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Next week, when Donald Trump strokes a Bible and requests the help of God as president, even a large share of his own fans will doubt that he means either gesture. Thirty-eight per cent of them, as well as most Americans in general, have him down as “not too” or “not at all” religious. I won’t presume to know the inner life of a stranger. But as far as the public is concerned, the US has had, and is about to have again, a leader who is at least atheist-adjacent. Within my lifetime, this was unthinkable.
下周，当唐纳德•特朗普以总统身份手握《圣经》并请求上帝的帮助时，即使是他的大部分支持者也会怀疑他是否真心实意。38%的支持者，以及大多数美国人，认为他“不是很”或“根本不”信教。我不敢妄测一个陌生人的内心生活。但就公众而言，美国曾经有过，并即将再次拥有一位至少与无神论相近的领导人。在我有生之年，这是不可想象的。
It is worth pausing to mark little liberal wins, such as the creeping secularisation of the most important country on Earth. Seventy per cent of Americans were members of a place of worship as recently as the millennium. Now fewer than half are. The religious right, while still a force, as Dobbs showed, has to be more covert and euphemistic than it was under Reagan or either Bush. Trump keeps the agents of God around him, no doubt. But on what a tellingly short leash.
值得停下来庆祝一些小的自由主义胜利，比如地球上最重要国家的逐渐世俗化。就在千禧年时，70%的美国人还是宗教场所的成员。现在不到一半了。正如多布斯所显示的，宗教右翼虽然仍然是一股力量，但必须比在里根或布什时期更加隐蔽和委婉。特朗普身边无疑围绕着上帝的代理人，但他们被拴在多么短的链子上，这一点很能说明问题。
A liberal looking for some shards of light in the general murk doesn’t have to make do with this. Here is another intellectual victory so total and pervasive that it tends to pass without notice:
一个自由主义者在普遍的阴霾中寻找一丝光明，不必仅仅满足于此。这里还有另一个如此彻底和广泛的智力胜利，以至于常常被忽视：
When was the last time someone suggested “de-growth”, and received a hearing? When did it last seem deep and clever to name “wellbeing” as something that should displace gross domestic product? Pre-Covid? Almost everyone in public life now has to pay at least lip service to economic growth: in Europe, which doesn’t have enough, in the US, which does and wants more, in India, which hopes to be a rich country by 2047.
上一次有人提出“去增长”并获得重视是什么时候？上一次将“福祉”视为应取代国内生产总值的理念显得深刻而聪明是什么时候？是在新冠疫情之前吗？如今，几乎所有公共生活中的人都至少要口头上支持经济增长：在欧洲，因为增长不足；在美国，因为已有增长但仍想要更多；在印度，因为希望到2047年成为富裕国家。
Trump keeps the agents of God around him, no doubt. But on what a tellingly short leash
毫无疑问，特朗普身边总是围绕着上帝的使者。但他们却被拴在一条显然很短的链子上
“It’s time we admitted there’s more to life than money,” said David Cameron, who grew up in a rectory, though which wing of it he favoured I don’t know. A prime minister who spoke that sentence in public now wouldn’t see out the week. There is nothing like economic stagnation to teach a country that anything you might rate above money — the preservation of nature, universal access to art, leisure time for relationships — itself depends on surplus income. GDP, while not everything, is almost everything. The priorities of liberal capitalism are harder to question than in the very recent past.
“是时候承认生活中有比金钱更重要的东西了，”戴维•卡梅伦(David Cameron)说道，他是在一个教区长住宅中长大的，尽管我不知道他更喜欢哪一翼。如今，若有一位首相在公开场合说出这句话，他可能撑不过一周。没有什么比经济停滞更能教会一个国家，任何你可能认为比金钱更重要的东西——自然的保护、艺术的普及、用于人际关系的闲暇时间——本身都依赖于盈余收入。国内生产总值(GDP)虽然不是一切，但几乎是所有。自由资本主义的优先事项比过去更难以质疑。
And even this isn’t the ultimate fillip for we who believe in that cause. Five winters ago, news of a viral pandemic started to trickle through. When the lockdown began, I thought it would be 2025 before tourism, nightlife and the ambient sound of cars would come back in full. Other people I thought I knew well hoped that it would be longer. There is a romantic and almost medieval distaste for modern life that simmers away in societies that have been rich for a long time. It isn’t confined to nature-is-healing airheads. It drove TE Lawrence to the desert, and enamoured George Kennan of pre-industrial Russia.
即便如此，这也不是我们这些信仰这一事业的人所追求的最终激励。五个冬天前，关于病毒大流行的消息开始慢慢传来。当封锁开始时，我以为要到2025年，旅游业、夜生活和汽车的背景声才能完全恢复。我以为我很了解的其他人则希望时间更长。在那些长期富裕的社会中，存在一种对现代生活的浪漫而几乎是中世纪式的厌恶。这种情绪不仅限于那些认为“自然在愈合”的空想者。它驱使T•E•劳伦斯(TE Lawrence)(T.E. Lawrence)走向沙漠，也让乔治•凯南(George Kennan)迷恋上了前工业化的俄罗斯。
Well, it lost. My prediction was pessimistic by, what, three years? Tourism is rife. I can’t get a table at Goodbye Horses. New York has introduced a congestion charge. In the end, as soon as restrictions eased, people voted with their feet for liberal modernity, even if few of them would think to call it that.
好吧，它输了。我的预测悲观了，大概三年？旅游业非常兴旺。我在“告别马匹”餐厅都订不到位子。纽约已经引入了拥堵费。最终，一旦限制放松，人们就用脚投票支持自由的现代生活，尽管很少有人会想到这样称呼它。
One of the dangers of being excessively online is that you over-index small-time “trends”. Yes, quack science is spreading. This or that gasbag reactionary has two million followers. But these things have to be set against larger defeats for the superstitious, the nostalgic and the anti-modern: defeats so structural as to be hard to spot.
过度上网的危险之一是你可能会过度关注一些小规模的“趋势”。确实，伪科学正在传播。某个夸夸其谈的反动派可能有两百万粉丝。但这些现象必须与更大范围内迷信、怀旧和反现代主义者的失败相对比：这些失败是如此结构性，以至于难以察觉。
In retrospect, it was a deceptively civilised moment when Trump couldn’t name his favourite Bible verse during a TV interview. (“I don’t want to get into specifics.”) Thomas Jefferson had to go through brilliant circumlocutions to pass off his beliefs as something mistakable as Christian faith. It is possible that one or two recent presidents have slyly padded out whatever quantum of religious feeling dwelt inside them. Now? Going through the motions is enough. Like no other modern figure, Trump shows that liberalism is beleaguered, and quietly rampant.
回想起来，当特朗普在电视采访中无法说出他最喜欢的《圣经》经文时，那是一个看似文明的时刻。托马斯•杰斐逊(Thomas Jefferson)不得不通过巧妙的迂回表达将他的信仰伪装成基督教信仰。可能有一两位最近的总统巧妙地夸大了他们内心的宗教情感。现在？走过场就足够了。与其他现代人物不同，特朗普显示出自由主义正受到威胁，同时又悄然盛行。
Email Janan at janan.ganesh@ft.com
给嘉南发送电子邮件janan.ganesh@ft.com