Hell Is Other Britons By TOM WHYMAN

TOM WHYMAN 老家，其實叫NewAlresford，是6000居民的好地方。
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Alresford

Essex大學哲學系的兼職講師：
http://www.essex.ac.uk/Philosophy/staff/profile.aspx?ID=3506


OPINION
Hell Is Other Britons
By TOM WHYMAN June 27, 2016

觀點
英國人想要一座安逸的小地獄
湯姆·懷曼 2016年6月27日


ALRESFORD, England — IN summer, the land around Alresford, the rural market town in the south of England where I grew up, blooms in a way that seems almost terrible.


英國奧爾斯福德——我是在英格蘭南部的鄉村集鎮奧爾斯福德長大的，每到夏天，它周圍的土地便會以一種近乎駭人的方式繁盛起來。


My parents’ house stands in the middle of a 1980s housing development of suburban ugliness, all detached red-brick blocks and generously proportioned driveways. There is not supposed to be nature in the suburbs, but in Alresford (pronounced AWLS-fud) nature is still powerful — every year the grass at the top of the road will suddenly grow tall, and fill with wildflowers, hedgehogs, little birds of delirious and unusual colors. Every morning the birds wake you up at 4 with a chorus of hoots and trills.



我父母的房子位於上世紀80年代修建的一個醜陋的郊區住宅區中央，那裡滿是獨立紅磚建築和寬敞的車道。郊區原本不該是自然的領地，但在奧爾斯福德，自然仍舊有其威力——年復一年，在道路的盡頭，野草總會突然躥高，那兒還有許多野花、刺蝟，以及顏色艷麗罕見的小鳥。每天清晨，由鳥兒的啼叫和鳴囀構成的大合唱都會在4點把你喚醒。


But no sooner has nature started to assert itself than the grass gets cut back and the mornings return to being silent and still. Alresford becomes human again. Human in a normal, provincial English way, in a place where people own homes, save for pensions and vote to leave the European Union — as 55 percent of the population of Hampshire county did on Thursday.


但自然剛開始刷存在感，野草便又會被芟刈，清晨又會歸於靜寂無聲。奧爾斯福德又會成為人類的天下。人們在這裡以英國小地方的正常方式生活，有自己的房子，攢錢養老，投票脫歐——就像漢普郡55％的選民在週四所做的那樣。


Jun Cen




Sometimes, in the summer, I walk up the hill and I look out over it, the housing development on one side and the Georgian town center at the bottom of the other, and I have this fantasy image of how it once was, before Alresford was founded in the Middle Ages, when all of this was untouched: just the wild, untamed nature that it keeps wanting to turn itself back into. And sometimes, I think: I wish that would happen. Because all that humans have ever done here is ruin things.


有時候，我會在夏天步行登上小山，向下眺望，住宅區位於一側，喬治亞鎮中心位於另一側的盡頭；我眼前會呈現奧爾斯福德在中世紀建成之前，一切尚未遭到破壞時的夢幻景象：觸目所及儘是野性未馴的自然——它一直努力想要回歸的自然。有時候，我會想：希望真的可以回到過去。因為人類在這裡除了破壞，什麼也沒幹。



Alresford is my personal hell.


奧爾斯福德是我個人的地獄。



We are not used to thinking that a place like this — a pleasant town with a pretty center — might actually be hell. There is almost no poverty and only the occasional act of violence. There are good schools, a range of shops, a heritage railway. In fact, it’s somewhere that a lot of people, apparently, actively want to live: Houses in the center easily sell for upward of a million pounds. (What they will cost once the vote to leave the European Union makes the economy crater remains to be seen.)


我們還無法適應這種想法：這樣的一個地方——一個市中心漂漂亮亮的可愛小城——或許真的是地獄。這裡幾乎不知貧窮為何物，暴力事件只是偶然發生。這裡有很好的學校，有各種店鋪，還有一條觀光鐵路。事實上，這裡似乎是許多人非常想要生活其中的那種地方：城中心的房子很容易就能賣出100萬英鎊的高價（投票脫歐損及經濟之後，它們的身價會是多少，尚有待觀察）。



But dig below the surface, and you will find the demons crawling. You can see them in the looks that residents give you when they pass; sneering snobs glaring down their noses with entitlement; small-minded townies, bullying you with eyes that you recognize from the primary school lunchroom; the old people, 80 and above, wearing blank stares. You can hear it in their bothered tutting at the bus stop (especially if they ever hear a visitor mispronouncing the name of the town), the shots that constantly ring out from across the countryside as they set about murdering as many of the local pheasants as they can.


但透過表象，你會發現魔鬼正蠢蠢欲動。當擦肩而過的居民望向你時，你能感受到魔鬼的存在：冷笑着的勢利小人會頗具優越感地投來輕視的目光；心胸狹窄的城裡人會用能在小學食堂裡見到的那種眼神恐嚇你；年逾八旬的老人目光茫然。當他們在公車站不耐煩地發出嘖聲時（尤其是聽到外來者念錯小城名字的時候），當他們開始儘可能多地獵殺當地的野雞，槍聲在野地裡不停響起時，你能感受到魔鬼的存在。


As with any hell, the thing that really makes it so is that you can never leave. For one thing, poor public transportation makes leaving impossible in a practical, everyday sense — at least if you can’t drive. For another, the town thwarts any ambitions that stretch beyond its borders. From what I can tell, a young person from Alresford, forced to move back in with his parents after college, will typically find himself unable to get work that is not based in Alresford. As a result, it is full of people around my age, 27, stuck in dead-end jobs.


同任何地獄一樣，最恐怖的是你永遠不能離開它。首先，從實際的日常意義上說，如果你不會開車，糟糕的公車系統會讓你根本不可能離開。還有，這個鎮子會毀滅一切想要伸展出其邊界之外的野心。以我自己的經驗來說：一個奧爾斯福德的年輕人大學畢業後被迫搬回父母家裡，便會發現自己在奧爾斯福德之外的地方基本上找不到任何工作。我今年27歲，最後，這裡就聚集了一大堆我的同齡人，乾著各種沒有前途的工作。


And it is impossible to leave Alresford, because Alresford is not just a place: It is an ideology that infects your very soul. Let’s call it “Alresfordism.” It is an ideology of smallness, of contraction, of wanting to curl up in our own personal, financially secure hole and will everything amusing or interesting or exciting in the world away.


想離開奧爾斯福德是不可能的，因為奧爾斯福德不僅僅是一個地方，它是一種意識形態，已經侵蝕了你的靈魂。我們就管它叫「奧爾斯福德主義」吧。這是一種關於微小與收縮的意識形態，我們只想蜷縮在由自己的性格與財務所決定的安全洞穴裡，把世界上所有好玩、有趣，刺激的東西關在外面。


Since my late teens, every effort I have ever exerted has been with the intention of escaping Alresford. And yet, I am an early-career academic and so I am forced to move back, every summer, to live with my parents because I cannot afford to pay rent elsewhere after my temporary teaching contract ends. Then, sometimes, I think: What if I’m actually secretly comfortable here? What if I have chosen the security of death in Alresford over the risks of life elsewhere? What if I am in fact fully in the clutches of Alresfordism?


十八九歲時，我所做的一切努力都是以逃離奧爾斯福德為目的。如今，我是個步入職場不久的大學教師，被迫每年夏天都搬回父母家裡，因為臨時教職合同一旦結束，我就負擔不起任何地方的房租。有時候，我就想，在內心深處，我是不是覺得這裡其實很舒服自在呢？我是不是寧願選擇老死在奧爾斯福德的這種安全感，也不願冒着生命危險到處闖蕩呢？我是不是已經徹底落入了奧爾斯福德主義的掌握之中？


It was for psychological reasons, as much as anything else, that I didn’t register to vote in Alresford. Registering to vote here would have felt like actually moving here. I registered in Essex, where I live during the academic year, for the recent local elections, so I just thought I’d retain that registration for the Brexit referendum. I also don’t like filling in forms, which is why I didn’t register to vote by mail or look into how I’d amend my registration.


我沒有選擇在奧爾斯福德註冊選舉，既有心理原因，也有其他因素。在某處登記投票選舉，感覺就好像真的住在那裡了一樣。學期開學的時候我都住在埃塞克斯(Essex)，所以最近的本地選舉都是在那裡登記，我覺得直到英國退出歐盟公投時，我也會保留那裡的登記。我不喜歡填表格，所以也沒有選擇通過郵寄投票，或者考慮修改投票登記地點。


I admit that I was very complacent about all this. I didn’t think one vote would make a difference. And besides, I wasn’t particularly motivated to use my vote anyway. Brexit, supported by some very bad people, would definitely have some bad consequences, but on the other hand, who knows what positive effects it might have? I wasn’t willing to endorse it, but, hey, I certainly bought the argument that it might be a worthwhile shake-up to the system.


我承認，我對這一切都感到有點沾沾自喜。我不覺得一張選票能帶來多大差別。另外，我對投票這事也不怎麼積極。英國退出歐盟，這種事都是壞傢伙才支持的，肯定不會有什麼好結果，但是另一方面，這種事說不定也有什麼積極作用呢，誰知道？我不願意為它背書，不過，嗨，我肯定是聽進去了一些討論，脫離歐盟有可能是一種動搖體制的方法，說不定值得一試。


My complacency lasted until June 16, when Jo Cox, a Labour member of Parliament and a vocal defender of immigration, was killed; the man charged in her death, Thomas Mair, had ties to far-right groups and introduced himself in court by the name “death to traitors.” That shocked me into a realization that this referendum wasn’t really a referendum about whether or not we should remain in the European Union. It was a referendum on immigration and on race — on whether to have our borders open or closed.


我的這種沾沾自喜一直持續到6月16日，移民的積極支持者、工黨下院議員喬·考克斯(Jo Cox)遭到槍殺，殺害她的人托馬斯·邁爾(Thomas Mair)和極右組織有關，在法庭上，他說自己的名字是「叛國者死」。這令我大吃一驚，明白這場公投並非真的是關於我們是否應該留在歐盟，而是一場關於移民與種族的公投，是一場關於開放還是關閉國境的公投。


In short: Do we open ourselves up to new things, even if they might be unfamiliar, risky, unexpected, sometimes even undesirable? Or do we close ourselves down: a small island, trapped in its own smallness? So I knew which way I had to vote. This was a referendum on Alresfordism.


簡而言之：我們還會對新事物保持開放嗎，就算它們陌生、危險、出乎意料，甚至有時候不受歡迎？抑或我們會把自己封閉起來，只做一個小島，完全困在自己的小天地之中？所以我知道自己必須投票選擇哪一條道路了。這是一場關於奧爾斯福德主義的公投。


I SET out from Alresford on Thursday to register my protest against Alresfordism. Three hours on the train, through London, from Winchester to Wivenhoe, then back again, I thought. I was wrong.


星期四，我從奧爾斯福德出發，去表達我對奧爾斯福德主義的抗議。我以為要坐三個小時的火車，從溫切斯特到威文霍，途徑倫敦，然後再回來。但是我錯了。


An electrical storm the night before had caused signal failures across southeast England. I managed to get to London, but when I tried to change for the train to Essex, I found that everything so far that day had been canceled. A convoluted series of changes on the Tube and on buses left me stranded in Romford, in outer London, where the train I had been told I could catch to Colchester had just been canceled. I tried my best, I thought, and I failed miserably. I went home.


前天夜晚的一場電子風暴令整個英格蘭東南部的信號出現故障。我勉強到達倫敦，但是當我換乘到埃塞克斯的火車時，才發現當天的車次都被取消了。由於倫敦地鐵與公共汽車一系列錯綜複雜的變化，我只能滯留在倫敦邊緣的羅姆福德。我本該在那裡換乘到科爾切斯特的火車，結果車次卻被取消了。我想，自己已經盡了一切努力，結果卻悲慘地失敗了。於是我回了家。


Even if I’d managed to cast my vote, it would have been pointless. The Remain campaign didn’t just lose by my vote, we lost by more than a million. Britons wanted to make our world smaller. They wanted to make it more like Alresford. As far as I can tell, they are going to get exactly what they wanted.


就算我想辦法投了票，最後也是毫無意義的。留歐陣營不僅僅是失去了我的選票而已，我們失去的是100多萬張選票。英國人希望我們的世界更小一些。他們希望英國更像奧爾斯福德。就我所知，他們徹底得到了自己想要的東西。


As a result of this vote, Britain will withdraw rapidly. We will have fewer people coming here, enriching our culture and our lives. There will be fewer opportunities. We will have less of a chance to explore the world for ourselves.


由於這次公投，英國會很快離開歐盟。今後，來到這個國家並豐富我們的文化與生活的人將會愈來愈少。機會將愈來愈少。我們自己去探索世界的機會也會愈來愈少。


Brexit is the result of a deep nihilism among the British public. This nihilism has not just emerged recently; I’ve lived alongside it my whole life. This is the nihilism of Alresfordism, a security-driven retraction toward death.


英國退出歐盟，是由英國公眾之中一種深層次的虛無主義導致的。這種虛無主義並不是近期才抬頭；我畢生都在與它相處。這是奧爾斯福德主義的虛無主義，是安全感驅使下的一次向死亡的倒退。


A recession would not, in truth, matter much to the people of Alresford. It is a pretty affluent place, and if you are a true Alresfordian, you will always be happy in your small town. How much more will the effects of the Leave vote be felt by people who do not share their nihilism, people like my friends and colleagues who’ve come here to live and work from the European Union.


事實上，經濟衰退對奧爾斯福德人來說沒有多大影響。這裡是個還算富裕的地方，如果你是真正的奧爾斯福德人，家鄉小鎮的快樂生活總是有的。更能感受到離開歐盟所帶來的影響的，是那些不認同他們的虛無主義的人，比如我的朋友和同事們，他們從其他歐盟國家來到英國居住和工作。


All I can do is look out at the nature from the window of my room in Alresford. I’m from here, so I can’t be sure whether or not this is just another type of nihilism, but I think: Well, if all this nature is bigger than us, then I want it be get even bigger. I want it to become so big that it will consume all of our smallnesses, invalidate them, smother them out. Not just Alresford. I want a demented, throbbing, fecund nature to overrun this whole country, to overturn the wretched consequences of the laws that we have, in our stupidity, set for ourselves.


我所能做的只有在奧爾斯福德的家中，看着窗外的大自然。我的家鄉就在這裡，所以我不確定這是否是另一種虛無主義，但我想：好吧，如果自然比我們更大，我希望它能變得還要再大一些，大到吞噬我們的渺小，讓它失去效力，把它淹沒。不僅僅是奧爾斯福德。我希望生機勃勃、繁榮茂盛的大自然可以佔領我們的整個國家，挽回我們——本着我們的愚蠢——為自己制定的法則所造成的不幸後果。



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湯姆·懷曼(Tom Whyman)是埃塞克斯大學哲學講師。
翻譯：李瓊