In half a century of trying to help prevent wars, there's one question that never leaves me: How do we deal with extreme violence without using force in return? When you're faced with brutality, whether it's a child facing a bully on a playground or domestic violence -- or, on the streets of Syria today, facing tanks and shrapnel, what's the most effective thing to do? Fight back? Give in? Use more force?
在为防止战争所做的半个世纪工作中, 我始终有一个问题: 我们在不使用暴力的情况下 如何面对极端暴力? 当你面对暴力, 不管是一个小孩面对欺负他的小混混, 还是家庭暴力 或者是叙利亚今天的街道上 面对坦克和弹药, 最有效的方式是什么? 反击?屈服? 使用更多暴力?
This question: "How do I deal with a bully without becoming a thug in return?" has been with me ever since I was a child. I remember I was about 13, glued to a grainy black and white television in my parents' living room as Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest, and kids not much older than me were throwing themselves at the tanks and getting mown down. And I rushed upstairs and started packing my suitcase.
“我在不变成暴徒的情况下 如何面对威胁?”这个问题 自从我还是孩子时就伴随着我。 我记得当我大约13岁时, 被我父母房间里的黑白电视所吸引 电视上放着苏联坦克开过布达佩斯, 和我差不多大的孩子 在坦克前逃跑 并且被碾压过去。 然后我就跑上了楼梯打包我的行李。
And my mother came up and said, "What on Earth are you doing?"
妈妈说:“你在干什么?”
And I said, "I'm going to Budapest."
我说:“我要去布达佩斯。”
And she said, "What on Earth for?"
她说“为什么”
And I said, "Kids are getting killed there. There's something terrible happening."
我说“他们在杀害那些孩子。 有一些可怕的事正在发生。”
And she said, "Don't be so silly." And I started to cry. And she got it, she said, "Okay, I see it's serious. You're much too young to help. You need training. I'll help you. But just unpack your suitcase."
她说“别傻了。” 然后我就开始哭。 她懂了,说, “我知道这很严重。 但你太小了。 你需要训练。来我帮你。 但先把行李放下。”
And so I got some training and went and worked in Africa during most of my 20s. But I realized that what I really needed to know I couldn't get from training courses. I wanted to understand how violence, how oppression, works. And what I've discovered since is this: Bullies use violence in three ways. They use political violence to intimidate, physical violence to terrorize and mental or emotional violence to undermine. And only very rarely in very few cases does it work to use more violence.
然后我得到了一些训练 并且在20几岁时到非洲工作。 但我意识到我真正需要的 却是我从那些训练中得不到的。 我想知道 暴力,压迫有什么作用。 我发现: 恶棍使用三种暴力。 政治暴力来威慑, 肉体暴力来恐吓, 以及精神暴力来摧毁。 并且用更多的暴力 几乎不起作用。
Nelson Mandela went to jail believing in violence, and 27 years later he and his colleagues had slowly and carefully honed the skills, the incredible skills, that they needed to turn one of the most vicious governments the world has known into a democracy. And they did it in a total devotion to non-violence. They realized that using force against force doesn't work.
尼尔逊·曼德拉在相信暴力时被送进了监狱, 27年后, 他和同事 已经慢慢地,很仔细地 练成了把一个穷凶极恶的政府 变成一个 民主政府的技能。 并且他们以一种完全非暴力的方式实现。 他们发现以暴制暴 不管用。
So what does work? Over time I've collected about a half-dozen methods that do work -- of course there are many more -- that do work and that are effective. And the first is that the change that has to take place has to take place here, inside me. It's my response, my attitude, to oppression that I've got control over, and that I can do something about.
那什么管用? 在这些年里我积累了一些管用的方法 当然方法还有很多 这些方法的确管用。 第一个是 该发生的改变 必须发生。 我的对压迫的反应,态度就是 我必须控制, 并且我能做一些事。
And what I need to develop is self-knowledge to do that. That means I need to know how I tick, when I collapse, where my formidable points are, where my weaker points are. When do I give in? What will I stand up for? And meditation or self-inspection is one of the ways -- again it's not the only one -- it's one of the ways of gaining this kind of inner power.
我需要的就是增长知识。 这意味着当我垮掉时 我要知道如何保持平衡, 我的优点在哪, 我的弱点在哪。 我什么时候屈服? 我为了什么坚持? 冥想或自我反思 是一种方式——当然也不是唯一的方式—— 这是一种方式 来获得这种内在的力量。
And my heroine here -- like Satish's -- is Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma. She was leading a group of students on a protest in the streets of Rangoon. They came around a corner faced with a row of machine guns. And she realized straight away that the soldiers with their fingers shaking on the triggers were more scared than the student protesters behind her. But she told the students to sit down. And she walked forward with such calm and such clarity and such total lack of fear that she could walk right up to the first gun, put her hand on it and lower it. And no one got killed.
我戏中的英雄是 在缅甸的Aung San Suu Kyi 她是一群在Rangoon的学生抗议团队 的领导者。 他们面对一排机关枪, 她立刻意识到 在扳机上手抖动的士兵 比学生抗议者更害怕。 但她告诉学生坐下。 然后她以出奇的冷静 无畏 走向第一个枪, 把她的手放上去,把枪放下来, 所有人都安全了。
So that's what the mastery of fear can do -- not only faced with machine guns, but if you meet a knife fight in the street. But we have to practice. So what about our fear? I have a little mantra. My fear grows fat on the energy I feed it. And if it grows very big it probably happens.
这就是控制恐惧能做的—— 不仅当面对机关枪时, 更是当你在路上遇到刀战。 但我们必须练习。 那么我们害怕什么呢? 我有一箴言。 我越害怕, 我的恐惧越大。 如果恐惧太大了, 不好的事情就会发生了。
So we all know the three o'clock in the morning syndrome, when something you've been worrying about wakes you up -- I see a lot of people -- and for an hour you toss and turn, it gets worse and worse, and by four o'clock you're pinned to the pillow by a monster this big. The only thing to do is to get up, make a cup of tea and sit down with the fear like a child beside you. You're the adult. The fear is the child. And you talk to the fear and you ask it what it wants, what it needs. How can this be made better? How can the child feel stronger? And you make a plan. And you say, "Okay, now we're going back to sleep. Half-past seven, we're getting up and that's what we're going to do."
我们都知道凌晨三点综合征, 当一些你担心的事把你弄醒, 我看到许多人 你害怕一小时 然后他越来越厉害, 在四点你被一个这么大的怪兽 钉在枕头上 唯一能做的 就是起床,冲杯茶, 然后和恐惧一起坐下, 你是一个成人, 恐惧像孩子, 你和恐惧说话 你问他他要什么 这怎样变得更好 这个孩子如何变得更强壮? 然后你有一个计划。 你说“好吧,我们要睡觉了。 七点半,我们再起床。”
I had one of these 3 a.m. episodes on Sunday -- paralyzed with fear at coming to talk to you. (Laughter) So I did the thing. I got up, made the cup of tea, sat down with it, did it all and I'm here -- still partly paralyzed, but I'm here.
在周日我就有过这种经历 已经被恐惧所感到瘫痪 (笑声) 所以我这么做了。 我起床,冲杯茶,坐下,做了这一切 所以我在这里——仍然有些麻木,但我在这里。
(Applause)
(掌声)
So that's fear. What about anger? Wherever there is injustice there's anger. But anger is like gasoline, and if you spray it around and somebody lights a match, you've got an inferno. But anger as an engine -- in an engine -- is powerful. If we can put our anger inside an engine, it can drive us forward, it can get us through the dreadful moments and it can give us real inner power.
所以这就是恐惧。那愤怒呢? 只要有不公正就有愤怒。 但愤怒像汽油, 如果你泼出汽油,然后有人点了一个火柴, 那你就在地狱里了。 但作为引擎,愤怒是很有力的。 如果我们能把愤怒放入引擎里, 他能带我们向前, 他能让我们走过悲惨的时刻, 能给我们真正的内部力量。
And I learned this in my work with nuclear weapon policy-makers. Because at the beginning I was so outraged at the dangers they were exposing us to that I just wanted to argue and blame and make them wrong. Totally ineffective. In order to develop a dialogue for change we have to deal with our anger. It's okay to be angry with the thing -- the nuclear weapons in this case -- but it is hopeless to be angry with the people. They are human beings just like us. And they're doing what they think is best. And that's the basis on which we have to talk with them.
我在和核武器政策制定者的 工作中知道了这个 因为一开始我对于 他们给我们带来的危险感到很愤怒 以至于我想辩论,责备,并且让他们感到错误。 根本不管用。 为了开始一个带来改变的对话, 我们需要应付我们的愤怒。 对此感到愤怒很正常 也就是核武器 但对人愤怒是没有用的。 他们和我们一样是人。 他们在做他们认为对的。 而这就是我们和他们交流的基础。
So that's the third one, anger. And it brings me to the crux of what's going on, or what I perceive as going on, in the world today, which is that last century was top-down power. It was still governments telling people what to do. This century there's a shift. It's bottom-up or grassroots power. It's like mushrooms coming through concrete. It's people joining up with people, as Bundy just said, miles away to bring about change.
所以这就是第三个,愤怒。 现在我们来到了这次演讲的核心, 也就是现在在这个世界 正在发生什么, 在上个世纪是由上而下的权利。 过去政府仍然告诉人们该做什么。 这个世纪有了变化。 现在是由下而上或者说草根权利。 想从混凝土中长出的蘑菇。 像Bundy所说,是人和人连结在一起, 来带来改变。
And Peace Direct spotted quite early on that local people in areas of very hot conflict know what to do. They know best what to do. So Peace Direct gets behind them to do that. And the kind of thing they're doing is demobilizing militias, rebuilding economies, resettling refugees, even liberating child soldiers. And they have to risk their lives almost every day to do this. And what they've realized is that using violence in the situations they operate in is not only less humane, but it's less effective than using methods that connect people with people, that rebuild.
和平指导这个项目很快就发现了 在冲突发生的地区的当地人 知道该做什么。 他们知道最好做什么。 所以和平指导为他们提供支持。 他们做的是 解散军队, 重建经济, 安置难民, 甚至解放儿童军人。 他们为这些事必须要 冒生命风险。 他们已经意识到了 在这些情况下使用武力 不仅更不人道, 而且更没有效果, 和连接每个人这种方式比起来。
And I think that the U.S. military is finally beginning to get this. Up to now their counter-terrorism policy has been to kill insurgents at almost any cost, and if civilians get in the way, that's written as "collateral damage." And this is so infuriating and humiliating for the population of Afghanistan, that it makes the recruitment for al-Qaeda very easy, when people are so disgusted by, for example, the burning of the Koran.
我认为美国部队 终于开始懂得这些了。 直到现在为止他们的反恐政策 一直是不惜代价杀死暴乱的人, 并且如果平民在其中得到了伤害, 这会被记录为“附属伤害”。 这激怒并羞辱了 阿富汗人, 所以,比如,当人们被焚烧可兰经激怒时, 基地组织的扩充 就很容易了。
So the training of the troops has to change. And I think there are signs that it is beginning to change. The British military have always been much better at this. But there is one magnificent example for them to take their cue from, and that's a brilliant U.S. lieutenant colonel called Chris Hughes. And he was leading his men down the streets of Najaf -- in Iraq actually -- and suddenly people were pouring out of the houses on either side of the road, screaming, yelling, furiously angry, and surrounded these very young troops who were completely terrified, didn't know what was going on, couldn't speak Arabic. And Chris Hughes strode into the middle of the throng with his weapon above his head, pointing at the ground, and he said, "Kneel." And these huge soldiers with their backpacks and their body armor, wobbled to the ground. And complete silence fell. And after about two minutes, everybody moved aside and went home.
所以部队的训练必须改变。 我认为现在已经有改变的迹象了。 英国部队已经做得很好了。 现在他们能得到一个很好的暗示, 这就是一个美国陆军上尉, 克里斯·休。 他正在带领他的人在 伊拉克—— 一瞬间人们就从街道两旁的房屋中冲出来, 尖叫,呐喊,极为愤怒, 并包围了这些已经被惊吓到的士兵, 这些士兵不知道发生了什么,也不会说阿拉伯语。 克里斯·休走到人群中间 把武器举在头上,指着地面, 说“跪下”。 然后休的士兵 带着他们的背包和武装 摇晃的趴在地上。 然后没有一点声音。 两分钟过后, 人群散开并回家。
Now that to me is wisdom in action. In the moment, that's what he did. And it's happening everywhere now. You don't believe me? Have you asked yourselves why and how so many dictatorships have collapsed over the last 30 years? Dictatorships in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Mali, Madagascar, Poland, the Philippines, Serbia, Slovenia, I could go on, and now Tunisia and Egypt. And this hasn't just happened. A lot of it is due to a book written by an 80-year-old man in Boston, Gene Sharp. He wrote a book called "From Dictatorship to Democracy" with 81 methodologies for non-violent resistance. And it's been translated into 26 languages. It's flown around the world. And it's being used by young people and older people everywhere, because it works and it's effective.
这在我认为就是智慧。 在那一刻,那就是他做的。 现在在每个地方都会发生。 你不相信我? 你有没有问过自己 为什么以及有多少独裁政府 在过去30年内倒塌了? 在捷克斯洛伐克,东德 爱沙尼亚,拉脱维亚,立陶宛, 马里,马达加斯加, 波兰,菲律宾, 塞尔维亚,斯洛维尼亚的独裁政府,我可以继续, 还有现在的突尼斯和埃及。 这还没有发生。 很多这些都是因为 一本在波士顿的80岁老人Gene Sharp写的书而发生的。 书名是“从独裁到民主” 写了非暴力抗争的81种方法。 这本书被翻译成了26种语言。 现在在全世界流行。 这本书被世界各地的人使用, 因为它很有效。
So this is what gives me hope -- not just hope, this is what makes me feel very positive right now. Because finally human beings are getting it. We're getting practical, doable methodologies to answer my question: How do we deal with a bully without becoming a thug? We're using the kind of skills that I've outlined: inner power -- the development of inner power -- through self-knowledge, recognizing and working with our fear, using anger as a fuel, cooperating with others, banding together with others, courage, and most importantly, commitment to active non-violence.
这本书给了我希望—— 不只是希望,这本书让我感觉到我是对的, 因为人们最后正在达到它。 我们在使用实用的,可行的方法 来回答我的问题: 我们在面对威胁时如何不使用暴力? 我们正在用我说过的方法: 内在的力量,自我了解 认识并且利用我们的恐惧, 把愤怒化作燃料, 与他人合作, 和他人结合在一起, 勇气, 以及最重要的,积极的非暴力抗争。
Now I don't just believe in non-violence. I don't have to believe in it. I see evidence everywhere of how it works. And I see that we, ordinary people, can do what Aung San Suu Kyi and Ghandi and Mandela did. We can bring to an end the bloodiest century that humanity has ever known. And we can organize to overcome oppression by opening our hearts as well as strengthening this incredible resolve.
现在我不仅仅相信非暴力。 我不用相信它。 我已经在所有地方看到了它如何工作。 现在我看到,我们,普通人, 能做Aung San Suu Kyi,甘地,和曼德拉所做的。 我们能终结 人类历史上见过的最血腥的时代。 我们可以通过打开我们的心 来组织克服镇压, 同时坚定决心。
And this open-heartedness is exactly what I've experienced in the entire organization of this gathering since I got here yesterday. Thank you.
这种开放的胸怀正是 我从昨天在这里在整个集会组织中所感受到的。 谢谢。
(Applause)
(掌声)