美文欣賞：不要生活在幻覺中，清醒一點

And now we come to the most alarming delusion of all.

　　現在，我們要講所有幻覺中最需要防範的一種。

　　The idea that other people don't matter. Their feelings. Their needs.

　　這種幻覺就是：覺得其他人都不重要，他們的感受、他們的需求都不重要。

　　Imagine a cave where those inside never see the ourside world.

　　來想象一個洞穴吧，這裡面的人從來沒有見過外面的世界。

　　Instead, they see shadows of their world projected on a wall.

　　他們看見的只有投射在牆上的影子。

　　The world they see in the shadows is not the real world. But it's real to them.

　　他們在影子中看到的那個世界當然不是真實的世界，但他們就認為這是真的。

　　If you were to show them the world as it actually is, they would reject it as incompreshensible .

　　而如果你把真實的世界展示給他們看，他們反而會抵制它，因為他們理解不了這個世界。

　　Now what if, instead of being in a cave, you were out in the world, except you couldn't see it.

　　那麼現在，如果你不是住在一個洞穴里，而是住在真實的世界里，只是你看不見這個世界呢?

　　Because you weren't looking. You were only looking at what the media has shown you.

　　你看不見它，因為你並沒有在看它，你只是在看媒體呈現給你的東西。

　　You trusted that the world you saw through the prison was the real world.

　　你堅信你從這個牢籠中看到的世界就是真實的世界。

　　But there's a difference.

　　不過剛剛舉的這兩個例子是有區別的。

　　You see. Unlike the allegory of the cave where the people are real and the shadows are false, here other people are the shadows.

　　你看，在那個寓言裡面，人是真實的而影子是虛假的;但在這個世界里，其他的人就是那些影子。

　　This is the delusion of the narcissists who believe that they alone are real, that their feelings are the only feelings that matter because other people are just shadows.

　　這就是那些自戀者的幻覺，他們認為這個世界上只有他們才是真實的，他們認為只有他們自己的感受是算數的，因為其他人都只是影子。

　　And shadows don't feel, because they are not real.

　　而影子是不會有感受的，因為他們不是真的。

　　But what if everyone lived in caves. Than no one would be real, not even you, unless you woke up one day and left the cave.

　　但如果所有人都是住在自己的洞窟里呢?那麼就沒有人是真實的了，連你自己都不是，除非你有一天突然醒悟然後離開這個洞窟。

　　And then, how strange would the world look after a lifetime of staring at shadows.

　　這時候你才會發現，這個世界是如此的奇怪;畢竟，你至今為止都不過是在盯著影子看而已。