为何全世界都在黑索罗斯？
亿万富翁投资者兼慈善家乔治•索罗斯(George Soros)今年很忙。自年初以来，他佯称叙利亚发生化学武器袭击、为华盛顿的反特朗普游行提供资金、提出让难民大量涌入匈牙利的“索罗斯计划”、迫使马其顿政府更迭、削弱以色列总理的影响力并推动解雇白宫数位关键助手。这对一位87岁高龄的人来说不一般。
All of the above are, of course, conspiracy theories. But the fact that they have surfaced this year — and all feature the name of Mr Soros — is not just a curiosity. It says something important and worrying about global politics.
当然，上述所有这些说法都是阴谋论。但它们在今年浮出水面，而且全都冠以索罗斯的名义，这个事实不仅仅是让人感到好奇，还表明了关于全球政治的一个重要且令人担忧的问题。
In the 1990s, Mr Soros was in tune with the spirit of the age, as he used the billions he had made in finance to support the transition to democracy in post-communist Europe and elsewhere. But now the global political climate has changed and liberal ideas are in retreat. For a new generation of nationalists — from the US to Russia and Hungary — Mr Soros has become the perfect villain. He is an internationalist in an age of nationalism. He is a supporter of individual rights, not group rights. He is the 29th-richest man in the world, according to the Forbes rich list. And he is also Jewish, so is easily cast in the role of the shadowy and manipulative international financier, once reserved for the Rothschilds.
在上世纪90年代，索罗斯与时代精神合拍，他使用在金融领域赚取的数十亿资金，支持后共产主义时代的欧洲以及其他地方的民主过渡。但如今全球政治气候改变，自由主义观点退潮。对从美国到俄罗斯和匈牙利等地新一代的民族主义者来说，索罗斯是个十足的恶棍。在民族主义盛行的时代，他是一个国际主义者。他支持个人权利而非组织权利。他在《福布斯》(Forbes)的全球财富榜单上排名第29位。他还是犹太人，很容易被人认为是那种躲在幕后操纵一切的国际金融家——曾经只有罗斯柴尔德家族(Rothschilds)才会被人这么认为。
One of the nastier bits of anti-Soros propaganda this year explicitly linked him to the old slurs against the Rothschilds. When America First nationalists became worried that HR McMaster, national security adviser to President Donald Trump, was purging their allies in the White House, they set up a website called “McMaster leaks” which featured a cartoon of Mr McMaster being manipulated by puppetmasters labelled “Soros” and “Rothschilds”.
今年反索罗斯宣传的较为讨厌的一点是，明确将他与过去那种对罗斯柴尔德家族的诋毁联系在一起。当信奉“美国优先”(America First)的民族主义者担心总统唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)的国家安全顾问赫伯特•雷蒙德•麦克马斯特(HR McMaster)将清洗他们在白宫的盟友的时候，他们成立了一个名为“曝光麦克马斯特”(McMaster leaks)的网站，上面有麦克马斯特受到被贴有“索罗斯”和“罗斯柴尔德家族”标签的傀儡师操纵的漫画。
In 1989, one of the beneficiaries of a Soros scholarship to study at Oxford was a young Hungarian activist named Viktor Orban. Today, the same Mr Orban is prime minister of Hungary and demonises his one-time benefactor. The Hungarian leader has made denunciation of an alleged “Soros plan” to flood Hungary with Muslims central to his re-election campaign. There is no such plan. What is true is that Mr Soros is a generous backer of refugee charities and has also supported the EU’s plan to resettle Syrian refugees across the bloc, including in Hungary. That was excuse enough for Mr Orban to plaster the country with posters featuring a grinning Mr Soros, and urging: “Don’t let Soros have the last laugh.”
1989年，牛津大学(Oxford)的索罗斯奖学金受益人之一是一位名为欧尔班•维克托(Viktor Orban)的年轻匈牙利活动人士。如今，正是这位欧尔班成为了匈牙利总理，并妖魔化其曾经的捐助人。欧尔班指责所谓的让穆斯林涌入匈牙利的“索罗斯计划”，并将其作为竞选连任活动的核心。根本没有此类计划。真相是，索罗斯是难民慈善活动的慷慨支持者，他还支持欧盟将叙利亚难民重新安置在欧盟各地(包括匈牙利)的计划。它让欧尔班有足够的借口将索罗斯咧嘴微笑的海报贴满匈牙利，并敦促匈牙利人“不要让索罗斯笑到最后”。
The demonisation of Mr Soros in Hungary, where he was born, is not an isolated case. In the past year, he has been denounced by political leaders in Macedonia, Poland, Romania and Turkey, all of whom claim he is plotting against them.
索罗斯在匈牙利——他的出生地——遭到妖魔化并非孤例。在过去一年里，索罗斯遭到马其顿、波兰、罗马尼亚和土耳其政治领导人的指责，这些人全都指责前者阴谋反对他们。
The paranoid right in America also churns out anti-Soros material. As long ago as 2007, Mr Soros was denounced on Fox News as the “Dr Evil of the whole world of leftwing foundations”. The origins of Soros-hatred in the US may date back to his opposition to the Iraq war. His support of liberal causes in the US, as well as of international institutions such as the UN, has kept the far-right pot boiling.
美国的偏执狂右翼也炮制了反索罗斯的材料。早在2007年，索罗斯就被福克斯新闻(Fox News)指责为“整个左翼基金会世界的邪恶博士”。在美国，憎恨索罗斯的根源可能要追溯至他反对伊拉克战争。他支持美国的自由事业以及联合国等国际机构，让极右翼分子群情激奋。
There is clearly an echo-chamber element to the anti-Soros campaigns around the world, as far-right groups pick up on the same conspiracy theories. But some strongman leaders have more concrete reasons to fear Mr Soros’s Open Society Foundation, which funds civil society organisations that promote education, a free press, minority rights and anti-corruption initiatives. In 2015, Vladimir Putin’s government chucked the Open Society Foundation out of Russia since it was no longer willing to tolerate the latter’s support for organisations such as Memorial, which promoted research into the Soviet terror.
世界各地的反索罗斯运动显然有回声室的作用，极右翼团体领悟到了同样的阴谋论。但一些手腕强硬的领导人有更确切的理由担忧索罗斯的开放社会基金会(Open Society foundation)，后者为促进教育、自由媒体、少数族裔权利和反腐举措的公民社会组织提供资助。2015年，弗拉基米尔•普京(Vladimir Putin)的政府将开放社会基金会逐出了俄罗斯，因为它不愿再容忍后者对推动研究苏维埃恐怖行为的Memorial等组织的支持。
Mr Soros’s activities have even made him a target in Israel. The obvious anti-Semitism in many of the anti-Soros campaigns around the world evidently matters less to the Netanyahu government than Mr Soros’s support for Palestinian rights and other causes unpopular on the Israeli right.
索罗斯的活动甚至让他成为以色列的攻击目标。虽然世界各地的许多反索罗斯运动都有明显的反犹太主义色彩，但这一点对内塔尼亚胡(Netanyahu)政府的重要性，显然不如索罗斯支持巴勒斯坦权利以及其他不受以色列右翼分子欢迎的事业。
There is also a personal element in prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s anti-Soros ire. As an anti-corruption probe has got closer and closer to Israel’s first family, so they have lashed out against Mr Soros. Yair Netanyahu, the prime minister’s son, complained recently that the “Fund for the Destruction of Israel, funded by Soros and the European Union, is threatening me”. He even re-published a cartoon of Mr Soros dangling the world in front of a reptilian creature, the kind of image that his father would routinely denounce as anti-Semitic if it had been published by another source.
以色列总理本雅明•内塔尼亚胡(Benjamin Netanyahu)对索罗斯的不满也有个人因素。随着反腐调查日益牵涉到以色列第一家族，他们开始抨击索罗斯。内塔尼亚胡的儿子亚伊尔•内塔尼亚胡(Yair Netanyahu)最近抱怨称，“索罗斯和欧盟提供资助的‘摧毁以色列基金’(Fund for the Destruction of Israel)正在威胁我”。他甚至重新发表了一幅索罗斯在一只爬行动物前操控整个世界的漫画——如果其他渠道发表这种漫画，他的父亲按惯例会将其指责为反犹太主义。
Conspiracy theorists have an explanation for everything. So the fact that the FT should publish a column defending Mr Soros will simply be taken as further evidence of his nefarious influence. For the record, I have had precisely two conversations with Mr Soros. On both occasions, we were on the same public panel at seminars organised by the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank that he partially funds.
阴谋论家们对一切都有解释。因此英国《金融时报》发表一篇捍卫索罗斯的专栏文章，只会被视为他拥有极坏影响力的进一步证据。我在此郑重声明，我与索罗斯确实有过两场谈话。两次都是在欧洲对外关系委员会(European Council on Foreign Relations)组织的研讨会上的同一个公共小组进行的。欧洲对外关系委员会是一家由索罗斯提供部分资助的智库。
We have never had a private conversation and I certainly would not claim him as a friend. But I have no hesitation in applauding his philanthropy. The fact that it even needs to be defended says something sad about the times we are living in.
我们从未私下交谈，我当然也不会宣称他是我的朋友。但我毫不犹豫地为其慈善事业喝彩。这都需要辩解一番，表明我们生活的时代有些可悲。
gideon.rachman@ft.com 译者/裴伴
