【the war of art翻译】the Symptoms o

RESISTANCE AND FUNDAMENTALISM

The artist and the fundamentalist both confront the same issue, the mystery of their existence as individuals. Each asks the same questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of my life?
抵抗与原教旨主义

艺术家和原教旨主义者都面临着同样的问题，即他们作为个体存在的神秘。每个人都问同样的问题:我是谁?我为什么在这里?我生命的意义是什么?

At more primitive stages of evolution, humanity didn’t have to deal with such questions. In the states of savagery, of barbarism, in nomadic culture, medieval society, in the tribe and the clan, one’s position was fixed by the commandments of the community. It was only with the advent of modernity (starting with the ancient Greeks), with the birth of freedom and of the individual, that such matters ascended to the fore.
在更原始的进化阶段，人类不需要处理这些问题。在野蛮暴力时代、游牧文化、中世纪社会、部落和氏族中，一个人的地位是由社会的戒律所决定的。只有随着现代的到来(从古希腊开始)，随着自由和个人的诞生，这些事情才上升到前台。

These are not easy questions. Who am I? Why am I here? They’re not easy because the human being isn’t wired to function as an individual. We’re wired tribally, to act as part of a group. Our psyches are programmed by millions of years of hunter-gatherer evolution. We know what the clan is; we know how to fit into the band and the tribe. What we don’t know is how to be alone. We don’t know how to be free individuals.
这些问题并不简单。我是谁?我为什么在这里?这并不容易，因为人类并不是天生的个体。我们被束缚在部落里，作为一个团体的一部分。我们的心理是由数百万年的狩猎-采集进化所决定的。我们知道什么是氏族;我们知道如何融入乐队和部落。我们不知道的是如何独处。我们不知道如何成为自由的个体。

The artist and the fundamentalist arise from societies at differing stages of development. The artist is the advanced model. His culture possesses affluence, stability, enough excess of resource to permit the luxury of self-examination. The artist is grounded in freedom. He is not afraid of it. He is lucky. He was born in the right place. He has a core of self- confidence, of hope for the future. He believes in progress and evolution. His faith is that humankind is advancing, however haltingly and imperfectly, toward a better world.
艺术家和原教旨主义者来自不同发展阶段的社会。那位艺术家是高级模特儿。他的文化富有、稳定，有足够的资源让他可以自我反省。艺术家以自由为基础。他并不害怕。他是幸运的。他出生在正确的地方。他有自信，对未来充满希望。他相信进步和进化。他的信念是，人类正在向一个更美好的世界前进，无论它多么步履蹒跚和不完美。

The fundamentalist entertains no such notion. In his view, humanity has fallen from a higher state. The truth is not out there awaiting revelation; it has already been revealed. The word of God has been spoken and recorded by His prophet, be he Jesus, Muhammad, or Karl Marx.
原教旨主义者没有这种想法。在他看来，人类已经从一个更高的状态跌落。真相并不在那里等待着被揭露；它已经被揭露了。上帝的话语是由他的先知所说和记录的，无论是耶稣，穆罕默德，或卡尔马克思。

Fundamentalism is the philosophy of the powerless, the conquered, the displaced and the dispossessed. Its spawning ground is the wreckage of political and military defeat, as Hebrew fundamentalism arose during the Babylonian captivity, as white Christian fundamentalism appeared in the American South during Reconstruction, as the notion of the Master Race evolved in Germany following World War I. In such desperate times, the vanquished race would perish without a doctrine that restored hope and pride. Islamic fundamentalism ascends from the same landscape of despair and possesses the same tremendous and potent appeal.
原教旨主义是弱者、被征服者、流离失所者和无依无靠者的哲学。其发祥地是政治残骸和军事失败的地方，如希伯来原教旨主义出现在巴比伦被掳期间,白人基督教原教旨主义出现在美国南方重建期间,作为优等民族进化的概念在德国第一次世界大战之后。在这种绝望的时候,如果没有恢复希望和骄傲的信条，被征服的种族会灭亡。伊斯兰原教旨主义从同样的绝望中崛起，并具有同样巨大而有力的吸引力。

What exactly is this despair? It is the despair of freedom. The dislocation and emasculation experienced by the individual cut free from the familiar and comforting structures of the tribe and the clan, the village and the family.

It is the state of modern life.
这种绝望到底是什么?这是对自由的绝望。个人经历的混乱和阉割，脱离了部落、氏族、村庄和家庭的熟悉和舒适的结构。

这是现代生活的状态。

The fundamentalist (or, more accurately, the beleaguered individual who comes to embrace fundamentalism) cannot stand freedom. He cannot find his way into the future, so he retreats to the past. He returns in imagination to the glory days of his race and seeks to reconstitute both them and himself in their purer, more virtuous light. He gets back to basics. To fundamentals.
原教旨主义者(或者，更准确地说，是那些陷入困境、开始信奉原教旨主义的个人)无法忍受自由。他找不到通向未来的路，所以他退回到过去。他在想象中回到他种族的光辉岁月，并寻求在他们更纯洁、更高尚的光中重建他们和他自己。他又回到了基础，基本。

Fundamentalism and art are mutually exclusive. There is no such thing as fundamentalist art. This does not mean that the fundamentalist is not creative. Rather, his creativity is inverted. He creates destruction. Even the structures he builds, his schools and networks of organization, are dedicated to annihilation, of his enemies and of himself.
原教旨主义和艺术相互排斥。根本就没有原教旨主义艺术。这并不意味着原教旨主义者没有创造力。相反，他的创造力被颠倒了。他创造破坏。甚至他建立的结构，他的学校和组织网络，都致力于消灭他的敌人和他自己。

But the fundamentalist reserves his greatest creativity for the fashioning of Satan, the image of his foe, in opposition to which he defines and gives meaning to his own life. Like the artist, the fundamentalist experiences Resistance. He experiences it as temptation to sin. Resistance to the fundamentalist is the call of the Evil One, seeking to seduce him from his virtue. The fundamentalist is consumed with Satan, whom he loves as he loves death. Is it coincidence that the suicide bombers of the World Trade Center frequented strip clubs during their training, or that they conceived of their reward as a squadron of virgin brides and the license to ravish them in the fleshpots of heaven? The fundamentalist hates and fears women because he sees them as vessels of Satan, temptresses like Delilah who seduced Samson from his power.
但原教旨主义者保留了他最大的创造力来塑造撒旦——他的敌人的形象，与之相对，他定义并赋予了自己的生命意义。像艺术家一样，原教旨主义者也经历了抵抗。他把它看作是犯罪的诱惑。抵抗在原教旨主义者看来是邪恶者的召唤，试图引诱他放弃美德。原教旨主义者信徒对撒旦着迷，他爱撒旦如同爱死死亡一般。这是巧合吗：世贸中心的自杀炸弹袭击者在训练期间频繁光顾脱衣舞俱乐部，以及他们认为自己得到的奖励是一群处女新娘，并获得了在天堂的放纵生活的许可?原教旨主义者憎恨和害怕女人，因为他把她们看作撒旦的器皿，像黛利拉一样的诱惑人的女人，引诱参孙脱离他的力量。

To combat the call of sin, i.e., Resistance, the fundamentalist plunges either into action or into the study of sacred texts. He loses himself in these, much as the artist does in the process of creation. The difference is that while the one looks forward, hoping to create a better world, the other looks backward, seeking to return to a purer world from which he and all have fallen.
与罪恶的召唤作斗争。原教旨主义者要么投身于行动，要么投身于对圣经的研究。他沉浸在其中，就像艺术家在创作过程中一样。不同之处在于，当一个人向前看，希望创造一个更美好的世界时，另一个人则向后看，寻求回到一个更纯净的世界，他和所有人都已从这个世界堕落。

The humanist believes that humankind, as individuals, is called upon to co-create the world with God. This is why he values human life so highly. In his view, things do progress, life does evolve; each individual has value, at least potentially, in advancing this cause. The fundamentalist cannot conceive of this. In his society, dissent is not just crime but apostasy; it is heresy, transgression against God Himself.
人文主义者认为，人类作为个体，应该与上帝共同创造世界。这就是他如此重视生命的原因。在他看来，事物确实在进步，生命确实在进化;每个人都有价值，至少潜在地，在推动这一事业。原教旨主义者无法理解这一点。在他的社会中，异见不仅是犯罪，也是叛教;这是异端，违背了上帝本身。

When fundamentalism wins, the world enters a dark age. Yet still I can’t condemn one who is drawn to this philosophy. I consider my own inner journey, the advantages I’ve had of education, affluence, family support, health, and the blind good luck to be born American, and still I have learned to exist as an autonomous individual, if indeed I have, only by a whisker, and at a cost I would hate to have to reckon up.
当原教旨主义获胜时，世界就进入了一个黑暗时代。然而，我仍然不能谴责一个被这种哲学所吸引的人。我考虑我自己的内心旅程,我有优势的教育、富裕生活、家庭支持、健康、好运气而出生在美国的人,并且我已经学会了作为一个独立的个体而存在，如果我真的有的话，也不过是一点点，而且我不愿意去计算其中的代价。

It may be that the human race is not ready for freedom. The air of liberty may be too rarefied for us to breathe. Certainly I wouldn’t be writing this book, on this subject, if living with freedom were easy. The paradox seems to be, as Socrates demonstrated long ago, that the truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery. While those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them.
也许人类还没有为自由做好准备。自由的空气可能过于稀薄，我们无法呼吸。当然，如果生活在自由中很容易，我就不会在这个问题上写这本书了。正如苏格拉底很久以前所证明的那样，这个悖论似乎是，真正自由的个人只有在自我控制的范围内才有自由。而那些不愿统治自己的人注定要找到主子来统治他们。