斯坦福大學演講：別在不斷優(yōu)秀中淪落平庸

In terms of its content, Teach for America is completely different from Goldman Sachs or McKinsey or Harvard Medical School or Berkeley Law, but in terms of its place within the structure of elite expectations, of elite choices, it is exactly the same. It's prestigious, it's hard to get into, it's something that you and your parents can brag about, it looks good on your résumé, and most important, it represents a clearly marked path. You don't have to make it up yourself, you don't have to do anything but apply and do the work­—just like college or law school or McKinsey or whatever. It's the Stanford or Harvard of social engagement. It's another hurdle, another badge. It requires aptitude and diligence, but it does not require a single ounce of moral imagination.

　　Moral imagination is hard, and it's hard in a completely different way than the hard things you're used to doing. And not only that, it's not enough. If you're going to invent your own life, if you're going to be truly autonomous, you also need courage: moral courage. The courage to act on your values in the face of what everyone's going to say and do to try to make you change your mind. Because they're not going to like it. Morally courageous individuals tend to make the people around them very uncomfortable. They don't fit in with everybody else's ideas about the way the world is supposed to work, and still worse, they make them feel insecure about the choices that they themselves have made—or failed to make. People don't mind being in prison as long as no one else is free. But stage a jailbreak, and everybody else freaks out.

　　從其內(nèi)容來看，“為美國而教”完全不同于高盛或者麥肯錫公司或哈佛醫(yī)學院或者伯克利法學院，但從它在未來精英體系中的地位來說，完全是一樣的。它享有盛名，很難進入，是值得你和父母夸耀的東西，如果寫在簡歷上會很好看，最重要的是，它代表了清晰標記的道路。你根本不用自己創(chuàng)造，什么都不用做，只需申請然后按要求做就行了，就像上大學或法學院或麥肯錫公司或別的什么。它是社會參與方面的斯坦?；蚬穑橇硪粋€柵欄，另一枚獎章。該項目需要能力和勤奮，但不需要一丁點兒的道德想象力。

　　道德想象力是困難的，這種困難與你已經(jīng)習慣的困難完全不同。不僅如此，光有道德想象力還不夠。如果你要創(chuàng)造自己的生活，如果你 想成為真正的獨立思想者，你還需要勇氣：道德勇氣。不管別人說什么，有按自己的價值觀行動的勇氣，不會因為別人不喜歡而試圖改變自己的想法。具有道德勇氣的個人往往讓周圍的人感到不舒服。他們和其他人對世界的看法格格不入，更糟糕的是，讓別人對自己已經(jīng)做出的選擇感到不安全或無法做出選擇。只要別人也不享受自由，人們就不在乎自己被關(guān)進監(jiān)獄?？梢坏┯腥嗽姜z，其他人都會跟著跑出去。

　　In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce has Stephen Dedalus famously say, about growing up in Ireland in the late 19th century, "When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets."

　　Today there are other nets. One of those nets is a term that I've heard again and again as I've talked with students about these things. That term is "self-indulgent." "Isn't it self-indulgent to try to live the life of the mind when there are so many other things I could be doing with my degree?" "Wouldn't it be self-indulgent to pursue painting after I graduate instead of getting a real job?"

　　在《青年藝術(shù)家的肖像》中，詹姆斯·喬伊斯讓主人公斯蒂芬·迪達勒斯就19世紀末期的愛爾蘭的成長環(huán)境說出了如下名言： “當一個人的靈魂誕生在這個國家時，有一張大網(wǎng)把它罩住，防止它飛翔。你跟我談論民族性、語言和宗教。我想沖出這些牢籠。”

　　今天，我們面臨的是其它的網(wǎng)。其中之一是我在就這些問題與學生交流時經(jīng)常聽到的一個術(shù)語“自我放任”。“在攻讀學位過程中有 這么多事要做的時候，試圖按照自己的感覺生活難道不是自我放任嗎?”“畢業(yè)后不去找個真正的工作而去畫畫難道不是自我放任嗎?”

　　These are the kinds of questions that young people find themselves being asked today if they even think about doing something a little bit different. Even worse, the kinds of questions they are made to feel compelled to ask themselves. Many students have spoken to me, as they navigated their senior years, about the pressure they felt from their peers—from their peers—to justify a creative or intellectual life. You're made to feel like you're crazy: crazy to forsake the sure thing, crazy to think it could work, crazy to imagine that you even have a right to try.

　　Think of what we've come to. It is one of the great testaments to the intellectual—and moral, and spiritual—poverty of American society that it makes its most intelligent young people feel like they're being self-indulgent if they pursue their curiosity. You are all told that you're supposed to go to college, but you're also told that you're being "self-indulgent" if you actually want to get an education. Or even worse, give yourself one. As opposed to what? Going into consulting isn't self-indulgent? Going into finance isn't self-indulgent? Going into law, like most of the people who do, in order to make yourself rich, isn't self-indulgent? It's not OK to play music, or write essays, because what good does that really do anyone, but it is OK to work for a hedge fund. It's selfish to pursue your passion, unless it's also going to make you a lot of money, in which case it's not selfish at all.

　　這些是年輕人只要思考一下稍稍出格的事就不由自主地質(zhì)問自己的問題。更糟糕的是，他們覺得提出這些問題是理所應當?shù)?。許多學生在畢業(yè)前夕的未來探索中跟我說，他們感受到來自同伴那里的壓力，需要為創(chuàng)造性的生活或思想生活辯護。好像自己已經(jīng)走火入魔了似的：瘋了般地拋棄確定無疑的東西，瘋了般地認為思想生活可行，瘋了般地想象你有嘗試的權(quán)利。

　　想象我們現(xiàn)在面臨的局面。這是美國社會的貧困——思想、道德和精神貧困的最明顯癥狀，美國最聰明的年輕人竟然認為聽從自己的好奇心行動就是自我放任。你們得到的教導是應該上大學，但你們同時也被告知如果真的想得到教育，那就是“自我放任”。如果你自我教育的話，更糟糕。這是什么 道理?進入證券咨詢業(yè)是不是自我放任?進入金融業(yè)是不是自我放任?像許多人那樣進入律師界發(fā)財是不是自我放任?搞音樂，寫文章就不行，因為它不能給人帶來 利益。但為風險投資公司工作就可以。追求自己的理想和激情是自私的，除非它能讓你賺很多錢。那樣的話，就一點兒也不自私了。

　　Do you see how absurd this is? But these are the nets that are flung at you, and this is what I mean by the need for courage. And it's a never-ending proc­ess. At that Harvard event two years ago, one person said, about my assertion that college students needed to keep rethinking the decisions they've made about their lives, "We already made our decisions, back in middle school, when we decided to be the kind of high achievers who get into Harvard." And I thought, who wants to live with the decisions that they made when they were 12? Let me put that another way. Who wants to let a 12-year-old decide what they're going to do for the rest of their lives? Or a 19-year-old, for that matter?

　　All you can decide is what you think now, and you need to be prepared to keep making revisions. Because let me be clear. I'm not trying to persuade you all to become writers or musicians. Being a doctor or a lawyer, a scientist or an engineer or an economist—these are all valid and admirable choices. All I'm saying is that you need to think about it, and think about it hard. All I'm asking is that you make your choices for the right reasons. All I'm urging is that you recognize and embrace your moral freedom.

　　你看到這些觀點是多么荒謬了嗎?這就是罩在你們身上的網(wǎng)，就是我說的需要勇氣的意思。這是永不停息的過程。在兩年前的哈 佛事件中，有個學生談到我說的大學生需要重新思考人生決定的觀點，他說“我們已經(jīng)做出了決定，我們早在中學時就已經(jīng)決定成為能夠進入哈佛的高材生。”我在 想，誰會打算按照他在12歲時做出的決定生活呢?讓我換一種說法，誰愿意讓一個12歲的孩子決定他們未來一輩子要做什么呢?或者一個19歲的小毛孩兒?

　　你能做出的決定是你現(xiàn)在想什么，你需要準備好不斷修改自己的決定。讓我說得更明白一些。我不是在試圖說服你們都成為音樂家或者作家。成為醫(yī)生、律師、科學家、工程師或者經(jīng)濟學家沒有什么不好，這些都是可靠的、可敬的選擇。我想說的是你需要思考它，認真地思考。我請求你們 做的，是根據(jù)正確的理由做出你的選擇。我在敦促你們的，是認識到你的道德自由并熱情擁抱它。

　　And most of all, don't play it safe. Resist the seductions of the cowardly values our society has come to prize so highly: comfort, convenience, security, predictability, control. These, too, are nets. Above all, resist the fear of failure. Yes, you will make mistakes. But they will be your mistakes, not someone else's. And you will survive them, and you will know yourself better for having made them, and you will be a fuller and a stronger person.

　　It's been said—and I'm not sure I agree with this, but it's an idea that's worth taking seriously—that you guys belong to a "postemotional" generation. That you prefer to avoid messy and turbulent and powerful feelings. But I say, don't shy away from the challenging parts of yourself. Don't deny the desires and curiosities, the doubts and dissatisfactions, the joy and the darkness, that might knock you off the path that you have set for yourself. College is just beginning for you, adulthood is just beginning. Open yourself to the possibilities they represent. The world is much larger than you can imagine right now. Which means, you are much larger than you can imagine.

　　最重要的是，不要太過小心翼翼。去拒絕或否定我們社會給予了過高獎賞的那些卑怯的價值觀的誘惑：舒服、方便、安全、可預測 的、可控制的。這些，同樣是羅網(wǎng)。最重要的是，去拒否失敗的恐懼感。是的，你會犯錯誤?？赡鞘悄愕腻e誤，不是別人的。你將從錯誤中緩過來，而且，正是因為 這些錯誤，你更好地認識你自己。由此，你成為更完整和強大的人。

　　人們常說你們年輕人屬于“后情感”一代，我想我未必贊同這個說法，但這個說法值得嚴肅對待。你們更愿意規(guī)避混亂、動蕩 和強烈的感情，但我想說，不要回避挑戰(zhàn)自我，不要否認欲望和好奇心、懷疑和不滿、快樂和陰郁，它們可能改變你預設(shè)的人生軌跡。大學剛開始，成年時代也才剛 開始。打開自己，直面各種可能性吧。這個世界的深廣遠超你現(xiàn)在想象的邊際。這意味著，你自身的深廣也將遠超你現(xiàn)在的想象。