TED英語演講：故事的真相是什麼

好的故事往往容易麻痹人們的思想，給人制造一種幻象，好像這個世界因爲它們變得更好了，但真實的情況卻不是我們想象中那樣的。那麼真相是什麼呢?什麼才能真正幫助我們讓世界變得更好呢?讓我們從她詼諧又深刻的演講中找尋答案吧。下面是小編爲大家收集關於TED英語演講：故事的真相是什麼，歡迎借鑑參考。

故事的真相是什麼?

演講者：Sisonke Msimang

So earlier this year, I was informed that Iwould be doing a TED Talk. So I was excited, then I panicked, then I wasexcited, then I panicked, and in between the excitement and the panicking, Istarted to do my research, and my research primarily consisted of Googling howto give a great TED Talk.

今年年初， 我被告知要發表一場 TED 的演說。一開始我很興奮，然後變成緊張，然後又很興奮，然後又很緊張， 就在興奮與緊張之間， 我開始進行一些研究， 我的研究主要是用 Google 搜尋：如何發表一場完美的 TED 演說。

And interspersed with that, I was GooglingChimamanda Ngozi Adichie. How many of you know who that is?

在這個過程中，我也查詢了奇瑪曼達.恩格茲.阿迪契。有多少人知道她是誰嗎?

So I was Googling her because I alwaysGoogle her because I'm just a fan, but also because she always has importantand interesting things to say. And the combination of those searches keptleading me to her talk on the dangers of a single story, on what happens whenwe have a solitary lens through which to understand certain groups of people,and it is the perfect talk. It's the talk that I would have given if I had beenfamous first.

我Google了她因爲我經常Google 她，因爲我是她的粉絲，而且因爲她總是講了 重要又有趣的事情。所有搜尋到的結果，總是把我引導到她的演講，關於只聽單一故事的危險性，關於當我們只用一種視角去觀察某些特定羣體的後果。這是一場完美的演講。如果當初是我先成名的話，這就是我想進行的演講。

You know, and you know, like, she's Africanand I'm African, and she's a feminist and I'm a feminist, and she's astoryteller and I'm a storyteller, so I really felt like it's my talk.

你知道，就像，她是非洲人，而我也是非洲人;她是女權主義者，而我也是女權主義者; 她講故事，而我也講故事;所以我真的認爲那是我的演講。

So I decided that I was going to learn howto code, and then I was going to hack the internet and I would take down allthe copies of that talk that existed, and then I would memorize it, and then Iwould come here and deliver it as if it was my own speech. So that plan wasgoing really well, except the coding part, and then one morning a few monthsago, I woke up to the news that the wife of a certain presidential candidatehad given a speech that --that sounded eerily like a speech given byone of my other faves, Michelle Obama.

所以我決定學習寫程序，然後去入侵因特網，把所有這場演講的影片全部刪除，然後我會把演講內容背熟，然後就把它當成自己的演講說出來。整個計劃進行得非常成功，除了寫程序的部分之外;直到在幾個月前的一個早上，當我醒來時，看到一則新聞當中，某位總統候選人的太太發表了一場演說──感覺很詭異，聽起來像是另一個我喜歡的人在演講，米歇爾.歐巴馬。

And so I decided that I should probablywrite my own TED Talk, and so that is what I am here to do. I'm here to talkabout my own observations about storytelling. I want to talk to you about thepower of stories, of course, but I also want to talk about their limitations,particularly for those of us who are interested in social justice.

於是我決定應該寫一篇自己的 TED 演講稿，這就是我現在要做的。我要說的是自己對於「說故事」的觀察。當然，我會告訴你故事的力量，但是我也想談它的侷限性， 特別是對於我們之中，某些關注社會正義的人。

So since Adichie gave that talk seven yearsago, there has been a boom in storytelling. Stories are everywhere, and ifthere was a danger in the telling of one tired old tale, then I think there hasgot to be lots to celebrate about the flourishing of so many stories and somany voices. Stories are the antidote to bias. In fact, today, if you aremiddle class and connected via the internet, you can download stories at thetouch of a button or the swipe of a screen.

自從七年前阿迪契的演講之後，說故事形成一股風潮。到處都是故事，雖然這可能是老生常談，但我還是認爲能有這麼多的故事，能有這麼多的聲音出現，是很值得慶祝的事。故事是偏見的解藥。實際上，如今，如果你屬於中產階級，而且能連上因特網，你可以下載很多故事，只需要按下鼠標按鈕，或是滑動觸控屏幕。

You can listen to a podcast aboutwhat it's like to grow up Dalit in Kolkata. You can hear an indigenous man inAustralia talk about the trials and triumphs of raising his children in dignityand in pride. Stories make us fall in love. They heal rifts and they bridgedivides. Stories can even make it easier for us to talk about the deaths ofpeople in our societies who don't matter, because they make us care. Right?

你可以藉由收聽 Podcast， 瞭解加爾各答地區的 賤民階層如何生活。 你可以聽到澳洲的原住民談論關於教育出端莊、 具有自尊的孩子， 所需要進行的嘗試與成功經驗。 故事讓我們相愛。 故事能治癒裂痕，弭平分歧。 故事甚至能讓我們更容易 談論社會上某些市井小民的死亡，因爲故事讓我們關注這些事。 對嗎?

I'm not so sure, and I actually work for aplace called the Centre for Stories. And my job is to help to tell stories thatchallenge mainstream narratives about what it means to be black or a Muslim ora refugee or any of those other categories that we talk about all the time.

我不是很確定， 事實上我在一個叫「故事中心」的地方工作。我的工作是幫助人們 說出一些挑戰主流論述的故事，例如我們經常討論的議題：身爲黑人，穆斯林，難民 以及其他族羣，背後所代表的含意。

But I come to this work after a long history as a s

ocial justice activist, and soI'm really interested in the ways that people talk about nonfictionstorytelling as though it's about more than entertainment, as though it's aboutbeing a catalyst for social action. It's not uncommon to hear people say thatstories make the world a better place. Increasingly, though, I worry that eventhe most poignant stories, particularly the stories about people who no oneseems to care about, can often get in the way of action towards social , this is not because storytellers mean any harm.

但是我接手這份工作，是在我長期從事社會正義行動之後，而且讓我非常感興趣的，是人們在談論「紀實故事」時所持的態度和方式，認爲它不只是娛樂， 認爲它是社會行動的催化劑。 我們常聽到人們說：故事能讓世界更美好。不過我開始擔心： 即使是最讓人感動的故事， 特別是那些市井小民的故事，也經常會妨礙到社會正義的進行。 這不是因爲說故事的人故意要造成傷害。

Quite the contrary. Storytellersare often do-gooders like me and, I suspect, yourselves. And the audiences ofstorytellers are often deeply compassionate and empathetic people. Still, goodintentions can have unintended consequences, and so I want to propose thatstories are not as magical as they seem. So three -- because it's always got tobe three -- three reasons why I think that stories don't necessarily make theworld a better place.

恰恰相反， 說故事的人通常是想要做好事的人， 例如我，以及在座的你們。 而聽故事的人 通常也是充滿熱情和同情心的人。但是，好的動機也會導致 意想不到的後果， 所以我想強調的是， 說故事並不像看起來那麼神奇。 有三個原因，總是要有三個── 我認爲有三個原因，故事不一定會讓世界變得更好。

Firstly, stories can create an illusion ofsolidarity. There is nothing like that feel-good factor you get from listeningto a fantastic story where you feel like you climbed that mountain, right, orthat you befriended that death row inmate. But you didn't. You haven't doneanything. Listening is an important but insufficient step towards socialaction.

首先，故事能產生一種 「共同一致」的幻覺。 沒有其他東西能夠像 聽了奇幻故事一樣， 能帶給你更好的感覺了; 就彷佛是你自己征服了那座山，是的。或者是你和一位死刑犯成爲朋友。 但是你並沒有真的去做。 你沒有完成任何事。 傾聽故事是很重要的一步， 但對於社會行動來說，仍然不足夠。

Secondly, I think often we are drawntowards characters and protagonists who are likable and human. And this makessense, of course, right? Because if you like someone, then you care about the inverse is also true. If you don't like someone, then you don't careabout them. And if you don't care about them, you don't have to see yourself ashaving a moral obligation to think about the circumstances that shaped theirlives.

第二，我認爲人們經常會被 那些令人喜愛、具有人性化的 角色和主人公所吸引。 而且這也符合常理，是不是? 因爲如果你喜歡他們，你自然就會關心他們。但反之亦然。如果你不喜歡他們，你自然也不會關心他們。如果你不關心他們，你自然也不會認爲 自己負有道義責任，去思考那些人周遭的生活環境。

I learned this lesson when I was 14 yearsold. I learned that actually, you don't have to like someone to recognize theirwisdom, and you certainly don't have to like someone to take a stand by theirside. So my bike was stolen while I was riding it --which is possible if you're riding slowlyenough, which I was.

我在 14 歲時學到了這一點。我學到的是，實際上你不一定要喜歡某個人，才能認可他的智慧; 而且你也不需要喜歡某個人，才能和他站在同一陣線。我的腳踏車被偷了， 在我騎着它的的時候──這是可能的，如果你騎得夠慢， 我當時就是這樣。

So one minute I'm cutting across this fieldin the Nairobi neighborhood where I grew up, and it's like a very bumpy path,and so when you're riding a bike, you don't want to be like, you know --

就在我正要穿過一片田地的時候， 就在內羅畢附近，我生長的地方， 因爲路非常崎嶇不平， 所以當你騎車時， 你不會想要......你知道的──

And so I'm going like this, slowlypedaling, and all of a sudden, I'm on the floor. I'm on the ground, and I lookup, and there's this kid peddling away in the getaway vehicle, which is mybike, and he's about 11 or 12 years old, and I'm on the floor, and I'm cryingbecause I saved a lot of money for that bike, and I'm crying and I stand up andI start screaming. Instinct steps in, and I start screaming, "Mwizi,mwizi!" which means "thief" in Swahili. And out of thewoodworks, all of these people come out and they start to give chase. This isAfrica, so mob justice in action. Right?

所以我就騎得很慢。 突然間，我摔倒在地上。 當我躺在地上時，擡頭一看， 有個小孩正騎着車逃跑， 他騎着我的腳踏車。 他大概 11 或 12 歲， 我還倒在地上， 然後我大哭，因爲我存了很久的錢 纔買了這輛腳踏車，於是我一邊哭，一邊站起來大喊。 出於本能，我開始大喊： "Mwizi, mwizi! " 這在斯瓦希里語中代表「小偷」的意思。 這時候許多人從伐木場跑出來， 他們開始追趕。 這是在非洲，當時暴民政治 正在興起。是吧?

And I round the corner, and they'vecaptured him, they've caught him. The suspect has been apprehended, and theymake him give me my bike back, and they also make him apologize. Again, youknow, typical African justice, right? And so they make him say sorry. And so westand there facing each other, and he looks at me, and he says sorry, but helooks at me with this unbridled fury. He is very, very angry. And it is thefirst time that I have been confronted with someone who doesn't like me simplybecause of what I represent. He looks at me with this look as if to say,"You, with your shiny skin and your bike, you're angry at me?"

當我走到轉角時， 他們已經抓住了小偷。他們已經抓住了他。 嫌犯已被逮捕， 他們要他把腳踏車還給我， 而且他們還要他道歉。 你知道，這是典型的非洲正義，是吧? 所以他們要他說：對不起。 我們當時就面對面站着，他看着我，說了對不起。 但是他用非常憤怒的表情看着我， 他非常，非常生氣。 這是我第一次直接面對着， 一個只是因爲我的身份 而不喜歡我的人。 他帶着那種神情看着我，彷佛在說：「你，你有光滑的皮膚， 還有一輛腳踏車，你對我生氣?」

So it was a hard lesson that he didn't likeme, but you know what, he was right. I was a middle-class kid living in a poorcountry. I had a bike, and he barely had food. Sometimes, it's the messagesthat we don't want to hear, the ones that make us want to crawl out ofourselves, that we need to hear the most.

我知道他不喜歡我，這的確不好受， 但是你知道嗎，他這樣想是正常的。 在這個貧窮的國家， 我是一個生長在中產階層的小孩。 我擁有一輛腳踏車，而他幾乎連食物都沒有。 有時候，有些訊息是我們不想聽的; 但是那些讓我們坐立難安的訊息， 卻正是我們最需要聽的。

For every lovable storyteller whosteals your heart, there are hundreds more whose voices are slurred and ragged,who don't get to stand up on a stage dressed in fine clothes like this. Thereare a million angry-boy-on-a-bike stories and we can't afford to ignore themsimply because we don't like their protagonists or because that's not the kidthat we would bring home with us from the orphanage.

在每一位我們所喜愛的故事演說者背後，有成百上千個被忽略、疲憊不堪的聲音， 他們沒有機會穿上這麼好的衣服，站在這個講臺上。有數百萬則像是腳踏車上生氣男孩的故事，我們不應該忽視他們，只是因爲我們不喜歡那些故事裏的主角，或者只是因爲，他不是我們在孤兒院 想領養的那個小孩。

The third reason that I think that storiesdon't necessarily make the world a better place is that too often we are soinvested in the personal narrative that we forget to look at the biggerpicture. And so we applaud someone when they tell us about their feelings ofshame, but we don't necessarily link that to oppression. We nod understandinglywhen someone says they felt small, but we don't link that to discrimination.

而第三個原因， 我認爲故事不一定能讓世界更美好， 是因爲我們經常 過於投入在個人敘事中， 而讓我們忘記去綜觀全局。 當某些人告訴我們他們感覺到羞辱時， 我們會爲他們鼓掌， 但這時我們不一定會聯想到壓迫。 當有人說他們覺得自己渺小， 我們會理解地點點頭， 但是我們不會聯想到這是歧視。

The most important stories, especially for social justice, are those that doboth, that are both personal and allow us to explore and understand thepolitical.

那些最重要的故事，特別是有關社會正義的， 是那些能夠兼顧兩方面的故事， 不僅能讓我們心有所感， 又能讓我們去探究和理解它背後的政治。

But it's not just about the stories we likeversus the stories we choose to ignore. Increasingly, we are living in asociety where there are larger forces at play, where stories are actually formany people beginning to replace the news. Yeah? We live in a time where we arewitnessing the decline of facts, when emotions rule and analysis, it's kind of boring, right?

但這不僅僅是關於我們所喜歡的故事，以及我們所選擇忽視的故事兩者間的比較。 逐漸的，我們生活的社會裏出現了一股愈來愈大的力量。事實上，許多人開始用故事來取代新聞。沒錯吧? 我們所處的時代，正在見證着：事實開始不被重視， 情感開始主導一切，而理性的分析，令人感覺枯燥，對吧?

Where we value what we feel more than what we actually know. Arecent report by the Pew Center on trends in America indicates that only 10percent of young adults under the age of 30 "place a lot of trust in themedia." Now, this is significant. It means that storytellers are gainingtrust at precisely the same moment that many in the media are losing theconfidence in the public. This is not a good thing, because while stories areimportant and they help us to have insights in many ways, we need the media.

我們重視自己的感覺遠勝過我們實際知道的真相。探討美國趨勢的皮尤研究中心 最近有一份報告，顯示在 30 歲以下的年輕人當中，只有 10% 的人 「非常信任傳播媒體」。這是很重要的警訊。這意味着，在講述故事的人贏得信任的同時，傳播媒體正在失去大衆的信心。這不是件好事。因爲故事雖然很重要，它能幫助我們在很多方面獲得領悟，但是我們仍然需要傳播媒體。

From my years as a social justice activist, I know very well that we needcredible facts from media institutions combined with the powerful voices ofstorytellers. That's what pushes the needle forward in terms of social justice.

在我從事社會正義行動的時期，我很清楚的知道，我們需要結合傳媒機構提供的可靠事實，以及講述故事者，強而有力的聲音。這才能推動社會正義的前進。

In the final analysis, of course, it isjustice that makes the world a better place, not stories. Right? And so if itis justice that we are after, then I think we mustn't focus on the media or onstorytellers. We must focus on audiences, on anyone who has ever turned on aradio or listened to a podcast, and that means all of us.

最後的分析，當然，只有正義 才能讓這個世界更美好。而不是故事本身，對吧? 所以說如果我們追求的是正義，我認爲我們不應該聚焦在媒體或是講故事的人身上。 我們必須關注聽衆，關注那些打開收音機或收聽 podcast 的人，這就意味着我們每一個人。

So a few concluding thoughts on whataudiences can do to make the world a better place. So firstly, the world wouldbe a better place, I think, if audiences were more curious and more skepticaland asked more questions about the social context that created those storiesthat they love so much. Secondly, the world would be a better place ifaudiences recognized that storytelling is intellectual work.

最後我有一些想法， 關於聽衆能做些什麼， 讓這個世界更美好。 首先，我認爲這個世界會變得更好， 如果聽衆能夠更加好奇、更加質疑，並且對於他們喜愛的故事 背後的社會脈絡， 提出更多問題。 其次，這個世界會更加美好， 如果大家能意識到 說故事是耗費腦力的工作。

And I think itwould be important for audiences to demand more buttons on their favoritewebsites, buttons for example that say, "If you liked this story, clickhere to support a cause your storyteller believes in." Or "click hereto contribute to your storyteller's next big idea." Often, we arecommitted to the platforms, but not necessarily to the storytellers then lastly, I think that audiences can make the world a better place byswitching off their phones, by stepping away from their screens and steppingout into the real world beyond what feels safe.

另外我認爲有件事對聽衆來說是非常重要的，就是要求他們喜愛的網站增加更多的按鈕，比如說，像這樣的一個按鈕：「如果你喜歡這個故事，請點擊這裏，支持講故事那人所捍衛的信念。」 或者是「點擊這裏 來捐贈她下一個大理念」。我們一般總是忠於某個網絡平臺，而不是在故事人的本身。最後，我想大家可以讓世界更美好， 我們可以關掉手機，遠離各種電子屏幕，走進這個真實，但感覺不太安全的世界。

Alice Walker has said, "Look closelyat the present you are constructing. It should look like the future you aredreaming." Storytellers can help us to dream, but it's up to all of us tohave a plan for k you.(Applause)

艾麗斯.華克曾經說過，「仔細看着你正在建造的當下，那應該是你夢想中的未來。」 講故事的人能幫助我們去夢想， 但是最終還是要靠我們自己爲正義制定計劃，採取行動。謝謝大家。(掌聲)