美国的“躺平”运动
Work Is a False Idol
CASSADY ROSENBLUM
2021年8月23日
In China this April, a 31-year-old former factory worker named Luo Huazhong drew the curtains and crawled into bed. Then he posted a picture of himself there to the Chinese website Baidu along with a message: “Lying Flat Is Justice.”
今年4月，在中国，31岁的前工厂工人骆华忠拉上窗帘，爬上了床。随后，他在中国网站百度上发了一张自己躺在床上的照片，附上一条信息：“躺平即是正义。”
“Lying flat is my sophistic movement,” Mr. Luo wrote, tipping his hat to Diogenes the Cynic, a Greek philosopher who is said to have lived inside a barrel to criticize the excesses of Athenian aristocrats. On Chinese social media, Mr. Luo’s manifesto, and his assertion that he has a “right to choose a slow lifestyle” of reading, exercising and doing odd jobs to get by, quickly went viral. Sympathizers shared versions of a belief that is gaining global resonance: Work has become intolerable. Rest is resistance.
“躺平就是我的智者运动，”骆华忠写道，他向犬儒主义哲学家第欧根尼致敬。据说这位希腊哲学家住在木桶里批评雅典贵族的无度。在中国的社交媒体上，骆华忠的宣言，以及他声称有“选择自己慢节奏生活的权利”——阅读、锻炼、靠打零工维持生计——迅速走红。支持者们分享了一个在全球引起共鸣的信念：工作变得无法忍受。休息是一种抵抗。
By June, American news outlets were describing the “lying flat” trend as a natural consequence of China’s hypercompetitive middle-class culture, where employees often report working “996” weeks — 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week — a lifestyle praised by the founder of the online shopping giant Alibaba, Jack Ma, and other captains of commerce.
6月，美国新闻媒体将“躺平”趋势描述为中国竞争激烈的中产阶级文化的自然结果，员工经常报告每周要按“996”工作——从早上九点到晚上九点，一周工作六天——这种生活方式受到在线购物巨头阿里巴巴的创始人马云和其他商业领袖的赞扬。
It’s not just Chinese millennials who are figuring out that work is a false idol. I should know because I’m lying flat too, holed up in my parents’ house in West Virginia. Earlier this year I quit my job producing an NPR program in Boston, and I haven’t been able to stomach rejoining the cacophony of the 24-hour news cycle. I’m far from the only one: A recent tweet that proclaimed “i do not want to have a career” racked up over 400,000 likes. Instead, proclaimed the tweeter, @hollabekgrl, “i want to sit on the porch.”
不仅是中国的千禧一代发现工作是一座虚假的神像。我也应该知道，因为我也在躺平，躲在西弗吉尼亚州我父母的房子里。今年早些时候，我辞去了在波士顿为NPR制作节目的工作，我无法忍受重新加入24小时新闻周期的喧嚣。我远不是唯一一个这样想的人：最近有一条推文宣称“我不想有事业”，获得了40多万个赞。发推的用户@hollabekgrl宣称，相反，“我想坐在门廊上。”
Here in the hills, the new silence of my days, deepened by the solitude of the pandemic, has allowed me to observe the state of our planet in the year 2021 — and it looks to be on fire, as our oligarchs take to space. From my view down here on the carpet, I see a system that, even if it bounces back to “normal,” I have no interest in rejoining, a system that is beginning to come undone.
在山里，我新生活里的沉默因大流行的孤独而加深，这使我得以观察我们的地球在2021年的状况——随着商业大亨们飞向太空，它仿佛在燃烧。躺在我的毯子上，我看到了一个正在开始解体的系统，即使它恢复到“正常”状态，我也没有兴趣重新加入。
The lying flat movement, or tangping as it’s known in Mandarin, is just one expression of this global unraveling. Another is the current worker shortage in the United States. As of June, there were more than 10 million job openings in the United States, according to the most recent figures from the Labor Department — the highest number since the government began tracking the data two decades ago. While conservatives blame juiced-up pandemic unemployment benefits, liberals counter that people do want to work, just not for the paltry wages they were making before the pandemic.
“躺平”运动只是这种全球性解体的一种表现。另一种表现是目前美国的劳动力短缺。根据劳工部的最新数据，截至6月，美国有超过1000万个职位空缺，这是自政府20年前开始跟踪这个数据以来出现的最高数字。保守派指责大流行期间增加的失业救济，自由派则反驳说，人们确实想工作，只是不满意大流行前的微薄工资。
Both might be true. But if low wages were all that’s at play, we would expect to see reluctant workers at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, and content workers at the top. Instead, there are murmurs of dissent at every rung, including from the inner sanctums of Goldman Sachs, where salaries for investment bankers start at $150,000. According to a leaked internal survey, entry-level analysts at the investment bank report they’re facing “inhumane” conditions, working an average of 98 hours a week, forgoing showers and sleep. “I’ve been through foster care,” said one respondent. “This is arguably worse.”
两者可能都是正确的。但如果低工资是唯一的原因，我们就会看到不情愿的工人处于社会经济阶梯的底层，满意的工人位于这个阶梯的顶层。取而代之的是，每个阶层都有异议的杂音，包括在高盛(Goldman Sachs)内部，那里投资银行工作者的起步工资是15万美元。根据一份泄露的内部调查，这家投资银行的初级分析师报告称他们面临着“不人道”的工作条件，平均每周工作98小时，没法洗澡和睡觉。“我可是经历过寄养生活的，”一位受访者说。“现在的生活可以说是更糟糕。”
In the United States, Black activists, writers and thinkers are among the clearest voices articulating this spiritual malaise and its solutions, perhaps because they’ve borne the brunt of capitalism more than other groups of Americans. Tricia Hersey, a performance artist and the founder of the Nap Ministry, an Atlanta-based organization, is one of them. Ms. Hersey says she discovered the power of naps during a draining year of graduate school at Emory University, an experience that inspired her to bring the gospel of sleep to fellow African Americans whose enslaved and persecuted ancestors were never able to properly rest. She argues that rest is not only resistance, it is also reparation.
在美国，黑人活动人士、作家和思想家发出了最清晰的声音，表达了这种精神不安及其解决方案，或许是因为他们比美国其他群体承受了更多资本主义的冲击。行为艺术家、亚特兰大组织“小睡部”(Nap Ministry)的创始人特莉西亚·赫西(Tricia Hersey)就是其中之一。赫西说，她在埃默里大学(Emory University)读研究生的那一年里发现了小睡的力量，那段经历鼓励她把睡眠的福音传播给非裔美国人，他们的祖先曾被奴役和迫害，一直无法好好休息。她认为休息不仅是抵抗，也是补偿。
Ms. Hersey now leads events across the country focused on the transformative power of rest, and she has influenced other Black intellectuals, including Casey Gerald, the author of the transcendent essay “The Black Art of Escape.” In it, Mr. Gerald reflects on a year he spent in what he calls a “disappearing act,” lying flat in Texas, ignoring the calls of friends and admirers to join them in the fray of protest politics, which he’d come to view as a sure path to self-annihilation. “Claim your inheritance,” Mr. Gerald enjoins. “Miss the moment. Go mad, go missing, take a nap, take the day, drop a tab. You’re free!”
赫西现在领导着全国范围内的活动，重点关注休息的变革力量，她还影响了其他黑人知识分子，包括著名文章《逃避的黑艺术》(The Black Art of Escape)的作者凯西·杰拉尔德(Casey Gerald)。在文中，杰拉尔德回忆了他在得克萨斯州度过的一年，他称之为“消失行动”，那一年他在得州躺平，无视朋友和崇拜者要求他加入抗议政治战斗的呼吁，他认为这种战斗是通往自我毁灭的必然之路。“去获取你的遗产，”杰拉尔德叮嘱道。“错过时机。发疯、玩消失、睡一觉、休息一天、再睡一觉。你是自由的！”
On Juneteenth this year, Mr. Gerald stayed true to his argument. “I ain’t writing nothing for Juneteenth,” he tweeted. “I’m gonna be drunk on the beach in Galveston with my boyfriend. Love to the ancestors, lemme know when the reparations check arrives. Good luck! ”
今年的6月节解放黑奴纪念日(Juneteenth)，杰拉尔德仍然说到做到。“我不会为6月节写任何东西，”他发推说。“我要和男朋友在加尔维斯顿的海滩上喝个烂醉。我爱祖先们，赔款支票来了告诉我一声。祝你们好运！”
His words read like a wink to Audre Lorde, another queer Black writer, whose 1978 essay “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power” foreshadowed the lying flat movement and the Nap Ministry both. Ms. Lorde wrote that “when we begin to live from within outward, in touch with the power of the erotic within ourselves, and allowing that power to inform and illuminate our actions upon the world around us, then we begin to be responsible to ourselves in the deepest sense.” For Ms. Lorde, the erotic doesn’t necessarily mean sex. Maybe the erotic sounds like a banjo. Maybe the erotic tastes like cilantro. Maybe it feels like fixing the washing machine. We’ll know it, promises Ms. Lorde, by what makes us exclaim “Yes!” to ourselves.
他的话像是在向另一位同性恋黑人作家奥德雷·洛德(Audre Lorde)致意。1978年，洛德发表了一篇文章，题为《情色的使用：作为力量的情色》(Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power)，成为“躺平运动”和“小睡部”的预演。“当我们开始从内心向外生活，接触到自己内心的情爱力量，并允许这种力量告知和照亮我们对周围世界的行动，我们就开始在最深的意义上对自己负责，”洛德写道。对洛德来说，情色并不一定意味着性。班卓琴的声音也许会很情色。香菜的味道也许会很情色。修洗衣机的感觉也许会很情色。我们能体会到，洛德承诺，当我们对自己赞叹“太棒了！”的时候，我们会了解它。
Which brings us back to Diogenes. In his time, a Cynic was someone who eschewed money, power and fame, and instead sought to live self-sufficiently and in tune with nature. Hence, Diogenes in his barrel. Luo Huazhong in his bed. Casey Gerald on the beach.
这就把我们带回到第欧根尼。在他那个时代，犬儒主义者是那种远离金钱、权力和名誉，寻求自给自足、与自然和谐相处的人。因此，第欧根尼在木桶里。骆华忠躺在床上。凯西·杰拉尔德在海边。
Me, now, in the hills.
而我，现在在山上。
To be clear, there is immense privilege in lying flat. But it’s worth noting that Mr. Luo acknowledged the necessity of making a living, and @hollabekgrl didn’t say she never wanted to work at a job or hone a craft; she said she doesn’t want a “career,” a corporate-flavored word that conjures images of PowerPoints and power suits. While jobs are sustenance, careers are altars upon which all else is sacrificed.
坦白地说，躺平是一种极大的特权。但值得注意的是，骆华忠承认谋生的必要性，@hollabekgrl并没有说她从来不想工作或是磨练手艺；她是说她不想要“事业”——这是一个带有公司色彩的词，让人联想到PPT和职业套装。工作是生计，但事业是祭坛，其他一切都要牺牲。
In her poem “The Summer Day,” Mary Oliver asks, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do/ with your one wild and precious life?”
在玛丽·奥利弗(Mary Oliver)的诗《夏日》(The Summer Day)中，她问道：“告诉我，你打算如何度过你那疯狂而又宝贵的一生？”
My reply, for now, is simple: Sit on the porch.
目前，我的回答很简单：坐在门廊上。
It’s not half-bad. For what is the porch if not a place to chat with neighbors, to marvel at the hummingbird at the feeder, to listen to the wind in the chimes? An altar for cynics, an altar for the erotic, an altar for the future.
这也不是什么坏事。如果门廊不是一个可以和邻居聊天的地方，一个可以在喂食器旁欣赏蜂鸟的地方，一个可以伴随风铃聆听风声的地方，那它又算得了什么呢？它是犬儒主义者的祭坛，是情色的祭坛，是未来的祭坛。
