陌上美國 Moshang USA
獨立快捷的時評和美國生活信息谘詢
01.翻譯
最近我收到了大學同學會50周年紀念的年冊。原本大都都是愉快的回憶，有一篇文章討論國家當前的糟糕狀況，並將其（當然）歸咎於共和黨人。一開始我很生氣。但後來我開始把它看作是我這一代的標誌，嬉皮士的成績單。
我是真正的嬰兒潮一代，出生於二戰後的十年。當時美國麵臨著真正的問題：公然的種族歧視、核戰爭的威脅、共產主義者對美國政府的滲透、小兒麻痹症和亞洲流感疫情——但我們也有國家的團結，相信美國從根本上來說是個好的國家，可以領導世界走向正義、民主價值觀、強勁的經濟和相對和平的時代，至少在我們參與越戰之前是如此。
在我十幾和20多歲的時候，《民權法案》連同各種平權行動的政策和條款一起通過。這些為許多人提供了很多的機會。但是，我們又是如何走到現在，大部分人不滿並相信我們有更多的係統性種族主義、係統性不平等和係統性不公正？
好吧，讓我來告訴你怎麽回事：我們——我的同夥——幹的。
我們不再有擊敗國家社會主義（納粹）和日本帝國主義這樣的統一目標。我們漫無目的地四處尋找可以相信的東西，一些選擇反共產主義，一些選擇公民權利，一些選擇環保主義，還有一些選擇神秘的宗教。然後是嬉皮士，他們是 “垮掉的一代人(Beatniks)”的低調繼承者，隻是不玩詩歌、哲學和邦戈鼓。
最初，嬉皮士是一小群人，其主要目標是標新立異，但反越戰讓他們的目標擴大了，壯大了他們的隊伍，使他們更容易被普通美國人接受。最終，它們成為一種生活方式和一種政治力量。
嬉皮士是如何把我們帶到今天的？那就是通過，主流化他們的口頭禪：“性、毒品和搖滾樂。”
嬉皮士摒棄了排斥不檢點性行為的社會規範，轉而提倡，性就像大麻和LSD（迷幻藥）一樣，隻是無害的樂趣，“如果感覺好，就去做”。
由此帶來的濫交產生了皰疹、艾滋病和意外懷孕。如果父親不願意（或未知），好吧，嘿，甜心，你不需要男人，你可以自己搞定。單親家庭現在占白人家庭的33%和黑人家庭的66%。
然而，一天隻有24小時，你需要其中一些時間來吃飯、睡覺，如果可能還要工作。因此，如果沒有兩個成年人合作撫養家庭，那麽就沒有太多時間來輔導孩子做代數作業，甚至沒有時間跟蹤孩子們在哪裏以及他們在做什麽。這些孩子在貧困、缺乏紀律和高犯罪可能性的情況下長大，所有這些都對他們不利。貧困困擾著30%的單身母親及其家庭，對比之下，已婚夫婦的這一比例為8%。
處於或低於聯邦貧困線的家庭中，遭受暴力侵害的比率是高收入家庭的兩倍多。布魯金斯學院（智庫）發現，“被監禁的30歲出頭的人群，高比例來自貧困和單親家庭。”學業成績也一樣下滑。單親家庭的孩子求學時間上平均要少一年多，大學畢業率不到雙親家庭的一半。如果警察100%不帶種族偏見，僅這一統計數據就可以解釋，他們對不同種族的人使用武力的差異。
然而，嬉皮左派犯下的最大罪惡是，對麻醉藥品使用的常規化。藥品現在在美國是每年價值1000億美元的產業。這筆錢流向了犯罪帝國和恐怖分子。美國每年死於藥物過量的人數，比越戰中的人數還要多。
毒品衝擊吸毒者及其家人，帶來犯罪、貧困、與警察衝突，甚至入獄。有吸毒前科的人，可能會失去聯邦福利，例如食品券、難以獲得公共住房、降低找工作的可能、難被大學錄取，以及被一些就業類型限製。
然後是搖滾樂。那有什麽不好？好吧，我們不是在談論“希望她們都能成為加州女孩(Wish They All Could Be California Girls)”或“搖擺(The Twist)”。搖滾音樂就其本身而言，並沒有那麽糟糕，而且大部分都很有趣。當然，它助長了青少年的叛逆，但青少年一直都很叛逆。
搖滾樂及其後續者做了兩件大事：首先，它將音樂從娛樂變成了大生意，具有影響立法和聯邦通信委員會的能力。1964年，我隻花5美元（按當前美元計算不到50美元）就可以參加披頭士樂隊的音樂會；而到了2018年，科切拉音樂節(Coachella Festival)的平均價格超過700美元。
其次，流行音樂對日常禮節和道德水平下滑的影響越來越大。1967年，滾石樂隊的歌，“我們一起過夜(Let’s Spend the Night Together)”，被認為可恥，許多DJ都不會播放。到了1980年，麥當娜關於少女懷孕的小曲，“爸爸不要說教(Papa Don’t Preach)”（至少裏麵的主人公肯定她已經下定決心保留孩子）引起了爭議。
現在我們有殺手邁克在唱：“我是一袋JJ，把我放在你的嘴唇裏(I’m a bag of dicks, put me to your lips)”，卡迪·B和梅根·斯塔林(Megan Thee Stallion)，爬上了金曲單百強的榜首，讓全世界都知道“這房子裏有一些妓女(there’s some whores in this house)”；還有Body Count，“警察殺手，你比我好。 警察殺手，TM的警察暴行！ 警察殺手，我知道你媽媽很傷心，（F她！）警察殺手，但今晚我們會平局，是的！ 去死去死豬去死去死！ 去TM的警察！ 去TM的警察！ 去TM的警察！ 去TM的警察！(Cop killer, better you than me. Cop killer, fxxk police brutality! Cop killer, I know your momma's grieving, (fxxk her!) Cop killer, but tonight we get even, yeah! Die, die, die pig, die! Fxxk the police! Fxxk the police! Fxxk the police! Fxxk the police!）”
以上隻是讓你知道一下，你的孩子在聽些什麽歌。
那麽還有什麽疑問，這些如何導致了反社會行為、貧困、不平等和與法律衝突的現象嗎？需要明確的是，所有這些都是個人選擇的結果。社會不會強迫任何人濫交、吸毒或縱容嘻哈和黑幫說唱所體現的價值觀。但這些選擇會產生後果，其中許多涉及與執法部門的互動。一些衝突將導致使用武力，尤其是在對方不遵守警察命令的情況下。其中一些選擇甚至帶來死亡。但造成這些情況的不是歧視；它是個人的行為和選擇——與嬉皮左派推廣的一致。
【作者簡介】湯姆·翰佛(Tom Hafer)先生是設計攔截導彈、無人機係統的專家，本科畢業於MIT。文章首發：https://amgreatness.com/2021/10/27/not-ok-boomer/ 經作者授權“陌上美國”獨家翻譯並轉發原文。
02.原文English
Not OK, Boomer
How the Hippie-Left contributed to inequality and racial disparities.
By Thomas F. Hafer
I recently received my 50th college reunion class book. Amidst the otherwise-pleasant memories was an article discussing the current abject state of the Nation and ascribing it (of course) to Republicans. At first I was infuriated, but later I came to see it as a report card on my generation’s hallmark creation, the Hippie.
I was born into the real baby boom, the cohort that was born in the 10 years after World War II. America had real problems then: overt racial discrimination, the threat of nuclear war, Communist infiltration into Government, polio and Asian flu epidemics – but we also had National unity, a belief that America was a fundamentally good country and could lead the world to just democratic values, a strong economy, and a time of relative tranquility, at least prior to Viet Nam.
During my teens and twenties, the Civil Rights Act was passed along with various affirmative action policies and contracting set-asides. These provided enormous benefits for many people. So how did we get from there to where we are today, with large segments of the population believing that we have worsened systemic racism, systemic inequality, and systemic injustice? Well, I’ll tell you how: we did it – my cohort.
We no longer had the unifying goals of beating the National Socialists (Nazis) and Imperial Japan. We wandered aimlessly looking for something to believe in, some choosing anti-Communism, some Civil Rights, some environmentalism, and still others occult religions. The sole social creation of my cohort was the Hippie. Hippies were the low-key successors to the Beatniks but without the poetry, philosophy and bongo drums. Originally, Hippies were a small group whose main goal was to get stoned. But Viet Nam resistance broadened their goals, swelled their ranks and made them more acceptable to ordinary Americans. Eventually they became a way of life and a political force.
And how did the Hippies get us to where we are today? Answer: by mainstreaming their mantra: “Sex, drugs, and rock and roll”.
Hippies tore up the social codes that frowned on indiscriminate sex and instead promoted the notion that sex, like pot and LSD, is just harmless fun, and “if it feels good, do it”. The resulting promiscuity produced Herpes, AIDS – and babies. And if the father was unwilling (or unknown) – hey baby, you don’t need a man, you can do it all yourself. Single-parent families now constitute 33% of White families and 66% of Black families (1).
However, there are only twenty four hours in the day, and you need some of them for eating, sleeping, and possibly even working. So there isn’t a lot of time for helping with the algebra homework or even for keeping track of where the kids are and what they are doing. These kids are brought up with the odds of poverty, lack of discipline, and likelihood of being involved with crime all stacked against them. Poverty afflicts 30% of solo mothers and their families compared to 8% of married couples (2).
Persons in poor households at or below the Federal Poverty Level had more than double the rate of violent victimization as persons in high-income households (3). The Brookings Institution found that “individuals incarcerated in their early 30s are much more likely to have grown up in poverty, in single-parent families” (4). Educational achievement is also degraded. Children from single-parent homes finish their education with over a year’s less schooling and graduate from college at less than half the rate of those from two-parent homes (5). If police were 100% racially neutral, this statistic alone would explain the seeming disparity in use of force between races.
However, the greatest evil perpetrated by the Hippie-left is the normalization of the use of narcotic drugs. Drugs are now a $100 billion dollar per year industry in the United States (6). This money funds criminal empires and terrorists (7). More people in the US die from drug overdoses each year than in all of the Viet Nam conflict (8). Drug use affects both the user and their families, causing crime, poverty, encounters with the police, and sometimes prison sentences. Drug convictions can result in loss of federal benefits such as food stamps, difficulties in obtaining public housing, reduced likelihood of obtaining a job, difficulty in getting accepted to college, and restrictions on the type of employment available (9).
And then there’s Rock and Roll. What’s so bad about that? Well, by itself, Rock and Roll is not so bad, and much of it is fun. Of course, it fostered teenage rebelliousness, but teens have always been rebellious.
It also did two important things. First, it transformed music from entertainment to Big Business, with the ability to influence legislation and the Federal Communications Commission. In 1964 I could have gone to a Beatles concert for $5; in 2018 the average price for the Coachella festival was over $700.
Second, it kept pushing to degrade moral standards farther and farther. In 1967 “Let’s Spend the Night Together” was considered scandalous and many DJs would not play it. Now we have Killer Mike singing “I’m a bag of dicks, put me to your lips” and Body Count with “Cop killer, better you than me. Cop killer, fxxk police brutality! Cop killer, I know your momma's grieving, (fxxk her!) Cop killer, but tonight we get even, yeah! Die, die, die pig, die! Fxxk the police! Fxxk the police! Fxxk the police! Fxxk the police!”
Just so you know what your kids are listening to.
Is there any mystery as to how these might lead to poverty, inequality, and adverse interactions with the law? But to be clear, all of these are the result of personal choices. Society does not force anyone to have indiscriminate sex, to take drugs, or to condone the values embodied in gangster rap. But these choices have consequences, many of which involve interactions with law enforcement. Some of these interactions will involve the use of force, especially if the subject does not comply with police orders. And some of those will lead to death. But it is not discrimination that causes this; it is the actions and choices of the individual – the same choices that the Hippie-left popularized.
References:
- 1.https://actrochester.org/children-youth/single-parent-families-by-race-ethnicity
- 2.https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/04/27/about-one-third-of-u-s-children-are-living-with-an-unmarried-parent/
- 3.https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=5137
- 4.https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/es_20180314_looneyincarceration_final.pdf
- 5.https://www.educationnext.org/one-parent-students-leave-school-earlier/
- 6.https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2019-08-20/americans-spent-146-billion-on-illegal-drugs-in-2016-study-says#:~:text=Study%3A%20Americans%20Spent%20%24146%20Billion%20on%20Illegal%20Drugs%20in%202016&text=20%2C%202019%2C%20at%2012%3A01%20a.m.&text=People%20in%20the%20U.S.%20spent,from%20the%20nonprofit%20RAND%20Corporation.
- 7.https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/drug-trafficking-and-the-financing-of-terrorism.html
- 8.https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db356.htm#:~:text=In%202018%2C%20there%20were%2067%2C367,than%20in%202017%20(21.7).
- 9.https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/10/02/how-can-a-criminal-record-haunt-you-for-the-rest-of-your-life
Tom Hafer developed systems for neutralizing rockets and drones. He currently coaches teenage robotics teams.
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