Why bother? The game is rigged. My vote won't count. The choices are terrible. Voting is for suckers.
为什么非要投票呢? 选举被操纵了。 我那一票不起作用。 选举的结果很糟糕。 选举都是骗人的。
Perhaps you've thought some of these things. Perhaps you've even said them. And if so, you wouldn't be alone, and you wouldn't be entirely wrong. The game of public policy today is rigged in many ways. How else would more than half of federal tax breaks flow up to the wealthiest five percent of Americans? And our choices indeed are often terrible. For many people across the political spectrum, Exhibit A is the 2016 presidential election. But in any year, you can look up and down the ballot and find plenty to be uninspired about.
也许你曾经这么想过。 也许你还说过这样的话。 如果是这样,那你不是一个人在战斗, 你说的也不是没有道理。 今天的公共选举在很多方面都被操纵了。 要不然如何解释过半的联邦所得税减免 都流向了最富有的5%的人? 我们的选择也经常是可怕的。 对许多具有政治背景的人来说, 证据就是2016年的总统大选。 但不管是哪一年,你去看一下投票结果, 令人沮丧的结果比比皆是。
But in spite of all this, I still believe voting matters. And crazy as it may sound, I believe we can revive the joy of voting. Today, I want to talk about how we can do that, and why.
尽管如此, 我仍然相信投票是一件重要的事。 尽管听起来挺疯狂, 但我相信我们可以重新获得选举的乐趣。 今天,我要谈一谈我们要怎样, 以及为什么要重新享受选举。
There used to be a time in American history when voting was fun, when it was much more than just a grim duty to show up at the polls. That time is called "most of American history."
在美国历史上选举曾经是充满乐趣的, 那时选举可不仅仅是 在投票站露面那么无聊。 那个时代被称为“大部分美国历史”。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
From the Revolution to the Civil Rights Era, the United States had a vibrant, robustly participatory and raucous culture of voting. It was street theater, open-air debates, fasting and feasting and toasting, parades and bonfires. During the 19th century, immigrants and urban political machines helped fuel this culture of voting. That culture grew with each successive wave of new voters. During Reconstruction, when new African-American voters, new African-American citizens, began to exercise their power, they celebrated in jubilee parades that connected emancipation with their newfound right to vote. A few decades later, the suffragettes brought a spirit of theatricality to their fight, marching together in white dresses as they claimed the franchise. And the Civil Rights Movement, which sought to redeem the promise of equal citizenship that had been betrayed by Jim Crow, put voting right at the center. From Freedom Summer to the march in Selma, that generation of activists knew that voting matters, and they knew that spectacle and the performance of power is key to actually claiming power.
从美国革命到人权时代, 美国选举曾经充满生机, 参与者信念坚定,草根文化喧嚣一时。 街头戏剧,公开辩论, 斋戒,盛宴,祝酒, 游行和篝火晚会盛极一时。 十九世纪,移民和城市政治机器 使得选举文化迅速发展。 新选民不断加入, 选族文化不断增长。 在美国重建期,当新一代美国黑人选民, 新一代美国黑人市民, 行使他们的权利, 他们为欢庆奴隶解放纪念日而游行, 把他们的解放 与新获得的选举权联系到一起。 几十年后,妇女参政运动 给这场斗争附加了一种戏剧化的效果: 穿着白衣游行前进,宣称选举权。 民权运动,则寻求重新确认 所承诺的被种族隔离政策 背叛的平等公民权, 把选举权作为民权运动的核心。 从自由之夏到塞尔玛行军 (黑人选民登记活动), 那一代的活动者知道,选举事关重大, 他们也知晓那种壮观的场面,权利的行使 才是权利的意义所在。
But it's been over a half century since Selma and the Voting Rights Act, and in the decades since, this face-to-face culture of voting has just about disappeared. It's been killed by television and then the internet. The couch has replaced the commons. Screens have made citizens into spectators. And while it's nice to share political memes on social media, that's a rather quiet kind of citizenship. It's what the sociologist Sherry Turkle calls "being alone together."
塞尔玛行军和选举权力法案 已经过去了半个世纪, 面对面的选举文化 也已经消失了 几十年, 这都是电视惹的祸, 互联网更是后来居上。 沙发代替了评论, 屏幕使公民变成了观众。 在社交媒体上分享政治观点 不失为好主意, 但这只是安静的公民权。 社会学家雪莉·特克称之为 “群体中的孤独”。
What we need today is an electoral culture that is about being together together, in person, in loud and passionate ways, so that instead of being "eat your vegetables" or "do you duty," voting can feel more like "join the club" or, better yet, "join the party."
我们今天需要的 是一种选举文化,人与人之间面对面 交流思想, 喧闹而又激情四射, 并不只是自扫门前雪或勉强尽责, 选举可以让人感觉更像是加入了俱乐部, 或更酷一点,参加大联欢。
Imagine if we had, across the country right now, in local places but nationwide, a concerted effort to revive a face-to-face set of ways to engage and electioneer: outdoor shows in which candidates and their causes are mocked and praised in broad satirical style; soapbox speeches by citizens; public debates held inside pubs; streets filled with political art and handmade posters and murals; battle of the band concerts in which competing performers rep their candidates. Now, all of this may sound a little bit 18th century to you, but in fact, it doesn't have to be any more 18th century than, say, Broadway's "Hamilton," which is to say vibrantly contemporary.
想象一下,如果现在全国各地, 小到各个地方, 共同恢复面对面的 竞选参与方式: 参选人及其参选目标在众目睽睽之下 被嘲弄,被支持; 市民随意发表街头演讲; 酒馆里展开公开辩论; 街头充满政治艺术,手工海报和壁画; 乐队演奏表演中,竞争性的演出代表了 候选人的竞争。 当然,所有这些在你们听来 都是十八世纪的老古董了, 但实际上,这么形容百老汇的《汉密尔顿》 或许更贴切, 其实这也是生机勃勃的现代主义。
And the fact is that all around the world, today, millions of people are voting like this. In India, elections are colorful, communal affairs. In Brazil, election day is a festive, carnival-type atmosphere. In Taiwan and Hong Kong, there is a spectacle, eye-popping, eye-grabbing spectacle to the street theater of elections.
事实是,在当下,全世界 每天都有几百万人像这样进行选举。 在印度,选举是多彩的公众事务。 在巴西,选举日是节日, 狂欢节般的气氛。 在台湾,香港,选举是奇观, 比起街头剧院的选举, 更让人惊叹不已,大开眼界。
You might ask, well, here in America, who has time for this? And I would tell you that the average American watches five hours of television a day. You might ask, who has the motivation? And I'll tell you, any citizen who wants to be seen and heard not as a prop, not as a talking point, but as a participant, as a creator.
你也许会问,但这是美国, 谁有时间折腾这些啊? 我要告诉你, 美国人平均每天看5小时的电视。 你会问,谁有那个劲头啊? 让我告诉你, 那些希望被注意和被聆听的公民, 不想当龙套,不为博眼球, 而要成为参与者,创造者。
Well, how do we make this happen? Simply by making it happen.
好了,那到底要怎么做呢? 很简单,付诸行动。
That's why a group of colleagues and I launched a new project called "The Joy of Voting." In four cities across the United States -- Philadelphia, Miami, Akron, Ohio, and Wichita, Kansas -- we've gathered together artists and activists, educators, political folks, neighbors, everyday citizens to come together and create projects that can foster this culture of voting in a local way.
这就是我和一群同事 发起了一个新运动: ”选举的快乐“的原因。 在美国四个城市—— 费城,迈阿密, 俄亥俄的阿克伦,和堪萨斯的威奇托, 我们召集了艺术家,活动家, 教育家,政治人物,邻居和普通市民, 相聚一起,创造了一个项目 来培育地域选举文化。
In Miami, that means all-night parties with hot DJs where the only way to get in is to show that you're registered to vote. In Akron, it means political plays being performed in the bed of a flatbed truck that moves from neighborhood to neighborhood. In Philadelphia, it's a voting-themed scavenger hunt all throughout colonial old town. And in Wichita, it's making mixtapes and live graffiti art in the North End to get out the vote. There are 20 of these projects, and they are remarkable in their beauty and their diversity, and they are changing people. Let me tell you about a couple of them.
在迈阿密,有整夜的聚会,火辣的DJ, 只要注册为选民就可以入内。 在阿克伦,则是政治戏剧, 演出在移动的平板拖车上进行, 从一个小区到另一个小区。 在费城, 是选举主题的寻宝游戏, 遍布所有殖民古镇。 威奇托,则是在城区北部 创作混音带和现场涂鸦, 那里是选举开始的地方。 这样的项目有20个, 每一个都美轮美奂,丰富多彩。 这些项目改变了人们的态度。 我来讲几个故事。
In Miami, we've commissioned and artist, a young artist named Atomico, to create some vivid and vibrant images for a new series of "I voted" stickers. But the thing is, Atomico had never voted. He wasn't even registered. So as he got to work on creating this artwork for these stickers, he also began to get over his sense of intimidation about politics. He got himself registered, and then he got educated about the upcoming primary election, and on election day he was out there not just passing out stickers, but chatting up voters and encouraging people to vote, and talking about the election with passersby.
在迈阿密,我们委托一个艺术家, 年轻的艺术家阿托米卡, 去创作栩栩如生的“我投票了” 新系列贴纸。 可是,阿托米卡从来没投过票。 甚至都没登过记。 当他开始设计艺术贴纸时, 他也要开始克服对政治的恐惧。 他去登记了, 他也了解了即将到来的大选, 在投票日当天,他不仅当街散发贴纸, 还和选民交谈,鼓励大家投票, 与行人谈论选举。
In Akron, a theater company called the Wandering Aesthetics has been putting on these pickup truck plays. And to do so, they put out an open call to the public asking for speeches, monologues, dialogues, poems, snippets of anything that could be read aloud and woven into a performance. They got dozens of submissions. One of them was a poem written by nine students in an ESL class, all of them Hispanic migrant workers from nearby Hartville, Ohio. I want to read to you from this poem. It's called "The Joy of Voting."
在阿克伦,一家名叫美学漫步的戏剧公司 曾经进行过这种卡车演出。 为了演出,这家公司公开 征集演讲,独白,对话,诗歌, 小品之类的,只要能大声念出来的 都可以编入演出。 结果投稿如云。 其中有一首诗, 作者是ESL(English as a Second Language) 课程的九个学生, 都是拉美籍的移民工人, 来自俄亥俄州内比邻的哈特威尔。 我给大家读一段。 诗的名字叫:选举的快乐。
"I would like to vote for the first time because things are changing for Hispanics. I used to be afraid of ghosts. Now I am afraid of people. There's more violence and racism. Voting can change this. The border wall is nothing. It's just a wall. The wall of shame is something. It's very important to vote so we can break down this wall of shame. I have passion in my heart. Voting gives me a voice and power. I can stand up and do something."
我要进行第一次投票, 因为拉美裔的处境变了。 我过去怕鬼, 现在怕人。 暴力和种族主义越来越多。 选举会改变这一切。 边界墙什么也不是。 就是个墙。 耻辱的墙才可怕。 投票很重要, 让我们可以打破这耻辱之墙。 我心中有激情。 选举使我发出声音和力量。 我能站起来做出改变了。
"The Joy of Voting" project isn't just about joy. It's about this passion. It's about feeling and belief, and it isn't just our organization's work. All across this country right now, immigrants, young people, veterans, people of all different backgrounds are coming together to create this kind of passionate, joyful activity around elections, in red and blue states, in urban and rural communities, people of every political background. What they have in common is simply this: their work is rooted in place.
“选举的快乐”项目并不只是关于快乐。 这是激情。 也是感受和信仰, 不是只有我们一个组织在工作。 现在全国都步调一致, 移民,年轻人,退伍军人,各种背景的人, 聚在一起创造了这种充满激情,快乐的 投票活动。 不论是民主党还是共和党的优势州, 不论城乡, 人民不论政治背景。 有一点是共同的: 他们的工作都是本地的。
Because remember, all citizenship is local. When politics becomes just a presidential election, we yell and we scream at our screens, and then we collapse, exhausted. But when politics is about us and our neighbors and other people in our community coming together to create experiences of collective voice and imagination, then we begin to remember that this stuff matters. We begin to remember that this is the stuff of self-government.
要记住,公民都是本地人。 如果政治仅仅关乎总统选举, 大家就只是对着屏幕大呼小叫, 直到精疲力尽。 但如果政治是有关自己, 邻居和社区的其他人, 大家聚在一起, 共同发出声音,表达期许, 我们就会记得这样做是有意义的。 我们开始铭记,这就是自治。
Which brings me back to where I began. Why bother? There's one way to answer this question. Voting matters because it is a self-fulfilling act of belief. It feeds the spirit of mutual interest that makes any society thrive. When we vote, even if it is in anger, we are part of a collective, creative leap of faith. Voting helps us generate the very power that we wish we had.
回到开始那句话。 为什么非要投票呢? 不妨这样回答。 投票很重要,因为这是信仰的自我满足。 它供养了利益的双方, 实现了社会繁荣。 当我们投票,即使是愤怒的一票, 我们仍是创造性信念集合的一部分。 投票帮助我们创造了最强的力量。
It's no accident that democracy and theater emerged around the same time in ancient Athens. Both of them yank the individual out of the enclosure of her private self. Both of them create great public experiences of shared ritual. Both of them bring the imagination to life in ways that remind us that all of our bonds in the end are imagined, and can be reimagined.
无怪乎民主和剧院 同时出现于古代雅典。 民主和戏剧都把个体从私我中分离出来。 都从一种共同的仪式感中创立了 伟大的公共体验。 把想象带进了生活, 让我们意识到错综复杂的 社会联系都是由设想而来的, 也可以进行重构。
This moment right now, when we think about the meaning of imagination, is so fundamentally important, and our ability to take that spirit and to take that sense that there is something greater out there, is not just a matter of technical expertise. It's not just a matter of making the time or having the know-how. It is a matter of spirit.
此时此刻, 当我们思索想象的意义, 便会发觉想象是何其重要, 我们如果有能力接受这样一种精神, 这样一种感知, 承认有更伟大的存在, 并非只是技术性的专长。 不只是挤出时间或者拥有技术。 这关乎一种精神。
But let me give you an answer to this question, "Why bother?" that is maybe a little less spiritual and a bit more pointed. Why bother voting? Because there is no such thing as not voting. Not voting is voting, for everything that you may detest and oppose. Not voting can be dressed up as an act of principled, passive resistance, but in fact not voting is actively handing power over to those whose interests are counter to your own, and those who would be very glad to take advantage of your absence. Not voting is for suckers.
让我来揭晓答案,究竟为什么要投票。 答案并不虚空,而是有实践意义的。 为什么要投票? 因为不存在不投票这种事。 不投票也是投票。 只不过投给了所有 你不喜欢和反对的东西。 不投票有时装扮成 原则性的,被动的抵抗, 但实际上不投票 是交出权力 给那些与你利益相左的人, 那些很乐意利用你缺席的人。 不投票是失败者的选择。
Imagine where this country would be if all the folks who in 2010 created the Tea Party had decided that, you know, politics is too messy, voting is too complicated. There is no possibility of our votes adding up to anything. They didn't preemptively silence themselves. They showed up, and in the course of showing up, they changed American politics. Imagine if all of the followers of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders had decided not to upend the political status quo and blow apart the frame of the previously possible in American politics. They did that by voting.
想象一下这个国家将会怎样, 如果所有2010年创建茶党的人 认为政治太肮脏, 投票太复杂。 我们的投票永远没有机会贡献任何事。 但他们没有沉默。 他们表达了自己, 在表达自我的过程中, 他们改变了美国的政治。 想象一下如果特朗普和桑德斯的 所有拥护者 决定不去碰触政治现状, 而是保持原先的美国政治结构 会怎样。 但他们却通过投票迈出了改变的步伐。
We live in a time right now, divided, often very dark, where across the left and the right, there's a lot of talk of revolution and the need for revolution to disrupt everyday democracy. Well, here's the thing: everyday democracy already gives us a playbook for revolution. In the 2012 presidential election, young voters, Latino voters, Asian-American voters, low-income voters, all showed up at less than 50 percent. In the 2014 midterm elections, turnout was 36 percent, which was a 70-year low. And in your average local election, turnout hovers somewhere around 20 percent.
我们所生活的时代 出现了严重的分裂,时常黑暗无比, 不论左派右派,都想变革, 都有打破常规民主的革命需求。 而关键就在于: 民主环境已经给了我们革命的脚本。 在2012年总统选举中, 年轻人,拉丁选民, 亚裔人,低收入群体, 投票率都低于50% 2014年中期选举是36%, 70年来最低。 地方选举的平均投票率 只有20%左右。
I invite you to imagine 100 percent. Picture 100 percent. Mobilize 100 percent, and overnight, we get revolution. Overnight, the policy priorities of this country change dramatically, and every level of government becomes radically more responsive to all the people. What would it take to mobilize 100 percent? Well, we do have to push back against efforts afoot all across the country right now to make voting harder. But at the same time, we have to actively create a positive culture of voting that people want to belong to, be part of, and experience together. We have to make purpose. We have to make joy.
我想请你们想象一下100%。 100%的投票率会是何种景象。 100%全体动员, 一夜之间,我们就会爆发革命。 一夜之间, 国家的政治优先权就会剧烈反转, 所有级别的政府会更积极回应 民众的呼声。 怎样来全动员100%的人呢? 我们正在为此 在全国范围内努力, 让投票更有力。 同时, 要积极创立正面的选举文化, 人民乐于追随的文化, 置身其中,共同经历。 要把选举变得有意义, 更快乐。
So yes, let's have that revolution, a revolution of spirit, of ideas, of policy and participation, a revolution against cynicism, a revolution against the self-fulfilling sense of powerlessness. Let's vote this revolution into existence, and while we're at it, let's have some fun.
对,我们现在一起发动革命, 精神,观念, 政策和参与的革命, 抛弃玩世不恭, 抛弃自我无力感。 让我们通过选举来实现革命, 我们正在路上, 让我们享受这个过程。
Thank you very much.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(掌声)