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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? A meritocratic society is one in which, if you've got talent and energy and skill, you will get to the top, nothing should hold you back. It's a beautiful idea.
阿兰·德波顿
阿兰·德波顿
英国作家

阿兰·德波顿（Alain de Botton），英国作家，1969年出生于瑞士苏黎世，毕业于英国剑桥大学。著有小说《爱情笔记》、《爱上浪漫》、《亲吻与诉说》及散文作品《拥抱逝水年华》、《哲学的慰藉》、《旅行的艺术》、《身份的焦虑》等。

It's the rewards we want. It's a new way of looking at luxury goods. The next time you see somebody driving a Ferrari, don't think, "This is somebody who's greedy." Think, "This is somebody who is incredibly vulnerable and in need of love." Feel sympathy, rather than contempt.

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”，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。

阿兰·德波顿名人名言哲理格言警句语录
阿兰·德波顿

There are other reasons --There are other reasons why it's perhaps harder now to feel calm than ever before. One of these, and it's paradoxical, because it's linked to something that's rather nice, is the hope we all have for our careers. Never before have expectations been so high about what human beings can achieve with their life span.

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，但同时，人们也从未对自己的短暂一生有过这么高的期待。

阿兰·德波顿名人名言哲理格言警句语录
阿兰·德波顿

We're told, from many sources, that any onecan achieve anything. We've done away with the caste system, we are now in a system where anyone can rise to any position they please. And it's a beautiful idea. Along with that is a kind of spirit of equality; we're all basically equal. There are no strictly defined hierarchies. There is one really big problem with this, and that problem is envy.

这个世界用许多方法告诉我们，我们无所不能，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，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。

阿兰·德波顿名人名言哲理格言警句语录
阿兰·德波顿

Envy, it's a real taboo to mention envy, but if there's one dominant emotion in modern society, that is envy. And it's 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。

阿兰·德波顿名人名言哲理格言警句语录
阿兰·德波顿

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 she's got a very large house, the reason why we don't envy her is because she's 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。

阿兰·德波顿名人名言哲理格言警句语录
阿兰·德波顿

She's simply too strange. We can't relate to her, she speaks in a funny way, she comes from an odd place. So we can't relate to her, and when you can't relate to somebody, you don't envy them. The closer two people are -- in age, in background, in the process of identification -- the more there's 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.

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。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。

阿兰·德波顿名人名言哲理格言警句语录
阿兰·德波顿

The problem of modern society is it turns the whole world into a school. Everybody's wearing jeans, everybody's the same. And yet, they're not. So there's 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。

阿兰·德波顿名人名言哲理格言警句语录
阿兰·德波顿

It's 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. But the point is, it doesn't feel that way. It's made to feel, by magazines and other media outlets, that if you've got energy, a few bright ideas about technology, a garage -- you, too, could start a major thing.

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。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。

阿兰·德波顿名人名言哲理格言警句语录
阿兰·德波顿

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. The first kind tells you, "You can do it! You can make it! Anything's 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."

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，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”。

阿兰·德波顿名人名言哲理格言警句语录
阿兰·德波顿

There's a real correlation between a society that tells people that they can do anything, and the existence of low self-esteem. So that's another way in which something quite positive can have a nasty kickback. 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 it's, again, linked to something nice. And that nice thing is called meritocracy.

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，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”。

阿兰·德波顿名人名言哲理格言警句语录
阿兰·德波顿

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? A meritocratic society is one in which, if you've got talent and energy and skill, you will get to the top, nothing should hold you back. It's a beautiful idea.

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？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。

阿兰·德波顿名人名言哲理格言警句语录
阿兰·德波顿

The problem is, if you really believe in a society where those who merit to get to the top, get to the top, you'll 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. I nother words, your position in life comes to seem not accidental, but merited and deserved. And that makes failure seem much more crushing.

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，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。

阿兰·德波顿名人名言哲理格言警句语录
阿兰·德波顿

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。

阿兰·德波顿名人名言哲理格言警句语录
阿兰·德波顿

Nowadays, particularly in the United States, if you meet someone at the bottom of society, they may unkindly be described as a "loser." There's a real difference between an unfortunate and a loser, and that shows 400 years of evolution in society and our belief in who is responsible for our lives. It's no longer the gods, it's us. We're in the driving seat.

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，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。

阿兰·德波顿名人名言哲理格言警句语录
阿兰·德波顿

That's exhilarating if you're doing well, and very crushing if you're not. It leads, in the worst cases -- in the analysis of a sociologist like Emil Durkheim -- it leads to increased rates of suicide. 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.

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，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。

阿兰·德波顿名人名言哲理格言警句语录
阿兰·德波顿

Is there any relief from some of thesepressures that I've been outlining? I think there is. I just want to turn to afew of them. Let's take meritocracy. This idea that everybody deserves to getwhere they get to, I think it's a crazy idea, completely crazy. 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 it's insane to believe that we will ever make a society that is genuinely meritocratic; it's an impossible dream.

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，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。

阿兰·德波顿名人名言哲理格言警句语录
阿兰·德波顿

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: accidents, accidents of birth, accidents of things dropping on people's heads, illnesses, etc. We will never get to grade them, never get to grade people as they should.

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，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。

阿兰·德波顿名人名言哲理格言警句语录
阿兰·德波顿

I'm drawn to a lovely quote by St. Augustine in "The City of God," where he says, "It's a sin to judge any man by his post." In modern English that would mean it's a sinto come to any view of who you should talk to, dependent on their business card. It's not the post that should count. According to St. Augustine, only God can really put everybody in their place; he's going to do that on the Day of Judgment, with angels and trumpets, and the skies will open. Insane idea, if you're a secularist person, like me. But something very valuable in that idea, nevertheless.

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。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，但这想法有它的价值。

阿兰·德波顿名人名言哲理格言警句语录
阿兰·德波顿

In other words, hold your horses when you're coming to judge people. You don't necessarily know what someone's truevalue is. That is an unknown part of them, and we shouldn't 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. What we fear is the judgment and ridicule of others. And it exists.

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。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，我们害怕的是他人的评论和嘲笑，它的确存在。

阿兰·德波顿名人名言哲理格言警句语录
阿兰·德波顿

The number one organ of ridicule, nowadays, is the newspaper. If you open the newspaper any day of the week, it's full of people who've messed up their lives. They've 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. 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.

今日世界上最会嘲笑人的便是报纸。每天我们打开报纸，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，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”。

阿兰·德波顿名人名言哲理格言警句语录
阿兰·德波顿

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. A few years ago, I was thinking about this, and I went to "The Sunday Sport," a tabloid newspaper I don't recommend you start reading if you're not familiar with it already.

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，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。

阿兰·德波顿名人名言哲理格言警句语录
阿兰·德波顿