中英对照译文
我读到了一个家庭的故事...... I read about this one family...
他们厌倦了社会。他们认为文明正在瓦解。他们想要脱离电网生活。几个月后,当局发现了他们的木乃伊遗体。 They were tired of society. They thought civilization was unraveling. They wanted to live off the grid. Authorities found their mummified remains a few months later.
这一家人死于暴露和营养不良。 The family died from exposure and malnutrition.
他们没有活下来。 They didn't make it.
不久前,一个末日主义准备好者试图用罐头食品和生存装备度过一次强冷空气爆发。他没意识到在电断之后,他的电动开罐器不会工作。 A while back, a prepper tried to ride out an arctic blast with canned food and survival gear. He didn't realize his electric can opener wasn't going to work until after the power had gone out.
他很无助。 He was helpless.
末日准备和自给自足在过去几年进入主流,这得益于末日节目以及对未来的日益恐惧。很多人对此一无所知。 Prepping and homesteading have entered the mainstream over the last few years, helped by doomsday shows along with a growing sense of dread about the future. A lot of people have no idea what it's about.
他们认为他们正脱离电网生活。 They think they're living off the grid.
但实际上他们都没有。 They're not.
我们谁也不是真正脱离电网生活。我们认为这是理所应当的。我们观看自给自足者和野外生存大师发布在树林小屋里生活的视频,但我们没有看到制作这些令人愉快和简单的场景需要做的所有准备工作。我们没有想过如厕的地方。我们没有想过如何过滤水。我们没有想过如果没有在某个工厂制造的所有这些生存工具,我们该怎么办。 None of us are truly living off the grid. We take it for granted. We watch homesteaders and bushcraft masters post videos about living in the woods in huts, but we don't see all the production that goes into making it look fun and simple. We don't think about where we'd go to the bathroom. We don't think about how we'd filter our water. We don't think about what we'd do without all these survival tools made in a factory somewhere.
花时间观看野外生存视频,幻想生活在泥坑里没有任何问题。问题在于当数以百万计的人都相信他们都能做到时,他们会忘记他们的泥坑不会有蓝牙功能。如果我们对脱离电网生活有任何概念,我认为很多人会更努力地保护它。 There's nothing wrong with watching bushcraft videos and fantasizing about life in a mudhole. It only becomes a problem when millions of people become convinced they can all do it, and they forget that their mudhole isn't going to have bluetooth. If we had any idea what living off the grid was like, I think a lot of people would be trying a lot harder to protect it.
末日准备可以帮助你渡过紧急时期。它可以帮助你度过灾难。它可以帮助你度过短缺和供应链问题。但它不是为在不适居的星球上生活而设计的。 Prepping can get you through an emergency. It can get you through a disaster. It can get you through shortages and supply chain problems. It's not designed for life on an uninhabitable planet.
我常常幻想拥有一个小木屋,当全球工业文明的瓦解加速时,我的家人可以去那里。讽刺的是,自给自足现在令人联想到一种特权。农村时尚爱好者想象他们的祖父母那样自给自足,但他们也希望享受电网带来的舒适,以及它的医院和可驾驶的道路。 I've often daydreamed about having a cabin in the woods where my family can go as the unwinding of global industrial civilization accelerates. It's ironic that homesteading now evokes a sense of privilege. Rural hipsters want to homestead like their great grandparents, but they also want the comfort of the grid, along with its hospitals and drivable roads.
他们喜欢室内排水设施。 They like indoor plumbing.
还有WiFi。 And wifi.
1860年代的最初自给自足者以极低廉的价格,甚至免费获得了他们的土地。他们根据家园法提出了申请。他们所要做的就是承诺住在土地上并“改善”它。有一个小的注册费。仅此而已。现在,没有人会直接将土地赠送给你。 The original homesteaders of the 1860s got their land for dirt cheap, even free. They filed claims under the Homestead Act. All they had to do was promise to live on the land and "improve it." There was a small registration fee. That was it. Now, nobody just gives you land anymore.
谈特权...... Talk about privilege...
当然,最初的自给自足者没有互联网可以查阅信息。他们没有室内排水设施。他们没有中央采暖。如果他们跌倒摔断手臂,他们也没有医院可以去。他们没有抗生素。他们知道一个简单的残酷事实。如果你真正脱离电网生活,那么你也会死在电网之外。 Of course, the original homesteaders didn't have an internet where they could look things up. They didn't have indoor plumbing. They didn't have central heating. They didn't have hospitals where they could go if they fell and broke their arm. They didn't have antibiotics. They knew a simple harsh truth. If you truly lived off the grid, then you also died off the grid.
我们大多数人还没有准备好这一点。 Most of us aren't ready for that.
我们中一些人出于必要才涉足末日准备,作为对燃烧的世界的对冲。我学到的越多,就越得出一个令人不安的结论。它与气候变化无力相抗。 Some of us have delved into prepping out of necessity, as a hedge against a world on fire. The more I've learned, the more I've come to an uncomfortable conclusion. It's no match for climate change.
它救不了你。 It's not going to save you.
如果七年都不下雨,采雨水系统毫无用处。你不会在地下掩体里躲避野火。 A rain harvesting system can't help if it doesn't rain for seven years. You're not going to hide from wildfires in a bunker.
你不会在林中小屋里等待社会崩溃。如果正在下含微塑料的雨,你不会种植庄稼。你也不会靠那些紧急食品套装生存。 You're not going to wait out social collapse in a cabin in the woods. You're not going to grow food if it's raining microplastics. You're not going to live off those emergency food kits, either.
看看钠含量。 Look at the sodium.
你的太阳能电池板和电池最终也需要更换。
Your solar panels and batteries will eventually need replacing.
你无法冶炼自己的硅。 You can't smelt your own silicone.
你不会在末日中射击前行。总会有人有更大的枪和更准的瞄准。贪婪的家庭数量将无穷无尽,他们渴望你的财产,不会分享你对人性的温情脉脉。即使你杀了他们,你也得在某个地方埋葬他们,可能不会是你胜利蔬菜园的附近。 You're not going to shoot your way through the apocalypse. There's always someone with a bigger gun and a better aim. There won't be an end to the number of hungry families who want your stuff and don't share your warm fuzzy view of humanity. Even if you killed them all, you'd have to bury them somewhere, and probably not next to your victory garden.
我已经做了生存计算。 I've done the survival calculus.
你无法在家中储存20年的食物。你无法使其免受天气侵蚀。你无法在不适宜居住的行星上建造地下掩体。即使你这么做了,别人也会夺走它。 You can't store 20 years of food in your home. You can't protect it from the elements. You can't build a bunker on an uninhabitable planet. Even if you did, someone would take it from you.
无论如何,如果你生活在第一世界,你可能不会死于饥荒或干渴。你可能会死于热射病。你可能会死于疾病。你可能会死于医院感染。你可能会死于心脏病发作或癌症,因为你吸入的无数毒素。 At any rate, if you're living in the first world, you're probably not going to die from famine or thirst. You're probably going to die from heat stroke. You're probably going to die from a disease. You're probably going to die from a hospital acquired infection. You're probably going to die from a heart attack or cancer from all the toxins you don't even know you're ingesting.
80亿人口无法脱离电网生活。 Eight billion people can't live off the grid.
当全球人口远较现在少时,我们曾尝试过这么做。它失败了。如此多的人只能生活在精心管理资源的社会中,包括食物、水和医疗保健。 We tried that with a far smaller global population. It didn't work. That many people can only live in societies where we carefully manage our resources, including food, water, and medicine.
一旦你建立了一个网络,使所有人都可以满足彼此的需求,你基本上已经建立了......一个电网。 Once you've constructed a network of people to provide all of each other's needs, you've basically built... a grid.
看历史。人们形成城市和社会,因为他们厌倦了在电网之外生活和死亡。当电网不被小偷统治时,它是一件了不起的事情。 Look at history. People formed cities and societies because they got tired of living and dying off the grid. The grid is a wonderful thing when it's not run by kleptocrats.
做好应对紧急情况的准备是好的。 It's good to be ready for emergencies.
为你和你的邻居储备食物和水是好的。有后备电源是好的。知道如何换胎是好的。知道在没有空调的情况下如何度过热浪是好的。知道如何为暴风雨或洪水做好准备是好的。拥有替代交通工具是好的。拥有户外露营技能是好的。
It's good to have food and water for yourself and your neighbors. It's good to have a backup power source. It's good to know how to change a tire. It's good to know how to get through a heat wave without air conditioning. It's good to know how to prepare for a storm or a flood. It's good to have alternate transportation. It's good to have outdoor camping skills.
有火柴和指南针是好的。
It's good to have matches and a compass.
掌握急救知识是好的。 It's good to know first aid.
知道如何种植是好的。即使每餐都吃米饭和豆子也不抱怨,这很好。知道你可以依靠自己的程度和你自己适应力的局限也是好的。 It's good to know how to garden. It's good to be okay eating rice and beans every meal without complaining. It's good to know just how much you can depend on yourself, and the limits to your own resilience.
这就是末日准备。 That's prepping.
我了解它的越多,以及我对即将来临的气候反乌托邦的深入研究,一个简单的真相一直在等待我。最好的末日准备是心理准备。 The more I've learned about it, and the more I've read into the scope of our oncoming climate dystopia, one simple truth has been waiting down at the bottom. The best kind of prepping is emotional.
你逃不掉的。
You aren't going to escape.
这个灾难性的夏天让一件痛苦的事实变得非常清楚。地球上没有哪里是安全的,免受气候变化后果的影响。如果不是野火,就是野火的浓烟。如果不是干旱,就是洪水。你可以建立一个社区,但你也必须记住,与人相处是很难的。即使不疯狂,他们也可能很烦人。我们能做的就是做好准备,然后准备好当这还不够时的对策。 This disastrous summer has made one thing painfully clear. Nowhere on earth is safe from the consequences of climate change. If it's not wildfires, it's the smoke from the wildfires. If it's not drought, it's floods. You can build a community, but you also have to remember that it's hard to get along with people. They can be irritating, even when they're not batshit crazy. All we can do is be ready, and then be ready for when it's not enough.
总有一天,它不会足够。 One day, it won't.
你会死。 You will die.
我们谁也不能保证一个快速无痛的生命终结。我们谁也无权平静地去世。 None of us are guaranteed a quick and painless exit from life. None of us are entitled to go peacefully in our sleep.
至于所有周末玩假扮命令的幻想生存主义者...... As for all the fantasy survivalists out there who play commando on the weekends and then stop at Chick-fil-A on the way home...
如果你认为你可以背叛社会契约但仍享受社会的所有好处,我有个坏消息要告诉你。 If you think you can defect from the social contract but still get to enjoy all the benefits of society, I have bad news.
你撑不下去的。 You're not going to make it.
