The Politics of Fear

The Politics of Fear

恐惧政治学

Fear is the most powerful enemy of reason. Both fear and reason are
essential to human survival, but the relationship between them is
unbalanced. Reason may sometimes dissipate fear, but fear frequently shuts
down reason. As Edmund Burke wrote in England twenty years before the
American Revolution, "No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its
powers of acting and reasoning as fear."

恐惧是理智的最强大敌人。恐惧和理智对人类的生存都是重要的， 不过， 二者之间的关系
不平衡。 理智有时可以部分减轻恐惧， 但是，
恐惧则经常将理智全然熄灭。 正如埃德蒙 伯克在美国革命二十年前就在英国写道： "较之
其他强烈的情绪，
恐惧可以更有效地使人们的心智丧失所有行动和推理之能力。"

Our Founders had a healthy respect for the threat fear poses to reason. They
knew that, under the right circumstances, fear can trigger the temptation to
surrender freedom to a demagogue promising strength and security in return.
They worried that when fear displaces reason, the result is often irrational
hatred and division. As Justice Louis D. Brandeis later wrote: "Men feared
witches and burnt women." Understanding this unequal relationship between
fear and reason was crucial to the design of American self-government.

我们的开国元勋们都相当重视恐惧对理智的威胁。 他们知道， 在适当的情况下，
恐惧能够启动一种力量，诱惑民众放弃自己的自由，将之让渡给答应用国家强大人民安全
作交换的煽动人心者。 他们担心， 当恐惧取代了理智，
结果往往是荒谬的仇恨和分裂。 正如大法官路易斯 布朗戴斯后来写道："男人怕女巫，
所以烧死女人。"深刻理解恐惧和理智之间的这种不平衡关系对于设计美国自治是至关重
要的。

Our Founders rejected direct democracy because of concerns that fear might
overwhelm reflective thought. But they counted heavily on the ability of a
"well-informed citizenry" to reason together in ways that would minimize the
destructive impact of illusory, exaggerated, or excessive fears. "When a man
seriously reflects on the precariousness of human affairs, he will become
convinced that it is infinitely wiser and safer to form a constitution of
our own in a cool deliberate manner, while we have it in our power," wrote
Thomas Paine in his legendary pamphlet Common Sense, specifically warning
that the Founders should not take the risk of waiting until some fear seized
the public imagination, in which event their reasoning processes would be
hampered.

我们的开国元勋们拒绝了直选民主制， 因为他们担心，恐惧可能会压倒反思。 他们把大希
望寄托在一群博闻广识的公民身上，
希望他们能在一起思辨，从而最大程度地减低那种虚幻的， 夸张的或过分的恐惧可能带来
的破坏性影响。"只要一个人对人类事务中的风险做严肃的思考，他终会坚信，
以冷静审慎的方式， 建成我们自己的宪政制------当我们还有能力如此做的时候------ 是一条极其明智
， 极其安全的道路。" 托马斯
潘恩在他的名扬四海的小册子"常识"中这么写道。 他还特别提醒那些开国元勋们不要延宕
误事， 不要等到恐惧支配了公众的想象力， 阻碍了他们推理过程，
那就为时太晚了。

Nations succeed or fail and define their essential character by the way they
challenge the unknown and cope with fear. And much depends on the quality of
their leadership. If leaders exploit public fears to herd people in
directions they might not otherwise choose, then fear itself can quickly
become a self-perpetuating and freewheeling force that drains national will
and weakens national character, diverting attention from real threats
deserving of healthy and appropriate fear and sowing confusion about the
essential choices that every nation must constantly make about its future.

国家或成或败， 但均以如何挑战未知， 对付恐惧来规定自己的根本特征。很多东西都取决
于国家领导的品质。 如果领导们利用公众的恐惧，
把老百姓朝一个他们自身本不会选择的方向上去赶，那么恐惧本身就会很快变成一种自求
永续，自行其是的力量。 这将消磨国家意志， 削弱国家性格，
把我们的注意力从本应对之示以充分且适当恐惧的真正威胁身上转移开来， 并对每一个国
家在面对未来时必须不断做出的根本选择制造混乱。

Leadership means inspiring us to manage through our fears. Demagoguery means
exploiting our fears for political gain. There is a crucial difference.

领导民众意味着靠鼓舞士气勉而为之地克服恐惧。 煽动民众则意味着通过对恐惧的利用来
获取政治利益。 这两者之间有着关键的区别。

Fear and anxiety have always been a part of life and always will be. Fear is
ubiquitous and universal in every human society. It is a normal part of the
human condition. And it has always been an enemy of reason. The Roman
philosopher and rhetoric teacher Lactantius wrote, "Where fear is present,
wisdom cannot be." We have always defined progress by our success in
managing through our fears. Christopher Columbus, Meriwether Lewis and
William Clark, Susan B. Anthony, and Neil Armstrong all found success by
challenging the unknown and overcoming fear with courage and a sense of
proportion that helped them overcome legitimate fears without being
distracted by distorted and illusory fears.

恐惧与焦虑早就是生活的一部分， 而且也将永远如此。 在每一个人类社会中， 恐惧都是无
处不在的。 这已经是人类状况之常态。 恐惧也一直是理智的敌人。
罗马哲学家和修辞学者拉克坦修斯曾写道，"恐惧之所至， 智慧恒避之。"我们一直是用我
们在设法控制恐惧方面所取得成功来定义我们的进步的。 哥伦布， 路易斯
暨 克拉克， 安东尼 以及 阿姆斯特朗诸人均在各自的事业上取得成功， 靠的就是敢向未知进
行挑战， 靠得就是敢用勇气和区别轻重缓急的能力来克服恐惧。
这种勇气和能力帮助了他们克服了各自正当的恐惧， 从而避免了被失真虚幻的恐惧分心与
困惑。

The Founders of our country faced dire threats. If they failed in their
endeavors, they would have been hanged as traitors. The very existence of
our country was at risk. Yet in the teeth of those dangers, they insisted on
establishing the freedoms that became the Bill of Rights. Are members of
Congress today in more danger than were their predecessors when the British
army marched on the Capitol?

我国的开国元勋们面临着严重的威胁。 如果他们的努力失败， 他们会被当作叛国者绞死。
我们国家的存亡在此一举。 尽管险象环生，他们仍然坚持建立自由制度，
这后来变成人权法案。 试问今日的国会议员们， 与他们的前任， 面临英军进犯国会大厦， 
相比之下， 难道危险还会更大？

Are the dangers we now face so much greater than those that led Franklin
Delano Roosevelt to famously remind us that the only thing we have to fear
is fear itself? Is America in more danger now than when we faced worldwide
fascism on the march -- when our fathers fought and won a world war on two
fronts simultaneously?

难道我们今天面临的危险会超过当年罗斯福？ 那时， 直面危险， 他说了一句著名的话来提
醒人民： 我们唯一应当恐惧的东西就是恐惧本身。
难道美国今天面临的危险会超过当年法西斯主义在整个世界范围内开始进攻------会超过当年我
们的先辈在两条战线同时作战并最终赢得世界大战？