FBI教父埃德加·胡佛1970年致大学生的公开信

政经社 · 公众号 · · 2019-12-30 12:14

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这封公开信在50年后的今天，正适合转给香港的迷茫青年。

1970年，在越战背景下，美国出现了大规模的校园暴力。美国联邦调查局曾对一些事件进行了调查。9月21日，局长胡佛发表了一封致大学生的公开信，在信中对青年人的热情予以承认，但更重要的是对极端主义进行了揭露和分析。胡佛总结了八点极端主义者的手法，希望能够令涉世未深的年轻学生有所警醒。因为这封公开信的内容令人信服并发人深省，在5天后被总统转发以使更多的学生能读到它。

当年的问题元素与今天并无二致：大学生、校园、暴力、烧毁国旗、披着崇高的外衣违法犯罪、敌视执法人员......

美国人今天在香港所做教唆的事情，正是50年前他们害怕在自己国土上发生的。

An Open Letter to College Students

from

John Edgar Hoover, Director

Federal Bureau of Investigation

United States Department of Justice

致大学生的公开信

美国司法部联邦调查局局长

约翰·埃德加·胡佛

As a 1970 college student, you belong to the best educated, most sophisticated, most poised generation in our history.

作为一名1970年的大学生，你们属于我们历史上受到最良好教育，最练达，最沉稳的一代人。

The vast majority of you, I'm convinced, sincerely love America and want to make it a better country.

我确信，你们中的绝大部分，真挚的热爱美国并且想要使其成为一个更好的国家。

You do have ideas of your own - and that's good. You see things wrong which we adults perhaps have minimized or overlooked . You are outspoken and frank and hate hypocrisy. That is good, too.

你们确实有自己的想法 - 而这很好。你们看到了不正确的事情，或许我们这些成年人轻视或忽视了这些事情。你们直言不讳，坦诚率真，痛恨虚伪。这也是很好的。

There is nothing wrong with students dissent or student demands for changes in society or the display of student unhappiness over aspects of our national policy. Student opinion is a legitimate aspect of public opinion in our society.

学生有不同意见或者学生要求社会的变革，或者学生对我们国家政策各个方面展示不满，这都没什么不对的。学生意见是我们社会中公众意见的一个正当的方面。

But there is a real ground for concern about the extremism which led to voilence, lawlessness, and disrespect for the rights of others on many campus during the past year.

但是过去的一年中，在很多校园里极端主义导致暴力，违法乱纪和不尊重他人权力，确实值得担心。

The extremists are a small minority of students and faculty members who have lost faith in America. The ridicule the flag, poke fun at American institutions, seek to destroy our society. The are not interested in genuine reform. They take advantage of the tensions, strife , and often legitimate frustrations of students to promote campus chaos. They have no rational, intelligent plan of the future either for the university or the nation.

极端主义者们是学生和教职工中的一小部分，他们对美国失去了信心。他们对国旗不敬，嘲弄美国机关，试图破坏我们的社会。他们对真正的改革没有兴趣。他们利用紧张、冲突和学生们通常正当的沮丧情绪来促成校园混乱。他们对学校或者国家的未来没有理性和明智的计划。

The extremists are of wide variety: adherents of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) including the Weatherman; members of the Young Socialist Alliance (YSA), the Trotskyist youth group; the Communist Party's Young Workers Liberation League (YWLL). Or they may be associated with the Student Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (SMC), a Trotskyist dominated antiwar group.

极端主义者们的构成很广泛：包括Weatherman在内的民主社会学生联盟(SDS)的拥护者 （译注： Weatherman和SDS都是美国左倾社会组织，其中Weatherman的命名来源于歌手鲍勃·迪伦的歌曲《Subterranean Homesick Blues》中的歌词“ You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows” ）；青年社会主义者联盟(YSA)；托洛茨基青联盟；共产党青年工人解放联盟(YWLL)。或者他们可能与结束越战学生动员委员会有关，这是一个托洛斯基主义者掌控的反战组织。

Many are not associated with any national group. The key point is not so much the identification of extremists but learning to recognize and understand the mentality of extremism which believes in violence and destruction .

很多人并未与任何全国性的组织有关。关键不一定在识别于极端主义者的身份，而是学会认出和了解极端主义的思维模式是信奉暴力和破坏的。

Based on our experience in the FBI, here are some of the ways in which extremists will try to lure you into their activities:

基于我们在联邦调查局的经验，以下是极端主义者将试图引诱你参与他们活动的一部分方式：

They'll encourage you to lose respect for your parents and the older generation. This will be one of their first attacks, trying to cut you off from home. You'll hear much about the "failures" and ''hypocrisy'' of your parents and their friends. The older generation has made mistakes but your parents and millions of other adults worked hard, built, sacrificed, and suffered to make America what it is today. It is their country too. You may disagree with them, but don't discredit their contributions.

他们会鼓励你抛弃对父母和老一辈人的尊重。这会是他们首发的攻击之一，试图令你与家庭脱离。你会听到父母和他们朋友的“失败”和“虚伪”。老一辈人犯过错误，但是你的父母和上百万其它成年人努力工作，建设，牺牲和受苦以使美国成为今天的样子。这也是他们的国家。你可以与他们意见不一致，但是不要抹煞他们的贡献。
They'll try to convert you to the idea that your college is ''irrelevant'' and a "tool of the Establishment. The attack against the college administration often is bitter , arrogant , and unreasoning . SDSers , for example, have sought to disrupt the colleges by demanding the right to select professors, determine the curriculum , and set grading standards.

他们会试图改变你，令你接受大学“无关紧要”而且是“当权派的工具”这样的想法。对大学管理部门的攻击常常刻薄、狂妄并且不讲道理。举例来说，SDS的人曾试图通过要求选择教授、决定课程和设定成绩标准的权力来扰乱大学。
They'll ask you to abandon your basic common sense. Campus extremism thrives on specious generalizations , wild accusations , and unverified allegations . Complex issues of state are wrapped in slogans and cliches . Dogmatic statements are issued as if they were the final truth. You should carefully examine the facts. Don't blindly follow courses of action suggested by extremists. Don't get involved in a cause just because it seems ''fashionable'' or the "thing to do." Rational discussion and rational analysis are needed more than ever before.

他们会让你抛弃你的基本常识。校园极端主义会在似是而非的概括，无端谴责和凭空指控中迅速发展。复杂的国事被包裹于标语和陈词滥调中。教条式的陈述如同最终真相一样被发出来。你应该仔细的检查事实。不要盲目地跟从极端主义者建议的行动。不要因为看起来“时尚”或者“要做的事”就卷入其中。现在比以往任何时候都需要理性的讨论和理性的分析。
They'll try to envelop you in a mood of negativism , pessimism, and alienation toward yourself, your school, your Nation. This is one of the most insidious of New Left poisons. SDS and its allies judge America exclusively from its flaws . They see nothing good, positive, and constructive. This leads to a philosophy of bitterness, defeatism , and rancor . I would like you to know your country more intimately . I would want you to look for the deeper unifying forces in America, the moods of national character, determination, and sacrifice which are working to correct these flaws. The real strength of our Nation is the power of morality , decency , and conscience which rights the wrong, corrects error, and works for equal opportunity under the law.

他们会试图将你包围于对自己、对学校、对国家的负面、消极和疏远的情绪之中。这是最阴险的新左派毒药之一。SDS及其联盟仅通过美国的缺点来评判美国。他们看不见任何好的，积极和建设性的东西。这导致一种怨恨、失败主义和敌意的哲学。我希望你们更深入地了解你们的国家。我希望你们寻找美国更深层次的团结力量、国家品格、正在纠正错误的决心和牺牲。我们国家真正的力量是的道德、正直和良知，它们纠正错误，拨乱反正并在法律下争取于平等机会。
They'll encourage you to disrespect the law and hate the law enforcement officer. Most college students have good friends who are police officers. You know that when extremists call the police "pigs" they are wrong. The officer protects your rights, lives, and property. He is your friend and he needs yoursupport.

他们会孤立你藐视法律并憎恨执法人员。大多数的大学生都有作警员的朋友。你知道当极端主义者将警察称作“猪”的时候他们是错的。警员们保护你们的权力、生活和财产。他是你们的朋友并且需要你们的支持。
They'll tell you that any action is honorable and right if it's "sincere" or "idealistic" in motivation . Here is one of the most seductive of New Left appeals -that if an arsonist's or anarchist's heart is in the right place, if he feels he is doing something for "humanity" or a "higher cause", then his act, even if illegal, is justifiable. Remember that acts have consequences. The alleged sincerity of the perpetrator does not absolve him from responsibility. His acts may affect the rights, lives, and property of others. Just being a student or being on campus does not automatically confer immunity or grant license to violate the law. Just because you don't like a law doesn't mean you can violate it with impunity .

他们会告诉你，只要动机中满怀“真挚”和“理想”，任何行为都是高尚和正确的。这是最具迷惑力的新左派呼吁之一：如果一个纵火犯或无政府主义者的心摆正了，如果他感到他在为“人性”或“更高事业”做一些事情，那么他的行为，即便是非法的，也是情有可原的。别忘了这些行为是有后果的。行凶者所谓的真心诚意不能免除他的责任。其行为可能影响了他人的权利，生活和财产。就因为身为学生或身在校园并不自动授予对违法的豁免或许可。就因为你不喜欢某项法律并不意味着你可以犯了法还逍遥法外。
They'll ask you to believe that you, as a student and citizen, are powerless by democratic means to effect change in our society. Remember the books on American history you have read. They tell the story of the creative self-renewal of this Nation through change. Public opinion time after time has brought new policies, goals, and methods. The individual is not helpless or caught in " bureaucracy " as these extremists claim.

他们会要你相信，你作为一名学生和公民，无力通过民主手段来实现对我们社会的改变。别忘了你所读过的关于美国历史的书。其中讲述了这个国家通过变革而创造性自我更新的故事。公众意见一次又一次地带来了新的政策、目标和方法。个人并不像这些极端分子声称的那样无助或身陷“官僚主义”之中。
They'll encourage you to hurl bricks and stones instead of logical argument at those who disagree with your views. I remember an old saying: ''He who strikes the first blow has run out of ideas. " Violence is as ancient as the cave man; as up-to-date as the Weatherman. Death and injury, fear distrust, animosity , polarization, counter-violence-these arise from violence. The very use of violence shows the paucity of rational thought in the SDS, its inability to come up with any intelligent critique of our society.

他们会鼓励你对意见不同者扔石头丢砖头，而不是与之进行逻辑辩论。我记得一句老话：“没辙的人先动手。”暴力跟原始人一样历久，跟Weatherman一样弥新。死亡和伤痛，恐惧，猜疑，憎恨，分化，以暴制暴——这些都来自暴力。使用暴力恰恰显示了在民主社会学生联盟中理性思考的缺乏，及其对我们社会做出明智批评的无能。

Personally, I don't think the outlook for campus unrest this year is as bleak as some prophets of pessimism proclaim . The situation at some colleges is serious, but certainly not hopeless.

个人而言，我不认为今年的校园动荡的前景如一些悲观预言者声称的那样黯淡。某些校园的情况是严重的，但肯定不是绝望的。

Along with millions of other adults, I'm betting on the vast majority of students who remain fair-minded, tolerant , inquisitive , but also firm about certain basic principles of human dignity , respect for the rights of others, and a willingness to learn. I am confident our faith has not been misplaced .

FBI教父埃德加·胡佛1970年致大学生的公开信

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