How to turn protest into powerful change - Eric Liu

翻译人员: Yuyang Zhao 校对人员: Gabriella Hu

We live in an age of protest.

我们处于一个抗议的时代。

On campuses and public squares,

在大学校园，在公共广场，

on streets and social media,

在街道，在社交媒体，

protesters around the world are challenging the status quo.

全世界的抗议者们正在挑战现状。

Protest can thrust issues onto the national or global agenda,

抗议活动可以将问题推到全国乃至全球。

it can force out tyrants,

它可以推翻暴君，

it can activate people who have long been on the sidelines of civic life.

它可以帮助那些长期游离于公民生活边缘的人群。

While protest is often necessary, is it sufficient?

虽然抗议活动经常是必需的，但这就够 了吗？

Consider the Arab Spring.

想下“阿拉伯之春运动”

All across the Middle East,

席卷中东地区，

citizen protesters were able to topple dictators.

抗议的市民推翻了独裁者的统治。

Afterwards, though,

然而，

the vacuum was too often filled by the most militant and violent.

权利真空往往再次被军事化武装和暴力占据。

Protest can generate lasting positive change

抗议能产生持续的正面变化，

when it's followed by an equally passionate effort

当它被同样的热情的努力

to mobilize voters,

去征集选民，

to cast ballots,

进行投票，

to understand government,

了解政府活动，

and to make it more inclusive.

并做出更加持久的积极改革。

So here are three core strategies for peacefully turning awareness into action

因此，我在这里列举了 和平行动的三条核心策略，

and protest into durable political power.

抗议成为持久的政治力量。

First, expand the frame of the possible,

首先，团结一切可团结的力量；

second, choose a defining fight,

其次，明确斗争目的；

and third, find an early win.

第三，取得早期的胜利。

Let's start with expanding the frame of the possible.

下面从团结一切可以团结的力量开始。

How often have you heard in response to a policy idea,

你经常听到一种对政治理念的反应，

"That's just never going to happen"?

“那从来不可能发生”？

When you hear someone say that,

当你听到有人这么说时，

they're trying to define the boundaries of your civic imagination.

他们正在试图限制你的公民形象。

The powerful citizen works to push those boundaries outward,

强大的公民向外推进真个边界，

to ask what if -

并问只要

what if it were possible?

只要有可能？

What if enough forms of power -

只要有足够的权利形式-

people power, ideas, money, social norms -

人民的力量，想法，今天，社会准则-

were aligned to make it happen?

就能联合起来使它发生？

Simply asking that question

问一个简单的问题

and not taken as given all the givens of conventional politics

不能把所有的资源都寄托给传统政治

is the first step in converting protest to power.

这是把抗议变为权力的第一步。

But this requires concreteness about what it would look like to have, say,

可是，这要求具体的权利是什么，也就是说，

a radically smaller national government,

一个激进的较小的国家政府，

or, by contrast, a big single-payer healthcare system,

或者相反，一个大的单个的医疗系统，

a way to hold corporations accountable for their misdeeds,

保持一种对他们的错误可控的当局

or, instead, a way to free them from onerous regulations.

或者，脱离各种繁杂规则的自由形式。

This brings us to the second strategy, choosing a defining fight.

这就引出了我们的第二个策略：目的明确。

All politics is about contrasts.

所有的政治都是相对的。

Few of us think about civic life in the abstract.

简单说，我们很少人考虑公民生活。

We think about things in relief compared to something else.

我们考虑的是与其它事情相比的一些理念。

Powerful citizens set the terms of that contrast.

强大的公民设定的对比的术语。

This doesn't mean being uncivil.

这并不意味着不文明。

It simply means thinking about a debate you want to have on your terms

仅意味这关于你期待的斗争

over an issue that captures the essence of the change you want.

对你想改变的实质问题。

This is what the activists pushing for a $15 minimum wage in the U.S. have done.

这就是活动者在美国推动的15$的最低工资。

They don't pretend that $15 by itself can fix inequality,

他们没有假装$15本身就可以带来平等，

but with this ambitious and contentious goal,

可是用这种热情和又争议的目标，

which they achieved first in Seattle and then beyond,

这首先在西雅图实现，并向外推广，

they have forced a bigger debate about economic justice and prosperity.

他们对经济公平和繁荣发起了更大的运动。

They've expanded the frame of the possible, strategy one,

他们已经尽可能团结了人民，就是策略一，

and created a sharp emblematic contrast, strategy two.

并且建立的明显的标志性的对比，就是策略二。

The third key strategy, then, is to seek and achieve an early win.

接下来就是第三个策略，取得早期胜利。

An early win, even if it's not as ambitious as the ultimate goal,

早期胜利，即使它不像最终目标那么远大，

creates momentum,

创造了一个时刻，

which changes what people think is possible.

仅可能该民人民的想法。

The solidarity movement,

团结一致的时刻，

which organized workers in Cold War Poland emerged just this way,

组织波兰冷战时期的工人出现就是这种形式

first, with local shipyard strikes in 1980 that forced concessions,

首先，在1980年当地船厂工人罢工迫使让步，

then, over the next decade,

这在，在后面的十年，

a nationwide effort that ultimately helped topple

全国人民的努力最终帮助推翻了

Poland's communist government.

波兰的共产主义政府。

Getting early wins sets in motion a positive feedback loop,

早期的胜利为运动带来了正面的反馈，

a contagion, a belief, a motivation.

一种蔓延的形式，一种信念，一种动机。

It requires pressuring policymakers,

它给政策制定这带来了压力，

using the media to change narrative,

用媒介改变进程，

making arguments in public,

是争论公开化，

persuading skeptical neighbors one by one by one.

一个一个地劝说怀疑的人。

None of this is as sexy as a protest,

没有什么想抗议这么令人着迷，

but this is the history of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement,

而且，这就是美国人权运动的历史，

of Indian Independence,

印度独立运动，

of Czech self-determination.

捷克自治。

Not the single sudden triumph,

没有单一的突然胜利，

but the long, slow slog.

而是长期的，慢慢的推进。

You don't have to be anyone special to be part of this grind,

你不必是任何特定的人成为这个过程的一部分，

to expand the frame of the possible,

而是团结一切可以团结的力量，

to pick a defining fight,

设定明确目标，

or to secure an early win.

或者保护早期的胜利。

You just have to be a participant and to live like a citizen.

你必须像群众一样参与行动。

The spirit of protest is powerful.

抗议的精神力量是强大的。

So is showing up after the protest.

这是抗议后显现出来的。

You can be the co-creator of what comes next.

你可能就是下一个抗议的组织者。