In uncertain times, think like a mother | Yifat Susskind

111,793 views ・ 2020-05-01

TED


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翻译人员: Kai Bian 校对人员: Wanting Zhong
00:13
One morning, 18 years ago,
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18 年前的九月,
00:15
I stepped out of a New York City subway on a beautiful day in September.
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在一个风和日丽的早上, 我刚从纽约地铁中走出来。
00:20
The sun was warm and bright, the sky was a clear, perfect blue.
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阳光温暖明媚, 天空晴朗湛蓝。
00:25
I had my six-month-old son in one of those front-facing baby carriers,
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我让六个月大的儿子 坐在视野朝前的婴儿背带里,
00:30
you know, so he could see everything.
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这样他就能看到所有事物了。
00:32
And when I turned right on Sixth Avenue,
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就当我在第六大道右转的时候,
00:35
what he saw
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他看见的是
00:37
was the World Trade Center on fire.
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世贸中心化为了火海。
00:41
As soon as I realized that this was an attack,
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当我意识到这是一场袭击时,
00:44
the first thing I did, without even really thinking about it,
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我下意识做的第一件事
00:46
was to take my baby and turn him around in that carrier.
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就是抱住我的宝贝, 在背带里把他转过来。
00:50
I didn't want him to see what was going on.
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我不想让他看到正在发生的事。
00:54
And I just remember feeling so grateful that he was still young enough
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我只记得当时很庆幸,他还小,
00:58
that I didn't have to tell him that someone had done this on purpose.
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我不需要告诉他 这是有人蓄意而为。
01:04
9/11 was like crossing a border,
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9/11 事件就像跨越边境一样,
01:07
a hostile border into dangerous, uncharted territory.
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跨越敌军边境, 进入危险而陌生的领域。
01:12
The world was suddenly in this terrifying new place,
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世界突然之间 变成了可怕的新局势,
01:14
and I was in this place as a new mother.
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而我则是这里的一位新手母亲。
01:17
I remember my thoughts kind of ping-ponging around
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我记得我当时的思绪如一团乱麻,
01:20
from, "How am I ever going to protect this baby?"
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一会儿想着 “我究竟该怎样保护好这孩子?”,
01:23
to, "How am I ever going to get some sleep?"
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一会儿想着 “我到底有没有办法睡个好觉?”。
01:26
Well, my son turned 18 this year,
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我儿子今年 18 岁了,
01:29
along with millions of other people who were babies on 9/11.
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和数百万经历 9/11 事件的婴儿一样。
01:35
And in that time,
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在那段时间里,
01:36
we have all crossed into this hostile, uncharted territory
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我们都跨进了这片 充满敌意的未知区域,
01:41
of climate breakdown,
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充斥着气候恶化、
01:43
of endless wars,
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战火不断、
01:45
of economic meltdowns,
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经济崩溃、
01:47
of deep political divisions,
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和深深的政治分歧,
01:49
of the many crises around the world that I don't need to list off,
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世界各地危机四起, 我甚至不需要一一列举,
01:52
because they are blaring at you every single day from your news feed.
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因为每天的新闻动态 都会大声地提醒大家。
01:59
But there is something I've learned in these 18 years of parenting
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但在做母亲的 18 年时间
以及领导国际女性权益组织 的多年经验中,
02:03
and in my years leading a global women's rights organization.
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我学会了一件事。
02:07
There is a way to face these big crises in the world
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我们是有办法 不被窒息、不带绝望地
02:11
without feeling overwhelmed and despairing.
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面对世界上这些大型危机的。
02:16
It's simple, and it's powerful.
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方法很简单,也很有效:
02:19
It's to think like a mother.
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那就是像母亲一样思考。
02:22
Now, to be clear, you don't have to be a woman
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需要说明的是, 你不一定要是女性,
02:24
or a parent to do this.
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也不一定要有孩子。
02:26
Thinking like a mother is a lens that's available to everybody.
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像母亲一样思考 是每个人都可以做到的事。
02:31
The poet Alexis De Veaux writes,
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诗人亚历克西斯 · 德 · 维奥 (Alexis De Veaux)写过,
02:35
"Motherhood is not simply the organic process of giving birth.
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“身为人母不仅仅是 分娩的生物过程;
02:41
It's an understanding of the needs of the world."
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它还是对世界需求的理解。”
02:46
Now, it's easy to focus on all of the obstacles
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我们容易关注到
阻止世界成为我们 想要的模样的各种障碍:
02:48
to making this the world we want:
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02:50
greed, inequality, violence.
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贪婪、不公、暴力。
02:53
Yes, there is all of that.
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没错,存在这些障碍。
02:56
But there's also the option to plant a seed, a different seed,
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但我们还可以选择播下种子, 一颗不同的种子,
03:01
and cultivate what you want to see grow,
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并培养出你们想让其生长的事物,
03:03
even in the midst of crisis.
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即便在危机之中也是如此。
03:06
Majid from Iraq understands this.
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来自伊拉克的玛吉德 (Majid)明白这一点。
03:09
He is a housepainter by trade
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他是一名房屋油漆工,
03:12
and someone who believes deeply in equal rights for women.
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他坚信女性应该获得平等的权利。
03:15
When ISIS invaded northern Iraq where he lives,
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当伊斯兰国 ISIS 入侵他所住的伊拉克北部时,
03:19
he worked with a local women's organization
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他和当地一个女性组织合作,
03:22
to help build an underground railroad,
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帮助建造了地下铁路。
03:25
an escape network for women's rights activists
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这个铁路网络帮助了 女性权益活动人士
03:28
and LGBTIQ folks who were targeted with assassination.
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以及 LGBTIQ 人士 这些被暗杀的目标逃脱。
03:31
And when I asked Majid why he risked his own life
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当我问玛吉德为什么要冒着生命危险
03:35
to bring people to safety,
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将人们带到安全的地时,
03:37
he said to me,
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他对我说:
03:39
"If we want a brighter future,
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“如果我们想要更光明的未来,
03:42
we have to build it now in the dark times
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我们现在就必须在 黑暗时刻中创造未来,
03:45
so that one day we can live in the light."
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唯此我们有朝一日 才能在光明之下生活。”
03:48
That's what social justice work is, and that's what mothers do.
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这就是社会正义的事业, 这也是母亲们所做的事。
03:52
We act in the present with an idea of the future
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我们在当下行动,
心怀想要创造的未来。
03:55
that we want to bring about.
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03:58
All of the best ideas seem impossible at first.
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所有伟大的想法 一开始都看似不可能。
04:03
But just in my lifetime,
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但就在我的有生之年,
04:04
we've seen the end of apartheid,
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我们见证了种族隔离的终结,
04:07
the affirmation that women's rights are human rights,
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女权被确立为人权,
04:10
marriage equality,
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婚姻平等,
04:12
the fall of dictators who ruled for decades
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统治数十年的独裁者下台,
04:15
and so much more.
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以及很多其他的事情。
04:17
All of these things seemed impossible
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这些事情曾经都看似不可能,
04:19
until people took action to make them happen,
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直到人们采取了行动,将它们实现,
04:22
and then, like, almost right away,
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随后,几乎是在转瞬间,
04:26
they seemed inevitable.
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这些事情似乎变成了必然。
04:29
When I was growing up,
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在我小时候,
04:31
whether we were stuck in traffic or dealing with a family tragedy,
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无论我们遇到了堵车, 还是要面对家庭的不幸,
04:35
my mother would say,
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我母亲都会说,
04:37
"Something good is going to happen, we just don't know what it is yet."
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“会有好事发生的, 我们只是还不知道是什么好事。”
04:41
Now, I will admit that my brothers and I make fun of her for this,
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我得承认,我和兄弟们都会借此笑话她,
04:45
but people ask me all the time
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但人们一直问我,
04:49
how I deal with the suffering that I see in my work
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我是怎么面对工作中
04:52
in refugee camps and disaster zones,
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在难民营和灾区所见到的苦难,
04:55
and I think of my mom and that seed of possibility
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这时我就会想到我的母亲,
以及她在我心中种下的 那颗可能性的种子。
04:59
that she planted in me.
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05:02
Because, when you believe that something good is coming
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因为当你相信会有好事发生,
05:05
and you're part of making it happen,
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并且你也在促成它发生的时候,
05:08
you start to be able to see beyond the suffering
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你就会开始看到苦难以外的东西,
05:11
to how things could be.
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看到事物可能的样子。
05:15
Today, there is a new set of necessary ideas
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今天,有一套必要的新想法,
05:19
that seem impossible but one day will feel inevitable:
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虽然看似不可能, 但终有一天会变为必然:
05:24
that we could end violence against women,
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我们可以终结对女性的暴力,
05:27
make war a thing of the past,
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让战争成为过去式,
05:30
learn to live in balance with nature before it's too late
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及时学会与自然和谐相处,
05:34
and make sure that everybody has what they need to thrive.
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并确保大家都有 蓬勃发展所需的条件。
05:40
Of course, being able to picture a future like this is not the same thing
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当然,能够构想 这样的未来并不等同于
05:45
as knowing what to do to make it come about,
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知道该怎样将未来化为现实,
05:48
but thinking like a mother can help with that, too.
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但是,像母亲一样思考 也能帮助我们实现未来。
05:52
A few years ago,
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几年前,
05:53
East Africa was gripped by a famine,
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东非遭遇饥荒,
05:56
and women I know from Somalia
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我所认识的一些索马里女性
05:58
walked for days carrying their hungry children
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背着饥饿的孩子徒步数天,
06:02
in search of food and water.
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寻找食物和水。
06:05
A quarter of a million people died,
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25 万人在饥荒中死亡,
06:08
and half of them were babies and toddlers.
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其中一半是婴幼儿。
06:11
And while this catastrophe unfolded,
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灾难席卷而来时,
06:15
too much of the world looked away.
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世界上太多国家都视而不见。
06:17
But a group of women farmers in Sudan,
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但苏丹有一群女性农民,
06:20
including Fatima Ahmed -- that's her holding the corn --
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其中包括法蒂玛 ·艾哈迈德 (Fatima Ahmed)——
拿着玉米的那个就是她——
06:23
heard about what was happening.
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她们听说了发生的事情。
06:25
And they pooled together the extra money that they had from their harvest
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于是,她们把收成所得的结余凑在一起,
06:29
and asked me to send it to those Somali mothers.
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请我送给那些索马里的母亲们。
06:33
Now, these farmers could have decided that they didn't have the power to act.
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这些农民本可以表示 自己没有行动的力量。
06:37
They were barely getting by themselves,
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她们中的一些人 自己也只能勉强维持生计。
06:39
some of them.
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06:40
They lived without electricity, without furniture.
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她们没有电,没有家具。
06:44
But they overrode that.
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但是她们毫不在意。
06:46
They did what mothers do:
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她们做了母亲们会做的事:
06:48
they saw themselves as the solution and they took action.
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她们认为自己能够解决问题, 并采取了行动。
06:52
You do it all the time if you have kids.
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如果你有孩子的话, 你一直都在这么做。
06:55
You make major decisions about their health care,
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你会做很多重大决定, 比如孩子的医疗、
06:57
their education, their emotional well-being,
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教育、情感健康,
07:00
even if you're not a doctor or a teacher or a therapist.
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即使你并不是医生、 老师或心理治疗师。
07:04
You recognize what your child needs
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你能看出孩子的需求,
07:06
and you step up to provide it the best you can.
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并挺身而出,尽自己所能 去满足他们的需求。
07:11
Thinking like a mother means seeing the whole world
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像母亲一样思考,意味着
要尽可能像弱者一样 去感受整个世界。
07:14
through the eyes of those who are responsible
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07:16
for its most vulnerable people.
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07:19
And we're not used to thinking of subsistence farmers as philanthropists,
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我们并不习惯将勉强糊口的农民 与慈善家联系起来,
07:22
but those women were practicing the root meaning of philanthropy:
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但是那些女性展示的 正是慈善的根本意义:
07:27
love for humanity.
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对人类的爱。
07:31
What's at the core of thinking like a mother shouldn't be a surprise:
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像母亲一样思考的核心 应该并不出人意料:
07:36
it's love.
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那就是爱。
07:37
Because, love is more than just an emotion.
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因为爱不仅仅是一种情感。
07:40
It's a capacity, a verb,
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它还是一种能力,一个动词,
07:42
an endlessly renewable resource --
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一份无穷无尽的可再生资源——
07:45
and not just in our private lives.
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不仅限于我们的个人生活里。
07:48
We recognize hate in the public sphere.
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我们能认出公共领域里的仇恨。
07:50
Right? Hate speech, hate crimes.
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对吧?仇恨言论、仇恨犯罪。
07:52
But not love.
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但我们认不出爱。
07:55
What is love in the public sphere?
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公共领域里的爱是什么?
07:58
Well, Cornel West, who is not a mother but thinks like one,
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康奈尔 · 韦斯特(Cornel West) 并非母亲,但他像母亲一样思考,
08:03
says it best:
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他一针见血地说:
08:04
"Justice is what love looks like in public."
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“正义就是爱在公众面前的样子。”
08:09
And when we remember that every policy is an expression of social values,
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当我们想起每一项政策 都是社会价值观的表现,
08:15
love stands out as that superstar value,
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爱就是其中独树一帜的明星价值观,
08:19
the one best able to account for the most vulnerable among us.
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它最能够支持 我们当中最弱势的群体。
08:23
And when we position love as a kind of leading edge
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当我们把爱作为制定决策
08:27
in policy making,
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的首要因素时,
08:29
we get new answers to fundamental social questions,
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我们就获得了解答 社会根本问题的新答案:
08:34
like, "What's the economy for?"
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比如,“经济增长是为了什么?”
08:38
"What is our commitment to those in the path of the hurricane?"
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“我们对遭受飓风侵袭的人们 应做出什么承诺?”
08:42
"How do we greet those arriving to our borders?"
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“我们该如何应对 抵达我们边境的人们?”
08:47
When you think like a mother,
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当你像母亲一样思考的时候,
08:49
you prioritize the needs of the many,
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你就会将多数人的需求放在首位,
08:51
not the whims of the few.
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而不是去迎合少数人的兴致。
08:54
When you think like a mother,
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当你像母亲一样思考的时候,
08:56
you don't build a seawall around beachfront property,
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你就不会在滨海区的房子 周围建造防波堤,
08:59
because that would divert floodwaters
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因为那会将洪水引开,
09:01
to communities that are still exposed.
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冲击到没有防护的社区。
09:04
When you think like a mother,
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当你像母亲一样思考的时候,
09:06
you don't try to prosecute someone
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你就不会因某人 把水留给穿越沙漠的人
09:08
for leaving water for people crossing the desert.
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而对其提出起诉。
09:12
Because, you know --
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因为,你明白——
09:14
(Applause)
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(掌声)
09:20
Because you know that migration,
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因为你明白,
移居就像身为人母一样,
09:23
just like mothering,
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09:24
is an act of hope.
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是怀抱希望的行为。
09:27
Now, not every mother thinks like a mother.
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并不是每一位母亲 都会像母亲一样思考。
09:30
When presented with a choice, some of us have made the wrong one,
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在面临选择时,有些人会选错,
09:34
hiding behind weapons or barbed wire or privilege
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躲在武器、铁丝网或特权后面,
09:37
to deny the rest of the world,
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否定世界上的其他一切,
09:39
thinking they can see their way to safety in some kind of armed lifeboat
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认为自己能够在武装救生船上, 借着种族主义和仇外情绪的燃料,
09:45
fueled by racism and xenophobia.
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找到通往安全的路。
09:48
Not every mother is a role model,
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并非每位母亲都是榜样,
09:50
but all of us have a choice.
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但我们所有人都可以选择。
09:53
Are we going to jump on that armed lifeboat
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我们是要跳上那条武装救生船,
09:56
or work together to build a mother ship that can carry everyone?
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还是要合作建造一艘 能承载所有人的母亲之船?
10:02
You know how to build that mother ship,
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你知道该如何建造那艘母亲之船,
10:04
how to repair the world and ease the suffering.
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如何修复世界,缓解苦难。
10:08
Think like a mother.
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像母亲一样思考。
10:10
Thinking like a mother is a tool we can all use
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像母亲一样思考 是我们都能运用的方法
10:13
to build the world we want.
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去打造我们想要的世界。
10:15
Thank you.
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谢谢大家。
10:16
(Applause)
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(掌声)
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