别样生活

独秀文译青年

The Alternate Life

The alternate life is the consequence of thecommunications revolution of the last 30 years or so. There is another, highlycompetitive educational system, opposed in almost every essential way totraditional schooling, that operates on the child and youth from the age of 2.It takes up as much of his time as the school does, and it works on him withfar greater effectiveness.

That system is the linked structure of whichtelevision is the heart and which numbers among its constituents film, radio,comic books, pop music, sports—and the life styles (including the drug culture,permissive sex, and systematized antisocial conduct) which this structureeither automatically or deliberately produces.

This alternative life is a life; it isnot a diversion, a hobby, an amusement. It offers its own disciplines, its owncurriculum, its own ethical and cultural values, its own style and language. Itworks on children and youths every day, year after year, teaching them, formingthem, conditioning them. And it is profoundly opposed to traditional education.There is no way of reconciling the values of literature or science with thevalues of the TV commercial. There is no way of reconciling the vision offeredby Shakespeare or Newtonwith the vision of life offered by the “Gong Show”. Two systems of thought andfeeling stand opposed to each other.

This has never before been the case. The ideaof education was never before opposed by a competitor. It was taken for grantedbecause no alternative appeared on the horizon. But today there is a completealternative life to which children submit themselves. This alternative lifeoffers them heroes, slogans, images, forms of conduct, and content of asort—and all run counter to the message given in the classroom.

For the first time in history, the child isrequired to be a citizen of two cultures: the tradition and the alternate life.Is it any wonder that such a division of loyalties should result in the chaoswe observe? In a deep sense, all our children (and, to a degree, our teachers,our parents, and ourselves) are schizophrenics. On the one hand is thereality-system expounded in a book, the idea, the cultural past; on the otherhand is the far more vivid and comprehensible reality-system expounded bytelevision, the rock star, the religion of instantaneous sensation,gratification and consumption.

Good teachers, when you question theminexorably, almost always finally admit that their difficulties stem from thecompetition of the alternate life. And this competition they are not trained tomeet. The alternate life has one special psychological effect that handicapsthe teacher—any teacher, whether of writing or any other basic subject. Thateffect is a decline in the faculty of attention, and therefore a decline in thecapacity to learn—not the innate capacity, but the capacity as it isconditioned by the media.

This conception of the alternate life isprobably debatable, and it certainly will not be accepted by everyone. Itsclaim to the interest of others, if not their agreement, lies in the fact thatit goes beyond the present educational system and tries to locate the ultimatesource of our troubles in the changes now agitating our entire Western culture.

（节选自The Short Prose Reader(second edition) by Gilbert H. Muller and Harvey S. Wiener, McGraw-Hill BookCompany, 1982。题目为本刊所加。）

别样生活

别样生活这个概念是由最近三十年左右的通信革命所产生的。在这个世界上，存在着另一种具有高度竞争力的教育系统，本质上，它与传统教育几乎面面相反，这种教育系统从孩子2岁起就开始产生影响。它占用一个孩子的时间，与学校占用这个孩子的时间一样多，而且，前者较之于后者要远远有效。

该系统是一个链接结构，在这个链接结构里，电视处于核心地位，构成这个系统的还有：电影、收音机、漫画书、流行音乐、体育，以及一些由这个链接结构有意识或无意识产生的生活方式，这些生活方式包括毒品文化、放纵的性行为以及系统化的反社会行为。

这种别样生活“是”一种生活；它不是消遣，不是嗜好，也不是娱乐。它拥有自身的学科与课程、自身的道德和文化价值观，以及自身的形式和语言。它日复一日、年复一年地影响着孩子们和青年们，教育着他们、塑造着他们、影响着他们。它与传统教育截然相反。我们没有办法将文学或科学的价值观与电视广告的价值观调和。我们没有办法将莎士比亚或牛顿提供的想象力与“铜锣秀”提供的想象力调和。这两种关于思想和感情的系统南辕北辙。

以前从来没出现过这样的情况。教育理念从来没有遭到过竞争者的反对。人们想当然地认为，这是因为没有出现别样生活。但今天出现了一种完整的别样生活，孩子们不得不接受。这种别样生活给他们提供了英雄、口号、肖像、行为方式以及千篇一律的内容——所有这些都与课堂所授的内容背道而驰。

儿童被要求成为一位具有两种文化的市民，即传统以及别样生活，这是史无前例的。这样一心二用会导致我们所看到的混乱，这不就是理所当然的事了吗？在深层意义上来讲，我们的所有孩子（并且，在一定程度上来讲，我们的老师、父母和我们自己）都具有精神分裂症。一方面是书本、理念和传统文化里阐述的现实系统；另一方面是电视、摇滚歌星，以及以瞬间感动、消费享乐为信条所阐述的比前者更生动、更容易理解的现实系统。

当你冷酷无情地提问好的老师的时候，他们几乎总会最终承认他们所遇到的苦难根源于别样生活的竞争。他们没有练就面对这种竞争的本领。别样生活具有一种特殊的心理效应。这种心理效应妨碍着老师——任何一位老师，无论是写作的还是其他任何一门基础学科的。那种效应是一种注意力的消退，因此也是一种学习能力的消退——这不是孩子天生的能力问题，而是由于他们的能力受到了媒体的影响。

别样生活这个概念很可能是有争议的，当然不会为每个人所接受。说别样生活侵占了他人的利益——如果他们不赞同的话，是因为它逾越了当前的教育系统，并试图在当今搅动着我们整个西方文化的变革中去定位我们烦恼的最终根源。