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发帖数: 1267 | 1 平等，真正的精神食粮
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于2011-01-04 17:39:52翻译 | 已有1038人浏览 | 有0人评论
平等
Tags:平等 | 精神食粮
Op-Ed Columnist
<口>专栏版 专栏作家
Equality, a True Soul Food By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
平等，真正的精神食粮 Nicholas D. Kristof著
Published: January 1, 2011
2011年1月1日发布
John Steinbeck observed that “a sad soul can kill you quicker, far quicker
, than a germ.”
John Steinbeck 观察发现“一个忧郁的精神能更快的消灭你，甚至比我们消灭微生物
的速度还要快。”
Damon Winter/纽约时报
That insight, now confirmed by epidemiological studies, is worth bearing
in mind at a time of such polarizing inequality that the wealthiest 1
percent of Americans possess a greater collective net worth than the bottom
90 percent.
流行病学的研究证实已经证实：这样深刻的见解是值得铭记的。因为在这个极度不公平
的时代最富有的1%的美国人共同持有的资本净值比底层的90%的人民拥有的还要多。
There’s growing evidence that the toll of our stunning inequality is
not just economic but also is a melancholy of the soul. The upshot appears
to be high rates of violent crime, high narcotics use, high teenage
birthrates and even high rates of heart disease.
越来越多的证据表明令人震惊的不公平不仅仅表现在经济上，还表现在精神层面的忧郁
。这使得暴力犯罪率，麻醉剂使用，青少年生育率甚至心脏病发生率均升高。
That’s the argument of an important book by two distinguished British
epidemiologists, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. They argue that gross
inequality tears at the human psyche, creating anxiety, distrust and an
array of mental and physical ailments — and they cite mountains of data to
support their argument.
两位杰出的英国知识学家Richard Wilknson和Kate Pickett在一本重要的书中对此进行
了辩论。他们称显著的不平等扭曲了人们的心理，制造了焦虑、怀疑以及一系列精神和
身体上的疾病--他们引用了大量的数据来证明他们的论证。
“If you fail to avoid high inequality, you will need more prisons and
more police,” they assert. “You will have to deal with higher rates of
mental illness, drug abuse and every other kind of problem.” They explore
these issues in their book, “The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes
Societies Stronger.”
“如果不能消除这种高度的不平等，你们将需要更多的监狱和警察，”他们断言。“你
们将不得不和越来越多的精神疾病，滥用药物以及其他各种各样的难题作斗争。”在书
中他们深入探讨了这些问题，“精神文明：为什么伟大的平等让社会更健康。”
The heart of their argument is that humans are social animals and that
in highly unequal societies those at the bottom suffer from a range of
pathologies. For example, a long-term study of British civil servants found
that messengers, doormen and others with low status were much more likely to
die of heart disease, suicide and some cancers and had substantially worse
overall health.
他们的中心论点是人类是具有社会性的动物，在高度不公平的社会中那些处在社会底层
的人们遭受着病理疾病的折磨。比如，对英国文职人员的长期调查研究发现信使、看门
人以及其他有着低社会地位的群体死于心脏病、自杀和各种癌症的可能性更大，并且他
们的健康状况普遍欠佳。
There’s similar evidence from other primates. For example, macaque
monkeys are also highly social animals, and scientists put them in cages and
taught them how to push a lever so that they could get cocaine. Those at
the bottom of the monkey hierarchy took much more cocaine than high-status
monkeys.
对其他的灵长类动物的调查研究也得到了相似的证据。比如，猕猴也是具有高度社会性
的动物，科学家把他们放在笼子里并教他们学会怎样推动控制杆得到可卡因。研究发现
猕猴等级群体中处于底层的猕猴比上层的猕猴摄入的可卡因多得多。
Other experiments found that low-status monkeys suffered physical
problems, including atherosclerosis in their arteries and an increase in
abdominal fat. And as with monkeys, so with humans. Researchers have found
that when people become unemployed or suffer economic setbacks, they gain
weight. One 12-year study of American men found that when their income
slipped, they gained an average of 5.5 pounds.
其他的试验发现社会地位低的猕猴遭受着身体疾病，包括动脉硬化和腹部脂肪囤积等问
题。猕猴如此，人类又何尝不经受着同样的问题。研究者发现当人们失业或是遭受经济
退步时，他们的体重会有所增加。一项对美国人长达12年的研究发现当他们的收入下滑
时，他们平均增重5.5磅。
The correlation is strong around the world between countries with
greater inequality and greater drug use. Paradoxically, countries with more
relaxed narcotics laws, like the Netherlands, have relatively low domestic
drug use — perhaps because they are more egalitarian.
世界上那些高度不平等并且大量使用毒品的国家同样具有这样的问题。反常的是，那些
有着宽松的麻醉剂法律的国家，像是荷兰，其国内毒品使用量反而相对较低--也许是源
于他们更加平等吧。
Professors Wilkinson and Pickett crunch the numbers and show that the
same relationship holds true for a range of social problems. Among rich
countries, those that are more unequal appear to have more mental illness,
infant mortality, obesity, high school dropouts, teenage births, homicides,
and so on.
Wilkinson和Pickett教授处理这些数据表明同一个关系适用于一系列的社会问题。那些
富裕并有着更多不平等现象的国家面对着更多的精神疾病，婴儿死亡，肥胖，高中辍学
，青少年生育，杀人等问题。
They find the same thing is true among the 50 American states. More
unequal states, like Mississippi and Louisiana, do poorly by these social
measures. More equal states, like New Hampshire and Minnesota, do far better
.
他们发现这项调查同样适用于美国的五十州。较不平等的州，像密西西比州和路易斯安
那州，由于那些社会举措而变得贫穷。较平等的州，像是新罕布什尔州，情况则好很多。
So why is inequality so harmful? “The Spirit Level” suggests that
inequality undermines social trust and community life, corroding societies
as a whole. It also suggests that humans, as social beings, become stressed
when they find themselves at the bottom of a hierarchy.
那么为什么不平等的危害这么大？“精神文明”表明不平等侵蚀了社会信任和社区生活
，腐蚀了整个社会。它还发现人类作为社会中的一份子在发现他们处于社会底层时压力
倍增。
That stress leads to biological changes, such as the release of the
hormone cortisol, and to the accumulation of abdominal fat (perhaps an
evolutionary adaptation in preparation for starvation ahead?). The result is
physical ailments like heart disease, and social ailments like violent
crime, mutual distrust, self-destructive behaviors and persistent poverty.
Another result is the establishment of alternative systems in which one can
win respect and acquire self-esteem, such as gangs.
这种压力导致了生物学上的变化，比如说激素皮质醇的释放和腹部脂肪的堆积（也许是
一种进化适应为可能出现的饥饿做准备）。导致的一个结果就是身体疾病，像是心脏病
；社会疾病，像是暴力犯罪，互不信任，自毁行为以及根深蒂固的贫穷。另一个结果就
是替代系统的建立，在这个系统中人们可以赢得尊重，获得自尊，像是那些帮派份子。
Granted, humans are not all equal in ability: There will always be some
who are more wealthy — and others who constitute the bottom. But inequality
does not have to be as harsh, oppressive and polarized as it is in America
today. Germany and Japan have attained modern, efficient economies with far
less inequality than we have — and far fewer social problems. Likewise, the
gap between rich and poor fell during the Clinton administration, according
to data cited in “The Spirit Level,” even though that was a period of
economic vigor.
的确，能力因人而异：总会有一些人更富有--而其他人组成了社会的底层。但是不平等
不应当像当今在美国呈现的那样尖锐，残酷和两极化。德国和日本已经达到了一种现代
的，高效的经济制度。这种经济制度远比我们的经济制度平等，所以其社会问题也远少
于我们。同样的，“精神文明”引用的数据表明在克林顿执政期间尽管那时经济很有活
力，贫富差距反而缩小。
“Inequality is divisive, and even small differences seem to make an
important difference,” Professors Wilkinson and Pickett note. They suggest
that it is not just the poor who benefit from the social cohesion that comes
with equality, but the entire society.
“不平等是分裂的，即使一个细微的不同似乎也能制造一个重要的分歧，”Wilkinson
和Pickett教授指出。他们表明从平等带来的社会内聚力中获益的是整个社会，而不仅
仅是穷人。
So as we debate national policy in 2011 — from the estate tax to
unemployment insurance to early childhood education — let’s push to reduce
the stunning levels of inequality in America today. These inequities seem
profoundly unhealthy, for us and for our nation’s soul.
所以在2011年随着我们辩论国家政策——从房地产遗产税到失业保险基金再到儿童的早
期教育——让我们推动当今美国令人震惊社会不平等程度的下降。这些不平等无论对我
们还是对我们民族的精神来说都是病态的。
I invite you to visit my blog, On the Ground. Please also join me on
Facebook, watch my YouTube videos and follow me on Twitter.
欢迎您来访问我的博客，On the Ground。您也可以在Facebook加入我，观看我土豆网
上的视频，关注我博客的更新。 |
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