字神帝國英語天地

今日主題：American Utopianism  美式烏托邦

康康精選GRE&GMAT會考的主題，堅持每天精讀一定會進步的哦!!
MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：喜歡的同學，幫忙推或按讚哦~~
http://xia2.kekenet.com/Sou…/2016/…/ecow03021_1756928eyN.mp3

只有音檔怎夠，聽不懂地方，不用怕，康康幫你準備好中英文稿了：

中英文稿：
American Utopianism-- Short-lived, much loved
美式烏托邦--短命的狂熱

How American idealists withdrew from the mainstream to create their own paradise
美國理想主義者退避俗世，自建天堂。

UTOPIANISM in politics gets a bad press. The case against the grand - scale, state - directed kind is well known and overwhelming. Utopia, the perfect society, is unattainable, for there is no such thing. Remaking society in pursuit of an illusion not only fails, it leads swiftly to mass murder and moral ruin. So recent history grimly attests.
烏托邦主義在政治上不是個好詞，現在的主流觀點是反對大規模、政府主導的事物。烏托邦這個完美的社會，則是可望不可及的海市蜃樓。強行讓社會追求一個虛無縹緲的幻覺不只會以失敗告終，也會很快走向大規模屠殺和道德崩潰，這已經被近代歷史證實了。

Although true, that is just half the story. Not all modern Utopians aim to seize the state in order to cudgel the rest of the world back to paradise. Plenty of gentler ones want no more than to withdraw from the mainstream and create their own micro - paradise with a few like - minded idealists. Small experiments in collective living swept America, for example, early in the 19th century and again late in the 20th.
儘管這是事實，但並不全面。並不是所有的現代烏托邦都致力於奪取政權，並用暴力把世界改造成伊甸園。很多溫和派烏托邦主義者充其量只希望退隱俗世，和一群志同道合者建造一個屬於自己的微型天堂。從19世紀初到20世紀末，美國各地都有這些群居者的身影。

Most failed or fell short. None lasted. All were laughed at. Yet in this intelligent, sympathetic history, Chris Jennings makes a good case for remembering them well. Politics stultifies, he thinks, when people stop dreaming up alternative ways of life and putting them to small - scale test.
這種實踐大都是失敗的或者受人嘲笑。Chris Jennings在他的書《現世天堂：美國烏托邦發展史》（《Paradise Now : The Story of American Utopianism.》）中記錄了這段凝聚著前人智慧的而又令人同情的歷史。他認為，如果人們停止對於另一種生活方式的夢想並不再付諸於實踐，則是政治 的停滯。

Though with occasional glances forward, Mr Jennings focuses largely on the 19 th century. At least 100 experimental communes sprang up across the young American republic in the mid -1800 s. Mr Jennings writes about five exemplary communities: the devout Shakers, Robert Owen's New Harmony, the Fourierist collective at Brook Farm, Massachusetts, the Icarians at Nauvoo, Illinois, inspired by a French proto - communist, Etienne Cabet, and the Oneida Community in New York state practising “Bible communism” and “complex marriage”.
儘管書中偶爾會展望未來，Jennings把大部分筆墨放在了19世紀。19世紀中期，至少有100個實驗性的公社在年輕的美利堅合眾國中，如雨後春筍般 萌芽般誕生。Jennings描述了其中5個典型的社區：虔誠的震教徒（一個基督教的分支教派——譯者註），羅伯特•歐文的新和諧村，傅里葉空想社會主義 者在布魯克農場和馬薩諸塞州的公社，繼承了法國共產主義者Etienne Cabet的伊卡洛斯派在納府和伊利諾伊的公社，以及紐約的奧奈達社區（實踐了“聖經共產主義”和“群婚”模式）。

The Shakers' founder was a Manchester Quaker, Ann Lee, a devout mother worn out by bearing dead or dying children. In 1774 she left for the New World, determined to forswear sex and create a following to share her belief. An optimistic faith in human betterment, hard work and a reputation for honest trading helped the Shakers thrive. At their peak in the early 19 th century, they had perhaps 5,000 members scattered in some 20 villages across eight states. They counselled celibacy, to spare women the dangers of child - bearing, made spare, slim furniture, now treasured in museums, and practised a wild, shaking dance that was taken as a sign of benign possession by the Holy Spirit.
震教徒派創始人是一位名叫Ann Lee的曼徹斯特貴格會教徒，她虔誠卻飽受喪子之痛。1774年，她決定開創一個新世界，她誓言禁慾並找到了志同道合的信徒。對於人類進步的樂觀信心、努 力工作、以及誠實交易使得震教徒派得以發展壯大。到了19世紀早期，教派發展到了鼎盛時期，在美國8個州的20個村子裡散佈著約5000名信徒。他們提倡 獨身禁慾，向婦女勸導生孩子的危險，製作現已被收藏於博物館的細長家具，並跳一種狂野而顫抖的舞蹈，這被看作是聖靈良性附身的徵兆。