書評(píng)：《激進(jìn)的快樂》
本月標(biāo)志著唐納德•特朗普(Donald Trump)就任美國總統(tǒng)后引發(fā)全球抗議活動(dòng)一周年。“婦女向華盛頓進(jìn)軍”(Women's March on Washington)及類似活動(dòng)使數(shù)以百萬計(jì)的人聚在了一起，對(duì)許多參與者來說，那是一次非同尋常、極為罕見的集體快樂時(shí)刻。
“Sometimes, the strength we gain from moments of joyful solidarity lasts a very long time,” writes Lynne Segal towards the end of Radical Happiness: Moments of Collective Joy, which unpicks what she acknowledges is the “intangible” notion of joy. Segal’s thesis is that in losing one’s sense of self and self-consciousness, becoming part of bigger political and societal movements, one can achieve both personal joy and hopeful belief in the possibility of changing the world. Subsequent events in 2017, such as the #MeToo movement, suggest that she has a good point.
“有時(shí)，我們從歡快的團(tuán)結(jié)時(shí)光中得到的力量可以持續(xù)很久，”琳內(nèi)•西格爾(Lynne Segal)在《激進(jìn)的快樂：集體的快樂時(shí)刻》(Radical Happiness: Moments of Collective Joy)快要結(jié)尾的地方寫道。該書剖析了她承認(rèn)“難以捉摸的”快樂概念。西格爾的論點(diǎn)是，人們?cè)诜艞壭∥液妥晕乙庾R(shí)、成為更廣大的政治和社會(huì)運(yùn)動(dòng)的一份子后，既可以實(shí)現(xiàn)個(gè)人愉悅，也可以產(chǎn)生自己有可能改變世界的信念。2017年之后發(fā)生的事件——比如#我也是(#MeToo)運(yùn)動(dòng)——似乎表明她說得很有道理。
Segal, a professor of psychology and gender studies at Birkbeck College, London, recounts her own experience as a leftwing feminist and activist to back up her wider point about the power of mass movements — which in this book means gatherings of real people. Little space is devoted to social media-driven activism. It feels like an omission but she is perhaps right: young feminist activist thinkers such as Zeynep Tufekci are better placed to offer techno-sociological analysis.
西格爾是倫敦大學(xué)伯貝克學(xué)院(Birkbeck College)心理學(xué)和性別研究教授，她回憶了她本人作為左翼女權(quán)主義者和活動(dòng)人士的經(jīng)歷，來支持她關(guān)于群眾運(yùn)動(dòng)力量的廣義觀點(diǎn)。在本書中，群眾運(yùn)動(dòng)是指人們?cè)趯?shí)體世界集會(huì)。沒有什么篇幅被用來論述由社交媒體推動(dòng)的維權(quán)活動(dòng)。感覺像是一個(gè)遺漏，但她或許是對(duì)的：像澤伊內(nèi)普•蒂費(fèi)克奇(Zeynep Tufekci)這樣的年輕女權(quán)主義思想者更有資格提供技術(shù)-社會(huì)學(xué)分析。
Segal focuses instead on lessons of the past: the British women’s liberation movement of the 1970s, she writes, offered “experiments in collective living and the establishment of many other spaces for everyday resistance such as communes for shared child-raising, women’s centres, squatting advice centres and numerous other collective community spaces, many of which I participated in”.
西格爾更關(guān)注以往的教訓(xùn)：她寫道，上世紀(jì)70年代英國女性解放運(yùn)動(dòng)“提供了集體生活的實(shí)驗(yàn)，并建立了其他很多抵抗空間——比如共同撫養(yǎng)孩子的社區(qū)、女性中心、占屋建議中心和眾多其他集體社區(qū)空間，其中很多我都參加過”。
This collectivist mindset was once far more prevalent than it is now. Segal reminds us how things have changed by examining the focus on individualism in western societies, and the “markets of misery”, which leave many feeling isolated and left behind among all the consumerism and commodification.
這種集體主義思維曾經(jīng)比現(xiàn)在流行得多。西格爾通過考察西方社會(huì)對(duì)個(gè)人主義的關(guān)注，考察“苦難市場(chǎng)”(在消費(fèi)主義和商品化甚囂塵上的世界，很多人感覺孤立和被拋在后面)，提醒我們世界發(fā)生了多么巨大的變化。
Meanwhile, efforts to measure and promote “wellbeing” — something that David Cameron’s coalition government made British government policy — are focused on inward-facing “mindfulness” and other practices that put the onus on the individual in private spaces. She also laments the loss of street fairs, feasting and dancing, although one might dispute this: there are many organisations fostering community bonds through local events.
與此同時(shí)，衡量和提升“幸福感”的努力(曾被戴維•卡梅倫(David Cameron)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的聯(lián)合政府列為英國政府政策)關(guān)注的是內(nèi)向的“正念”以及其他一些做法，它們都把責(zé)任重?fù)?dān)壓在私人空間內(nèi)的個(gè)人肩上。她還哀嘆街頭集市、筵席和舞蹈的風(fēng)俗不再，盡管有人可能對(duì)此表示異議：如今有很多組織通過當(dāng)?shù)鼗顒?dòng)來打造社區(qū)紐帶。
Segal extends her exploration of joy to cover love and desire as well as the long history of utopian movements and all their attendant disappointments. On the latter, she takes an optimistic, pragmatic view. Modern utopian theorists, for example, are not offering us a magic prescription for the future. Instead, she says, they are concerned with rather fuzzier ideas: “The collective longing for ‘the improvement of the human condition’ as well as the opening up of spaces ‘for public debate and democratic decision’.”
西格爾擴(kuò)大了她對(duì)快樂的探索范疇，使其涵蓋愛和渴望，以及烏托邦運(yùn)動(dòng)的悠久歷史以及隨之而來的失望。對(duì)于后者，她采取了樂觀而務(wù)實(shí)的觀點(diǎn)。例如，現(xiàn)代烏托邦理論家并沒有向我們提供神奇的未來處方。她表示，相反，他們關(guān)心的是更為朦朧的理念：“對(duì)‘改善人類狀況’、對(duì)開辟‘公共辯論和民主決策’空間的集體渴望。”
Radical Happiness is an engaging, enlightening read for anyone who wants to ponder the links between personal dissatisfaction and political disengagement — and possible remedies. The idea of collective happiness as the root of much satisfaction is simple, but deceptively hard to write about, let alone achieve. Segal succeeds in inspiring on many levels, and while she is writing from the political left, and from a feminist point of view, her sources range far beyond her personal history and feminist and Marxist theorists to include citations and references to many writers and thinkers on utopias and on the nature of democracy.
對(duì)于那些想探尋個(gè)人不滿與政治上脫離接觸之間的關(guān)聯(lián)(以及可能的補(bǔ)救辦法)的人來說，《激進(jìn)的快樂》既引人入勝，又發(fā)人深思。集體快樂是很大一部分滿足感的根源，這一觀念雖然簡(jiǎn)單，但是極難用文字描寫，更不用說達(dá)到這一境界了。西格爾成功地在很多層面起到啟迪作用，而盡管她是從政治左翼以及女權(quán)主義的視角來書寫此書，但她旁征博引，遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超越了個(gè)人經(jīng)歷、女權(quán)主義者以及馬克思主義理論者的范疇，納入并參考了很多作家和思想家在烏托邦和民主性質(zhì)方面的著述。
We can all benefit from thinking about, and achieving, collective joy through joining with like-minded fellow humans, whether we are organising a charity jumble sale or marching for women’s rights.
無論是組織慈善義賣、還是參加維護(hù)婦女權(quán)益的游行，我們都可以受益于攜手志同道合的人，思考并實(shí)現(xiàn)集體快樂。
Ultimately our political dreams, Segal acknowledges, “can end in disappointment, but are likely nevertheless, to make us feel more alive, and hence happier, along the way, at least when they help to connect us to, and express concern for those around us”. This is an uplifting thought, whatever one’s political persuasion.
西格爾承認(rèn)，最終我們的政治夢(mèng)想“可能以失望告終，但盡管如此，至少在幫助我們與周圍之人心心相印、對(duì)他們表達(dá)關(guān)心的過程中，這些夢(mèng)想有望讓我們感到更有生氣，因而更快樂”。無論我們的政治傾向是什么，這都是令人振奮的想法。
The writer is executive editor, FT Work and Careers
本文作者為英國《金融時(shí)報(bào)》生活與藝術(shù)版執(zhí)行主編
Radical Happiness: Moments of Collective Joy
《激進(jìn)的快樂：集體的快樂時(shí)刻》，琳內(nèi)•西格爾著，Verso出版社，16.99英鎊
, by Lynne Segal, Verso £16.99 譯者/何黎
