【THE CASUALTIES OF CIVILIZATION·都是文明惹得“祸”】
文字难度：★★★
My twenties were so lacking in 1)creature comforts that I could have been in a 2)Dickens novel. What a “3)bedraggled 4)waif” I was, living in a 6)grimy New York City apartment with no dishwasher, no air conditioner and no 5)on-site laundry facilities. Like most Manhattanites, I didn’t have a car, nor did I have a television set. In those days I was indulged in 7)Ibsen plays and I was incredibly 8)pretentious and I was the kind of person who spent all evening—often, alas, at the 9)Laundromat—reading Ibsen plays. That was how I spent my days and those days are over. Now, I have an array of household conveniences. Instead of dragging my laundry along block after block of 10)filthy sidewalks, I can take my clothes directly off my body and deposit them into my very own w ashing machine (and then, in a magnificent 11)coda, my very own dryer). I also have a dishwasher, a cell phone, wireless Internet and satellite cable service that’s so advanced that accidentally sitting on the remote can cause entire air traffic control systems to reset. And the Internet gives me the opportunity to live a life without Dickens and Ibsen. I can embrace a more colorful life just by one click.
It sounds like the days in heaven. But I couldn’t help but wonder: Is this how we are supposed to lead our life?
我二十来岁的时候,物质贫乏得很,就像是生活在狄更斯小说的时代。那时候我住在纽约市一个脏兮兮的公寓里,没有洗碗机,没有空调,房间里更没有洗衣机,我根本就是个“邋遢浪子”。就像大多数曼哈顿人一样,我既没有车,也没有电视机。在那些日子里,我沉浸在易卜生的戏剧中,相当地自命不凡。我就是那种会用整晚来读易卜生戏剧的人——当然,唉,通常都是整晚在洗衣房里读。那时候我就是这样子过日子的,而那样的日子已经一去不复返了。现在,我有了一整套家庭便利设备。我不用再像从前那样沿着脏兮兮的人行道,拖着大堆脏衣服穿街过巷拿去洗衣店洗,如今,我可以把衣服一脱就直接扔进自己的洗衣机里(接着,再放进我自己的干衣机,这就算画上极好的句点了)。我还有洗碗机、手机、无线上网、有线电视(卫星传送)服务, 这一切先进得很,要是万一不小心坐在了遥控器上,恐怕整个空中交通控制系统都得重启。而互联网则让我有机会过上没有狄更斯和易卜生影子的日子。轻触一下鼠标,我便能拥抱更多姿多彩的生活。
这日子听起来就如天堂般地美好。但我却忍不住思考:这就是我们应该过的生活吗?
The other day, I read a column arguing the point that young people spend so much of their time indoors that they are deprived of the chance to catch frogs or throw rocks at 12)wasp nests. The writer says when he was a kid, being 13)cooped up inside was called “14)juvenile 15)detention”; now it’s called “leisure.” Actually, in an era where a 16)stray 17)gripe about your boss can 18)land you on an industry blog, where waking up 19)hungover can 20)frantically send you to 21)Facebook to untag your name from photos of the previous night’s 22)frosting-wrestling contest, where shots of you in 23)unflattering jeans become part of your permanent Google search results, “off the keyboard” means being deprived of the right of “leisure.”
有一天我读到了一篇专栏文章,其观点是:现在的年轻人躲在室内的时间太长了,根本没机会去抓抓青蛙或向黄蜂巢扔扔石子。作者说,在他小的时候,关在室内叫做“少年禁闭”,而现在则被叫做“休闲”。事实上,你私下对老板的几句无心怨言会让你登上某个行业博客,当你宿醉刚醒还感到难受之际,你就发了疯似地打开“脸谱网”,为的就是从前一晚的“糖霜摔跤大战”这个标签里(编者注:“泥浆摔跤”的改良版——穿着性感或裸体女子在糖霜、巧克力糖浆里扭打)的照片中为自己除名;当你穿着不甚美观的牛仔裤拍照,这些照片会永久地留在网上,而日后在谷歌搜索栏一输入你的名字就会被看到;就是在这样一个时代里,“离开键盘”就意味着“休闲”权被剥夺。
Part of what’s so 24)perverse about people nowadays is that we are not allowed to have a normal life. Who has made us more and more reliant on the modern devices? Unfortunately, we put ourselves into that hot seat. Just because those modern devices have brought us more convenience than we had thought doesn’t mean we are supposed to convince ourselves that we’ll die without them. In a telephone survey of 1,003 people conducted recently, 35% said a dishwasher was a necessity, and 83% said a clothes dryer was a necessity. Acquiring things we don’t need and then coming to rely on them as though they were as essential as air and water isn’t just about affluence, it’s about being a 25)moron. Believe it or not, it’s something that makes us who we are. Physical, even mental, attachment to the modern conveniences puts us into a dangerous position: we would not do anything in the absence of them. And it is sad that we thought we were using modern conveniences to make our life better. Instead we fail to realize that we are lost in these modern conveniences. We might even forget the color of the sky, the smell of the rain.
It’s time to 26)pry yourself and your family off the modern “necessity”. In the same way that you recharge your 27)BlackBerry from time to time, you also should recharge your soul—by spending part of your time disconnected from the modern “necessity” and reconnected with the universe. Spend seven days without the Web and 28)NBC or 29)CBS. Read Ibsen and Dickens before bedtime. Follow 30)Robert Frost and take the path less traveled, for that makes all the difference.
我们没过上正常的生活,这就是让这个时代的人如此荒谬反常的原因之一。是谁令我们越来越依赖现代设备?不幸的是,是我们把自己放在了那尴尬的处境之中。那些现代设备给我们带来预想之外的方便,并不意味着我们就应该说服自己,相信离开了它们我们就活不下去。在最近一份对1003人进行的电话调查中,35%的人说洗碗机是必不可少的,而83%的人说干衣机是不可或缺的。得到我们本来就不需要的东西,然后对其依赖性越来越大,觉得其有如空气和水一样重要,这并不是说明我们的生活有多富足,而是说明我们有多白痴低能。信不信由你,我们之所以成为现在的样子是由某些东西导致的。从身体上,甚至精神上依赖这些现代的便利设施将会使得我们陷入危险的境地:我们离开了它们就什么都干不了。而可悲的是,我们却认为自己在借助这些现代手段改善生活,而没有意识到我们正是在这些现代便利设施之中迷失了自我。我们甚至可能会忘记了天空的颜色,雨丝的气味。
是时候将你自己和家人与这些现代“必需品”分开了。就像你时不时需要给你的黑莓手机充电一样,你也需要给你的灵魂充电——在某些时候与现代“必需品”断开连接,而同宇宙重新连接。过上7天远离网络和NBC或CBS电视台的生活。睡前读读易卜生和狄更斯。跟随着罗伯特·弗罗斯特的脚步,走上行人寥寥的幽径,这会让一切变得不同。