网络时代,人身攻击的时代?(图)

Steven Fink recently received an unsolicited email containing nude photos of a woman whose jilted ex-boyfriend wanted to embarrass her. The guy presumably hoped these private photos would go viral online, and now countless strangers are obliging him in his mean-spirited campaign.
史蒂芬•芬克(Steven Fink)最近收到一封陌生邮件，里头有一名女子的几张裸照，遭到这名女子抛弃的前男友想羞辱她。那个人想来是希望这些私密照片能在网上广为传播；而现在无数陌生人也确实在充当帮凶，参与到他这个居心不良的行为当中。

In the pre-Internet age, the dumped boyfriend may have expressed his anger by throwing darts at her photo. These days, however, the outlets for vindictiveness have multiplied almost to infinity -- and your reputation is more fragile than ever.
在互联网时代之前，男人被甩后可能会对着前女友的照片掷飞镖，以此泄愤。但如今，发泄的途径近乎无穷无尽──人们的名誉变得前所未有的易受攻击。

All of us now live under the threat of easy and instant humiliation. It's no longer just celebrities and business executives who need to think about aggressive reputation-protection and face-saving techniques.

羞辱别人变得如此简便和快捷，而我们每个人都活在这种威胁之下。以前只有名人和公司高管需要考虑采取积极措施保护自己名誉，学习挽回脸面的技巧；但现在，这已成为一种大众需求。

Not long ago, people who routinely plugged their own names into online search engines were thought to be engaging in 'vanity Googling.' These days, it is an act of self-preservation. 'Google yourself at least once a week,' advises Richard Levick, who heads a strategic communications firm in Washington, D.C. 'You need to track what's being said about you' on blogs, message boards and social-networking websites.
不久前，总在网络搜索引擎查询自己名字的行为被视为虚荣心使然。如今，这是一种自我保护的手段。华盛顿一家公关公司的负责人理查德•莱维克(Richard Levick)说，每周至少搜索一次你的名字，随时留心关于你的网上言论，无论是在博客、论坛，还是在交友网站上。

Any time you leave your house, you could be targeted. Drive over to Wal-Mart for a gallon of milk and you may end up on . The site -- not, needless to say, affiliated with the retailer -- runs smirk-inducing photos of overweight or oddly dressed shoppers, most of them sent in by other shoppers.
只要你走出家门，也许就会成为别人的目标。开车去沃尔玛(Wal-Mart)买盒牛奶，你的照片就可能被登在上。这个网站并不是沃尔玛搞的，主要张贴一些肥胖人士或奇装异服的沃尔玛购物者的搞笑照片，大多是其他购物者拍摄并上传的。

Such sites raise the question: Have we become a more malicious society? There are differing views.
这类网站不禁让我们提出一个疑问：我们这个社会是不是变得越来越恶毒了？对此，人们的观点不一。

'Human nature hasn't changed,' says Jonathan Bernstein, a crisis consultant in Los Angeles. 'There have always been people whose aim in life was to cause pain to others. If they saw people embarrassing themselves, they got pleasure in sharing that information. Before the Internet, they had to gossip with their neighbors. Now they can gossip with the world.'
“人性并没有改变，”洛杉矶危机管理顾问乔纳森•伯恩斯坦(Jonathan Bernstein)说，“总有这样一种人，存在的目的就是给他人带来痛苦。如果他们看到别人的尴尬之事，就想搞得尽人皆知，并以此为乐。没有互联网的时候，他们只能跟邻居窃窃私语；而现在，他们可以跟全世界的人八卦一下。”

Others argue that there has been a ratcheting up of meanness -- that the changes in technology have made us nastier and more cynical. 'It's like a blood sport,' says Mr. Fink, who runs a crisis-management firm in Los Angeles. 'It feels like everyone has their cellphone out, ready to take a photo that will hurt someone else.'
另一种观点认为，人性的卑鄙一面确实在不断滋生壮大──科技进步让人们变得更为龌龊，更加玩世不恭。“这是一种伤人的消遣，”在洛杉矶经营一家危机管理公司的芬克说，“似乎每个人都拿着手机，随时准备拍下一些给他人带来不利影响的照片。”

It's as if all of us now have our own printing presses and our own television studios, and we can use them for good or for evil. The problem is that too many of us succumb to the anonymity of the Web, says Parry Aftab, a cyber-security attorney based in Irvington, N.Y. 'We're braver when we type. We don't have to look someone in their eyes. It's easier to be vicious, to cross the line between funny and cruel.'
科技的进步，让我们彷佛拥有了自己的报纸和电视台，可以用来干好事，也可以用来干坏事。纽约州俄温顿(Irvington)一位网络安全律师派瑞•阿夫泰伯(Parry Aftab)说，问题在于太多的人沉迷于网络的匿名特性而不可自拔。“我们用键盘打字时，会变得更大胆，因为不必直接跟别人的眼睛对视。如此一来，人们更容易释放出人性恶的一面，模糊了搞笑和残忍之间的界线。”


The epidemic of online belittling is also fueled by reality television, which has helped create 'a culture of humiliation,' argues Nicolaus Mills, a professor of American studies at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y. When untalented singers are ridiculed in the early rounds of 'American Idol,' when contestants are dismissed on 'The Apprentice,' when B-list actors reveal their addictions on 'Celebrity Rehab,' viewers get to feel superior.
纽约州布隆维尔市萨拉劳伦斯学院(Sarah Lawrence College)研究美国文化的尼古拉斯•米尔斯(Nicolaus Mills)教授说，在网络上对别人缺乏尊重的流行现象也受到真人秀电视节目推波助澜的影响，这种节目助长了一种“羞辱文化”。大众选秀节目“美国偶像”(American Idol)前几轮那些不太出众的选手饱受奚落，“飞黄腾达”（The Apprentice，又名“学徒”，美国NBC电视台播放的真人秀节目，在一群壮志雄心的商界人士中，选拔一个年薪25万美元的人，成为美国著名地产大王Donald Trump的徒弟，为Trump集团效力。）中的选手被一一淘汰，二线演员在“名人健康俱乐部”(Celebrity Rehab)节目中爆料说出自己的弱点。在这样的时候，观众都会感受到一种自我优越感。

'

The urge to humiliate is also obvious in today's divisive politics, where adversaries often seem intent on ruining each other, says Dr. Mills. Putdown humor, on both the left (Jon Stewart) and the right (Rush Limbaugh), has replaced the gentler humor of say, Bill Cosby or Bob Newhart, who found laughs in the idea that 'all of us are in this together.
米尔斯说，在如今争斗不休的政坛，想令对手难堪的意愿也是显而易见，对手之间往往都想毁掉对方的名誉。无论是左翼的“每日秀”主持人及讽刺专家乔恩•史都华(Jon Stewart)，还是右翼的广播节目主持人及保守派政治评论员拉希•林波(Rush Limbaugh)，攻击性的幽默已经成为一种主流，替代比尔•科斯比(Bill Cosby或鲍勃•纽瓦特(Bob Newhart)那种更为柔和的搞笑方式，后者的幽默既让人发大笑，却又让人感觉到“我们大家都不完美”。


Even in sports, there is a rising specter of humiliation. In boxing, once your opponent is down on the mat, the fighting stops. But the rage now is Ultimate Fighting, which is all about beating an opponent into submission. Fighters can hit opponents when they're on the ground in defenseless positions. YouTube is filled with videos of these gruesome matches.
即使在体育竞技领域，羞辱对手的现象也愈来愈多。在一般的拳击比赛中，对手倒下意味着比赛的结束；但现在流行的“终极格斗大赛”(Ultimate Fighting)，要把对手打得服输才算完。当对手倒下并处于无法防御的状态时，另一方依然可以进行攻击。YouTube上充斥着这类血腥比赛的视频。

Meanwhile, it can be sobering and instructive to watch the speed with which high-profile people are publicly humiliated these days. Consider Whitney Houston. Last month, concertgoers overseas captured her poor performances on their cellphone video cameras. Within hours, clips of her mangling 'I Will Always Love You' were all over the Internet, derailing her latest comeback attempt.
如今，名人被公开羞辱的速度之快也令人叹为观止，并理应引起我们的反思。拿惠特妮•休斯顿(Whitney Houston)来说，她在2010年4月的一场海外演出中表现欠佳，观众纷纷用手机拍下视频。几个小时内，那首被搞砸的经典名曲“我将一直爱你”(I Will Always Love You)就在网上广为传播，她的最新一次复出尝试就此脱离轨道。


Things used to be less immediate and toxic. A couple of decades ago, Linda McCartney's off-key vocals, allegedly lifted from a Wings concert soundboard, were only aired by renegade DJs.
以前，这种事情不会流传得那么快，影响也没那么恶劣。几十年前，琳达•麦卡尼(Linda McCartney)走音的歌曲录音（据说是从一场名为Wings的演出中录下来的）只被恶意的DJ播放过几次。

When it comes to spreading ridicule, the Web is now a hodgepodge of celebrity takedowns and videos of ugly brides or of kids who can't sing in the school play. Young people these days are especially vulnerable to such attacks, since so much of their lives are lived online.
网络已经成为传播尴尬事情的主渠道，其内容堪比大杂烩，既有名人的露丑记录，又有难看的新娘，还有在学校表演中唱不出歌的小孩子。年轻人尤其容易在网络上受到羞辱，因为他们有很大一部分生活都是在网上度过的。

The word 'humiliation' is rooted in the Latin word humus, which means 'dirt.' Too much of our online world is now devoted to dirt, 'to the enterprise of immediately spreading embarrassing moments, or of exaggerating people's foibles,' says Dr. Mills, the American studies professor.
“羞辱”(humiliation)这个词来源于拉丁语“humus”，意思是“污物”(dirt)。研究美国文化的米尔斯说，我们的网络世界如今有很大一部分用在了阴暗的东西上，比如说快速传播他人的尴尬、夸大他人的缺陷等等。

He believes things can improve if more of us make a simple pledge, telling ourselves: 'We're better than that.'
米尔斯相信，情况还是可以有所改善的，条件是更多的人能够约束自己，对自己说一句，我们绝不同流合污。