英语演讲稿 TED英语演讲：我们不该放弃对成功的想象.doc

TED英语演讲：我们不该放弃对成功的想象 著名作家Alain检视我们对成功和失败的看法，质疑它们所代表的意义。成功都是配得的吗?失败呢?听他机智地解答我们对成功的迷思，帮助我们摆脱势利，重新寻回对工作的热情。下面是小编为大家收集关于TED英语演讲：我们不该放弃对成功的想象，欢迎借鉴参考。 演说题目：我们不该放弃对成功的想象! 演讲者：Alain de Botton 中英文翻译： For me they normally happen, these career crises, often, actually, on a Sunday evening, just as the sun is starting to set, 我经常对事业感到恐慌，周日下午，晚霞洒满天空， and the gap between my hopes for myself and the reality of my life starts to diverge so painfully that I normally end up weeping into a pillow. 我的理想和现实的差距却是这样残酷，令我沮丧的只想抱头痛哭。 Im mentioning all this - Im mentioning all this because I think this is not merely a personal problem; you may think Im wrong in this, but I think we live in an age when our lives are regularly punctuated by career crises, 我提出这件事是因为，我认为不只有我这么感觉。你可能不这么认为，但我感觉我们活在一个充满事业恐慌的时代， by moments when what we thought we knew - about our lives, about our careers - comes into contact with a threatening sort of reality. 就在我们认为我们已经理解我们的人生和事业时，真实便来恐吓我们。 Its perhaps easier now than ever before to make a good living. Its perhaps harder than ever before to stay calm, to be free of career anxiety. I want to look now, if I may, at some of the reasons why we might be feeling anxiety about our careers. 现在或许比以前更容易过上好生活，但却比以前更难保持冷静，或不为事业感到焦虑。今天我想要检视，我们对事业感到焦虑的一些原因， Why we might be victims of these career crises, as were weeping softly into our pillows. One of the reasons why we might be suffering is that we are surrounded by snobs. 为何我们会变成事业焦虑的囚徒。不时抱头痛哭，折磨人的因素之一是，我们身边的那些势利鬼。 In a way, Ive got some bad news, particularly to anybody whos come to Oxford from abroad. Theres a real problem with snobbery, because sometimes people from outside the U.K. imagine that snobbery is a distinctively U.K. phenomenon, fixated on country houses and titles. 对那些来访牛津大学的外国友人，我有一个坏消息，这里的人都很势利。有时候，英国以外的人会想象，势利是英国人特有的个性，来自那些乡间别墅和头衔爵位。 The bad news is thats not true. Snobbery is a global phenomenon; we area global organization, this is a global phenomenon. What is a snob? A snob is anybody who takes a small part of you, and uses that to come to a complete vision of who you are. That is snobbery. 坏消息是，并不只是这样，势利是一个全球性的问题，我们是个全球性的组织，这是个全球性的问题，它确实存在。势利是什么?，势利是以一小部分的你，来判别你的全部价值，那就是势利。 The dominant kind of snobbery that exists nowadays is job snobbery. You encounter it within minutes at a party, when you get asked that famous iconic question of the early 21st century, What do you do? 今日最主要的势利，就是对职业的势利。你在派对中不用一分钟就能体会到，当你被问到这个21世纪初，最有代表性的问题：你是做什么的? According to how you answer that question, people are either incredibly delighted to see you, or look at their watch and make their excuses. 你的答案将会决定对方接下来的反应，对方可能对你在场感到荣幸，或是开始看表，然后想个借口离开。 Now, the opposite of a snob is your mother.Not necessarily your mother, or indeed mine, but, as it were, the ideal mother, somebody who doesnt care about your achievements. 势利鬼的另一个极端，是你的母亲。不一定是你我的母亲，而是一个理想母亲的想象，一个永远义无反顾的爱你，不在乎你是否功成名就的人。 Unfortunately, most people are not our mothers. Most people make a strict correlation between how much time, and if you like, love - not romantic love, though that may be something - but love in general, respect -they are willing to accord us, that will be strictly defined by our position in the social hierarchy. 不幸地，大部分世人都不怀有这种母爱，大部分世人决定要花费多少时间，给于多少爱，不一定是浪漫的那种爱，虽然那也包括在内，世人所愿意给我们的关爱、尊重，取决于我们的社会地位。 And thats a lot of the reason why we care so much about our careers and indeed start caring so much about material goods. You know, were often told that we live in very materialistic times, that were all greedy people. I dont think we are particularly materialistic. 这就是为什么我们如此在乎事业和成就，以及看重金钱和物质的原因。我们时常被告知我们处在一个物质挂帅的时代，我们都是贪婪的人。 I think we live in a society which has simply pegged certain emotional rewards to the acquisition of material goods. Its not the material goods we want; 我并不认为我们特别看重物质，而是活在一个物质能带来大量情感反馈的时代。 Its the rewards we want. Its a new way of looking at luxury goods. The next time you see somebody driving a Ferrari, dont think, This is somebody whos greedy. 我们想要的不是物质，而是背后的情感反馈，这赋予奢侈品一个崭新的意义。下次你看到那些开着法拉利跑车的人，你不要想这个人很贪婪， Think, This is somebody who is incredibly vulnerable and in need of love. Feel sympathy, rather than contempt. 而是这是一个无比脆弱、急需爱的人，也就是说，同情他们，不要鄙视他们。 There are other reasons -There are other reasons why its perhaps harder now to feel calm than ever before. One of these, and its paradoxical, because its linked to something thats rather nice, is the hope we all have for our careers. 还有一些其他的理由，使得我们更难获得平静。这有些矛盾，因为拥有自己的事业，是一件不错的事， Never before have expectations been so high about what human beings can achieve with their life span.Were told, from many sources, that any onecan achieve anything. 但同时，人们也从未对自己的短暂一生有过这么高的期待。这个世界用许多方法告诉我们，我们无所不能。 Weve done away with the caste system, we are now in a system where anyone can rise to any position they please. And its a beautiful idea. Along with that is a kind of spirit of equality; 我们不再受限于阶级，而是只要靠着努力就能攀上我们想到的高度。这是个美丽的理想，出于一种生而平等的精神， were all basically equal. There are no strictly defined hierarchies. There is one really big problem with this, and that problem is envy. 我们基本上是平等的，没有任何明显的阶级存在。这造成了一个严重的问题，这个问题是嫉妒。 Envy, its a real taboo to mention envy, but if theres one dominant emotion in modern society, that is envy. And its linked to the spirit of equality. 嫉妒在今日是一种禁忌话题，但这个社会上最普遍的感受，便是嫉妒。嫉妒来自生而平等的精神。 Let me explain. I think it would be very unusual for anyone here, or anyone watching, to be envious of the Queen of England. Even though she is much richer than any of you are, and shes got a very large house, the reason why we dont envy her is because shes too weird. 这么说吧，我想在场的各位，或是观看这个影片的众位，很少有人会嫉妒英国女皇。虽然她比我们都更加富有，住在一个巨大的房子里，我们不会嫉妒她的原因是她太怪异了。 Shes simply too strange. We cant relate to her, she speaks in a funny way, she comes from an odd place. So we cant relate to her, and when you cant relate to somebody, you dont envy them. 她太怪了，我们无法想象自己与她扯上关系，她的语调令人发噱，来自一个奇怪的地方，我们与她毫无关联。当你认为你与这个人毫无关联时，你便不会嫉妒。 The closer two people are - in age, in background, in the process of identification - the more theres a danger of envy, which is incidentally why none of you should ever go to a school reunion, because there is no stronger reference point than people one was at school with. 越是两个年龄、背景相近的人，越容易陷入嫉妒的苦海，所以千万避免去参加同学会。因为没有比同学，更强烈的参照点了。 The problem of modern society is it turns the whole world into a school. Everybodys wearing jeans, everybodys the same. And yet, theyre not. So theres a spirit of equality combined with deep inequality, which can make for a very stressful situation. 今日社会的问题是，它把全世界变成了一个学校，每个人都穿着牛仔裤，每个人都一样。但并非如此，当生而平等的概念遇上现实中悬殊的不平等，巨大的压力就出现了。 Its probably as unlikely that you would nowadays become as rich and famous as Bill Gates, as it was unlikely in the17th century that you would accede to the ranks of the French aristocracy. 今日你变得像比尔-盖茨一样，有钱又出名的机会，大概就跟你在十七世纪，成为法国贵族一样困难。 But the point is, it doesnt feel that way. Its made to feel, by magazines and other media outlets, that if youve got energy, a few bright ideas about technology, a garage - you, too, could start a major thing. 但重点是，感觉却差别很大。今日的杂志和其它媒体让我们感觉，只要你有冲劲、对科技有一些新颖的想法，再加上一个车库，你就可以踏上比尔的道路。 The consequences of this problem make themselves felt in bookshops. When you go to a large bookshop and look at the self-help sections, as I sometimes do - if you analyze self-help book sproduced in the world today, there are basically two kinds. 我们可以从书店中感受到这些问题所造成的后果，当你像我一样到大型书店里的，自我帮助书籍类。如果你分析现在出版的这些自我帮助类书籍，它们基本上分成两种， The first kind tells you, You can do it! You can make it! Anythings possible! The other kind tells you how to cope with what we politely call low self-esteem, or impolitely call, feeling very bad about yourself. 第一种告诉你你做得到!你能成功!没有不可能!另外一种则教导你如何处理，我们婉转地称呼为缺乏自信，或是直接了当地称为自我感觉极差。 Theres a real correlation between a society that tells people that they can do anything, and the existence of low self-esteem. So thats another way in which something quite positive can have a nasty kickback. 这两者中间有着绝对的关联，一个告诉人们他们无所不能的社会，和缺乏自信有着绝对的关联。另一件好事也会带来坏影响的例子， There is another reason why we might be feeling more anxious -about our careers, about our status in the world today, than ever before. And its, again, linked to something nice. And that nice thing is called meritocracy. 还有一些其它原因造成我们对事业，对我们在世上的地位感到前所未有的焦虑，再一次地，它也和好的概念有关，这个好概念叫做功绩主义。 Everybody, all politicians on Left and Right, agree that meritocracy is a great thing, and we should all be trying to make our societies really, really meritocratic. In other words - what is a meritocratic society? 现在，无论是左倾还是右倾的政治人物，都同意功绩主义是个好事。我们应该尽力让我们的社会崇尚功绩主义，换句话说，一个崇尚功绩主义的社会是什么样的呢? A meritocratic society is one in which, if youve got talent and energy and skill, you will get to the top, nothing should hold you back. Its a beautiful idea. 一个崇尚功绩主义的社会相信，如果你有才能、精力和技术，你就会飞黄腾达，没有什么能阻止你，这是个美好的想法。 The problem is, if you really believe in a society where those who merit to get to the top, get to the top, youll also, by implication, and in a far more nasty way, believe in a society where those who deserve to get to the bottom also get to the bottom and stay there. 问题是，如果你打从心里相信，那些在社会顶层的人都是精英，同时你也暗示着，以一种残忍的方法，相信那些在社会底层的人，天生就该在社会底层， I nother words, your position in life comes to seem not accidental, but merited and deserved. And that makes failure seem much more crushing. 换句话说，你在社会的地位不是偶然，而都是你配得的，这种想法让失败变得更残忍。 You know, in the Middle Ages, in England, when you met a very poor person, that person would be described as an unfortunate - literally, somebody who had not been blessed by fortune, an unfortunate. 你知道，在中世纪的英国，但你遇见一个非常穷苦的人，你会认为他不走运，直接地说，那些不被幸运之神眷顾的人。 Nowadays, particularly in the United States, if you meet someone at the bottom of society, they may unkindly be described as a loser. Theres a real difference between an unfortunate and a loser, 不幸的人，尤其在美国，如果人们遇见一些社会底层的人，他们被刻薄地形容成失败者，不走运和失败者中间有很大的差别， and that shows 400 years of evolution in society and our belief in who is responsible for our lives. Its no longer the gods, its us. Were in the driving seat. 这表现了四百年的社会演变，我们对谁该为人生负责看法的改变，神不再掌握我们的命运，我们掌握自己的人生。 Thats exhilarating if youre doing well, and very crushing if youre not. It leads, in the worst cases - in the analysis of a sociologist like Emil Durkheim - it leads to increased rates of suicide. 如果你做的很好，这是件令人愉快的事。相反的情况，就很令人沮丧。社会学家Emil，Durkheim分析发现，这提高了自杀率， There are more suicides in developed, individualistic countries than in any other part of the world. And some of the reason for that is that people take what happens to them extremely personally - they own their success, but they also own their failure. 追求个人主义的发达国家的自杀率，高过于世界上其它地方，原因是人们把发生在自己身上的事情，全当作自己的责任，人们拥有成功，也拥有失败。 Is there any relief from some of thesepressures that Ive been outlining? I think there is. I just want to turn to afew of them. Lets take meritocracy. This idea that everybody deserves to getwhere they get to, I think its a crazy idea, completely crazy. 有什么方法可以解决刚才提到的这些焦虑呢?是有的。我想提出几项，先说功绩主义，也就是相信每个人的地位忠实呈现他的能力，我认为这种想法太疯狂了， I will support any politician of Left and Right, with any halfway-decent meritocratic idea; I am a meritocrat in that sense. But I think its insane to believe that we will ever make a society that is genuinely meritocratic; its an impossible dream. 我可以支持所有相信这个想法的，无论是左倾还是右倾的政治家，我同样相信功绩主义，但我认为一个完全彻底以能力取决地位的社会，是个不可能的梦想。 The idea that we will make a society where literally everybody is graded, the good at the top, bad at the bottom, exactly done as it should be, is impossible. There are simply too many random factors: 这种我们能创造一个每个人的能力都忠实地被分级，好的就到顶端，坏的就到底部，而且保证过程毫无差错，这是不可能的。这世上有太多偶然的契机， accidents, accidents of birth, accidents of things dropping on peoples heads, illnesses, etc. We will never get to grade them, never get to grade people as they should. 不同的机运，出身，疾病，从天而降的意外等等，我们却无法将这些因素分级，无法完全忠实的将人分级。 Im drawn to a lovely quote by St. Augustine in The City of God, where he says, Its a sin to judge any man by his post. In modern English that would mean its a sinto come to any view of who you should talk to, dependent on their business card. Its not the post that should count. 我很喜欢圣奥古斯丁在上帝之城里的一句话，他说以社会地位评价人是一种罪。用现在的口吻说，看一个人的名片来决定你是否要和他交谈是罪。 According to St. Augustine, only God can really put everybody in their place; hes going to do that on the Day of Judgment, with angels and trumpets, and the skies will open. Insane idea, if youre a secularist person, like me. 对圣奥古斯丁来说，人的价值不在他的社会地位，只有神可以决定一个人的价值，他将在天使围绕、小号奏鸣，天空破开的世界末日给于最后审判，如果你是像我一样的世俗论者，这想法太疯狂了， But something very valuable in that idea, nevertheless.In other words, hold your horses when youre coming to judge people. You dont necessarily know what someones truevalue is. 但这想法有它的价值。换句话说，最好在你开口评论他人之前悬崖勒马，你很有可能不知道他人的真正价值，这是不可测的。 That is an unknown part of them, and we shouldnt behave as though it is known. There is another source of solace and comfort for all this. When we think about failing in life, when we think about failure, one of the reasons why we fear failing is not just a loss of income, a loss of status. 于是，我们不该为人下定论，还有另一种慰藉，当我们想象人生中的失败，我们恐惧的原因并不只是失去收入，失去地位， What we fear is the judgment and ridicule of others. And it exists.The number one organ of ridicule, nowadays, is the newspaper. If you open the newspaper any day of the week, 我们害怕的是他人的评论和嘲笑，它的确存在。今日世界上最会嘲笑人的便是报纸。每天我们打开报纸， its full of people whove messed up their lives. Theyve slept with the wrong person, taken the wrong substance, passed the wrong piece of legislation - whatever it is, and then are fit for ridicule. In other words, they have failed. 都能看到那些把生活搞砸的人，他们与错误对象共枕，使用错误药物，通过错误法案种种，让人在茶余饭后拿来挖苦的新闻，这些人失败了， And they are described as losers. Now, is there any alternative to this? I think the Western tradition shows us one glorious alternative, which is tragedy. 我们称他们为失败者，还有其它做法吗?西方传统给了我们一个光荣的选择，就是悲剧。 Tragic art, as it developed in the theaters of ancient Greece, in the fifth century B.C., was essentially an art form devoted to tracing how people fail, and also according them a level of sympathy, which ordinary life would not necessarily accord them. 悲剧的艺术来自古希腊。西元前五世纪，这是一个专属于描绘人类失败过程的艺术，同时也加入某种程度的同情。在现代生活并不常给于同情时。 A few years ago, I was thinking about this, and I went to The Sunday Sport, a tabloid newspaper I dont recommend you start reading if youre not familiar with it already. 几年前我思考着这件事，我去见周日运动期刊，如果你还不认识这个小报，我建议你也别去读。 And I went to talk to them about certain of the great tragedies of Western art. I wanted to see how they would seize the bare bones of certain stories, if they came in as a news item at the news desk on a Saturday afternoon. 我去找他们聊聊，西方艺术中最伟大的几个悲剧故事，我想知道他们会如何露骨地以新闻的方式，在周日下午的新闻台上，呈现这些经典悲剧故事。 I mentioned Othello; theyd not heard of it but were fascinated.I asked them to write a headline for the story. They came up with Love-Crazed Immigrant Kills Senators Daughter. Splashed across the headline. 我谈到他们从未耳闻的奥赛罗，他们啧啧称奇。我要求他们以奥赛罗的故事写一句头条，他们写道移民因爱生恨，刺杀参议员之女大头条。 I gave them the plotline of Madame Bovary. Again, a book they were enchanted to discover. And they wrote Shopaholic Adulteress Swallows Arsenic After Credit Fraud. 我告诉他们包法利夫人的故事，他们再一次感到惊异万分，写道不伦购物狂信用欺诈，出墙妇女吞砒霜。 And then my favorite - they really do have a kind of genius of their own, these guys - my favorite is Sophocles Oedipus the King: Sex With Mum Was Blinding. 我最喜欢的是，这些记者真的很有才，我最喜欢的是索福克勒斯的俄狄浦斯王，与母亲的盲目性爱。(掌声) In a way, if you like, at one end of the spectrum of sympathy, youve got the tabloid newspaper. At the other end of the spectrum, youve got tragedy and tragic art. 如果同情心的一个极端，是这些八卦小报。另一个极端便是悲剧和悲剧艺术， And I suppose Im arguing that we should learn a little bit about whats happening in tragic art. It would be insane to call Hamlet a loser. He is not a loser, though he has lost. 我想说的是或许我们该从悲剧艺术中学习，你不会说汉姆雷特是个失败者，虽然他失败了，他却不是一个失败者。 And I think that is the message of tragedy to us, and why its so very, very important, I think. 我想这就是悲剧所要告诉我们的，也是我认为非常重要的一点。 The other thing about modern society and why it causes this anxiety, is that we have nothing at its center that is non-human. We are the first society to be living in a world where we dont worship anything other than ourselves. 现代社会让我们焦虑的另一个缘故是，我们除了人类以外没有其它重心。我们是从古至今的第一个无神社会，除了我们自己以外， We think very highly of ourselves, and so we should; weve put people on the Moon, done all sorts of extraordinary things. And so we tend to worship ourselves. 我们不膜拜任何事物，我们对自己评价极高，为什么不呢，我们把人送上月球，达成了许多不可思议的事，我们习惯崇拜自己。 Our heroes are human heroes. Thats a very new situation. Most other societies have had, right at their center, the worship of something transcendent: a god, a spirit, a natural force, the universe, whatever it is - 我们的英雄是人类，这是一个崭新的情况。历史中大部分的社会重心都是敬拜一位人类以外的灵体，神，自然力、宇宙，总之是人类以外的什么。 something else that is being worshiped. Weve slightly lost the habit of doing that, which is, I think, why were particularly drawn to nature. 我们逐渐失去了这种习惯，我想这也是我们越来越被大自然吸引的原因。 Not for the sake of our health, though its often presented that way, but because its an escape from the human anthill. Its an escape from our own competition, and our own dramas. 虽然我们时常显示是为了健康，但我不这么认为，我认为是为了逃避人群的蚁丘，逃避人们的疯狂竞争，我们的戏剧化， And thats why ween joy looking at glaciers and oceans, and contemplating the Earth from outside its perimeters, etc. We like to feel in contact with something that is non-human, and that is so deeply important to us. 这便是为什么我们如此喜欢看海、观赏冰山，从外太空观赏地球等等，我们希望重新和那些非人类的事物有所连接，那对我们来说很重要。 What