"These are the times," said Thomas Paine, "that try men's souls." And they're trying ours now.
"Ovo su vremena," rekao je Thomas Paine, "koja iskušavaju ljudske duše.“ A naše se iskušavaju upravo sada.
This is a fateful moment in the history of the West. We've seen divisive elections and divided societies. We've seen a growth of extremism in politics and religion, all of it fueled by anxiety, uncertainty and fear, of a world that's changing almost faster than we can bear, and the sure knowledge that it's going to change faster still. I have a friend in Washington. I asked him, what was it like being in America during the recent presidential election? He said to me, "Well, it was like the man sitting on the deck of the Titanic with a glass of whiskey in his hand and he's saying, 'I know I asked for ice --
Ovo je sudbonosan trenutak u povijesti Zapada. Vidjeli smo izbore pune razdora i podijeljena društva. Vidjeli smo porast ekstremizma u politici i religiji, sve to popraćeno tjeskobom, neizvjesnošću i strahom svijeta koji se mijenja gotovo brže nego što možemo podnijeti, a ona sigurna znanja još će se brže mijenjati. Imam prijatelja u Washingtonu. Pitao sam ga, kako je to bilo biti u Americi tijekom nedavnih predsjedničkih izbora. Odgovorio mi je, "Pa, bilo je poput čovjeka, koji sjedi na palubi Titanika, držeći čašu viskija u ruci i govori, "Znam da sam tražio malo leda...
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
but this is ridiculous.'"
ali ovo je smiješno."
So is there something we can do, each of us, to be able to face the future without fear? I think there is. And one way into it is to see that perhaps the most simple way into a culture and into an age is to ask: What do people worship? People have worshipped so many different things -- the sun, the stars, the storm. Some people worship many gods, some one, some none. In the 19th and 20th centuries, people worshipped the nation, the Aryan race, the communist state. What do we worship? I think future anthropologists will take a look at the books we read on self-help, self-realization, self-esteem. They'll look at the way we talk about morality as being true to oneself, the way we talk about politics as a matter of individual rights, and they'll look at this wonderful new religious ritual we have created. You know the one? Called the "selfie." And I think they'll conclude that what we worship in our time is the self, the me, the I.
Dakle, postoji li nešto što možemo učiniti, svatko od nas, kako bismo se suočili s budućnošću bez straha? Mislim da postoji. Jedan način za to je shvatiti da je možda najjednostavniji način uvida u neku kulturu i razdoblje, postaviti pitanje: Što ljudi štuju? Ljudi su štovali razne stvari, sunce, zvijezde, oluju. Neki ljudi štuju više bogova, neki jednog, neki nijednog. U 19. i 20. stoljeću ljudi su štovali naciju, arijevsku rasu, komunističku državu. Što mi štujemo? Mislim da će budući antropolozi zaviriti u knjige koje čitamo o samopomoći, samoostvarenju, samopouzdanju. Promatrat će način na koji govorimo o moralnosti, kao iskrenosti prema sebi, kako govorimo o politici, kao o predmetu individualnih prava i gledat će ovaj predivan novi religijski ritual koji smo stvorili. Znate li koji? Selfi. Mislim da će zaključiti kako je ono što mi štujemo u našem vremenu sve u vezi "ja".
And this is great. It's liberating. It's empowering. It's wonderful. But don't forget that biologically, we're social animals. We've spent most of our evolutionary history in small groups. We need those face-to-face interactions where we learn the choreography of altruism and where we create those spiritual goods like friendship and trust and loyalty and love that redeem our solitude. When we have too much of the "I" and too little of the "we," we can find ourselves vulnerable, fearful and alone. It was no accident that Sherry Turkle of MIT called the book she wrote on the impact of social media "Alone Together."
I to je odlično. To je oslobađajuće, osnažujuće, predivno. No, ne zaboravite da smo, biološki gledano, društvene životinje. Većinu svoje razvojne povijesti proveli smo u malim grupama. Trebamo te izravne interakcije, gdje učimo kako se odvija altruizam i gdje stvaramo ta duhovna dobra, poput prijateljstva i povjerenja, odanosti i ljubavi, koji ublažavaju našu samoću. Kada imamo previše "ja", a premalo "mi", možemo se osjetiti ranjivima, plašljivima i samima. Nije slučajno da je Sherry Turkle s MIT-a svoju knjigu o utjecaju društvenih medija nazvala "Sami zajedno".
So I think the simplest way of safeguarding the future "you" is to strengthen the future "us" in three dimensions: the us of relationship, the us of identity and the us of responsibility.
Zato mislim da je najjednostavniji način očuvanja budućeg "vi" jačanje budućeg "mi" u tri smjera: mi kroz odnose s drugima, mi kroz identitet i mi kroz odgovornost.
So let me first take the us of relationship. And here, forgive me if I get personal. Once upon a time, a very long time ago, I was a 20-year-old undergraduate studying philosophy. I was into Nietzsche and Schopenhauer and Sartre and Camus. I was full of ontological uncertainty and existential angst. It was terrific.
Objasnit ću prvo dio o odnosima s drugima. I ovdje mi oprostite ako ću biti preosoban. Jednom davno, prije vrlo mnogo vremena, bio sam 20-godišnji student filozofije. Proučavao sam Nietzschea, Schopenhauera, Sartrea i Camusa. Bio sam pun ontološke nesigurnosti i egzistencijalne tjeskobe. Bilo je to izvanredno.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
I was self-obsessed and thoroughly unpleasant to know, until one day I saw across the courtyard a girl who was everything that I wasn't. She radiated sunshine. She emanated joy. I found out her name was Elaine. We met. We talked. We married. And 47 years, three children and eight grandchildren later, I can safely say it was the best decision I ever took in my life, because it's the people not like us that make us grow. And that is why I think we have to do just that.
Bio sam opsjednut sobom i skroz neugodan za upoznavanje, sve dok jednog dana nisam vidio s druge strane dvorišta djevojku koja je bila sve ono što ja nisam bio. Zračila je poput sunca. Širila je radost oko sebe. Saznao sam da se zove Elaine. Upoznali smo se, popričali. I vjenčali. 47 godina kasnije, nakon troje djece i osmero unučadi, sa sigurnošću mogu reći, bila je to moja najbolja odluka u životu, jer zbog ljudi koji su drugačiji od nas, mi rastemo. I zato mislim da to moramo učiniti.
The trouble with Google filters, Facebook friends and reading the news by narrowcasting rather than broadcasting means that we're surrounded almost entirely by people like us whose views, whose opinions, whose prejudices, even, are just like ours. And Cass Sunstein of Harvard has shown that if we surround ourselves with people with the same views as us, we get more extreme. I think we need to renew those face-to-face encounters with the people not like us. I think we need to do that in order to realize that we can disagree strongly and yet still stay friends. It's in those face-to-face encounters that we discover that the people not like us are just people, like us. And actually, every time we hold out the hand of friendship to somebody not like us, whose class or creed or color are different from ours, we heal one of the fractures of our wounded world. That is the us of relationship.
Google filteri, prijatelji s Facebooka, čitanje filtriranih vijesti umjesto onih široko dostupnih, znače da smo gotovo posve okruženi ljudima poput nas, čiji su pogledi, mišljenja i predrasude jednaki našima. Cass Sunstein s Harvarda pokazao je da ako se okružimo ljudima istih pogleda poput naših, postajemo ekstremniji. Mislim da moramo obnoviti te susrete licem u lice s ljudima koji nisu poput nas. Moramo to učiniti kako bismo shvatili da se možemo posve ne slagati s nekim, a opet ostati prijatelji. U tim izravnim susretima otkrivamo da su ljudi drugačiji od nas, samo ljudi poput nas. I zapravo, svaki put kada držimo ruku prijateljstva nekoga različitog od nas, drugačijeg statusa, vjeroispovijesti ili boje kože, zacijeljujemo jedno od napuknuća našeg ranjenog svijeta. To smo mi u odnosima s drugima.
Second is the us of identity. Let me give you a thought experiment. Have you been to Washington? Have you seen the memorials? Absolutely fascinating. There's the Lincoln Memorial: Gettysburg Address on one side, Second Inaugural on the other. You go to the Jefferson Memorial, screeds of text. Martin Luther King Memorial, more than a dozen quotes from his speeches. I didn't realize, in America you read memorials. Now go to the equivalent in London in Parliament Square and you will see that the monument to David Lloyd George contains three words: David Lloyd George.
Drugo smo mi kroz identitet. Pokazat ću vam jedan misaoni eksperiment. Jeste li bili u Washingtonu? Jeste li vidjeli spomenike? Apsolutno fascinantno. Lincolnov memorijal: Getisburški govor na jednoj strani, Drugi inauguracijski govor na drugoj. Odete do Jeffersonovog memorijala, hrpa teksta. Memorijal Martina Luthera Kinga, više od desetak citata iz njegovih govora. Nisam znao da se u Americi spomenici čitaju. Ekvivalent tome u Londonu je Trg parlamenta, gdje ćete vidjeti da spomenik Davida Lloyda Georga sadrži tri riječi: David Lloyd George.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Nelson Mandela gets two. Churchill gets just one: Churchill.
Nelson Mandela ima dvije riječi. Churchill samo jednu: Churchill.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Why the difference? I'll tell you why the difference. Because America was from the outset a nation of wave after wave of immigrants, so it had to create an identity which it did by telling a story which you learned at school, you read on memorials and you heard repeated in presidential inaugural addresses. Britain until recently wasn't a nation of immigrants, so it could take identity for granted. The trouble is now that two things have happened which shouldn't have happened together. The first thing is in the West we've stopped telling this story of who we are and why, even in America. And at the same time, immigration is higher than it's ever been before. So when you tell a story and your identity is strong, you can welcome the stranger, but when you stop telling the story, your identity gets weak and you feel threatened by the stranger. And that's bad.
Čemu ta razlika? Objasnit ću vam. Amerika je od početka bila nacija imigranata koji su dolazili u valovima, stoga je morala stvoriti identitet, što je i učinila pričanjem priče koju učite u školi, čitate na spomenicima i ponovno slušate u predsjedničkim inauguracijskim govorima. Britanija sve do nedavno nije bila nacija imigranata pa je mogla svoj identitet uzimati zdravo za gotovo. Sada je problem da su se dogodile dvije stvari koje se nisu trebale dogoditi zajedno. Prva je da smo mi na zapadu prestali pričati priču o tome tko smo i zašto, čak i u Americi. A u isto vrijeme, imigracija je veća nego ikada prije. Kada pričaš svoju priču i tvoj identitet je jak, stranca možeš dočekati raširenih ruku, ali, kada prestaneš pričati priču, tvoj identitet slabi i osjećaš se ugroženim od stranaca. A to je loše.
I tell you, Jews have been scattered and dispersed and exiled for 2,000 years. We never lost our identity. Why? Because at least once a year, on the festival of Passover, we told our story and we taught it to our children and we ate the unleavened bread of affliction and tasted the bitter herbs of slavery. So we never lost our identity. I think collectively we've got to get back to telling our story, who we are, where we came from, what ideals by which we live. And if that happens, we will become strong enough to welcome the stranger and say, "Come and share our lives, share our stories, share our aspirations and dreams." That is the us of identity.
Vidite, Židovi su kroz 2000 godina bili raštrkani, raseljeni i prognani. Nikada nismo izgubili svoj identitet. Zašto? Jer barem jednom godišnje, na slavljenju Pashe, pričali smo svoju priču i prenijeli je svojoj djeci, jeli beskvasni kruh svoje patnje i kušali gorke trave koje nas prisjećaju na ropstvo. I tako nikada nismo izgubili svoj identitet. Mislim da se kolektivno moramo vratiti pričanju naše priče, tko smo, odakle smo došli, koji su ideali prema kojima živimo. I ako se to dogodi, postat ćemo dovoljno snažni da dočekamo stranca i kažemo, "Dođi i budi dio naših života, dijeli naše priče, naše težnje i snove." To je dio nas koji se tiče identiteta.
And finally, the us of responsibility. Do you know something? My favorite phrase in all of politics, very American phrase, is: "We the people." Why "we the people?" Because it says that we all share collective responsibility for our collective future. And that's how things really are and should be.
I napokon, mi kroz odgovornost. Znate li što? Moj omiljeni politički izraz, vrlo američki izraz, je "Mi, ljudi." Zašto "Mi, ljudi"? Jer govori da svi dijelimo kolektivnu odgovornost za našu kolektivnu budućnost. I tako stvari stoje i zaista bi trebale biti.
Have you noticed how magical thinking has taken over our politics? So we say, all you've got to do is elect this strong leader and he or she will solve all our problems for us. Believe me, that is magical thinking. And then we get the extremes: the far right, the far left, the extreme religious and the extreme anti-religious, the far right dreaming of a golden age that never was, the far left dreaming of a utopia that never will be and the religious and anti-religious equally convinced that all it takes is God or the absence of God to save us from ourselves. That, too, is magical thinking, because the only people who will save us from ourselves is we the people, all of us together. And when we do that, and when we move from the politics of me to the politics of all of us together, we rediscover those beautiful, counterintuitive truths: that a nation is strong when it cares for the weak, that it becomes rich when it cares for the poor, it becomes invulnerable when it cares about the vulnerable. That is what makes great nations.
Jeste li primjetili kako je magično razmišljanje preuzelo našu politiku? Kažemo, sve što morate je izabrati ovog snažnog lidera i on ili ona će riješiti sve naše probleme umjesto nas. Vjerujte mi, to je magično razmišljanje. A onda krenemo u ekstreme: krajnji desni, krajnji lijevi, ekstremni religijski, ekstremni protu-religijski, krajnji desničari sanjaju o zlatnom dobu kojeg nikada nije ni bilo, krajnji ljevičari sanjaju o utopiji koje nikada neće ni biti, a oni religijski i protu-religijski jednako su uvjereni da je samo potreban bog, ili odsustvo boga da nas spasi od nas samih. I to je magično razmišljanje, jer jedini koji će nas spasiti od nas samih smo mi, ljudi, svi mi zajedno. A kada to učinimo, kad se odmaknemo od politike "ja" prema politici "svi mi zajedno", otkrit ćemo te predivne, neočekivane istine: nacija je jaka kada skrbi o slabima, postaje bogata kada brine za siromašne, postaje nepovrediva kada brine o ranjivima. To je ono što čini jake nacije.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
So here is my simple suggestion. It might just change your life, and it might just help to begin to change the world. Do a search and replace operation on the text of your mind, and wherever you encounter the word "self," substitute the word "other." So instead of self-help, other-help; instead of self-esteem, other-esteem. And if you do that, you will begin to feel the power of what for me is one of the most moving sentences in all of religious literature. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me." We can face any future without fear so long as we know we will not face it alone.
Ovo je moja jednostavna preporuka. Možda vam može promijeniti život, a možda vam može pomoći da počnete mijenjati svijet. Napravite zamjenu pojmova u svojim mislima i svaki put kada naiđete na "samo", zamijenite je riječju "drugi". Dakle, umjesto samopomoći, pomoć drugima; umjesto samopouzdanja, poštivanje drugih. I ako to učinite, osjetit ćete snagu onoga što je za mene jedna od najdirljivijih rečenica u cjelokupnoj religijskoj književnosti. "Pa da mi je i dolinom smrti proći, zla se ne bojim, jer si ti sa mnom." Sa svakom budućnošću možemo se suočiti bez straha, sve dok znamo da u tome nećemo biti sami.
So for the sake of the future "you," together let us strengthen the future "us."
Stoga, za dobrobit vašeg budućeg "vi", ojačajmo zajedno naše buduće "mi".
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)