不要用單一身份標籤加劇分裂

I’m a fan of Catalonia but Catalan separatists are separating people. Their slogans say, “Spain steals from us!” or “Catalonia is not Spain”. Rhetoric like this divides people into opposite groups, each with a single identity: us (Catalans) and them (Spaniards). You must be one thing or the other. The government in Madrid unintentionally sharpens this divide by locking up separatist leaders.

我非常喜歡加泰羅尼亞，但加泰羅尼亞的分裂主義者正在讓人民分裂。他們的口號是，“西班牙偷走了我們的東西！”或者“加泰羅尼亞不是西班牙”。此類口號把人民分成了兩個對立的羣體，每個人都有一個單一身份：我們（加泰羅尼亞人）和他們（西班牙人）。你必須是非此即彼。西班牙政府拘禁分裂主義領導人，無意中加劇了這種分裂。

Someone else who thinks in terms of single identity is Donald Trump. As he tells it, you’re American or Muslim; you’re a real American or a liberal elitist. There’s an uncomplicated joy to single identity: find your essence, then taunt an enemy who doesn’t share it. And along with your identity comes a free set of opinions that you never need to test against reality.

還有一個以單一身份來思考問題的人是唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)。正如其所言，你是美國人或者是穆斯林，你是一個真正的美國人或者是自由主義精英。單一身份有一種簡單的快樂：找到本質身份，然後嘲諷非同類身份的敵人。與你的身份一起出現的還有一套永遠不需要經過現實檢驗的隨意觀點。

But thinking in single-identity terms breeds conflict. JH Elliott, the British historian and expert on Spanish history, describes Catalonia as “a very unhappy society over the last year or two”, in which “families have not been talking to each other”. Some disappointed Catalan separatists could easily morph into a terrorist movement like the Basque ETA or the IRA.

但是以單一身份思考問題會導致衝突。專注研究西班牙歷史的英國曆史學家JH?埃利奧特(JH Elliott)將加泰羅尼亞描述爲“過去一兩年來一個非常不快樂的社會”，在這個社會裏，“家人之間互不溝通”。一些不滿的加泰羅尼亞分裂主義者可能很容易演變爲“巴斯克祖國與自由組織”(ETA)或愛爾蘭共和國軍(IRA)這樣的恐怖主義集團。

Amartya Sen, the philosopher who won the Nobel Prize for economics in 1998, has a better idea: ditch single identity, and understand that every person has multiple identities. Sen began thinking about these issues aged 11. One day in 1944, a Muslim labourer named Kader Mia staggered bleeding into the Sen family garden in Dhaka (then in British India). Mia had just been knifed during Hindu-Muslim street riots. Sen recalls in his book Identity and Violence, “I could not do much for Kader Mia as he lay bleeding with his head on my lap.” Mia was rushed to hospital by Sen’s father but died there.

1998年獲得諾貝爾經濟學獎的哲學家阿瑪蒂亞?森(Amartya Sen)有一個更好的想法：摒棄單一身份，並且明白每個人都有多重身份。森在11歲的時候就開始思考這些問題。1944年的一天，在達卡（當時在英屬印度），一個名叫卡德?米亞(Kader Mia)的穆斯林工人流着血，跌跌撞撞地走進了森家的花園。米亞在印度教徒與穆斯林的街頭騷亂中被捅傷了。森在《身份與暴力》(Identity and Violence)一書中回憶說：“卡德?米亞躺在我腿上流血的時候，我無能爲力。”米亞很快被森的父親送往醫院，但終因傷勢過重死在了那裏。

Sen could never forget him. Mia would have lived if his Hindu assailant had recognised him as a fellow Indian, Bengali or poor male, instead of seeing him as a Muslim. So who was Mia? Who are we? Sen has a brilliantly simple answer: Mia had multiple identities. So do we all.

森永遠不會忘記他。如果那個行兇的印度教徒把他看作是印度人、孟加拉人或者貧窮的男人，而不是把他視爲穆斯林的話，那麼米亞就不會死。那麼米亞是誰？我們又是誰？森有一個非常簡單的答案：米亞有多重身份，我們都有多重身份。

Nobody is just one thing. It’s misguided to say, for instance, “I am Hindu but you are Muslim” (although many in today’s India of Hindu nationalist prime minister Narendra Modi are saying exactly that). No person is “only” Muslim, or only Catalan. It’s ludicrous to file millions of people — of different life experiences, genders, ages, classes and passions — under just one category. Worse, dividing people into single identities automatically sets them against each other. If you keep telling somebody that he’s only Catalan and utterly unlike non-Catalans, he might eventually believe it.

沒有人只有一種身份。例如，一個受到誤導的說法是，“我是印度教徒，而你是穆斯林”（儘管在當今印度教民族主義總理納倫德拉?莫迪(Narendra Modi)領導下的印度，許多人正是這麼說的）。沒有人“只是”穆斯林，或者“只是”加泰羅尼亞人。將數以百萬計有着不同生活經歷、性別、年齡、社會階層和情感的人僅僅歸於某一類是很荒唐的。更糟糕的是，將人們以單一身份自動區分開，會讓他們彼此對立。如果你不斷告訴某個人，他只是加泰羅尼亞人，與非加泰羅尼亞人完全不同，他最終可能會相信這一點。

In fact, in a poll by Metroscopia for El País newspaper last month, 76 per cent of people in Catalonia said they were both Catalan and Spanish. That’s why demonstrators in Barcelona for Spanish unity carried banners with the Catalan, Spanish and European flags surrounded by a heart. Other protesters used a slogan in Spanish and Catalan: “Hablemos/parlem” (“Let’s talk”). My favourite was a banner saying, “A flag is just a piece of cloth.”

實際上，在民調機構Metroscopia上月爲西班牙《國家報》(El País)進行的一項民意調查中，76%的加泰羅尼亞人表示，他們既是加泰羅尼亞人也是西班牙人。在巴塞羅那，支持西班牙統一的示威人羣高舉的橫幅上畫的是，加泰羅尼亞區旗、西班牙國旗和歐洲旗幟被一顆心環繞着，原因就在這裏。還有一些抗議者使用的是西班牙語和加泰羅尼亞語口號：“Hablemos/parlem”（讓我們討論吧）。我最喜歡的一面橫幅上寫着：“國旗只是一塊布。”

Only 19 per cent of people in Metroscopia’s survey called themselves exclusively Catalan. And each of them will have had many other identities besides. A Catalan separatist might be a thirtysomething mother, daughter, pharmacist, Barcelona native, Katy Perry fan, European et cetera. She probably shares some of these identities with a Spanish nationalist in Madrid. As Sen says: “The main hope of harmony in our troubled world lies in the plurality of our identities, which cut across each other and work against sharp divisions.” Nobody is a caricature made of one or two demographic factors. We’re not all the same but we do have commonalities.

在Metroscopia所做的調查中，只有19%的受訪者認爲自己只是加泰羅尼亞人。而他們每個人都還有很多其他身份。一名加泰羅尼亞分裂主義者可能同時是一名三十幾歲的母親、女兒、藥劑師、巴塞羅那本地人、名模凱蒂?佩裏(Katy Perry)的粉絲、歐洲人等等。她的一些身份可能與馬德里的一位西班牙民族主義者相同。正如森所言：“在我們這個麻煩不斷的世界裏，和諧的主要希望在於我們身份的多重性，它使人們彼此交織，消除嚴重分歧。”沒有人是由一兩個人口統計要素構成的漫畫人物。我們並不完全相同，但我們確實有共性。

Even today’s blue- and red-state Americans would discover this, if they could ditch their single-identity rhetoric along with their fantasies of crushing the other side. But talking in single identities is infectious. Each time Trump says something racist, some liberals dismiss all his supporters as racist halfwits.

即便是當今美國藍州和紅州的人民，如果他們能夠摒棄那套單一身份的說詞，不再幻想壓倒對方陣營的話，他們也會發現這個道理。但以單一身份發表的言論是有感染力的。每當特朗普說一些種族主義言論時，一些自由主義者就會把他的所有支持者斥爲種族主義腦殘。

When Trump slurs women, or black people, he encourages those groups to cluster around a single identity. The Black Lives Matter movement and last January’s Women’s Marchers have excellent goals. But as Mark Lilla argues in his recent book The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics, these groups will probably fail if they become exclusively single-identity movements.

當特朗普詆譭女性或黑人時，他等於鼓勵那些羣體圍繞一種單一身份抱團。“黑人的命也是命”(The Black Lives Matter)運動和今年1月的“女性大遊行”(Women’s Marchers:)有着高尚的目標。但正如馬克?利拉(Mark Lilla)在他的新書《昔日和未來的自由主義者：在身份政治以後》(The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics)中所說的：“如果這些羣體變成單一身份運動，他們可能會失敗。”

If you want to persuade people who don’t share your one particular identity, you need to appeal to some of our shared identities. Lilla writes: “I am not a black male motorist?.?.?.?All the more reason, then, that I need some way to identify with one if I am going to be affected by his experience?.?.?.?The more the differences between us are emphasised, the less likely I will be to feel outrage at his mistreatment.”

如果你希望說服那些與你的某種身份不同的人，你需要藉助一些雙方共同的身份。利拉寫道：“我不是一位黑人男性司機……因此，如果說我會被某個黑人男性司機的遭遇觸動的話，那麼我需要有更多的理由來同情他……我們之間的差異越被看重，我就越不可能對他遭遇的不公感到憤慨。”

The economist Branko Milanovic recently described what he learnt from the bloody break-up of his native Yugoslavia: “Be considerate. Think of people as persons. And do not impute to them opinions just because of their nationality.” It’s handy advice for today’s fragile societies such as India, the US and Spain.

最近，經濟學家布蘭科?米拉諾維奇(Branko Milanovic)從自己祖國南斯拉夫的血腥分裂中總結出了這樣的教訓：“要體諒他人。要把人當人看。不要僅僅因爲他們的國籍就妄加評判他們。”對於當今一些脆弱的社會，比如印度、美國和西班牙，這是再好不過的建議了。