BBC Ideas｜乌托邦：寻找完美的世界

Utopia: the search for a perfect world

Utopianism is the ism of utopias. It means a belief or interest in a perfect world - or at least a world designed to be perfect. The word 'utopia' was coined in 1516 by Sir Thomas More - writer, saint and opponent of Henry the VIII's marriage plans - in his book of the same name. Utopia has been taken by some people at face value as a book about a perfect land. But others point to the fact that the word 'utopia' literally means no place and that the book is a satire. But that hasn't stopped people.
乌托邦主义是乌托邦的主义。它意味着对一个完美世界的信念或兴趣——或者至少是一个被设计成完美的世界。“乌托邦”这个词是1516年由作家、圣人、亨利八世婚姻计划的反对者托马斯·莫尔爵士在他的同名著作中创造的。有些人从表面上认为《乌托邦》是一本描写完美国度的书。但也有人指出，“乌托邦”这个词的字面意思是没有地方，这本书是一部讽刺作品。但这并没有阻止人们。

Through the years there has been all sorts of ideas about a perfect society. Economic utopias with no poverty... ecological utopias where humans live in harmony with nature and so on and so forth. Many cultures and religions have a myth of a perfect society in the past, like the Garden of Eden. Communes, music festivals and naturist camps could all be seen as attempts to create a mini utopia on Earth. There are many kinds of utopias but one of the central qualities of any utopia, paradoxically, is that it doesn't exist.
多年来，关于完美社会有各种各样的想法。没有贫困的经济乌托邦...人类与自然和谐相处的生态乌托邦等等。许多文化和宗教在过去都有一个完美社会的神话，比如伊甸园。公社、音乐节和裸体主义者营地都可以被视为在地球上创造一个迷你乌托邦的尝试。乌托邦有很多种，但矛盾的是，任何乌托邦的核心特质之一就是它并不存在。

Being a utopianist essentially means being a dreamer. When John Lennon sang, "You may say I'm a dreamer" in his famous hit single and utopian anthem, Imagine, he was referring to exactly this quality. Utopianism's main flaw is its obsession with perfection. This can lead to absurdities like the Soviet Russian belief that one day all crime would be eradicated because under true socialism crime would not be necessary. Or the more sinister belief in fascist ideologies that racial purity would eliminate all evil from society.
乌托邦主义者本质上意味着梦想家。当约翰·列侬在他著名的热门单曲和乌托邦颂歌《想象》中唱“你可以说我是一个梦想家”时，他指的正是这种品质。乌托邦主义的主要缺陷在于对完美的痴迷。这可能会导致一些荒谬的事情发生，比如苏联人相信有一天所有的犯罪都会被消灭，因为在真正的社会主义制度下，犯罪是没有必要的。或者法西斯主义意识形态中更险恶的信念，即种族纯洁将消除社会中的一切邪恶。

Perhaps this is why much discussion of the topic is now confined to utopianism's dark side - dystopianism, a way of describing worlds, real or imaginary, in entirely negative terms. From George Orwell's 1984 to Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale, dystopian fiction has become increasingly popular in books, films and television. But interest in utopias isn't going anywhere - references within books have been on a steady rise since the 1900s with clear spikes in the 60s and also - perhaps surprisingly - in the 80s.
也许这就是为什么现在对这个话题的许多讨论都局限于乌托邦主义的黑暗面——反乌托邦主义，一种用完全负面的语言描述现实或想象世界的方式。从乔治·奥威尔的《1984》到玛格丽特·阿特伍德的《使女的故事》，反乌托邦小说在书籍、电影和电视中越来越受欢迎。但对乌托邦的兴趣并没有消失——自20世纪以来，书籍中对乌托邦的的引用一直在稳步上升，60年代出现了明显的峰值，80年代也出现了峰值，这或许令人惊讶。

And who could deny the perfection of the world - at least in microcosm - as you sit by an ocean and listen to the sound of the waves crashing on a beach. Or when you first see a blanket of bluebells in the spring. And without at least striving for a better world, where would we be? In chains, with rats chewing off our faces, that's where.
当你坐在海边，听着海浪拍打海滩的声音时，谁能否认世界的完美——至少在微观世界里是这样。或者，当你在春天第一次看到一片风铃草时。如果不努力创造一个更美好的世界，我们将何去何从？戴着镣铐，被老鼠啃食脸颊，就是这样。

词汇表
utopianism   乌托邦主义，空想的社会改良方案
utopia 乌托邦，理想国，空想的完美境界
saint 圣人，圣徒，道德高尚的人
satire 讽刺，讽刺作品
so on and so forth   等等，诸如此类
Garden of Eden  (《圣经》中所说亚当和夏娃所住的)伊甸园
commune 公社，群居团体
naturist 裸体主义者（指认为裸体有益身心的人）
paradoxically 矛盾地，荒谬地
utopianist 乌托邦主义者，空想家
anthem 颂歌，赞歌
absurdity 荒谬的事，荒唐事
Soviet Russian 苏联（人）
eradicate/eliminate 根除，消灭
sinister 邪恶的，不祥的
fascist 法西斯主义者
racial purity 种族纯化，种族纯粹
dystopianism  反乌托邦主义
handmaid 女仆，侍女
spike 猛增，峰值
microcosm 微观世界，缩影
a blanket of bluebells  一片风铃草
chew off 嚼断，咬掉


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