Lesson 8
On Ambition
If ambition is to be well regarded, the rewards of ambition—wealth, distinction, control over one’s destiny— must be deemed worthy of the sacrifices made on ambition’s behalf. If the tradition of ambition is to have vitality, it must be widely shared: and it especially must be highly regarded by people who are themselves admired, the educated not least among them. In an odd way, however, it is the educated who have claimed to have given up on ambition as an ideal. What is odd is that they have perhaps most benefited from ambition — if not always their own than that of their parents and grandparents. There is a heavy note of hypocrisy in this, a case of closing the barn door after the horses have escaped — with the educated themselves riding on them. Certainly people do not seem less interested in success and its signs not than formerly. Summer homes, European travel, BMWs — the locations, place names and name brands may change, but such items do not seem less in demand today than a decade or two years ago. What has happened is that people cannot confess fully to their dreams, as easily and openly as once they could, lest they be thought pushing, acquisitive and vulgar. Instead, we are treated to fine hypocritical spectacles, which now more than ever seem in ample supply: the critic of American materialism with a Southampton summer home; the publisher of radical books who takes his meals in three — star restaurants; the journalist advocating participatory democracy in all phases of life, whose own children are enrolled in private schools. For such people and many more perhaps not so exceptional, the proper formulation is, “Succeed at all costs but avoid appearing ambitious.”
The attacks on ambition are many and come from various angles; its public defenders are few and unimpressive, where they are not extremely unattractive. As a result, the support for ambition as a healthy impulse, a quality to be admired and fixed in the mind of the young, is probably lower than it has ever been in the United States. This does not mean that ambition is at an end, that people no longer feel its stirrings and promptings, but only that, no longer openly honored, it is less openly professed. Consequences follow from this, of course, some of which are that ambition is driven underground, or made sly. Such, then, is the way things stand: on the left angry critics, on the right stupid supporters, and in the middle, as usual, the majority of earnest people trying to get on in life.
名人名言
Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go; it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow.
— Alice Swain
If you want your children to improve, let them overhear the nice things you say about them to others.
— Haim Ginott
Children who have the habit of constantly correcting should be stopped before they grow up to drive spouses and everyone else crazy by interrupting stories to say, “No, dear — it was Tuesday, not Wednesday.”
— Judith Martin
說野心
如果你對野心足夠重視的話，野心必定有足夠的回報——財富、出人頭地和對自己命運(destiny)的把握——來補償你為其付出的一切。但是如果野心的目的是為了更有活力，那就應(yīng)該大大推廣，尤其是對那些本來已經(jīng)很受尊敬的人，而受過教育者不在此列。但奇怪的是，受過教育的人卻宣稱他們已經(jīng)不把野心當作自己的理想。同樣奇怪的是受教育者本人就是野心——他們自己的野心或父輩的野心——的受益者。這中間有很大的虛偽性（hypocrisy），就像是馬廄里的馬全跑光了才把門關(guān)上，而騎在馬上的恰恰是這些受過教育的人。當然，如今人們一如既往地對成功及其表現(xiàn)感興趣。避暑別墅、歐洲旅行、寶馬轎車——位置、地名或者品牌可能會有所變化，但對以上這些的需求卻一點也不比一二十年前少。事實上，人們無法像過去那樣，自然、坦率地面對自己的夢想，以免被人家說成咄咄逼人、貪得無厭、粗鄙俗氣（vulgar）?？吹椒N種虛偽現(xiàn)象，其普遍性是空前的：有人嘴上在批評美國的物質(zhì)主義，實際上卻在南罕普頓置有避暑別墅；有人出版的是激進的書籍，卻在三飯店就餐；有的新聞記者呼吁在人生各階段參與權(quán)都應(yīng)實現(xiàn)民主，但是卻把自己的孩子送到私立學校讀書。對這些人，以及那些沒有他們那樣出眾的（exceptional）人而言，最恰如其分的概括(formulation)是：“不惜一切代價成功，但不要給人野心勃勃的（ambitious）印象?！?BR> 對野心的批評比比皆是，批評的方式多種多樣；公然支持者寥寥無幾，此外，他們的支持雖不能說是毫無吸引力，但就是難成氣候。野心應(yīng)該可以作為健康的心態(tài)，讓年輕人欣賞、接受，但在美國，對這種做法的支持從未像現(xiàn)在這樣少，這并不意味著野心已經(jīng)死路一條，人們已經(jīng)不再受其蠱惑、激勵，而是它不再受到公開的頌揚，也不會被人掛在嘴邊。當然，其結(jié)果是野心開始轉(zhuǎn)入地下，或者被遮遮掩掩。現(xiàn)在的情況就是：左派的人對其猛烈抨擊，右派的人對其盲目支持，處在中間的仍然是占大部分的老百姓，他們心態(tài)誠摯，力爭快馬加鞭地改善生活。
名人名言
勇氣不是參天橡樹，俯瞰風暴來來去去，而是開放在寒天雪地中的柔弱(fragile)花朵(blossom)。
——艾麗絲·斯溫
如果你想讓孩子們做得更好，那就讓他們聽到你跟別人談起他們時說的好話吧。
——海姆·吉諾特
有不停糾正別人錯誤的習慣的孩子必須被制止，以防他們長大以后老是打斷別人，總是說：“不，親愛的——是星期二，不是星期三?！边@樣會把他們的愛人（spouses）和別人逼瘋的。
——朱迪思·馬丁
On Ambition
If ambition is to be well regarded, the rewards of ambition—wealth, distinction, control over one’s destiny— must be deemed worthy of the sacrifices made on ambition’s behalf. If the tradition of ambition is to have vitality, it must be widely shared: and it especially must be highly regarded by people who are themselves admired, the educated not least among them. In an odd way, however, it is the educated who have claimed to have given up on ambition as an ideal. What is odd is that they have perhaps most benefited from ambition — if not always their own than that of their parents and grandparents. There is a heavy note of hypocrisy in this, a case of closing the barn door after the horses have escaped — with the educated themselves riding on them. Certainly people do not seem less interested in success and its signs not than formerly. Summer homes, European travel, BMWs — the locations, place names and name brands may change, but such items do not seem less in demand today than a decade or two years ago. What has happened is that people cannot confess fully to their dreams, as easily and openly as once they could, lest they be thought pushing, acquisitive and vulgar. Instead, we are treated to fine hypocritical spectacles, which now more than ever seem in ample supply: the critic of American materialism with a Southampton summer home; the publisher of radical books who takes his meals in three — star restaurants; the journalist advocating participatory democracy in all phases of life, whose own children are enrolled in private schools. For such people and many more perhaps not so exceptional, the proper formulation is, “Succeed at all costs but avoid appearing ambitious.”
The attacks on ambition are many and come from various angles; its public defenders are few and unimpressive, where they are not extremely unattractive. As a result, the support for ambition as a healthy impulse, a quality to be admired and fixed in the mind of the young, is probably lower than it has ever been in the United States. This does not mean that ambition is at an end, that people no longer feel its stirrings and promptings, but only that, no longer openly honored, it is less openly professed. Consequences follow from this, of course, some of which are that ambition is driven underground, or made sly. Such, then, is the way things stand: on the left angry critics, on the right stupid supporters, and in the middle, as usual, the majority of earnest people trying to get on in life.
名人名言
Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go; it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow.
— Alice Swain
If you want your children to improve, let them overhear the nice things you say about them to others.
— Haim Ginott
Children who have the habit of constantly correcting should be stopped before they grow up to drive spouses and everyone else crazy by interrupting stories to say, “No, dear — it was Tuesday, not Wednesday.”
— Judith Martin
說野心
如果你對野心足夠重視的話，野心必定有足夠的回報——財富、出人頭地和對自己命運(destiny)的把握——來補償你為其付出的一切。但是如果野心的目的是為了更有活力，那就應(yīng)該大大推廣，尤其是對那些本來已經(jīng)很受尊敬的人，而受過教育者不在此列。但奇怪的是，受過教育的人卻宣稱他們已經(jīng)不把野心當作自己的理想。同樣奇怪的是受教育者本人就是野心——他們自己的野心或父輩的野心——的受益者。這中間有很大的虛偽性（hypocrisy），就像是馬廄里的馬全跑光了才把門關(guān)上，而騎在馬上的恰恰是這些受過教育的人。當然，如今人們一如既往地對成功及其表現(xiàn)感興趣。避暑別墅、歐洲旅行、寶馬轎車——位置、地名或者品牌可能會有所變化，但對以上這些的需求卻一點也不比一二十年前少。事實上，人們無法像過去那樣，自然、坦率地面對自己的夢想，以免被人家說成咄咄逼人、貪得無厭、粗鄙俗氣（vulgar）?？吹椒N種虛偽現(xiàn)象，其普遍性是空前的：有人嘴上在批評美國的物質(zhì)主義，實際上卻在南罕普頓置有避暑別墅；有人出版的是激進的書籍，卻在三飯店就餐；有的新聞記者呼吁在人生各階段參與權(quán)都應(yīng)實現(xiàn)民主，但是卻把自己的孩子送到私立學校讀書。對這些人，以及那些沒有他們那樣出眾的（exceptional）人而言，最恰如其分的概括(formulation)是：“不惜一切代價成功，但不要給人野心勃勃的（ambitious）印象?！?BR> 對野心的批評比比皆是，批評的方式多種多樣；公然支持者寥寥無幾，此外，他們的支持雖不能說是毫無吸引力，但就是難成氣候。野心應(yīng)該可以作為健康的心態(tài)，讓年輕人欣賞、接受，但在美國，對這種做法的支持從未像現(xiàn)在這樣少，這并不意味著野心已經(jīng)死路一條，人們已經(jīng)不再受其蠱惑、激勵，而是它不再受到公開的頌揚，也不會被人掛在嘴邊。當然，其結(jié)果是野心開始轉(zhuǎn)入地下，或者被遮遮掩掩。現(xiàn)在的情況就是：左派的人對其猛烈抨擊，右派的人對其盲目支持，處在中間的仍然是占大部分的老百姓，他們心態(tài)誠摯，力爭快馬加鞭地改善生活。
名人名言
勇氣不是參天橡樹，俯瞰風暴來來去去，而是開放在寒天雪地中的柔弱(fragile)花朵(blossom)。
——艾麗絲·斯溫
如果你想讓孩子們做得更好，那就讓他們聽到你跟別人談起他們時說的好話吧。
——海姆·吉諾特
有不停糾正別人錯誤的習慣的孩子必須被制止，以防他們長大以后老是打斷別人，總是說：“不，親愛的——是星期二，不是星期三?！边@樣會把他們的愛人（spouses）和別人逼瘋的。
——朱迪思·馬丁