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双语《如何享受人生,享受工作》 第四章 没人会去踢一条死狗

所属教程:译林版·如何享受人生,享受工作

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2022年06月18日

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Chapter 4 Remember That No One Ever Kicks a Dead Dog

An event occurred in 1929 that created a national sensation in educational circles. Learned men from all over America rushed to Chicago to witness the affair. A few years earlier, a young man by the name of Robert Hutchins had worked his way through Yale, acting as a waiter, a lumberjack, a tutor, and a clothes-line salesman. Now, only eight years later, he was being inaugurated as president of the fourth richest university in America, the University of Chicago. His age? Thirty. Incredible! The older educators shook their heads. Criticism came roaring down upon the“boy wonder”like a rockslide. He was this and he was that—too young, inexperienced— his educational ideas were cockeyed. Even the newspapers joined in the attack.

The day he was inaugurated, a friend said to the father of Robert Maynard Hutchins:“I was shocked this morning to read that newspaper editorial denouncing your son.”

“Yes,”the elder Hutchins replied,“it was severe, but remember that no one ever kicks a dead dog.”

Yes, and the more important a dog is, the more satisfaction people get in kicking him. The Prince of Wales who later became Edward VIII (now Duke of Windsor) had that forcibly brought home to him.

He was attending Dartmouth College in Devonshire at the time—a college that corresponds to the Naval Academy at Annapolis. The Prince was about fourteen. One day one of the naval officers found him crying, and asked him what was wrong. He refused to tell at first, but finally admitted the truth: he was being kicked by the naval cadets. The commodore of the college summoned the boys and explained to them that the Prince had not complained, but he wanted to find out why the Prince had been singled out for this rough treatment.

After much hemming and hawing and toe scraping, the cadets finally confessed that when they themselves became commanders and captains in the King's Navy, they wanted to be able to say that they had kicked the King!

So when you are kicked and criticised, remember that it is often done because it gives the kicker a feeling of importance. It often means that you are accomplishing something and are worthy of attention. Many people get a sense of savage satisfaction out of denouncing those who are better educated than they are or more successful. For example, while I was writing this chapter, I received a letter from a woman denouncing General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army. I had given a laudatory broadcast about General Booth; so this woman wrote me, saying that General Booth had stolen eight million dollars of the money he had collected to help poor people. The charge, of course, was absurd. But this woman wasn't looking for truth. She was seeking the mean-spirited gratification that she got from tearing down someone far above her. I threw her bitter letter into the wastebasket, and thanked Almighty God that I wasn't married to her. Her letter didn't tell me anything at all about General Booth, but it did tell me a lot about her. Schopenhauer had said it years ago:“Vulgar people take huge delight in the faults and follies of great men.”

One hardly thinks of the president of Yale as a vulgar man; yet a former president of Yale, Timothy Dwight, apparently took huge delight in denouncing a man who was running for President of the United States. The president of Yale warned that if this man were elected President,“we may see our wives and daughters the victims of legal prostitution, soberly dishonoured, speciously polluted; the outcasts of delicacy and virtue, the loathing of God and man.”

Sounds almost like a denunciation of Hitler, doesn't it? But it wasn't. It was a denunciation of Thomas Jefferson. Which Thomas Jefferson? Surely not the immortal Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, the patron saint of democracy? Yes, verily, that was the man.

What American do you suppose was denounced as a“hypocrite”,“an impostor”, and as“little better than a murderer”? A newspaper cartoon depicted him on a guillotine, the big knife read to cut off his head. Crowds jeered at him and hissed him as he rode through the street. Who was he? George Washington.

But that occurred a long time ago. Maybe human nature has improved since then. Let's see. Let's take the case of Admiral Peary—the explorer who startled and thrilled the world by reaching the North Pole with dog sleds on April 6, 1909—a goal that brave men for centuries had suffered and died to attain. Peary himself almost died from cold and starvation; and eight of his toes were frozen so hard they had to be cut off. He was so overwhelmed with disasters that he feared he would go insane. His superior naval officers in Washington were burned up because Peary was getting so much publicity and acclaim. So they accused him of collecting money for scientific expeditions and then“lying around and loafing in the Arctic.”And they probably believed it, because it is almost impossible not to believe what you want to believe. Their determination to humiliate and block Peary was so violent that only a direct order from President McKinley enabled Peary to continued his career in the Arctic.

Would Peary have been denounced if he had had a desk job in the Navy Department in Washington. No. He wouldn't have been important enough then to have aroused jealousy.

General Grant had an even worse experience than Admiral Peary. In 1862, General Grant won the first great decisive victory that the North had enjoyed—a victory that was achieved in one afternoon, a victory that made Grant a national idol overnight—a victory that had tremendous repercussions even in far-off Europe—a victory that set church bells ringing and bonfires blazing from Maine to the banks of the Mississippi. Yet within six weeks after achieving that great victory, Grant—hero of the North—was arrested and his army was taken from him. He wept with humiliation and despair.

Why was General U.S. Grant arrested at the flood tide of his victory? Largely because he had aroused the jealousy and envy of his arrogant superiors.

If we are tempted to be worried about unjust criticism here is Rule:

REMEMBER THAT UNJUST CRITICISM IS OFTEN A DISGUISED COMPLIMENT. REMEMBER THAT NO ONE EVER KICKS A DEAD DOG.

第四章 没人会去踢一条死狗

1929年芝加哥发生了一件轰动全国教育界的事,全美的学者都赶赴芝加哥见证此事。几年前,一个名叫罗伯特·哈金斯的年轻男子用当餐厅服务员、伐木工、家教和服装销售员赚来的钱供自己读完了耶鲁大学。八年后的他成了芝加哥大学的校长,这是美国第四大资源丰富的名校,而他只有三十岁!这简直不可思议!年长的教育家们纷纷摇头。无数的批评声向这个“神奇男孩”排山倒海地涌来,纷纷说他这不对、那不好,认为他太年轻、缺乏经验,教育理念太荒唐。就连报纸都加入了批评大军。

哈金斯就职那天,一个朋友对他的父亲说:“我很惊讶报纸竟然这样诋毁你的儿子。”

“是的,”老哈金斯回答,“这非常糟糕,但别忘了,没人会去踢一只死狗。”

没错,这只狗越重要,别人踢它时就越有满足感。后来成为爱德华八世的威尔士亲王也受到过这样的“待遇”。那时他在位于德文郡的达特茅斯学院就读——那是相当于美国安纳波利斯海军学院的一所院校,当时亲王大概有十四岁。一天,一名海军军官发现他在哭,就问他发生了什么。一开始他不肯回答,后来终于承认,海军学员们踢了他。学院的指挥官把那些男孩召集起来,首先说明亲王并未告状,但希望知道为何大家孤立他并如此粗暴地对待他。

男孩们支支吾吾,脚尖蹭来蹭去,很长时间后终于说了实话。他们希望有朝一日成为海军军官为国王效劳时就能跟别人说:我踢过国王!

所以当你被人踢、被人骂时请记住,那些人往往是想通过这种行为来感觉自己重要,这往往意味着你有所成就、值得被关注。很多人通过诋毁比自己学历高或更有成就的人来得到粗暴的满足感。比如说,我在撰写此章时收到了一位女士的来信,她在信中谴责了威廉·布斯将军——救世军组织的创始人。我曾经当众赞赏过布斯将军,但是这个女人写道,布斯将军挪用了八百万捐给穷人的款项。这种指控自然是莫须有的,但这个女人并不在意事实,她只想通过诋毁比她层次高的人来获取快感。我把这封可悲的信扔进了垃圾筐,并感谢上苍我没有娶这样一个女人。她的信中并没有提到多少有关布斯将军的信息,反倒让我看到她是怎样的人。叔本华数年前说过:“卑微的人总是从伟人的缺点和失误中得到极大的快感。”

很少有人认为耶鲁大学的校长会是卑微的人,然而耶鲁的一位前校长就曾把诋毁美国总统候选人作为极大的乐趣。这位耶鲁前校长警告大家,如果这个候选人当选总统,那么“我们的妻子和女儿或许会去卖淫,彻底地身败名裂,会虚荣肮脏、不知廉耻、没有道德、人神共愤”。

这听上去好像是在指责希特勒,不是吗?但并非如此。他骂的是托马斯·杰斐逊。哪个托马斯·杰斐逊?难道是那个千载扬名的托马斯·杰斐逊,《独立宣言》的起草者、民主的守护神?没错,就是他。

你猜猜还有哪位美国人被骂作“伪君子”“骗子”和“只比杀人犯好一点点”?而且在报纸上刊登的一幅漫画中,他趴在断头台上即将被斩首,游街示众时周围嘲笑声、嘘声一片。你猜这个人是谁?对,是乔治·华盛顿。

当然这是很久远的事了,或许人性已经进化了。那让我们再看一看海军上将佩里的例子吧。他在1909年4月6日乘着狗拖的雪橇到达了北极,这震惊了全世界。这是几个世纪以来,勇敢的人不畏痛苦、饥饿与死亡而试图实现的目标。不过,佩里本人也差点死于寒冷和饥饿,他的八个脚趾也因严重冰冻而不得不被切除。路上的重重灾难使他不堪重负,他一度曾担心自己会疯掉。他的上司——身在华盛顿的海军军官——看不惯佩里受到的极大关注和赞赏,于是指控他打着科学探险的旗号赚钱,并且“在北极无所事事”。可悲的是绝大多数人相信了,因为他们本就希望听到这些,所以很难不去相信。他们羞辱并阻挠佩里的决心是如此坚定,若不是麦金莱总统直接下命令,佩里在北极的事业便无法继续了。

如果佩里做的是坐在华盛顿海军部办公室里的工作,他还会被如此声讨吗?不会。那样的人不够重要,不足以引起嫉妒。

格兰特将军的遭遇比佩里上将还要糟糕。1862年,格兰特将军为北方赢得了一场伟大的胜利。这是一个下午就得来的胜利,是使格兰特将军一夜成名的胜利,即便在遥远的欧洲也反响巨大。从缅因到密西西比河岸的教堂都鸣起了钟声、燃起了篝火。然而胜利后的六周里,格兰特这个北方英雄就被拘捕了,他的兵权也被剥夺了。他在羞辱和绝望中哭泣。

为什么格兰特将军会在胜利高潮中被捕呢?很大程度上是因为他傲慢的上级心生妒忌。

在受到不公的批评干扰时,请记住:

不公的批评往往是变相的赞美。请记住,没人会去踢一条死狗。

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