Why Public Beheadings Get Millions of Views | Frances Larson | TED Talks

翻译人员: Xiaoya Song 校对人员: Yolanda Zhang

For the last year,

过去的一年中，

everyone's been watching the same show,

大家都在收看同一档节目，

and I'm not talking about "Game of Thrones,"

我指的不是《权力的游戏》，

而是现实生活中的一场闹剧，

but a horrifying, real-life drama

它骇人听闻， 却有让人无法抵挡的强大吸引力。

that's proved too fascinating to turn off.

It's a show produced by murderers

这是一场由杀人凶手摄制，

而后通过网络在世界范围内传播的表演。

and shared around the world via the Internet.

Their names have become familiar:

受害者的姓名我们都很熟悉了：

James Foley, Steven Sotloff, David Haines, Alan Henning, Peter Kassig,

James Foley, Steven Sotloff, David Haines, Alan Hennings, Peter Kassig,

Haruna Yukawa, Kenji Goto Jogo.

Haruna Yukawa, Kenji Goto Jogo.

伊斯兰国对他们的处决

Their beheadings by the Islamic State

were barbaric,

是野蛮残暴的，

but if we think they were archaic,

但如果我们以为这些刽子手

来自某个遥远、陈旧、不为人知的年代，

from a remote, obscure age,

那就大错特错了。

then we're wrong.

They were uniquely modern,

事实上，他们是非常与时俱进的，

because the murderers acted knowing well

因为他们的行为说明其深知

that millions of people would tune in to watch.

无数人将会观看他们的视频。

The headlines called them savages and barbarians,

新闻媒体将他们称作“野蛮人”，

因为屏幕上

because the image of one man overpowering another,

一刀割喉以示征服的画面，

killing him with a knife to the throat,

conforms to our idea of ancient, primitive practices,

同我们对远古时期，原始行为的 想象相吻合，

而与现代文明和道德伦理完全相悖。

the polar opposite of our urban, civilized ways.

We don't do things like that.

我们绝不会做出类似的事情。

But that's the irony.

但这恰恰是讽刺之处。

We think a beheading has nothing to do with us,

我们以为就算点击观看了视频，

even as we click on the screen to watch.

一场斩首处决也与自己毫不相干。

But it is to do with us.

但事实并非如此。

The Islamic State beheadings

这场伊斯兰国的公开斩首

并不是发生在遥远的古代，

are not ancient or remote.

这是21世纪全球性的事件，

They're a global, 21st century event,

它就在我们的客厅里，桌子上，

a 21st century event that takes place in our living rooms, at our desks,

我们的电脑屏幕中发生着。

on our computer screens.

They're entirely dependent on the power of technology to connect us.

杀人凶手们完全依靠技术手段 与我们产生联系。

And whether we like it or not,

无论我们是否情愿，

everyone who watches is a part of the show.

每个观众都是这场表演的参与者。

And lots of people watch.

而观众的人数相当可观。

We don't know exactly how many.

我们没有确切的数据。

Obviously, it's difficult to calculate.

显然这实在难以统计。

But a poll taken in the UK, for example, in August 2014,

但通过2014年8月在伦敦的一项调查，

estimated that 1.2 million people

可以粗略估算出 在对James Foley的处决视频

had watched the beheading of James Foley

发布之后的短短几天内，

in the few days after it was released.

已有约120万人观看。

And that's just the first few days,

这还只是刚开始的几天内，

而且仅仅在英国。

and just Britain.

A similar poll taken in the United States

2014年11月

美国一项类似的调查表明，

in November 2014

found that nine percent of those surveyed

9%的受访者

had watched beheading videos,

观看了斩首视频，

and a further 23 percent

此外还有23%的人

had watched the videos but had stopped just before the death was shown.

点开了视频， 但在受害者遇难前一刻退出了观看。

Nine percent may be a small minority of all the people who could watch,

在所有可能观看的人中， 9%也许只是个很小的部分，

but it's still a very large crowd.

但这个数字代表的 仍是十分庞大的人群。

And of course that crowd is growing all the time,

并且人数还在不断增长，

because every week, every month,

因为每周、每月，

more people will keep downloading and keep watching.

都会有更多的人下载、观看。

If we go back 11 years,

其实在11年前，

before sites like YouTube and Facebook were born,

在YouTube、Facebook这样的网站 还没出现的时候，

就发生过类似的事情。

it was a similar story.

When innocent civilians like Daniel Pearl,

像Daniel Pearl，Nick Berg, Paul Johnson

这样的无辜平民被斩首时，

Nick Berg, Paul Johnson, were beheaded,

相关视频在伊拉克战争期间 被发布了出来。

those videos were shown during the Iraq War.

Nick Berg's beheading

对Nick Berg的斩首视频

quickly became one of the most searched for items on the Internet.

迅速成为了互联网上 搜索次数最多的条目之一。

Within a day, it was the top search term

一天之内，就在Google, Lycos, Yahoo

这样的搜索引擎上登顶热搜榜。

across search engines like Google, Lycos, Yahoo.

这些是Nick Berg被斩首后的一周内，

In the week after Nick Berg's beheading,

these were the top 10 search terms in the United States.

在美国排名前十的搜索项。

The Berg beheading video remained the most popular search term for a week,

Berg的斩首录像占据了搜索榜榜首 整整一周，

and it was the second most popular search term for the whole month of May,

还在整个五月份的 搜索统计中排在第二。

runner-up only to "American Idol."

仅次于“美国偶像”。

The al-Qaeda-linked website that first showed Nick Berg's beheading

最初发布Nick Berg斩首录像的 基地组织相关网站，

had to close down within a couple of days due to overwhelming traffic to the site.

甚至还因难以负荷巨大的访问量 不得不关闭了两天。

One Dutch website owner said that his daily viewing figures

一位荷兰的网站所有人表示，

rose from 300,000 to 750,000

他的网站日访问量从30万 增加到了75万人次，

every time a beheading in Iraq was shown.

每一次点击都意味着在伊拉克的处刑 又被播放了一次。

He told reporters 18 months later

一年半后，他告诉记者

that it had been downloaded many millions of times,

该视频已被下载了数百万次，

这还只是一家网站的数据。

and that's just one website.

A similar pattern was seen again and again

伊拉克战争期间 其他的斩首录像公布之后，

发生的事情如出一辙。

when videos of beheadings were released during the Iraq War.

Social media sites have made these images more accessible than ever before,

社交媒体给这些影像的传播 带来了前所未有的便利，

but if we take another step back in history,

可是倘若我们回顾更早的历史就会发现，

we'll see that it was the camera that first created a new kind of crowd

在那段公开处刑被当做聚众狂欢的时期，

in our history of beheadings as public spectacle.

最先创造出一种新型“围观人群”的， 是照相机。

As soon as the camera appeared on the scene,

1939年6月17日，

a full lifetime ago on June 17, 1939,

相机一登上历史舞台，

it had an immediate and unequivocal effect.

就立刻产生了显著的影响。

那一天， 第一支公开斩首的影像在法国诞生。

That day, the first film of a public beheading was created in France.

It was the execution, the guillotining, of a German serial killer, Eugen Weidmann,

其内容是对德国籍连环杀手 Eugen Weidmann

在凡尔赛圣皮埃尔监狱外的 断头台上执行的处决。

outside the prison Saint-Pierre in Versailles.

Weidmann was due to be executed at the crack of dawn,

按当时的习惯，

Weidmann本应在凌晨被处死，

as was customary at the time,

but his executioner was new to the job,

但当天的行刑者是位新手，

他低估了自己 做好准备所需的时间。

and he'd underestimated how long it would take him to prepare.

So Weidmann was executed at 4:30 in the morning,

因此Weidmann在早晨4:30才被处决，

在六月的这个时间，

by which time on a June morning,

there was enough light to take photographs,

已经有足够的日光来拍摄相片了。

and a spectator in the crowd filmed the event,

人群中一名观众瞒着当局，

对这一事件进行了摄像。

unbeknownst to the authorities.

同时还拍了几张照片，

Several still photographs were taken as well,

时至今日， 你仍然可以在网上找到这段影像，

and you can still watch the film online today

and look at the photographs.

浏览这些照片。

The crowd on the day of Weidmann's execution

当天围观Weidmann处决的群众

was called "unruly" and "disgusting" by the press,

被媒体称作是 “难以控制的”和“令人作呕的”，

但这与如今能够一遍又一遍 研究这出情节，

but that was nothing compared to the untold thousands of people

who could now study the action

能够在每个细节处定格画面的

成百上千不知名的

over and over again,

freeze-framed in every detail.

人们相比，简直不值一提。

The camera may have made these scenes more accessible than ever before,

照相机或许能让公众更方便地 获得这些影像，

但这并不是唯一的影响因素。

but it's not just about the camera.

If we take a bigger leap back in history,

再向前追溯一段更久远的历史，

我们会发现

we'll see that for as long as there have been

哪里有公开司法处刑和斩首，

public judicial executions and beheadings,

there have been the crowds to see them.

哪里就有围观群众。

In London, as late as the early 19th century,

在19世纪早期的伦敦，

一次绞刑的观众约有四五千人。

there might be four or five thousand people to see a standard hanging.

There could be 40,000 or 50,000 to see a famous criminal killed.

倘若被处死的罪犯臭名昭著， 那么人数有可能增加到四五万。

And a beheading, which was a rare event in England at the time,

而在那时的英国，十分罕见的斩首

attracted even more.

则具有更大的吸引力。

In May 1820,

1820年5月，

five men known as the Cato Street Conspirators

五位“卡托街的阴谋家”

were executed in London for plotting

因密谋刺杀不列颠政府成员

在伦敦被处决。

to assassinate members of the British government.

They were hung and then decapitated.

他们先被绞死而后又被砍头。

场面惨不忍睹。

It was a gruesome scene.

五个罪犯的脑袋被轮流砍下 而后展示给围观者。

Each man's head was hacked off in turn and held up to the crowd.

And 100,000 people,

有整整10万人

that's 10,000 more than can fit into Wembley Stadium,

前来观看， 比整个温布利球场可容纳的观众

had turned out to watch.

还要多1万人。

The streets were packed.

一时间万人空巷。

People had rented out windows and rooftops.

有人向外出租 （看得见行刑台的）窗户和屋顶。

People had climbed onto carts and wagons in the street.

有人爬上路边的马车。

People climbed lamp posts.

有人攀上街边的路灯。

还有的人 据说在行刑日拥挤的人群中丧生。

People had been known to have died in the crush on popular execution days.

Evidence suggests that throughout our history

证据表明纵观公开行刑

of public beheadings and public executions,

与公开斩首的历史，

the vast majority of the people who come to see

绝大多数前来观看受刑的人

就算不是特别狂热， 也至少是持麻木的态度。

are either enthusiastic or, at best, unmoved.

Disgust has been comparatively rare,

极少有人觉得恶心、厌恶，

就算真的感到恶心和恐惧，

and even when people are disgusted and are horrified,

it doesn't always stop them from coming out all the same to watch.

通常也并不妨碍他们加入围观人群。

Perhaps the most striking example

有关人们看到砍头，

of the human ability to watch a beheading and remain unmoved

却能保持无动于衷， 甚至感到还够不过瘾的

最典型的事件，

and even be disappointed

was the introduction in France in 1792 of the guillotine,

恐怕是在1792年的法国， 那架著名的斩首机器，

“断头台”的面世。

that famous decapitation machine.

对于21世纪的我们，

To us in the 21st century,

the guillotine may seem like a monstrous contraption,

断头台可能算得上是 骇人听闻的诡异装置，

but to the first crowds who saw it, it was actually a disappointment.

但它却令它的第一批观众大失所望。

They were used to seeing long, drawn-out, torturous executions on the scaffold,

他们已经习惯于观看行刑台上 持续长时间的折磨，

where people were mutilated and burned and pulled apart slowly.

看着人们被砍断手脚、 活活烧死、慢慢撕裂。

To them, watching the guillotine in action,

对他们而言，断头台上的演出

it was so quick, there was nothing to see.

结束得太快了，没什么好看的。

刀身下落，头颅掉进一只篮子 就立刻不见了踪影，

The blade fell, the head fell into a basket, out of sight immediately,

and they called out,

于是他们喊道，

“还我们绞刑架！把木绞架抬回来！”

"Give me back my gallows, give me back my wooden gallows."

The end of torturous public judicial executions in Europe and America

欧美范围内残酷的 公开司法处刑的终结，

was partly to do with being more humane towards the criminal,

一部分是出于对罪犯的人道主义关怀，

but it was also partly because the crowd obstinately refused to behave

但同时也是因为围观人群的行为举止

着实太有悖常理和人性。

in the way that they should.

All too often, execution day

一而再，再而三的，

was more like a carnival than a solemn ceremony.

行刑日与其说是严肃的仪式， 不如说变成了狂欢节。

Today, a public judicial execution in Europe or America is unthinkable,

今天，无论在欧洲还是美国， 一场公开处决已是不可想象的了，

but there are other scenarios that should make us cautious

但我们仍然无法简单地认为

一切都不同了，

about thinking that things are different now

这样的惨剧不会再重演了。

and we don't behave like that anymore.

Take, for example, the incidents of suicide baiting.

我们不妨说说“诱导自杀”。

这指的是人们聚集起来

This is when a crowd gathers

to watch a person who has climbed to the top of a public building

围观那些爬上高层公共建筑顶楼

企图自杀的人，

in order to kill themselves,

and people in the crowd shout and jeer,

而人群中时常冒出

"Get on with it! Go on and jump!"

“快点儿啊！”“跳下去啊！” 之类的叫嚷和嘲讽。

This is a well-recognized phenomenon.

这种现象早就屡见不鲜了。

1981年的一篇论文指出， 每21起受到威胁的自杀行为中，

One paper in 1981 found that in 10 out of 21 threatened suicide attempts,

there was incidents of suicide baiting and jeering from a crowd.

就有10起出现了人群中的讥笑， 也就是所谓的诱导自杀。

今年的报纸中也出现过相关报道。

And there have been incidents reported in the press this year.

This was a very widely reported incident

这是今年3月在特尔福德和什罗普郡

in Telford and Shropshire in March this year.

被广泛报道的事件。

And when it happens today,

这种情况发生在当今，

人们通常会掏出手机拍照、摄像，

people take photographs and they take videos on their phones

and they post those videos online.

再把影像上传到网络。

When it comes to brutal murderers who post their beheading videos,

类似的，当残暴的刽子手在网上传播 录制好的斩首视频，

the Internet has created a new kind of crowd.

互联网又创造了一批新的围观人群。

Today, the action takes place in a distant time and place,

正因为这些事情发生在 触不可及的时间和地点，

which gives the viewer a sense of detachment from what's happening,

从而让观众产生了与之毫不相干的心理，

a sense of separation.

一种疏离感。

“这和我没有关系”。

It's nothing to do with me.

It's already happened.

“这一切已经发生了”。

We are also offered an unprecedented sense of intimacy.

同时我们还获得了前所未有的亲密感。

Today, we are all offered front row seats.

我们仿佛身处贵宾席。

We can all watch in private, in our own time and space,

能够在空闲时间、私人空间里独自观看，

and no one need ever know that we've clicked on the screen to watch.

并且没人知道我们到底浏览过什么。

This sense of separation --

这种疏离感——

from other people, from the event itself --

不论是与他人还是与事件本身——

seems to be key to understanding our ability to watch,

似乎成了理解我们为何能够观看 这些残暴行径的关键，

而互联网通过

and there are several ways

in which the Internet creates a sense of detachment

产生疏离感而逐渐侵蚀

that seems to erode individual moral responsibility.

个人道德责任感的例子还有不少。

Our activities online are often contrasted with real life,

我们在网上的行为举止 往往与现实生活反差巨大，

as though the things we do online are somehow less real.

似乎互联网上的行为并不那么真实。

We feel less accountable for our actions

在网上，我们会觉得不必

对自己的行为负责。

when we interact online.

There's a sense of anonymity, a sense of invisibility,

由于网络匿名带来的隐形感，

so we feel less accountable for our behavior.

我们感到并不需要 为自己的言行负太多责任。

The Internet also makes it far easier to stumble upon things inadvertently,

在网上也更容易发现一些

things that we would usually avoid in everyday life.

真实生活中我们会尽力避免的东西。

现在，有些视频甚至在你还没意识到 在看什么的时候，就会开始播放。

Today, a video can start playing before you even know what you're watching.

Or you may be tempted to look at material that you wouldn't look at in everyday life

又或者我们会浏览平时不会去关注，

以及有旁人时不会去观看的内容。

or you wouldn't look at if you were with other people at the time.

And when the action is pre-recorded

于是，当整件事已经事先被拍摄，

并发生在遥远的时空距离之外，

and takes place in a distant time and space,

观看貌似成为了一种被动行为。

watching seems like a passive activity.

“我现在对此无能为力”。

There's nothing I can do about it now.

“这一切已经发生了”。

It's already happened.

All these things make it easier as an Internet user

所有这些都让作为 互联网用户的我们更轻易地

for us to give in to our sense of curiosity about death,

屈从于自己对死亡的好奇，

拉低自己的个人道德底线，

to push our personal boundaries,

去考验、去探究自己对冲击感的承受力。

to test our sense of shock, to explore our sense of shock.

But we're not passive when we watch.

然而事实上我们并非被动的观众。

On the contrary, we're fulfilling the murderer's desire to be seen.

恰恰相反， 正是我们在满足杀人犯的表现欲。

斩首中受害者被绑住无力反抗的时候，

When the victim of a decapitation is bound and defenseless,

he or she essentially becomes a pawn in their killer's show.

他或她本质上 已经变成了刽子手的表演道具。

Unlike a trophy head that's taken in battle,

传统战争中作为战利品砍下的头颅，

that represents the luck and skill it takes to win a fight,

象征着胜者蒙受的上天眷顾 和超凡的战斗技能，

when a beheading is staged,

与此不同的是， 当斩首作为表演被呈上舞台，

when it's essentially a piece of theater,

当它已然成为一出戏剧，

这些罪犯的表演得到的反响， 正是操控力的来源。

the power comes from the reception the killer receives as he performs.

In other words, watching is very much part of the event.

换言之，观看行为实际上是 这一事件中相当关键的部分。

The event no longer takes place in a single location

这件事不再如同以往 或是它今后仍将呈现出的那样，

at a certain point in time as it used to and as it may still appear to.

仅仅发生在特定的时间与地点。

Now the event is stretched out in time and place,

如今它在时空中得到了延伸，

使得每一位观众都变成参与者。

and everyone who watches plays their part.

We should stop watching,

我们真的应该拒绝观看。

but we know we won't.

但我们知道自己做不到。

History tells us we won't,

历史说我们做不到，

and the killers know it too.

刽子手们也对此一清二楚。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（掌声）

布鲁诺 吉桑尼(BG)： 谢谢。我来拿着这个吧。谢谢。

Bruno Giussani: Thank you. Let me get this back. Thank you.

Let's move here. While they install for the next performance,

我们往前站一些。 趁着工作人员准备下一场演讲，

I want to ask you the question that probably many here have,

我想问一个可能在座很多人 都会好奇的问题，

which is how did you get interested in this topic?

为什么你会对这个话题感兴趣呢？

Frances Larson: I used to work at a museum

弗朗西斯 拉森 (FL): 我以前在一家博物馆工作，

called the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford,

牛津的皮特河博物馆，

which was famous for its display of shrunken heads from South America.

那里来自南美的头颅标本非常有名。

人们总说， “噢，头颅博物馆，头颅博物馆！”

People used to say, "Oh, the shrunken head museum, the shrunken head museum!"

那时候我恰好在研究用于

And at the time, I was working on the history

of scientific collections of skulls.

科学方面的头骨收藏史。

I was working on the cranial collections,

正当我研究这些颅骨藏品时，

and it just struck me as ironic

我突然意识到一件讽刺的事，

that here were people coming to see this gory, primitive, savage culture

人们到这儿来是想感受 他们可能在脑中构想过的

血腥、残忍的原始文明，

that they were almost fantasizing about and creating

without really understanding what they were seeing,

却从未真正理解他们眼前的展品，

and all the while these vast -- I mean hundreds of thousands

而一直以来我们博物馆里那些

of skulls in our museums, all across Europe and the States --

遍及欧美大陆的数以万计的头骨藏品——

从某种程度上说， 成为了推进思想启蒙运动的科学基础。

were kind of upholding this Enlightenment pursuit of scientific rationality.

So I wanted to kind of twist it round and say, "Let's look at us."

所以我希望能够调转人们的目光， 来“看看我们自己”。

We're looking through the glass case at these shrunken heads.

我们和这些头颅标本一样， 都在透过玻璃罩子观察对方。

让我们开始省视自己的历史文化， 以及对这些事物的想象吧。

Let's look at our own history and our own cultural fascination with these things.

BG: Thank you for sharing that.

BG：感谢你的演讲。

FL: Thank you.

FL：谢谢！

（掌声）

(Applause)