我們不健康地癡迷于選擇

時間：2024-09-06 05:57:19 學人智庫我要投稿

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我們不健康地癡迷于選擇

　　到語：我們有多少選擇是迫不得已的？我們又有多少選擇是自我沉溺。

我們不健康地癡迷于選擇

　　When I was preparing for this talk, I went to search for a couple of quotes that I can share with you. Good news: I found three that I particularly liked, the first by Samuel Johnson, who said, "When making your choice in life, do not forget to live," the second by Aeschylus, who reminded us that "happiness is a choice that requires effort," and the third is one by Groucho Marx who said, "I wouldn't want to choose to belong to any club that would have me as a member."

　　當我在準備這個演說的時候，我搜索了幾個引用句可以與跟大家分享。好消息是，我找到三個我特別喜歡的，第一句是來自約翰遜博士，「當在生活中要做出選擇時，不要忘了生活」。第二句來自 (古希臘悲劇詩人) 埃斯庫羅斯，提醒我們，「幸福是需要努力的選擇」。第三句是來自(喜劇演員)格勞喬馬克思，他說，「我不想選擇屬于任何一個會接受我成為會員的俱樂部」。

　　Now, bad news: I didn't know which one of these quotes to choose and share with you. The sweet anxiety of choice.

　　現(xiàn)在，壞消息是：我不知道該選擇哪一個引用句來和大家分享。那甜美的選擇焦慮。

　　In today's times of post-industrial capitalism, choice, together with individual freedom and the idea of self-making, has been elevated to an ideal. Now, together with this, we also have a belief in endless progress. But the underside of this ideology has been an increase of anxiety, feelings of guilt, feelings of being inadequate, feeling that we are failing in our choices. Sadly, this ideology of individual choice has prevented us from thinking about social changes. It appears that this ideology was actually very efficient in pacifying us as political and social thinkers. Instead of making social critiques, we are more and more engaging in self-critique, sometimes to the point of self-destruction.

　　在如今的后工業(yè)資本主義，選擇，與個人自由和自我決策的思想連在一起，已經(jīng)提升到一種理想主義。現(xiàn)在，連同這一點，我們同時也有著永無止境地進展的信念。但這種意識形態(tài)的另一面是焦慮一直在增加，內(nèi)疚感，認為自我不足，感覺我們選擇的差錯。可悲的是，這個人選擇的思想意識妨礙了我們思考社會的變革。看來，這種思想實際上是非常有效地安撫我們作政治和社會思想家。我們越來越多從事自我批判，而不是批評社會，有時還直到自我毀滅的地步。

　　Now, how come that ideology of choice is still so powerful, even among people who have not many things to choose among? How come that even people who are poor very much still identify with the idea of choice, the kind of rational idea of choice which we embrace?

　　現(xiàn)在，為什么選擇的意識，仍是如此強大有力，即使對那些沒有太多東西選擇的人都如是? 為什么很窮的人還有鑒別選擇的想法, 那種我們對有理性選擇的信奉?

　　Now, the ideology of choice is very successful in opening for us a space to think about some imagined future. Let me give you an example. My friend Manya, when she was a student at university in California, was earning money by working for a car dealer. Now, Manya, when she encountered the typical customer, would debate with him about his lifestyle, how much he wants to spend, how many children he has, what does he need the car for? They would usually come to a good conclusion what would be a perfect car. Now, before Manya's customer would go home and think things through, she would say to him, "The car that you are buying now is perfect, but in a few year's time, when your kids will be already out of the house, when you will have a little bit more money, that other car will be ideal. But what you are buying now is great." Now, the majority of Manya's customers who came back the next day bought that other car, the car they did not need, the car that cost far too much money. Now, Manya became so successful in selling cars that soon she moved on to selling airplanes. (Laughter) And knowing so much about the psychology of people prepared her well for her current job, which is that of a psychoanalyst.

　　然而, 選擇的意識非常成功地開放了我們對未來的一些想象空間。讓我給你舉個例子。我的朋友瑪雅，當她還是個在加州上大學的學生，當時她是在做汽車經(jīng)銷商賺錢。當瑪雅遇到她的典型客戶，會跟他辯論他的生活方式，他想花多少錢，他有幾個小孩，為什么他需要車? 他們通常會得出一個好的結(jié)論哪一輛是最適當?shù)能嚒?在瑪雅的客戶回家考慮之前，她就對他說，「你現(xiàn)在會買的那輛車是最最適當?shù)模?但過幾年時間，當你的孩子們將已搬了家，你會有多一點錢，那另一輛車將會更理想，但現(xiàn)在你所購買的已是很棒了。」大多數(shù)瑪雅的客戶第二天回來都會買另一輛車，那輛他們并不需要的車，那輛花費太多錢的車。現(xiàn)在，瑪雅暢銷汽車如此成功，不久后她會轉(zhuǎn)移到賣飛機。 (笑聲) 理解這么多關(guān)于人的心理為她準備好她目前的工作，這便是一個精神分析學家。

　　Now, why were Manya's customers so irrational? Manya's success was that she was able to open in their heads an image of an idealized future, an image of themselves when they are already more successful, freer, and for them, choosing that other car was as if they are coming closer to this ideal in which it was as if Manya already saw them.

　　為什么瑪雅的客戶會這樣不理智呢? 瑪雅成功在于她能夠在他們的思維開設一個理想化的未來形象，一個他們自己已經(jīng)更成功的形象，更自由，對他們來說，選擇那另一輛車就如他們更接近這個理想, 就像瑪雅已經(jīng)看見了他們的那個形象。

　　Now, we rarely make really totally rational choices. Choices are influenced by our unconscious, by our community. We're often choosing by guessing, what would other people think about our choice? Also we are choosing by looking at what others are choosing. We're also guessing what is socially acceptable choice. Now, because of this, we actually even after we have already chosen, like bought a car, endlessly read reviews about cars, as if we still want to convince ourselves that we made the right choice.

　　我們其實很少真正做出完全理性的選擇。選擇是由我們的潛意識影響，由我們的社會影響。我們的選擇經(jīng)常通過猜測，通過猜測，別人會怎樣想我們的選擇呢? 此外，我們會通過看別人怎么選擇而選擇。我們也在猜什么是社會可以接受的選擇。正因如此，我們其實即使已經(jīng)選擇了，就像買了一輛車，仍然會無休止地閱讀關(guān)于汽車的評論，如我們?nèi)匀灰f服自己，確定我們做出了正確的選擇。

　　Now, choices are anxiety-provoking. They are linked to risks, losses. They are highly unpredictable. Now, because of this, people have now more and more problems that they are not choosing anything. Not long ago, I was at a wedding reception, and I met a young, beautiful woman who immediately started telling me about her anxiety over choice. She said to me, "I needed one month to decide which dress to wear." Then she said, "For weeks I was researching which hotel to stay for this one night. And now, I need to choose a sperm donor." (Laughter) I looked at this woman in shock. "Sperm donor? What's the rush?" She said, "I'm turning 40 at the end of this year, and I've been so bad in choosing men in my life."

　　選擇是會引起焦慮。它們會聯(lián)系到的風險，損失。它們是高不可預測的。正因如此，人們現(xiàn)在有越來越多的問題，因為他們沒有選擇任何東西。不久以前，我在一個婚禮上，我遇見了一個既年輕，又漂亮的女人, 她立刻開始跟我談起她對選擇的焦慮。她對我說，「我需要一個月的時間決定穿哪一套裙�！� 然后她說，「幾個星期以來我正在研究，在哪一間酒店留宿一晚。現(xiàn)在，我需要選擇一個精子捐贈者�！� (笑聲) 我震驚地看著這個女人。「捐精者?急什么?」她說，「我在今年年底便40歲，但我對男人的選擇一直糟糕�！�

　　Now choice, because it's linked to risk, is anxiety-provoking, and it was already the famous Danish philosopher Sren Kierkegaard who pointed out that anxiety is linked to the possibility of possibility. Now, we think today that we can prevent these risks. We have endless market analysis, projections of the future earnings. Even with market, which is about chance, randomness, we think we can predict rationally where it's going.

　　選擇，因為它聯(lián)系到風險，是會引起焦慮，這已經(jīng)是著名的丹麥哲學家索倫克爾凱郭爾誰指出，焦慮是因為我們聯(lián)系可能性的可能性。今時今日，我們覺得我們能避免這些風險。我們有無盡的市場分析，未來盈利的預測。即使是市場，關(guān)于機會的市場，有隨機性，我們認為我們可以合理地預測其去向。

　　Now, chance is actually becoming very traumatic. Last year, my friend Bernard Harcourt at the University of Chicago organized an event, a conference on the idea of chance. He and I were together on the panel, and just before delivering our papers — we didn't know each other's papers — we decided to take chance seriously. So we informed our audience that what they will just now hear will be a random paper, a mixture of the two papers which we didn't know what each was writing. Now, we delivered the conference in such a way. Bernard read his first paragraph, I read my first paragraph, Bernard read his second paragraph, I read my second paragraph, in this way towards the end of our papers. Now, you will be surprised that a majority of our audience did not think that what they'd just listened to was a completely random paper. They couldn't believe that speaking from the position of authority like two professors we were, we would take chance seriously. They thought we prepared the papers together and were just joking that it's random.

　　現(xiàn)今，機會其實是變得非常痛苦。去年，我的朋友伯納哈考特在芝加哥大學舉辦活動，會議是關(guān)于對機會的思想。我和他一起在小組上，在介紹我們的論文之前一刻 — 我們不知道對方的論文 — 我們決定真的把機會當認真。所以我們告訴我們的聽眾，他們聽到的將是一篇隨機的論文，這兩篇論文是我們不知內(nèi)容的混合物。我們以這樣的方式表發(fā)論文。伯納讀他的第一段，我讀我的第一個段落，伯納讀他的第二段，我讀我的第二段，這樣的直到論文結(jié)束。你會驚奇地發(fā)現(xiàn)，我們大多數(shù)的觀眾沒有想到，他們剛剛聽了的是一篇完全隨機的論文。他們簡直不相信，從兩位像我們有權(quán)威的教授，我們對機會這樣嚴肅。他們以為我們一起準備好論文，以為我們說隨機的只是在開玩笑。

　　Now, we live in times with a lot of information, big data, a lot of knowledge about the insides of our bodies. We decoded our genome. We know about our brains more than before. But surprisingly, people are more and more turning a blind eye in front of this knowledge. Ignorance and denial are on the rise. Now, in regard to the current economic crisis, we think that we will just wake up again and everything will be the same as before, and no political or social changes are needed. In regard to ecological crisis, we think nothing needs to be done just now, or others need to act before us. Or even when ecological crisis already happens, like a catastrophe in Fukushima, often we have people living in the same environment with the same amount of information, and half of them will be anxious about radiation and half of them will ignore it.

　　現(xiàn)在，我們生活在一個有大量信息，大數(shù)據(jù)，對我們身體內(nèi)部有大量知識的時候。我們已經(jīng)解碼了我們的基因組。我們對大腦比以前多了理解。但奇怪的是，在這知識當前人們越來越視而不見。無知和否認有上升的趨勢。現(xiàn)在，考慮到當前的經(jīng)濟危機，我們以為，只要我們再次醒來，一切都會和以前一樣，而不需要任何政治或社會的變遷。至于生態(tài)危機，我們認為此刻沒有什么需要做的，或者是別人比我們需要更先采取行動。甚至當生態(tài)危機已經(jīng)發(fā)生，就像在福島災難，往往有人生活在同一個環(huán)境中, 收到同數(shù)量的信息，其中一半是擔心輻射，另一半會忽略它。

　　Now, psychoanalysts know very well that people surprisingly don't have passion for knowledge but passion for ignorance. Now, what does that mean? Let's say when we are facing a life-threatening illness, a lot of people don't want to know that. They'd rather prefer denying the illness, which is why it's not so wise to inform them if they don't ask. Surprisingly, research shows that sometimes people who deny their illness live longer than those who are rationally choosing the best treatment.

　　不過，精神分析學家也很清楚，人出奇地熱愛的不是知識，而是熱愛無知。這是什么意思? 比方說，當我們面對一個危及生命的疾病，很多人并不想知道。他們寧愿否認生病，這就是為什么如果他們不問, 告訴他們其實不是那么明智的做法。出人意料的是，研究表明，有時有些否認自己病情的人會活得比那些合理地選擇最佳治療方案的人跟更長久。

　　Now, this ignorance, however, is not very helpful on the level of the social. When we are ignorant about where we are heading, a lot of social damage can be caused.

　　但是這種無知，不是對社會水平非常有幫助。當我們不知道我們正朝著哪里，這可以引起大量的社會傷害。

　　Now, on top of facing ignorance, we are also facing today some kind of an obviousness. Now, it was French philosopher Louis Althusser who pointed out that ideology functions in such a way that it creates a veil of obviousness. Before we do any social critique, it is necessary really to lift that veil of obviousness and to think through a little bit differently. If we go back to this ideology of individual, rational choice we often embrace, it's necessary precisely here to lift this obviousness and to think a little bit differently.

　　10:09 除了面對無外，我們今天還面臨著一些那種顯而易見的事情。它便是法國哲學家阿爾都塞所指出，意識形態(tài)的一種功能，它創(chuàng)造了一瓣顯而易見的面紗。在我們做任何社會批判之前，有必要真正解除顯而易見性的面紗，并通過一點不同的想法。如果我們要回到我們常接受的思想, 個人和理性的選擇，有必要在這里解除這一種顯見，并添一點點不同的思想。

　　Now for me, a question often is why we still embrace this idea of a self-made man on which capitalism relied from its beginning? Why do we think that we are really such masters of our lives that we can rationally make the best ideal choices, that we don't accept losses and risks? And for me, it's very shocking to see sometimes very poor people, for example, not supporting the idea of the rich being taxed more. Quite often here they still identify with a certain kind of a lottery mentality. Okay, maybe they don't think that they will make it in the future, but maybe they think, my son might become the next Bill Gates. And who would want to tax one's son? Or, a question for me is also, why would people who have no health insurance not embrace universal healthcare? Sometimes they don't embrace it, again identifying with the idea of choice, but they have nothing to choose from.

　　對我來說，有一個問題往往就是, 白手興家的構(gòu)想, 根本是起源于對資本主義的依賴, 為什么我們?nèi)匀唤邮苓@種構(gòu)想? 為什么我們認為我們真的精通了生活，我們可以理性地做出最佳最理想的選擇，令到我們因此不接受損失和風險? 對我來說，是非常令人震驚地看到有時很貧窮的人，例如，不支持對富有的人納稅更多的想法。經(jīng)常在這性質(zhì)的事例，他們?nèi)匀?認同某種彩票的心態(tài)。好吧，也許他們不認為他們將在未來會成功，但也許他們認為，我的兒子會成為下一個比爾蓋茨。誰會愿意兒子被征稅? 或者，另一個問題是，為什么沒有醫(yī)療保險的人不支持全民醫(yī)療? 有時他們的確不接受它，再一次是選擇的想法識別，即使他們沒有什么選擇。

　　Now, Margaret Thatcher famously said that there is nothing like a society. Society doesn't exist, it is only individuals and their families. Sadly, this ideology still functions very well, which is why people who are poor might feel ashamed for their poverty. We might endlessly feel guilty that we are not making the right choices, and that's why we didn't succeed. We are anxious that we are not good enough. That's why we work very hard, long hours at the workplace and equally long hours on remaking ourselves. Now, when we are anxious over choices, sometimes we easily give our power of choice away. We identify with the guru who tells us what to do, self-help therapist, or we embrace a totalitarian leader who appears to have no doubts about choices, who sort of knows.

　　戴卓爾夫人的一句名言，沒有什么像一個社會。社會并不存在，存在的只是個人及其家庭。可悲的是，這種意識還是非常好的運作，這就是為什么窮人可能會對自己貧窮感到羞愧。我們可能會無休止地對沒有做出正確的選擇感到內(nèi)疚，并認為這就是我們沒有成功的原因。我們擔心我們做得不夠好。這就是為什么我們非常努力，在工作花上長時間, 在重塑自己上花同樣的長時間。但當我們對選擇急于憂慮，有時我們很容易地放棄了我們的選擇權(quán)力。我們信賴著告訴我們該怎么做的大師，自助治療師，或者我們依賴一個對選擇似乎毫不猶疑的，全知的極權(quán)主義領(lǐng)袖。

　　Now, often people ask me, "What did you learn by studying choice?" And there is an important message that I did learn. When thinking about choices, I stopped taking choices too seriously, personally. First, I realized a lot of choice I make is not rational. It's linked to my unconscious, my guesses of what others are choosing, or what is a socially embraced choice. I also embrace the idea that we should go beyond thinking about individual choices, that it's very important to rethink social choices, since this ideology of individual choice has pacified us. It really prevented us to think about social change. We spend so much time choosing things for ourselves and barely reflect on communal choices we can make.

　　經(jīng)常有人問我，「那你通過學習選擇學到什么呢?」我確實學到了一個重要的信息。當考慮選擇時，我個人避免太沉重的對待選擇。首先，我意識到很多我做的選擇是不理性的。它連接到我的潛意識，我猜測別人怎么選擇的，或是一個社會接受的選擇。我也接受到，我們應該超越想著個人的選擇，而是非常重要的重新思考社會的選擇，因為個人選擇這種意識已經(jīng)平息了我們。阻止了我們思考社會變革。我們花那么多時間為自己挑選東西，只勉強反映我們可以做到的公共選擇。

　　Now, we should not forget that choice is always linked to change. We can make individual changes, but we can make social changes. We can choose to have more wolves. We can choose to change our environment to have more bees. We can choose to have different rating agencies. We can choose to control corporations instead of allowing corporations to control us. We have a possibility to make changes.

　　不過，我們不應該忘記，選擇和改變總是連在一起的。我們可以把個人變化，我們可以把社會變革。我們可以選擇有更多狼。我們可以選擇改變我們的環(huán)境有更多蜜蜂。我們可以選擇不同的評級機構(gòu)。我們可以選擇控制，而不是讓企業(yè)控制我們的公司。我們有可能做出改變。

　　Now, I started with a quote from Samuel Johnson, who said that when we make choice in life, we shouldn't forget to live. Finally, you can see I did have a choice to choose one of the three quotes with which I wanted to start my lecture. I did have a choice, such as nations, as people, we have choices too to rethink in what kind of society we want to live in the future.

　　我開始時引用了約翰遜的名句，說到當我們在生活中做出選擇時，我們不應該忘記生活。最后，你可以看到我確實在演說開始時的三個名句中作出了一個選擇。我確實有一個選擇，如國家，作為人民，我們有太多選擇，我們實在要重新思考在未來要活在什么樣的社會。

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