2009年6月29日星期一

人性深渊 ——《Criminal Minds》


神思不属、心神难定之际,最易谋杀时间的方法就是看肥皂剧。昏天暗地,不眠少餐得追看了两季Criminal Minds,在惊悚于人性之荒谬残忍黑暗可怖的时候,自己的绝望苦痛忧惧烦恼反而被暂时搁置一旁,很少触及。

和一般刑侦剧集不一样的是,此剧侧重于运用心理学观点分析人类行为,剖析罪行背后的情感动机和触因,希望能于罪犯实施下一步恶行前抢占先机。观剧过程,让我不寒而栗的,还是人性的幽微曲折和深不可测。平常言谈中,人们常常提及人性、兽性之分,似乎良善之行属于有人性的范畴,而凶残之行则被冠以兽性之名。但其实,也许正如19世纪末期英国历史学家James Anthony Froud所言:“野兽从不以杀戮为乐,人类却是唯一把追逐残杀自己的同胞当作娱乐的生物。” 类似的话,Mark Twain也曾说过:“Of all the animals,man is the only one that is cruel.He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it." 若依此区分,也许我们对所谓人性、兽性的定义理解,应该颠倒过来。

该剧还有一个出彩点,每一集的片头或片尾都会引用一句名人名言,与剧情相呼应。简炼的一句话,或开宗明义,或点睛收尾,经由实例诠释,配合上所观所感,足以让你按下暂停键深思良久。
以下是自己收录的一些他山之石:

When you look long into the abyss, the abyss looks into you. (Nietzsche) —— 当你看向深渊够久时,深渊也会回看向你。

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness. (Joseph Conrad) —— 信仰超自然的罪恶根源无此必要,人类本身就能胜任于任何邪恶。

when love is in excess, it brings a man no honor nor worthiness. (Euripides)—— 爱得太深,会失去荣耀和价值

Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors.Try to be better than yourself.(Faulkner )—— 别自寻烦恼地只想比你同时代的人或是先辈们出色,试着比你自己更出色吧.

Don't forget that I cannot see myself,that my role is limited to being the one who looks in the mirror.( Jacques Rigaut) —— 别忘了我看不到我自己,我的角色仅限于看向镜子的那人.

Unfortunately, a super-abundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares。(Peter Ustinov)—— 不幸的是,多梦的代价就是--噩梦也将随之增多.

What it is food for ones,for others are poison bitter taste. (Lucrécio)—— 甲之美食,乙之砒霜。

I object to violence, because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary. The evil it does is permanent. (Gandhi )—— 我反对暴力,因为当暴力被用来做善事,善事也仅仅是暂时的.

A photograph is a secret about a secret.The more it tells you,the less you know. (Diane Arbus)—— 照片是关于秘密的秘密--它揭示得越多,你知道的就越少.

We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves. (Francois de la )—— 在人前我们总是习惯于伪装自己,但最终也蒙骗了自己.

Whoever sets himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods。(Albert einstein )—— 当一个人把自己当成真理和知识的法官时,他将被上帝的嘲笑毁灭.

In a time of universal deceit,telling the truth is a revolutionary act. (George Orwell)—— 如果世人热衷于谎言,说出真相就会是惊人之举。

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls.The most massive characters are seared with scars. (Khalil Gibran )—— 受苦能凸显坚强的灵魂。最明显的特征就是,那伤口痊愈的疤痕.

The basis of shame is not some personal mistake of ours, but that this humiliation is seen by everyone. (Milan kundera)—— 羞耻的本质并不是我们个人的错误,而是被他人看见的耻辱。

Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we can't resemble. (Samuel Johnson )—— 几乎所有的行为荒谬性均源自于模仿那些我们不可能雷同的人。

The irrationality of a thing is not an argument against. It's existence, rather, a condition of it. (Nietzsche) —— 一件事情的不合理性,不是驳斥其存在的依据,还不如以一种特定情况来证明。

Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together。(Eugene Ionesco) ——意识形态分离了我们,而梦想和痛苦使我们走到一起。

Measure not the work until the day’s out and the labor done. (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)—— 时间结束以前,事情做完以前,不要去评价你的工作。

In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. (Abraham Lincoln)

It is whose we live with and love, and should know who loot us. (Norman McClain)

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe。(Nietzsche) —— 个体必须始终在社会中挣扎求生,才能使自己不致幻灭。

The bitterest tear shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone. (Harriet Beecher Stowe) —— 从坟墓里流出的最痛苦的泪水,是为了还没说出的话,和还未做过的事。

How secret deeps, How secret become dark, that's in the nature of secrets. ( Cory Doctorow) ——秘密如此深藏,秘密变得如此黑暗。这就是秘密的本质。

The defects and faults of the mind are like wounds in the body. After all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind.(Francois La Rochefoucauld)——思想上的缺陷和弱点,正如身体上的创伤一样,就算用尽一切办法将其治愈,仍然会留下疤痕。

It has been said that time heals all wounds. I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue, and the pain lessens, but it is never gone.(Rose Kennedy) —— 人们都说时间可以治愈一切伤口,我可不这么认为。伤口是一直存在着的。随着时间的流逝,出于保护,伤口被覆盖上疤痕,疼痛随之减轻,但这一切永远也不会消失。

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he will tell you the truth. (Oscar Wilde)—— 当人以自己身份说话的时候,便越不是自己。给他一个面具,他便会告诉你事实。

The ultimate choice for a man, in as much as he is driven to transcend himself, is to create or to destroy, to love or to hate. (Erich Fromm)—— 人类终极的选择,往往取决于他能否超越自我,究竟是创造还是毁灭,爱或者恨。

In order to learn the most important lessons of life, one must each day surmount a fear.(Ralph Waldo Emerson) ——为了洞悉生命中最重要的规律,必须一天战胜一种恐惧。

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate. (Socrates)——最深的欲望总能引起最极端的仇恨。

The lives of the dead are recorded in the minds of the living. (Cicero)—— 生者记忆中,逝者长存。

Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom. Not a guide by which to live. (Robert Kennedy)——悲剧是生者获取智慧的途径,而非如何生存的指引。

The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul. (John Calvin)—— 受到败坏良知的凌迟,让生者如同置身于炼狱之中。

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. (Gandhi)——如同明日将死那样生活,如同永远不死那样求知。

Nothing is permanent in this wicked world, not even our troubles. (Charles Chaplin)——在这邪恶的世界上,没有什么能够永久,即使是我们的麻烦也不能。

两季终了,感官几乎麻木,一如自己近来的状态——空空如也。不妨以T.S.Elliot的一首诗”Hollow Man"做终结,也算贴切。
......

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow

For Thine is the Kingdom

Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the shadow

Life is very long

Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow

For Thine is the Kingdom

For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

2009年6月25日星期四

Only Love

How many croosroads we've been at?
Is that our last goodbye?
Is there any hope beyond the pain?
Can our dream become same again one day and deserved one more chance?

I'm praying, praying you are fine, praying we can get through, praying you'll have a change of heart, praying you'll come back, praying the sun will shine one day for you and me......

Only Love

2.a.m.and the rain is falling
here we are at the crossroads once again
you're telling me you're so confused
you can't make up you mind
is this meant to be
you're asking me

but only love can say try again or walk away
but i believe for you and me
the sun sill shine one day
so i'll just play my part
and pray you'll have a change of heart
but i can't make you see it through
that's something only love can do

in you arms as the dawn is breaking
face to face and a thousand miles apart
i've tried my best to make you see
there's hope beyond the pain
if we give enough - if we learn to trust

but only love can say - try again or walk away
but i believe for you and me the sun will shine one day
so i'll just play my part
and pray you'll have a change of heart
but i can't make you see it through
that's something only love can do

i know if I could find the words
to touch you deep inside
you'd give our dream just one more chance
don't let this be our last goodbye




2009年6月6日星期六

The Influence of Happenstance on Life —— 《Fooled By Randomness》


我一般不太爱看财经书籍,如果不是刚看过同一个作者写的《The Black Swan》,我一定会被哗众取宠的中文版封面欺骗,就此失之交臂。此书乍一看似在谈股经,开卷细读后你就会明白,它其实是以随机性为中轴,谈论我们生命中俯拾皆是的对概率和机遇的扭曲认知,它独辟谿径观察世界、思考问题,并提出违背人们直觉的观点。与其说它是财经类书籍,不如归类为哲学书籍。

该书叙事语调清新中兼具启发性,且能见常人所未见,想常人所不想,通过或虚构或真实的系列人物的形象对比,信手拈来的精彩事例,忠告我们运气常常被人错误认知为技能,成功不过是命运女神的偶然青睐,而真相其实与我们的直觉、常识大相径庭。

Nassim以为人类不该以成败论英雄,因为历史不过是以偶然的面孔随机呈现的一种可能而已,我们为了善用摆在眼前的信息,往往会忽视我们没有看到的东西,犯下忽视存活者偏差——“表现最好的最容易被看见”——的错误。若要趋近真实合理的论断,我们该使用另类历史观——不单凭结果就判定一项决策、一种选择的优劣,而必须从“假如历史以令一种方式呈现”的另类发展的后果来论断成败。

作者对时下媒体挂帅的文化不屑一顾,认为其中传达的信息不但充满噪声、毫无意义,而且含有毒性,对社会具负面价值。他认为东西越老越美,思想越陈越香。这其中涉及一个随机性的时间尺度概念。他以投资人对自己投资组合的关注频率为例,告诫我们,不必时时刻刻去关心你的投资组合,因为短时间内的表现其实不具意义,你观测的只是它的变异性,而情绪却会备受折磨。对你的快乐指数而言,时间尺度不同,信息量不一样,带来的差别会很巨大。这也合理解释了为什么作者会认为时效性强的新闻充斥噪声,时间尺度长的历史则会去芜存菁。

我因此联想到身边众人熙熙攘攘逐利之行,每日里紧盯股市、房价的起落,或喜或忧,而自己常被人讥讽为“不食人间烟火”。自己以前也雄心勃勃过,想要衣锦还乡,想让亲友与有荣焉,想要老而衣食无忧,容易去计较浮名实利,情绪易受一城一池的得失、一钱一厘的来去影响。而今心态则有很大变化:只觉得人生在世,不过三餐一宿;物质享受,比不上精神充盈;华服美厦,抵不上真爱相伴;浮名虚利,不如换做浅唱低吟;如果到头来不过白茫茫大地真干净,又何必机关算尽,反误了享受生命与当下的良机?!

Nassim尊崇波普尔,是因为他强调开放社会的重要,并提出证伪的方法论。一个开放的社会,没有一种真理永存不朽,因为这样的社会允许相反的观念出现。而乌托邦的理想社会则是封闭式的,因为它会阻塞本身的反驳能力,认为社会已有很好的模式,不可能开放接受证伪,而这样的观念本身也会导致极权主义。

但波普尔言行不一,他为人处事的封闭作风与其学术理论提倡的开放证伪南辕北辙,这也给作者提供了一个有趣的论断:人类喜欢表达合乎逻辑且理性的观念,但不见得乐在其中,身体力行。
我一直很羞愧于自己过去言行中的前后不一、自相矛盾之处,很敬仰能始终如一坚持自己信念、言行一致、前后一致的人,并相信世界上这样的人凤毛麟角。但作者却从一个独特的视角为我解读了不死守观念的优点:信念不会受路径依赖(人们过去做出的选择决定了他们现在及未来可能的选择)的观念束缚,能以相当快的速度修正自己的意见,而那些仅仅因为过去讲过就冥顽不灵地坚持原来的意见的人是愚蠢的。他指出不死守观念的特质其实在人类中非常罕见,人一般会倾向于持守已经投注了不少时间的观念——情感或者面子的考虑。为学者所诟病的自相矛盾的西塞尔和反复无常的金融大鳄索罗斯恰恰属于没有路径依赖的那一类人,他们能摆脱过去自己说过的话造成的束缚,行使自相矛盾的权利,并从中受益。

读完掩卷,也许未必能完全赞同他的言论,但你不能否认,Nassim的确给你提供了一个全新而独特的视角观察理解这个万象纷呈的世界。

2009年6月5日星期五

Crimson Days


Every night I empty my heart
But by morning it's full again.
Slow droplets of you seep in
Through the night's soft caress.
At dawn I overflow with thoughts of us,
An aching pleasure that gives me no respite.
Love cannot be contained,
the neat packaging of Desire splits asunder,
spilling crimson through my days.
Long, languishing days that are now bruised tender with yearning,
Spent searching for a fingerprint, a scent...
a breath you left behind


——By Kelly Moss

2009年6月3日星期三

Inglish_03/06/09

self-effacing: 不喜出风头的, 谦让的, 谦卑的
She is brilliant but self-effacing.

persona non grata: 不受欢迎的人If someone becomes or is declared persona non grata, they become unwelcome or unacceptable because of something they have said or done. —— used especially when a foreign government orders you to go home.

split-second: 瞬间发生的
Just like in real warfare, characters in the game will have to make split-second moral choices.

问谁家铃声,惊动浓愁?

在各个会议室间奔走时,不再刻意带上手机;回到家,也懒得再从包里取出放在床头,也不关心电量是否充足。当期待的铃声沉寂,手机就成了可有可无的配件;错过的电话也很难牵动我的思绪。想找,总是能找到的,不是吗?

开完会,疲倦得靠在椅背上,座机的call list红灯闪烁,翻查下,有一个无法辨别的国际来电,我有点迷惑,会是谁呢?不可能是大洋彼岸的公司同事,因为每个人都有可识别的分机号,何况刚刚才和他们分别开过会。联想到前一天的call list里也有一个anonymous的来电,脑中疑云更甚。一个念头忽动,我立刻狠狠掐灭。我想,即使在最近的“不”之后,潜意识里,我并未彻底放弃最终会有一个“是”的渺茫信念。我心深处,一直在等我的黑天鹅出现。

拿起被遗忘的手机,屏幕上也显示有两个号码无法识别的未接来电,心脏开始猛得跳动,又猛得停顿,无法呼吸的我忍不住咳嗽起来,仔细查看对比时间,脑子象个被触动按钮的机器疯狂旋转,排列组合各种各样的可能性。希望和担忧像心底潮湿的种子迅速破土而出,心脏因为期待和恐惧而感到痛楚。



是你吗?可能吗?出事了吗?什么事?

犹豫、踌躇,似乎成了我如今的常态,从前的决断早已无迹可寻。时间如沙漏过,可能性像黑暗深处一点渺茫的光,渐渐微弱。就让这忧惧汹涌成灾吧,我不要再去反复搅动你的痛楚。我已经让你的perfect world四分五裂,我已经让你的内心一片狼藉,我已经一再辜负粉碎你的梦想,我已经让你噩梦连连,我还有怎样的权利与立场去摁键、拨号、问询?更何况,隔着千山万水,我只能听任你独自啜泣、黯然泪流,我连拥你入怀抹去你泪珠的可能都没有,语言,任何的语言在那一刻都会显得如此苍白无力。

是,我是可以飞越这千山万水,我是可以飘洋过海去看你,我是可以天涯海角的追随,我独独不能跨越那一个横亘于面前的鸿沟。我有勇气,我愿承担,却独独没有你的肯定和允许。

回家,心神恍惚,下错了站,索性在迷蒙细雨中慢慢走回去......

小阁藏春,闲窗锁昼,画堂无限深幽。
篆香烧尽,日影下帘钩。
手种江梅更好,又何必临水登楼?
无人到,寂寞浑似,何逊在扬州。

从来知韵胜,难堪雨借,不耐风柔。
更谁家横笛,吹动浓愁?
莫恨香消雪减,须信道,扫迹情留。
难言处,良宵淡月,疏影尚风流。