《10到25岁》第三章(2)：代际鸿沟的起源

Each generation tends to think of the generational divide as a problem limited to, and indicative of, their specific moment of time. We blame our current frustrations on superficial things like social media or smartphones and never really fix the deeper problem. In fact, the clash between the generations has repeated between almost every “ruling” generation and every “upstart” generation throughout recorded human history.

每一代人往往认为，代际鸿沟是他们特定时代的、具有代表性的特有问题。我们将当前的挫败归咎于社交媒体或智能手机等表面事物，却从未真正解决更深层次的问题。事实上，在人类有记录的历史中，几乎每一代“统治”阶层与每一代“新兴”阶层之间都重复上演着代际冲突。

Aristotle, the Greek philosopher from the fourth century BCE, trashed the young in his work Rhetoric:

公元前4世纪的希腊哲学家亚里士多德在他的著作《修辞学》中对年轻人进行了抨击：

The young are in character prone to desire and ready to carry any desire they may have formed into action. They are fickle in their desires, which are as transitory as they are vehement… They are passionate, irascible, and apt to be carried away by their impulses. Their ambition prevents their ever tolerating a slight and renders them indignant at the mere idea of enduring an injury… Finally, they are fond of facetiousness, facetiousness being disciplined insolence.

年轻人本性就倾向于欲望，并且随时准备将他们形成的任何欲望付诸行动。他们的欲望多变，既短暂又强烈……他们热情、易怒，容易被冲动所左右。他们的野心使他们无法容忍任何轻视，并使他们仅仅因为忍受伤害的想法而感到愤慨……最后，他们喜欢戏谑，戏谑是受约束的傲慢。

Much later, in 1937, the prominent psychotherapist Anna Freud (the daughter of Sigmund Freud) wrote this:

很久以后，在 1937 年，著名心理治疗师安娜·弗洛伊德（西格蒙德·弗洛伊德的女儿）写道：

Adolescents are excessively egoistic, regarding themselves as the center of the universe and the sole object of interest… They form the most passionate love-relations, only to break them off as abruptly as they began them… They oscillate between blind submission to some self-chosen leader and defiant rebellion against any and every authority. They are selfish and materially-minded and at the same time full of lofty idealism. At times their behavior is rough and inconsiderate, yet they themselves are extremely touchy. Their moods veer between light-hearted optimism and the blackest pessimism.

青少年过于自我中心，将自己视为宇宙的中心和唯一的关注对象……他们形成最热烈的爱情关系，却又突然中断，就像他们开始时一样……他们不断在摇摆，一会盲目服从某个自选的领导者，一会又对任何权威的公然反抗。他们既自私又物质主义，同时又充满崇高的理想主义。有时他们的行为粗鲁且不顾他人，然而他们自己却极为敏感。他们的情绪变来变去，要么是轻松的乐观，要么是最黑暗的悲观。

When each successive generation grows up, we look down on the next generation, as though we have forgotten what it feels like to be young. Then we call the next generation immature. When most adults think about their own youthful indiscretions, they do so with a wink and a laugh. But when they think about today’s generation doing something similar, they ring the alarm bell about the decline in morality in “kids these days.”

当每一代新人成长起来时，我们总是俯视下一代，仿佛忘记了年轻时的感受。然后我们声称下一代不成熟。当大多数成年人回想起自己年轻时的轻率行为时，他们会带着微笑和笑声。但一想到今天的年轻人做类似的事情时，他们会拉响关于“现在的孩子”道德沦丧的警报。

New research has shown that this generational moral decline is mostly a cognitive illusion. Harvard University social psychologists Dr. Adam Mastroianni and Dr. Dan Gilbert analyzed responses to public opinion survey questions from 1949 to 2019 that asked U.S. adults about the moral character of each generation. Older people thought the next generation lacked the moral values of their own generation but didn’t say that their own generation made their own youthful mistakes. The older the survey respondents, the more they convinced themselves that the moral fabric of society was being ripped to shreds by the younger generations.

新的研究表明，这种代际道德沦丧多半是一种认知错觉. 哈佛大学社会心理学家亚当·马斯特罗尼安尼博士和丹·吉尔伯特博士分析了1949年至2019年间，美国成年人在每一代人道德品质的公共意见调查问卷中的回答。年长的人认为下一代缺乏他们自己那一代的道德价值观，却没有说他们自己那一代在年轻时也犯过错误。调查受访者年龄越大，他们就越相信社会道德结构被年轻一代撕成了碎片。

This illusion of moral decline causes us to think that if only we could stop the young from straying from the path of their elders—for example, by undoing progress in culture or technology—then we could return our society to its moral glory days. But focusing on a generation-specific solution blinds us to the underlying cause of our conflict with young people.

这种道德沦丧的错觉使人们认为，如果能避免年轻人对上一辈道路的远离——例如，通过逆转文化或技术的进步——那么我们就能使社会回归道德的辉煌时代。但专注于特定一代人的解决方案，会让我们看不见与年轻人冲突的深层原因。

In a clever scholarly paper published in 1987, Dr. Daniel Lapsley and Dr. Robert Enright compared public writings about adolescence going back to the 1880s. During a depression or recession, adults endorsed the incompetence model, presumably to disparage youth who were competing with adults for jobs and status. During wars? We see “a more rugged, adultlike portrait of youth,” Lapsley wrote. After all, we need them to work in factories, fight in battles, and maintain stiff upper lips.

在1987年发表的一篇精巧的学术论文中，丹尼尔·拉普斯利博士和罗伯特·恩赖特博士比较了自1880年代以来的针对青春期的公共作品。在经济萧条或衰退期间，成年人支持无能模型，大概是想贬低与成年人竞争工作和地位的年轻人。在战争期间呢？我们看到“一个更坚韧、更像成人的青年形象，”拉普斯利写道。毕竟，我们需要他们在工厂工作，在战场上战斗，并保持坚定的上唇。

For example, influenced by rhetoric about young people serving in the Vietnam War, the United States passed the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, confirming the right to vote for citizens aged eighteen or older. In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson said:

例如，受关于年轻人在越南战争中服役的言论影响，美国通过了第二十六修正案，确认年满十八岁的公民有投票权。1968年，林登·B·约翰逊总统说：

Throughout our history as a young nation, young people have been called upon by the age of eighteen to shoulder family responsibilities and civic duties identical with their elders’… Reason does not permit us to ignore any longer the reality that eighteen-year-old young Americans are prepared—by education, by experience, by exposure to public affairs of their own land and all the world—to assume and exercise the privilege of voting.

作为一个年轻国家，纵观历史，年轻人在十八岁时就被召唤来承担与长辈相同的家庭责任和公民义务……理性不允许我们再忽视这一现实：十八岁的美国年轻人已经通过教育、经验和对本国及全世界公共事务的了解，做好了承担和行使投票权的准备。

Each year since the passage of the Amendment, the incompetence model has worn away at LBJ’s progress.

自修正案通过以来的每一年，无能模型都在侵蚀约翰逊的进步。

The changes in attitudes about young people from era to era have shown us that the neurobiological-incompetence model—and the predicament it creates—is not a fixed reality. It’s a tool used by society when adults need to regain control. Luckily, we can choose another way to view young people and find new solutions to bridge the generational divide.

不同时代对年轻人态度的变化向我们表明，神经生物学无能模型及其所创造的宭境，并不是固定不变的现实，而是在成年人需要重新控制时，社会使用的工具。幸运的是，我们可以选择另一种方式看待年轻人，并找到新的解决方案来弥合代际鸿沟。