Stories of resistance;Shades of grey

　　關于抵抗的故事;灰色的幽影

　　Beautiful Souls: Saying No, Breaking Ranks, andHeeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times. ByEyal Press.

　　美麗靈魂:說不，打破等級，留心黑暗時代中道德之音。

　　You have a decent job and work hard. You keepyour nose clean, respect authority and have never joined a protest march. Suddenly youhave the bad luck to face a cruel and seemingly impossible choice. Your superiors tell you todo something outrageous or unacceptable. Do you obey or, at grave personal cost,refuse? In Beautiful Souls, a subtle and thoughtful book, Eyal Press, an Americanjournalist, tells the stories of four very ordinary people who, in widely different times, placesand circumstances, surprised themselves by saying no.

　　你有份體面的工作并且做得很努力。你保持潔身自愛，尊重權威，從不加入抗議性游行中。突然你不幸的要面對殘忍幾乎表面來看不可能的選擇：你的上級令你去做你粗暴不可接受的事。服從命令還是犧牲重大的個人代價去拒絕?在精細巧妙充滿思想的美麗靈魂一書中，美國記者Eyal Press為您講述一個關于四位來自不同時空不同地點不同環境的普通人在說出不之后得到的意想不到的結果。

　　This morally courageous foursome includes a Swiss police official who broke the law in 1938by giving entry permits to Jewish refugees; a Serb who, at risk to his own life, savedcaptured Croats from summary execution during the Serb-Croat war in 1991; an Israelispecial-forces soldier in the occupied territories who could no longer stomach orders toprotect Israeli settlers who were doing wrong, as he saw it, to Palestinian farmers; and amid-ranking whistle-blower in a Texas investment company accused of fraud.

　　這個著實勇敢的四人組包括一名1938年因給猶太逃亡者放行二觸犯法律的瑞士警官;一名冒生命危險在1991年救了在塞爾維亞克羅地亞戰爭中即將被草率處決的克羅地亞人的塞爾維亞人;一名在被占領土的以色列特種兵，就像他看到的，不能再容忍錯誤的針對巴勒斯坦農民而保護以色列移居者的命令;還有一名在德克薩斯投資公司被指控詐騙罪的中層內部揭發者。

　　At first glance, this looks like a jumble of risks and motives. The policeman had to be braveover months. The Serb had to decide in an instant. The Israeli soldier s disquiet nagged foryears before he quit. The whistle-blower was fired, whereas the Serb faced being shot. Thatlack of a pattern, though, is part of Mr Press s point. We recognise moral bravery when wesee it. Explaining it is extremely hard.

　　乍一看，這書是危險與動機的混雜體。警察不得不在數月里保持勇敢。塞爾維亞人不得不即刻做決定。以色列士兵在退役前數年的焦慮讓他煩惱不已。揭發者被炒了，另一方面塞爾維亞人面臨槍決。這些例子乍一看沒有什么共性，但這也是Mr Press所要強調的地方。當我們看到它時會認可道德上的勇氣。而要解釋清楚卻極端困難。

　　On stage and in the pulpit, moral dilemmas of this kind tend to have a black-and-whiteclarity. Working from life, Mr Press brings out the greys. All of the choices he looked at werehard, and only the Serb s involved a clear-cut decision in the moment. The good achieved byeach of these beautiful souls was small: the few lives the Serb and the Swiss policemansaved were a pittance when set against greater evils they could not stop. The soldier has notstopped Israel s settlement-building, and the whistle-blower did not dent the financialsystem. So why did they do it?

　　在舞臺上也好，在講道壇上也好，這類的道德上的是與非往往很明確， 就是非黑即白。而在實際生活中，Mr Press提出還有灰色這種情況。他所觀察到的所有抉擇都極其困難，只有塞爾維亞人在那刻卷入的抉擇時則是心里明鏡似的。這些美麗靈魂的所作所為只是造成很小范圍內的而影響：少數人讓塞爾維亞人存活了下來，瑞士警察所解救的也只是滄海一粟，對其他更強大的惡勢力更是無能為力。士兵沒能阻止以色列的殖民建設，揭發者也沒能削弱金融系統。所以為什么主人公們還要這么做呢?

　　Without claiming to have firm answers, Mr Press sees three factors at work. One is that thesepeople listened to their emotions. Faced with the unacceptable, their instincts rebelled.Direct confrontation was also important. The challenge to their moral sensibility was face-to-face. This was not true of the whistle-blower, but her conduct suggests to Mr Press athird element. She was not a rebel out to flout authority or change the rules. On thecontrary, she acted to protect rules that her superiors flouted.

　　雖然Mr Press申明這些問題沒有確切的回答，但他看到有這樣的三個因素在起作用。一個原因就是主人公們都聽從了他們的心做出選擇。面對不能接受的事物，他們本能的反叛排斥。直接的抗爭也很重要。這對他們道德感情的挑戰是直接面對面的。這不適合揭發者，但是揭發者的行為也給Press先生帶去了第三個重要的要素。她不是個試圖藐視權威或改變規則的叛逆者。相反，她維護了那些她的上級沒有遵守的規則。

　　In leading us through such thickets, Mr Press points to studies in psychology and tophilosophical work on moral dilemmas. A drier sort of book might have probed morewhether our moral emotions are always reliable and how sure naysayers must be beforeoutright disobedience is their best course. On the other hand Beautiful Souls gains muchfrom its storytelling approach. It is rich in personal, circumstantial details that analyticalthinkers in search of clear principles may overlook. These are modern instances of ancientpuzzles, and Mr Press is wise not to pretend to be offering new wisdom.

　　在引導我們穿越錯綜復雜的進程中，Press先生表明了心理學的研究和道德兩難時的哲學著作。一種更純粹故事的書可能更能探測出我們的道德情感是否總是可靠，如何在拒絕者們完全不服從前確定那是他們最好的道路。另一方面美麗靈魂以它講故事的特別方式收益很多。大量的人物塑造和環境描寫可能會被善于分析的讀者們在一味尋找清晰理念的過程中忽略。書中表達的都是謎題的現代實例，而Press先生很明智的沒有假裝在提供新智慧。

　　Stories of resistance;Shades of grey

　　關于抵抗的故事;灰色的幽影

　　Beautiful Souls: Saying No, Breaking Ranks, andHeeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times. ByEyal Press.

　　美麗靈魂:說不，打破等級，留心黑暗時代中道德之音。

　　You have a decent job and work hard. You keepyour nose clean, respect authority and have never joined a protest march. Suddenly youhave the bad luck to face a cruel and seemingly impossible choice. Your superiors tell you todo something outrageous or unacceptable. Do you obey or, at grave personal cost,refuse? In Beautiful Souls, a subtle and thoughtful book, Eyal Press, an Americanjournalist, tells the stories of four very ordinary people who, in widely different times, placesand circumstances, surprised themselves by saying no.

　　你有份體面的工作并且做得很努力。你保持潔身自愛，尊重權威，從不加入抗議性游行中。突然你不幸的要面對殘忍幾乎表面來看不可能的選擇：你的上級令你去做你粗暴不可接受的事。服從命令還是犧牲重大的個人代價去拒絕?在精細巧妙充滿思想的美麗靈魂一書中，美國記者Eyal Press為您講述一個關于四位來自不同時空不同地點不同環境的普通人在說出不之后得到的意想不到的結果。

　　This morally courageous foursome includes a Swiss police official who broke the law in 1938by giving entry permits to Jewish refugees; a Serb who, at risk to his own life, savedcaptured Croats from summary execution during the Serb-Croat war in 1991; an Israelispecial-forces soldier in the occupied territories who could no longer stomach orders toprotect Israeli settlers who were doing wrong, as he saw it, to Palestinian farmers; and amid-ranking whistle-blower in a Texas investment company accused of fraud.

　　這個著實勇敢的四人組包括一名1938年因給猶太逃亡者放行二觸犯法律的瑞士警官;一名冒生命危險在1991年救了在塞爾維亞克羅地亞戰爭中即將被草率處決的克羅地亞人的塞爾維亞人;一名在被占領土的以色列特種兵，就像他看到的，不能再容忍錯誤的針對巴勒斯坦農民而保護以色列移居者的命令;還有一名在德克薩斯投資公司被指控詐騙罪的中層內部揭發者。

　　At first glance, this looks like a jumble of risks and motives. The policeman had to be braveover months. The Serb had to decide in an instant. The Israeli soldier s disquiet nagged foryears before he quit. The whistle-blower was fired, whereas the Serb faced being shot. Thatlack of a pattern, though, is part of Mr Press s point. We recognise moral bravery when wesee it. Explaining it is extremely hard.

　　乍一看，這書是危險與動機的混雜體。警察不得不在數月里保持勇敢。塞爾維亞人不得不即刻做決定。以色列士兵在退役前數年的焦慮讓他煩惱不已。揭發者被炒了，另一方面塞爾維亞人面臨槍決。這些例子乍一看沒有什么共性，但這也是Mr Press所要強調的地方。當我們看到它時會認可道德上的勇氣。而要解釋清楚卻極端困難。

　　On stage and in the pulpit, moral dilemmas of this kind tend to have a black-and-whiteclarity. Working from life, Mr Press brings out the greys. All of the choices he looked at werehard, and only the Serb s involved a clear-cut decision in the moment. The good achieved byeach of these beautiful souls was small: the few lives the Serb and the Swiss policemansaved were a pittance when set against greater evils they could not stop. The soldier has notstopped Israel s settlement-building, and the whistle-blower did not dent the financialsystem. So why did they do it?

　　在舞臺上也好，在講道壇上也好，這類的道德上的是與非往往很明確， 就是非黑即白。而在實際生活中，Mr Press提出還有灰色這種情況。他所觀察到的所有抉擇都極其困難，只有塞爾維亞人在那刻卷入的抉擇時則是心里明鏡似的。這些美麗靈魂的所作所為只是造成很小范圍內的而影響：少數人讓塞爾維亞人存活了下來，瑞士警察所解救的也只是滄海一粟，對其他更強大的惡勢力更是無能為力。士兵沒能阻止以色列的殖民建設，揭發者也沒能削弱金融系統。所以為什么主人公們還要這么做呢?

　　Without claiming to have firm answers, Mr Press sees three factors at work. One is that thesepeople listened to their emotions. Faced with the unacceptable, their instincts rebelled.Direct confrontation was also important. The challenge to their moral sensibility was face-to-face. This was not true of the whistle-blower, but her conduct suggests to Mr Press athird element. She was not a rebel out to flout authority or change the rules. On thecontrary, she acted to protect rules that her superiors flouted.

　　雖然Mr Press申明這些問題沒有確切的回答，但他看到有這樣的三個因素在起作用。一個原因就是主人公們都聽從了他們的心做出選擇。面對不能接受的事物，他們本能的反叛排斥。直接的抗爭也很重要。這對他們道德感情的挑戰是直接面對面的。這不適合揭發者，但是揭發者的行為也給Press先生帶去了第三個重要的要素。她不是個試圖藐視權威或改變規則的叛逆者。相反，她維護了那些她的上級沒有遵守的規則。

　　In leading us through such thickets, Mr Press points to studies in psychology and tophilosophical work on moral dilemmas. A drier sort of book might have probed morewhether our moral emotions are always reliable and how sure naysayers must be beforeoutright disobedience is their best course. On the other hand Beautiful Souls gains muchfrom its storytelling approach. It is rich in personal, circumstantial details that analyticalthinkers in search of clear principles may overlook. These are modern instances of ancientpuzzles, and Mr Press is wise not to pretend to be offering new wisdom.

　　在引導我們穿越錯綜復雜的進程中，Press先生表明了心理學的研究和道德兩難時的哲學著作。一種更純粹故事的書可能更能探測出我們的道德情感是否總是可靠，如何在拒絕者們完全不服從前確定那是他們最好的道路。另一方面美麗靈魂以它講故事的特別方式收益很多。大量的人物塑造和環境描寫可能會被善于分析的讀者們在一味尋找清晰理念的過程中忽略。書中表達的都是謎題的現代實例，而Press先生很明智的沒有假裝在提供新智慧。