Contemporary Britain's idea of the crowd was formed by two explosions in unruly mass culture at the end of the last century.
当代英国人对人群的概念是由上世纪末难以驾驭的大众文化的两次爆炸形成的。
First, by 70s and 80s football fandom and its manifold sins, and the avoidable tragedy of Hillsborough –
首先是,70年代和80年代的足球迷和它的罪恶,以及本可避免的希尔斯堡惨案,
a tragedy created by the authorities' views of the crowd as animalistic thugs,
这是一场因当局将群众视作兽性的暴徒而导致的悲剧。
a fear and loathing that permeated the media, police, political class and football authorities.
恐惧和厌恶充斥着媒体、警察、政治阶层和足球当局。
And second, by the acid house explosion and rave scene of the late 80s and early 90s,
然后是,80年代末90年代初的酸屋爆炸和狂欢场景,
a subcultural surge of illegal or at least illicit "free parties" in fields and warehouses across the country.
非法或至少是不正当的“自由派对”在全国各地的农田和仓库里涌起一股亚文化浪潮。
Both cultures flourished in spite of widespread media demonisation, both fought the law – and in both cases, the law won.
尽管媒体普遍妖魔化,但两种文化都繁荣起来,两者都与法律抗争——而且在这两种情况下,法律都赢了。
Things have never been the same since for people who wish to assemble on their own terms.
从那时起,对于那些希望按照自己的意愿聚集在一起的人来说,事情就不一样了。
The policing, containment and enclosure of "free" raves is particularly instructive,
对“自由”狂欢的管制、遏制和围堵尤其有指导意义,
suggesting that the authorities fear a happy crowd as much as a pitchfork-carrying one.
这表明当局对快乐人群的恐惧不亚于对拿草耙的人群的恐惧。
For the novelist Hari Kunzru, reflecting on his 90s youth a few years ago, approaching the site of a rave, feeling "the bass pulsing up ahead,
几年前,小说家哈里·昆兹鲁回忆起自己在90年代时的青春岁月,当时他正在参加一场狂欢舞会,他感受到“前方跳动的低音,
the excitement was almost unbearable. A mass of dancers lifting up like a single body … [an] ecstatic fantasy of community,
那种激动几乎都难以承受。一群跳舞的人像一个人一样跳起来...一场狂热幻想的共同体,
a zone where we were networked with each other, rather than with the office switchboard."
在那里,我们彼此互联,而不是在办公室与总机联网。”
The culmination of the rave era, and the beginning of its end, was the epochal 1992 Castlemorton Common festival,
狂欢时代的高潮和结束的开始是具有划时代意义的1992年卡斯勒莫尔顿公共音乐节,
a week-long, outdoor free party in Worcestershire, with numbers in excess of 20,000.
伍斯特郡为期一周的户外自由派对,人数超过2万人。
Writing about it in the Evening Standard, Anthony Burgess summed up the establishment mood,
安东尼·伯吉斯在《伦敦晚报》上撰文总结了当时的风气,
railing against "the megacrowd, reducing the individual intelligence to that of an amoeba".
怒斥“巨量人群聚集,把个体的智力降低到变形虫的智力”。
One man's escapist fantasy of community is another's vision of civilisational collapse,
一个人对社会逃避现实的幻想,就是另一个人对文明崩溃的憧憬,
and the Thatcher-into-Major-era junta of the tabloid press, police,
撒切尔执政时期的小报、警察、
landowners and the Conservative party made it their business to disperse rave's congregation of squatters, dropouts, drug-takers, hippies, hunt saboteurs, anti-road protesters and travellers.
土地所有者和保守党把驱散擅自占地者、辍学生、吸毒者、嬉皮士、狩猎破坏者、反道路抗议者和旅行者的狂欢聚会作为他们的工作。