第2753期:The hidden logic of human harmony(5)

The logic of common knowledge and social relationships explains why we all deplore the hypocrisy and white lies and role playing of everyday social interaction, but we wouldn't want to live without them.公共知识与社会关系的逻辑，解释了为什么我们一方面都厌恶日常社交中的虚伪、小谎言以及角色扮演，但另一方面又不愿意没有它们的生活。As dystopian comedies like "Liar Liar" play out.就像反乌托邦式喜剧《大话王》（Liar Liar）所展现的那样。Our relationships are underpinned by a common understanding of limitless loyalty and generosity.我们的关系是建立在一种“无限忠诚与慷慨”的共同理解之上的。Privately, we know they're fictions, but making these rude realities common knowledge would pollute the pool of common assumptions that allow us to get along.私下里，我们都知道这些是虚构的，但如果把这些残酷的现实变成公共知识，就会污染那一池让我们得以相处的共同假设。We also have to get along in less intimate relationships, and in those cases, we rely on norms: ways of living together that aren’t written down by lawgivers or enforced by the police, but exist because everyone knows they exist.我们还需要在不那么亲密的关系中相处，在这些情况下，我们依赖于“规范”——它们不是立法者写下的，也不是由警察强制执行的，而是因为每个人都知道它们存在，所以它们才存在。In social life, basic civility depends on norms such as that you don't brazenly lie, you don't insult people to their faces, you don't prosecute personal vendettas.在社会生活中，基本的礼貌依赖于一些规范，比如：你不能厚颜无耻地撒谎、不能当面侮辱他人、不能公报私仇。In the anarchic global arena, peace depends on norms such as that nation states are immortal, national borders are grandfathered in, conquest is unacceptable, and nuclear weapons are unthinkable.在无政府状态的全球舞台上，和平依赖于一些规范，比如：国家是永久存在的、国界是既定且不可轻易更改的、征服行为是不可接受的、使用核武器是不可想象的。These norms arepropped upby nothing but common acceptance, and so they're vulnerable to imploding if they are overtly flouted, or even if there is loose talk about flouting them.这些规范仅仅依靠“普遍接受”来支撑，因此一旦被公然违背，甚至只是被随意谈论要违背，它们就有可能瞬间崩塌。I hope that, having explained the logic behind human harmony, I don't have to explain how these norms are currently under threat or what is at stake if we lose them.我希望，在解释了人类和谐背后的逻辑之后，我就不必再解释这些规范目前是如何受到威胁，以及如果失去它们会付出怎样的代价。As a man once said, "What's there to say? It's so obvious."正如有人曾经说过的：“这还有什么好说的？太明显了。”