【英文原声版53】Amir Eshel: Origins of Totalitarianism

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A young, gifted philosophy student

年轻且富有天分的哲学学生

Zachary Davis: Although World War II ended more than 75 years ago, it continues to cast a shadow over Western politics. The determination to never again repeat the horrific crimes of Nazi Germany and Communist Soviet Union helped establish liberal democracy as the only legitimate and acceptable form of government. But the election of Donald Trump in 2016 and the increased visibility of leftist groups like Antifa have led many to fear that those frightening 20th century movements are once again on the rise.

扎克里·戴维斯：虽然二战结束已经超过了七十五年，但二战仍然给西方政治蒙上了一层阴影。西方世界力求不重蹈纳粹德国和苏联极权时期的覆辙，将自由民主制确立为唯一合法的、可接受的政府形式。但2016年唐纳德·特朗普当选美国总统，之后反法西斯行动日趋活跃，很多人都担心二十世纪那些可怕的运动会再次掀起。

Zachary Davis: This fear has led to a 70-year-old book of political philosophy becoming a surprise best-seller: Hannah Arendt’s 1951 work The Origins of Totalitarianism. Hannah Arendt was born in Germany and lived through Hitler’s rise to power and eventual defeat. In the years following the war, she wrote this book to understand the nature of the Nazi and Soviet regimes.

扎克里·戴维斯：在这种担忧之下，一本七十年前问世的政治哲学著作畅销一时——这就是汉娜·阿伦特1951年出版的著作《极权主义的起源》。汉娜·阿伦特出生于德国，目睹了希特勒的崛起与失败。在战后的几年里，她写了这本书来探索纳粹政权和苏联政权的本质。

Zachary Davis: What were the circumstances in context in which she began work on The Origins of Totalitarianism?

扎克里·戴维斯：她是在什么情况下开始写这本书的？

Amir Eshel: The circumstance is incredibly complex and at the same time quite simple. It is the question: how could this have happened?

阿米尔·埃舍尔：当时的情况很复杂，但也很简单。人们都在思考一个问题，那就是纳粹为什么会出现。

Zachary Davis: This was a question that many in the western world were asking: How could something as horrific and barbaric as the Holocaust happen in a place as supposedly enlightened as Germany?

扎克里·戴维斯：西方世界的很多人都在问这个问题。在德国这个文明国家，为什么会发生大屠杀这样可怕而野蛮的事情？

Amir Eshel: If you think about modern philosophy, for example, modern Western philosophy, you know, Europe was the center. If you think about the sciences. If you wanted to become, you know, a scientist, you would go to a university in Germany, you would learn German, and then you would study chemistry, you know, in Germany, for example.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：提到现代哲学，你会知道欧洲是现代西方哲学的中心；提到现代科学，你会觉得如果想成为科学家，你会去德国大学深造，会学习德语，去德国学化学。

Amir Eshel: So, how could it be that at the heart of, you know, everything culture and everything sophistication and refinement, this menace of brutish political thought of, you know, primitive, racist, backwater way of thinking, and it takes a hold—not only takes a hold but is able, within a short period of time, to really a, you know, wipe away all other modes of thinking and acting, creating concentration camps in which people who think differently and live their lives differently are placed. How can we explain it?

阿米尔·埃舍尔：那么在这个文化与精妙思想的汇聚地，为什么会出现纳粹主义这种野蛮的政治思想、这种原始落后且带有种族主义色彩的思维方式？而且这种思想竟然可以传播开来，在很短的时间里凌驾于其他思维与行为模式之上，让持异见者和生活方式不同的人被关进了集中营。我们要如何解释这种情况呢？

Zachary Davis: Arendt also wanted to understand if it could happen again.

扎克里·戴维斯：阿伦特也想知道这种情况是否还会发生。

Amir Eshel: Accompanied with her, I think, is the sense that although the war ended, Second World War in 1945, and although we were liberated from the madness of fascism, none of the underlying circumstances which made fascism and totalitarianism possible disappeared from the world. And I think this is really crucial for us in today's discussion we're having now to underline this.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：我猜她可能觉得，虽然1945年二战结束了，我们从法西斯主义的梦魇中解脱了出来，但孕育着法西斯主义和极权主义的土壤还在。我觉得在今天的讨论中，我们很有必要强调这一点。

Amir Eshel: I think as Arendt is writing this book, it's not just a historical account of what had happened, it's an attempt to understand the contemporary modern condition, the contemporary modern human condition, as bringing time and again the danger of what we have seen in Europe from the 1920s onward. And in fact, if you read the book today, I think a lot of the questions she raises there are with us in the same way they were when she was writing it in the late ‘40s until its publication in 1951.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：我觉得阿伦特在写这本书的时候，不仅仅在叙述历史，更是在试图弄明白当代社会与人类的状态，比如常说的欧洲上世纪20年代到如今所面临的的一些危险。实际上，如果你现在读一读这本书，你会觉得她在书里提到的当时的很多问题，也就是上世纪40年代末至1951年此书出版时的很多社会问题，放在今天仍然感同身受。

Zachary Davis: Welcome to Writ Large, a podcast about how books change the world. I’m Zachary Davis. In each episode, I talk with one of the world’s leading scholars about one book that changed the course of history. For this episode, I sat down with Professor Amir Eshel to discuss Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism.

扎卡里·戴维斯：欢迎收听：100本改变你和世界的书，在这里我们为大家讲述改变世界的书籍。我是扎卡里·戴维斯。每一集，我都会和一位世界顶尖学者探讨一本影响历史进程的书。在本集，我和阿米尔·埃舍尔教授一起讨汉娜·阿伦特的《极权主义的起源》。

Amir Eshel: So, Hannah Arendt is born in Germany in 1906, grew up in a setting of a middle class German Jewish family. Both her parents are close to social democracy in Germany and are involved in the political conversations of the time.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：1906年，汉娜·阿伦特出生在德国一个中产阶级犹太家庭，她的父母都是德国社会民主支持者，参与着当时的政治讨论。

Zachary Davis: Arendt’s father was an electrical engineer, and her mother came from a family of tea importers. They were both members of the Social Democrats, a leftist political party in Germany at the time.

扎克里·戴维斯：阿伦特的父亲是一位电气工程师，母亲家从事茶叶进口生意。阿伦特的父母都是社会民主党的成员，这是德国当时的一个左翼政党。

Amir Eshel: Her father died when, you know, she was relatively young. So, she grows up with her mother. Her mother, very impressive, strong personality, brings her closer to social democracy and makes sure that Arendt, who was already as a child very gifted, she begins early on to study classical languages and discovers philosophy. She reads Kierkegaard. And then as a young woman, a rumor arrives at her doorstep. And the rumor is that there is this very intriguing, interesting young philosopher teaching philosophy in Marburg, and his name is Martin Heidegger.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：她的父亲在她年幼的时候就去世了，所以她是和母亲一起长大的。她的母亲是个不凡的人，个性很强，让她进一步接触了社会民主主义，还让天赋异禀的小阿伦特很早就开始学习古典语言和哲学、阅读克尔凯郭尔的著作。不过身为一个年轻女子，一起流言不期而至。当时，一位有趣的年轻哲学家在马尔堡大学教书，这个人就是马丁·海德格尔。

Zachary Davis: Today, Martin Heidegger is regarded as one of greatest philosophers in history. But at the time, the young Heidegger was just beginning his career. But his reputation was growing fast. Arendt described him as “the hidden king who reigned in the realm of thinking”. She decided to attend the university of Marburg in order to study with Heidegger.

扎克里·戴维斯：如今，马丁·海德格尔被视为史上最伟大的哲学家之一。那时，年轻的海德格尔刚刚开启他的职业生涯，但他的名望却与日俱增。阿伦特形容他是“统治着思想王国的隐秘国王”。她决定去马尔堡大学，在海德格尔门下学习。

Amir Eshel: She arrives in Marburg as a 17-year-old young woman and starts taking classes with him. And as it so happens, she falls in love, or they fall in love. And there's a stormy affair between them. Martin Heidegger is married already with kids and does not want to change his life in a radical manner. Hannah Arendt and he together decide that the affair cannot be continued, and she goes off to complete her dissertation with Jaspers in Heidelberg. Jaspers is a close friend of Heidegger at that time, so Jaspers takes on the responsibility for her intellectual, for the completion of that part of her intellectual track.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：这个十七岁的少女来到马尔堡大学听他上课。她爱上了海德格尔，或者更准确地说，他们相爱了。他们的感情轰轰烈烈，但海德格尔当时已经结婚，也有了孩子，不想打破原有的生活。于是两人决定结束这段恋情。阿伦特转至海德堡大学的哲学家雅斯贝尔斯门下，在其指导下完成了毕业论文。雅斯贝尔斯当时是海德格尔的好友，承担起了教授阿伦特的职责，帮助她完成学业。

Zachary Davis: Karl Jaspers was a psychiatrist and philosopher and a proponent of many strands of existentialist thought. Arendt studied with Jaspers until the end of her education.

扎克里·戴维斯：卡尔·雅斯贝尔斯是一位精神病学家和哲学家，也是多种存在主义思想的支持者。阿伦特一直跟随雅斯贝尔斯学习，直到她毕业为止。

Amir Eshel: Arendt is a young, gifted philosophy student. By now she's graduated. She cannot simply pursue an academic career. From today's perspective, it's almost unfathomable. But back then women could not just decide that they become professors of philosophy.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：阿伦特是一个年轻的、富有天分的哲学学生。毕业之后，她没法继续自己的学术生涯。这在我们今天看来简直不可理喻。但在当时，女性不能担任哲学教授。

Zachary Davis: After completing her studies, Arendt married German philosopher Günther Stern.

扎克里·戴维斯：完成学业后，阿伦特嫁给了德国哲学家贡特·斯特恩。

Amir Eshel: And so after her marriage, she goes off to Berlin and spends time in Berlin together with her husband then, conducting research for what will be later on her first book on the Jewish intellectual by the name Rahel Varnhagen. She works in the libraries and is a part of Berlin's intellectual community.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：结婚之后，她去了柏林，和丈夫一起在柏林度过了一段时间，为日后她的第一本关于犹太知识分子拉赫尔·瓦伦哈根的书做研究准备。阿伦特当时在图书馆工作，是柏林知识界的一员。

Zachary Davis: One thing Arendt was researching was antisemitism. The Nazi party was coming to power, and Arendt understood that it would have a massive effect on Europe. The regime also had an immediate impact on her own life—researching antisemitism was illegal, and she was imprisoned by the Gestapo soon after Hitler came to power.

扎克里·戴维斯：阿伦特研究的一项内容就是反犹太主义。纳粹党即将上台，阿伦特明白这将对欧洲产生巨大的影响。这个政权也直接影响了她自己的生活，他们把研究反犹太主义视为非法的，于是希特勒上台后不久，她就被盖世太保关进了监狱。

Amir Eshel: Luckily, the officer who interviews her warns her of the danger to her security and life, and she decides to pack her things and, together with her mother, escape Germany.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：幸运的是，面谈她的军官警告她会有性命之忧。于是她决定收拾东西，和母亲一起逃离德国。

Zachary Davis: Arendt flees Germany for France, and ends up in Paris among a community of emigres. There, she divorces her first husband and marries the German poet Heinrich Blücher.

扎克里·戴维斯：阿伦特逃离德国前往法国，在巴黎的一个移民社区落脚。在那里，她与第一任丈夫离婚，与德国诗人海因里希·布吕赫结为伴侣。

Amir Eshel: And she hopes that from the perspective of exile in Paris things will be different for her. Little does she know and expect, you know, the Second World War breaks out. She will then flee France and flee Europe and land as a refugee without any rights, obviously, as a stateless person, because her citizenship was revoked by Nazi Germany, she arrived then at the shores of the United States.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：她希望流亡到巴黎之后，自己的境遇会有所好转，却不料二战爆发了。于是她逃离了法国，逃离了欧洲，成为了一个没有公民权的难民。她的德国公民身份被纳粹政权取消了，所以她也没有了国籍。于是，她前往大洋对岸的美国。

Three parts of the book

书的三个部分

Zachary Davis: Arendt arrived in New York City in 1941. She pursued a career as an independent scholar, lecturing and teaching at various institutions and, of course, writing. So, let's talk about the structure of the text itself. What is it like to read it? How did she organize it, and what are her core arguments?

扎克里·戴维斯：1941年，阿伦特抵达纽约。她成为了一名独立学者，在好几个机构里授课，同时也在写作。我们现在来谈谈这本书的结构吧。阿伦特是怎么组织内容的？她的核心论点是什么？

Amir Eshel: So, we have three parts that are tied together. So, I think rather than thinking of the book as bringing finite, conclusive explanations for the Second World War, for totalitarianism, one should think of it as offering three perspectives on the phenomenon.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：这本书包含了三个互相关联的部分。所以我更愿意认为，这本书对二战和极权主义做了有限定的、结论性的解读，提供了三个解释这一现象的角度。

Amir Eshel: She starts with a discussion of antisemitism as a way of mythologically thinking about social and historical conditions and a school of thought and a way of political action that is aiming at and designed to exclude not just a group of people who are associated by this way or another, but rather an entire class of human beings defined by their religion, defined by their ethnicity, defined to some extent by this terrible concept of race.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：首先，她讨论了反犹主义，认为这是对社会历史条件的一种神话般的思考方式、一种思想流派，同时也是一种政治行为方式，不仅旨在排挤某个通过特定方式联系在一起的群体，更是旨在排挤在宗教、族裔，或血缘种族这可怕的观念定义之下的其他一类人。

Zachary Davis: Is it that Jewish populations, in particularly European societies, are a useful enemy for those interested in forging a more distinctive national identity or nationalism?

扎克里·戴维斯：对于那些想要塑造更独特的民族身份或民族主义的人来说，犹太人、尤其是欧洲社会的犹太人是不是一个有用的靶子？

Amir Eshel: Jews for a variety of historical reasons, were the perfect enemy. They have become in the course of modernity—Especially in Eastern Europe, you know, to put it in somewhat blunt terms, they have become simply obsolete. They had no longer a clear function in the economic and social system, especially, you know, Eastern Europe. They were moving around. They suffered from, you know, poverty and had no chances, etc..

阿米尔·埃舍尔：由于种种历史原因，犹太人成为了完美的敌人。坦白来讲，在现代化的过程中他们已经落伍了，在经济和社会体系中不再扮演着明确的角色，在东欧尤其如此。他们四处迁徙，生活潦倒，没有什么机遇。

Amir Eshel: And then in the West, in Western Europe, Jews have become, with emancipation, incredibly successful, occupying, you know, leading positions in society and culture, in the sciences. So this combination of a large groups of Jewish populations that seem to be obsolete, wandering around, traveling from east to west, you know, roaming the streets of, you know, Vienna, in Berlin, etc., combined with the figure of the Jew who kind of “made it”, they became very quickly a perfect enemy.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：而在西欧，随着犹太解放运动的开展，犹太人变得非常成功，在社会、文化和科学领域遥遥领先。所以这两种情况结合到了一起，一边是一大群落伍的犹太人从东到西四处游荡，在维也纳、柏林等地的街头逛来逛去，一边是一部分犹太人成为了成功人士。于是，他们很快就成为了完美的靶子。

Zachary Davis: In the second section of her book, Arendt examines contemporary totalitarianism from the perspective of modern colonialism.

扎克里·戴维斯：在书的第二部分，阿伦特从现代殖民主义的角度研究了当代极权主义。

Amir Eshel: Arendt, one should say, is one of the first thinkers of our time who turns a very concentrated attention to the phenomenon of colonialism. So, way before anyone was talking about colonialism, the way we're familiar with today post-colonialism, the entire post-colonial discourse, she was writing in 1951, publishing in 1951 on the issue of colonialism.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：可以说，阿伦特是我们这个时代最早聚焦于殖民主义现象的思想家之一。早在1951年人们还没有谈论殖民主义以及我们熟悉的后殖民主义的时候，在整个后殖民主义的讨论出现之前，阿伦特就开始在作品中探讨殖民主义的问题。

Amir Eshel: And then she turns from antisemitism and colonialism, so Part One and Part Two, to the phenomenon of totalitarianism where she explains... Again, she offers a variety of facets. So she unfolds a variety of facets of this political system we witnessed in Nazi Germany and then in Stalinist Soviet Union.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：书的第一和第二部分分别讲了反犹太主义和殖民主义。到了第三部分，她转而探讨了极权主义。这里她同样展现了多个方面，展现了我们在纳粹德国和斯大林主义下的苏联所目睹的极权主义的情况。

Amir Eshel: And again, this is a very original move she makes in part three of Origins. She thinks that one cannot separate fascism from Stalinism. One has to think of them together as a closely related phenomenon, centering on the evolution of political systems in our time in modernity in a way that penetrates all realms of our lives.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：她在书中第三部分做了一个非常大胆的举动。她觉得不能将法西斯主义和斯大林主义分开来看，必须把它们看作密切相关的现象，这种现象聚焦于我们现代政治制度的演变，深入我们生活的所有领域。

Zachary Davis: One of the key points Arendt makes in the third section of Origins is the distinction between public and private life in the modern era.

扎克里·戴维斯：阿伦特在书的第三部分提出了一个关键点，那就是现代社会公共生活和私人生活的区别。

Amir Eshel: And because of modern technology and because of the way the economy works, you know, this is, you know, often just undone. And we lose the ability to retreat to the realm of the private and to exist as private. Everything becomes public. Everything is then, you know, light  is shed everywhere. One of the consequences of it is that it's much easier than, to those who control the public sphere to then subjugate individuals in ways that were never possible before.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：而由于现代技术的出现和经济运作方式的变化，我们渐渐失去了私人生活，无法退居于私人空间中，再也不是一个个私密的个体。一切都被公之于众，每个角落都被一览无余。这样的后果之一便是，那些掌控着公共领域的人可以以前所未有的方式让个体屈从于他们。

Amir Eshel: I think Arendt has a clear sense of this, although she was not aware of, you know, smartphones and things like that. I think she... In thinking about the modern era, she was well aware of such possibilities. From what happens inside our private sphere, our apartments, our houses, to the way we interact with each other in any given circumstances. And Arendt says in part three of Origins, again dedicated to totalitarianism, that this system of rule, unprecedented in its thrust and brutality, hardly explainable with a means of political theory, is with us to stay.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：我觉得，尽管阿伦特不知道智能手机这些玩意，但她很清楚它们的影响。她很清楚现代社会可能会发生这样的情况，小到在我们的私人空间、我们的住所里发生的事情，大到我们在任何情况下与别人互动的方式，都会受影响。在书的第三部分中谈到极权主义的时候，阿伦特说，极权主义这种统治形式有着前所未有的侵犯性和残酷性，难以用某个政治理论来解释，它就在我们身边。

Amir Eshel: So, again, although in 1945, Nazi Germany was defeated and the madness of Nazism was gone, the threat, but also the reality of this system, has not gone away. And in fact, when the book is published, again in 1951, Stalin is still in power, and the Soviet Union is governed by a political terror, the likes of which the world has never seen before.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：所以尽管1945年纳粹德国被打败了，纳粹主义的狂潮消失了，但极权主义的威胁仍然没有消失。实际上，1951年这本书出版时，斯大林还在苏联执政，那儿弥漫着一种前所未有的政治恐怖气息。

Zachary Davis: What is the thread that connects antisemitism, colonialism, and what she calls totalitarianism? Why do you think she framed it that way?

扎克里·戴维斯：反犹太主义、殖民主义和阿伦特所说的极权主义有什么联系？您觉得她为什么会把这三者联系起来？

Amir Eshel: I would suggest that the first two laid the social and political ground for, you know, what gave birth to totalitarianism. Without the viciousness and the visceral nature of antisemitism, without the attack on the Jew, not just in terms of the Jews’, you know, creed and beliefs, but really as a body, we cannot understand what had happened in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：我觉得，前两者为极权主义的诞生奠定了社会和政治基础。如果我们不去弄明白反犹太主义的恶毒本质，不去理解为什么会出现这种攻击犹太人的信仰乃至整个群体的情况，我们就无法理解20世纪30、40年代发生在欧洲的事情。

Amir Eshel: The same goes to colonialism. Without understanding the way or the manner in which European powers were able to produce a system of conquer, subjugation, humiliation, exploitation, with all the means of the state to the very last detail, and without the ideology that colonialism, you know, always relied on, this ideology of bringing, you know, Europe's vision and Europe's mission to the world, again, we cannot understand what had happened in Europe later on.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：殖民主义也是如此。如果不去了解欧洲列强如何用尽国家的一切手段来制造一个充满征服、压榨、羞辱、剥削的制度，不去了解殖民主义赖以为系的意识形态，也就是将欧洲的愿景与使命带给世界的意识形态，我们同样无法理解欧洲后来发生的事情。

Amir Eshel: So, I think the way to understand Part One and Part Two is to understand it as an uncovering of the foundations, the groundwork on top of which then the edifice of totalitarianism then emerged.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：所以，我认为理解第一部分和第二部分的诀窍是，把它们看作在解释什么是极权主义这座大厦的基石。

Zachary Davis: One of the main threats to a totalitarian regime is community. Totalitarianism thrives on controlling every aspect of people’s lives. In a community, people get together to talk about ideas and to try to solve their communal problems. To minimize this threat, totalitarian governments remove the public spaces altogether.

扎克里·戴维斯：群体是极权主义政权的一大威胁。极权主义要想发展，就需要控制人们生活的方方面面。但在一个群体里，人们会聚在一起探讨观点，想办法解决他们这个群体的问题。为了将这种威胁降到最小，极权主义政府会将公共空间彻底取缔。

Amir Eshel: So, the disappearance of anything from a, like a coffee place where people get together to the disappearance of a public square where people come together, to the threat to universities, to the integration of fear and terror even into schools. So, everywhere where people can freely meet and talk and discuss with each other who they are, what they are, what they believe in is coming under increasing pressure.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：于是咖啡馆、公共广场等可供人们聚集的场所消失了，大学受到威胁，恐怖的氛围弥漫在校园里。凡是能让人们自由聚会交谈、说说自己是谁、信仰什么的地方，都在承受着越来越大的压力。

Amir Eshel: I think this is really the root of all evil. Once you undo these spaces in which we are able to come together and really exchange our ideas and debate with one another and have those political discussions, almost everything is then possible. If people do not leave their homes because they are fearful of what will happen to them if they are in a cafe or a restaurant or a library or a, you know, public reading of a book, then it's much easier for those who are in power to then enter and occupy the last available space.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：我觉得这确实是一切罪恶的根源。一旦你取缔了这些可供人们聚在一起交流想法、互相辩论、探讨政治等种种话题的地方，一旦人们不敢去咖啡馆、餐厅、图书馆或是公开阅读一本书，只是缩在家里，那么那些当权者就会更容易侵入并占据最后一寸私人空间。

Zachary Davis: You can see this pattern in many totalitarian regimes, including the fascist movements in Italy and Spain and Germany. By identifying these patterns and recognizing the warning signs, Arendt aims to make readers more aware of their history, how totalitarianism operates, and how to steer their governments in the right direction moving forward.

扎克里·戴维斯：你可以在许多极权主义政权中看到这种模式，意大利、西班牙和德国的法西斯运动都是如此。阿伦特想要指出这种模式和危险的信号，好让读者更了解他们的历史，了解极权主义是如何运作的，并且知道要如何引导政府朝着正确的方向前进。

Amir Eshel: She wants us to not delude ourselves to be thinking that we are just, you know, subjected to history, but rather to understand that we have a responsibility to do whatever we can do in the course of historical events. So, every time we catch ourselves thinking of history as that which comes at us with enormous power threatening to just crush us, we should stop for a second and remind ourselves that we actually do have the capacity and thus the responsibility to participate in shaping historical realities.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：她希望我们不要自欺欺人地认为，我们只是受制于历史。她希望我们明白，我们有责任在历史事件发生的过程中做任何力所能及的事情。所以，每当我们觉得历史携着巨大的能量要将我们击垮时，就应该停下来提醒自己，我们其实有能力、且有责任去参与塑造历史。

Lessons from the past

历史之鉴

Zachary Davis: What was the reception when it came out?

扎克里·戴维斯：这本书出版后，读者反响如何？

Amir Eshel: One has to understand that Arendt was rejected by many because she was not an established scholar, not in the field of history, not in the field of political science. She did not hold a position at the university. She was this European emigre who, as a freelance writer, sat down and wrote this mammoth work, you know, claiming to explain to us what had just befell, you know, global history.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：我们有必要知道一点。很多人不认可阿伦特，是因为她不是真正的学者，在历史领域不是，在政治学领域也不是。她没有在大学里担任职务。这个身为自由撰稿人的欧洲移民写了这部巨著，声称要向我们解释世界史上刚刚发生的事情。

Amir Eshel: Overall, people understood, intellectuals and scholars understood that this is an important intervention. Right after she published it, she began to be invited, you know, to give talks, to attend conferences to, you know, have various appointments, as, you know, teaching, you know, a visiting professor, various places. And because she was this very lively, you know, sharp minded-intellectual, very quickly, she emerged as a powerful voice in American intellectual life.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：不过总的来说，知识分子和学者们都知道这是一本的重要的书。这本书出版后，阿伦特开始被邀请去做讲座、参加会议，被几个学校邀请去讲学或聘为客座教授。这个活泼、头脑敏锐的知识分子很快成为美国知识界的重要人物。

Zachary Davis: After The Origins of Totalitarianism, she continued to write on these themes. In 1963 she published Eichmann in Jerusalem about the trial of Nazi lieutenant colonel Otto Adolf Eichmann.

扎克里·戴维斯：在《极权主义的起源》之后，她继续就这些主题来写作。1963年，她出版了《艾希曼在耶路撒冷》，讲述了对纳粹中校奥托·阿道夫·艾希曼的审判。

Zachary Davis: In that book, she explains how the ordinary Germans carrying out Nazi policies, like Eichmann, were not inherently “evil” people with dark, bloodthirsty hearts. Instead, they were simply normal people. But totalitarian regimes can cause even normal, otherwise “good” people to do terrible things because it just becomes their job. It was an uncomfortable, controversial argument.

扎克里·戴维斯：在那本书中，她解释了执行纳粹政策的普通德国人，比如艾希曼，并不是天生的“邪恶”之人，他们没有黑暗、嗜血的内心。相反，他们只是普通人。但极权主义政权会让原本正常的好人也做出可怕的事情，因为这些事情成为了他们的任务。这个观点叫人不安，引起了争议。

Amir Eshel: And I think to a certain extent, her death in 1975, for a while at least, together with the Eichmann book obscured her somewhat from our sight and attention. And for a few decades, people did not read a lot Arendt, or only a few did in intellectual circles. She was not that much discussed and not that much regarded.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：我觉得在某种程度上，1975年阿伦特去世以及她写的关于艾希曼的书让我们不再那么关注她，至少在一段时间里是这样的。这几十年里，人们很少读阿伦特的书，只有知识界的少数人在读她。人们对她的讨论和关注都不多。

Amir Eshel: Following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, 1989, and following 9/11, there was this resurgence of interest in her entire work. And often we go back to The Origins as a major achievement. People turn to Arendt as someone who can really offer us very important points of departure in thinking through the circumstances of our time. It's not that she had everything right. It's not that every item in this 478 or 479 pages is correct, historically speaking.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：1989年柏林墙倒塌之后，还有911事件之后，人们对她的所有作品又有兴趣了。我们往往会回溯到《极权主义的起源》，把它看作阿伦特的主要成就。人们觉得阿伦特可以在我们思考当下时代环境时，为我们提供很重要的出发点。当然这并不是说她说的全部都对。从历史的角度来说，这478到479页原文中并非每一点都是对的。

Amir Eshel: But the questions she's asking and the perspectives she's opening it are still valid today when we are thinking about the poisoning of a Russian politician, as they were, you know, 1951. And when we are thinking about how to react to the elections in Belarus, in which, you know, a set of lies are used in order to help a despot to remain in power, to name only two very recent examples.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：但如今，当思考一些事情的时候，阿伦特提出的一些问题和她提供的一些视角仍然像1951年一样能派上用场。比如最近的两个事情，一是俄罗斯政治家中毒，二是白俄罗斯的选举。有人认为在后一个事情中，一系列谎言被用来让一个专制者继续掌权。

Zachary Davis: One legacy of The Origins of Totalitarianism is that it revealed that the past is never fully past. Imagine a cocktail party, someone comes up to you and says, “Professor Eshel, how did Origins of Totalitarianism change the world?”

扎克里·戴维斯：《极权主义的起源》揭示了过去的事情永远不会完全过去。假如在一个鸡尾酒会上，有人走过来问您：“埃舍尔教授，《极权主义的起源》是如何改变世界的？”您会怎么回答呢？

Amir Eshel: It changed the world because it made it clear to us that, first, the end of the Second World War is not the end of a control, total rule, the drive for total domination. It taught us that this cloud, this shadow, this prospect is always with us each and every single day. Totalitarianism at its worst, yes, Nazi Germany, Stalinist Soviet Union. But it never went away, and it will never go away. It's there to stay.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：它改变了世界，因为它让我们清楚地认识到，两次世界大战的结束并不意味着想要寻求绝对控制、绝对统治与绝对支配的动力会消失殆尽。它告诉我们，极权主义的阴云会永远笼罩着我们。德国纳粹时期和苏联的斯大林主义时期是极权主义最严重的的时候。但极权主义从未消失，也不会消失。它的阴影会一直存在于世。

Amir Eshel: It's writing history not as a story of that which had happened and is past, but writing history now to speak with Faulkner, along the lines of a past that is never dead. In fact, it's never even past.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：借用福克纳的话来说，书中写的并非过往烟云，而是“一段永远不会逝去的历史”。实际上，这段历史从来没有逝去。

Zachary Davis: It's so tempting, and you still see it, with a figure like Hitler to say, “Oh, this is singular evil, singular badness. We're not like them.” And I hear in your teaching of Arendt a more challenging truth, which is that we live in a time in which that danger is always with us, and unless we're vigilant, it could return at any time.

扎克里·戴维斯：对于希特勒这样的人，你会说：“他们都是彻头彻尾的坏人，我们和他们不一样。” 这样的观点很吸引人。然而从您对阿伦特的介绍中，我听到了一个更惊人的事实，那就是如今危险就在我们身边，如果我们不保持警惕，极权主义随时都有可能卷土重来。

Amir Eshel: I could not agree more. And by the way, Arendt wanted to call the book “Elements of Totalitarianism,” not “Origins.” Again, you know, we go back to the notion of facets, various facets of the phenomenon. So, I think elements of totalitarianism are not just what we see in the political arena. We see elements of totalitarianism also in what we call, you know, “the corporate world.”

阿米尔·埃舍尔：我非常同意。顺便说一下，阿伦特想把这本书起名为“极权主义的要素”，而不是“极权主义的起源”。话说回来，这个现象可以体现在多种层面上。我觉得极权主义的要素不仅体现在我们所看到的政治领域，在商业社会也时时可见。

Amir Eshel: There are corporations out there—and I won’t, you know, mention names, I think the names are kind of obvious—in which one person determines, dictates, you know, prescribes, controls in ways that I think bear every single threat that a totalitarian regime does. So, also in this regard, Arendt, I think, has a lot to say to us.

阿米尔·埃舍尔：有些公司——名字我就不提了，大家也清楚——公司里都是一言堂，一个人做决策、发号施令，公司面临着和极权主义政权一样的种种威胁。所以在这方面，阿伦特的很多思想都可以供我们参考。

Zachary Davis: Arendt’s book remains influential because she revealed horrifying, yet timeless truths about human nature, and she showed how totalitarian regimes can form given the right conditions. But for Arendt, this book was more than just a warning.

扎克里·戴维斯：阿伦特的书仍然很有影响力，因为她揭示了人性的可怕而又永恒的真实一面，展现了极权主义政权如何在合适的条件下诞生。但对阿伦特来说，这本书不仅仅是警钟。

Amir Eshel: You know, in many ways, it's a very bleak book because it displays, you know, some of the most—how shall I put it, you know, difficult to absorb facts about what humans are capable of. The book is a mirror to us. I think at the end of the book, there's obviously the danger that one would end, you know, on a very, you know, desperate note, you know, asking, you know, her or himself, “What is it that, you know, that can be done?” But then she writes the last paragraph. And for me, you know… This is usually, when I teach Arendt, you know, this is usually where I begin, you know, with the last paragraph. And she says,

阿米尔·埃舍尔：从很多方面讲，这本书都很消极，因为它揭示了一些人类最难以接受的事实。这本书是我们的一面镜子。有的人快要读完这本书的时候，可能会生出一些消极的念头，绝望地追问自己有没有办法来改变这种情况。不过在全书的结尾，阿伦特写了这样一段话，这也常常是我教阿伦特的作品时最先提到的一段话。她是这么说的：

“But there remains also the truth that every end in history necessarily contains a new beginning; this beginning is the promise, the only ‘message’ which the end can ever produce. Beginning, before it becomes a historical event, is the supreme capacity of man; politically, it is identical with man's freedom. Initium ut esset homo creatus est—'that the beginning be made man was created,’ said Augustine. This beginning is guaranteed by each new birth; it is indeed every man.”

“但是仍然存在着一种真理，历史的每一次终结必然包含着一个新的开端；这种开端就是一种希望，是终结所能够产生的惟一‘神示’。开端在变成一个历史事件之前，就是人的最高能力；从政治角度来说，它与人的自由是一致的。奥古斯丁说：‘创造了人，一个开端形成。’这个开端由每一次新生来保证；这个开端确实就是每一个人。”

Zachary Davis: History provides us with lessons from the past. By learning about the successes and failures of earlier times, we can imagine and construct a brighter future. Arendt revealed how one very dark reality can develop under the right conditions. By learning from her text, we can, if we choose, steer humanity in a direction that works for all.

扎克里·戴维斯：历史带给了我们经验与教训。通过了解过去的成功和失败，我们可以设想并构建一个更光明的未来。阿伦特揭示了在合适的条件下一个可怕的情况如何孕育而生。学习了她的这本书后，如果我们愿意，我们便可以引领人类朝着惠及所有人的方向发展。

Zachary Davis: Writ Large is a production of Ximalaya. Writ Large is produced by Jack Pombriant, Liza French, and me, Zachary Davis. Script editing is by Galen Beebe. We get help from Feiran Du, Ariel Liu and Monica Zhang. Our theme song is by Ian Coss. Don’t miss an episode. Subscribe today in the Ximalaya app. Thanks for listening. See you next time.

扎卡里·戴维斯：本节目由喜马拉雅独家制作播出。感谢您的收听，我们下期再见！