privately expressed distaste for slavery, they also understood that it was part of the political and economic bedrock of the country they helped to create.

史学家们说，最重要的是，建国者们被其时代的文化所束缚。虽然华盛顿和杰弗逊私下里表达过对奴隶制的厌恶，但他们也懂得，奴隶制是他们所创立的国家的政治、经济基石的一部分。

For one thing, the South could not afford to part with its slaves. Owning slaves was “like having a large bank account,” says Wiencek, author of An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America. The southern states would not have signed the Constitution without protections for the “peculiar institution,” including a clause that counted a slave as three fifths of a man for purposes of congressional representation.

首先，南方没有奴隶就无法独立。温斯克是《不完美的上帝：乔治·华盛顿及其奴隶和美国的建立》一书的作者。他说，拥有奴隶就好像拥有一个大银行户头。没有“特别制度”的保护，南部各州就不会签署宪法。“特别制度”的内容包括规定奴隶只享有相当于一般人五分之三选举权的条款。

And the statesmen’s political lives depended on slavery. The three-fifths formula handed Jefferson his narrow victory in the presidential election of 1800 by inflating the votes of the southern states in the Electoral College. Once in office, Jefferson extended slavery with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803; the new land was carved into 13 states, including three slave states.

其次，这一声明的政治生命有赖于奴隶制。五分之三的选举权扩充了南方各州选举团体的选票，帮助杰弗逊在一八零零年总统大选中险胜。在一次工作中，杰弗逊通过一八零三年路易斯安纳购买条约扩张了奴隶制；新大陆被分割成十三个州，三个州实行奴隶制。

Still, Jefferson freed Hemings’s children – though not Hemings herself or his approximately 150 other slaves. Washington, who had begun to believe that all men were created equal after observing the bravery of the black soldiers during the Revolutionary War, overcame the strong opposition of his relatives to grant his slaves their freedom in his will. Only a decade earlier, such an act would have required legislative approval in Virginia.

不过，杰弗逊还是使海明斯的孩子成为自由身，尽管不是海明斯自己和他一百五十个左右的其他奴隶。在看到独立战争中黑人战士的英勇表现后，华盛顿开始相信人人生而平等，便不顾其亲属的强烈反对，毅然使他自己的奴隶获得了自由。仅仅在十年前，这种做法在弗吉尼亚州还需要立法支持。