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Europe
欧洲板块
French rhetorical hysteria
暴走的法国人
1789 and all that
诸如1789年
Why so many French people fear dictatorship and civil war
为什么这么多法国人害怕独裁和内战
Venture into the chatrooms of French cyberspace or onto the streets of Paris, and the impression this summer is of a country on the brink of totalitarian rule or civil collapse, or both. In July the word dictature (dictatorship) surged tenfold on Google, in anticipation of a new "health pass" introduced on August 9th by President Emmanuel Macron. This makes full vaccination (or a negative covid-19 test) a condition of access to restaurants, bars, trains and other places.
走进法国的网络聊天室，走上巴黎的街头，你会发现这个夏天的法国是一个正处于极权统治或公民崩溃边缘(或者两者兼而有之)的国家。由于法国总统埃马纽埃尔·马克龙预计将于8月9日推出新的“健康通行证”，今年7月“独裁”一词的热度在谷歌上飙升了10倍。而全面接种疫苗(或新冠检测呈阴性)将成为进入餐馆、酒吧、火车和其他地方的条件。
Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, a right-wing deputy, called the new pass sanitaire a "sanitary coup d'état". Michèle Rivasi, a Green politician, called it "apartheid". Protesters clutched placards with slogans such as "False pandemic, real dictatorship" and "Pass Nazitaire", or photos of Mr Macron with a Hitler-style moustache. A few wore yellow stars on which was written "non-vaccinated", eliciting widespread indignation. Joseph Szwarc, a 94-year-old Holocaust survivor, called the comparison "odious" and said he shed tears at the sight: "I wore the yellow star; I know what it was."
对于新的通行证，右翼议员尼古拉斯·杜邦-艾格南称之为“卫生政变”，绿党政治家米歇尔·里瓦斯称之为“种族隔离”，抗议者则高举写有“传染病是假，独裁是真”和“纳粹通行证”等口号的标识牌，或者是马克龙留着希特勒式胡须的照片。有些人胸前还佩戴写有“拒绝接种”字样的黄色星星，引发公愤。约瑟夫·斯瓦克今年94岁，是“犹太人大屠杀”的幸存者，他称这种比较(抗议者将自己比作纳粹德国时期的犹太人)“是可恨的”，他在看到这一情景时流下了眼泪：“我曾经戴过黄色的星星，我知道那是什么。”
In April and May the phrase guerre civile (civil war) spiked on Twitter, after retired right-wing generals wrote an open letter offering to step in to save the country should it slide into chaos. A poll suggested that 58% of the French backed the officers, and nearly half thought the army should step in on its own initiative.
4月和5月，“内战”一词在推特上爆火，因为退休的右翼将军们写了一封公开信，表示如果国家陷入混乱，他们为了拯救国家将介入。一项民意调查显示，58%的法国人支持军官们，近一半的人认为军队应该主动介入。
Why is France so often convinced it is on the brink, and so prone to rhetorical hysteria? The country's disjointed and rebellious history is one answer. "Are we in 1789" is still a periodic headline in the press. And indeed, the prospect of disorder is not wholly fanciful. A culture of mass protest is deeper-rooted in France than in any other European country, and reasoned debate often gives way to factional theatrics and sabotage. Fifty years after the May '68 student uprising, gilets jaunes(yellow jackets) ransacked Paris. In July anti-vaxxers invaded a town hall in Chambéry, in the Alps, and vandalised vaccination centres.
为什么法国人总是相信自己正处于危机边缘，并如此爱好言辞上的歇斯底里？答案就在法国支离破碎和叛乱的历史当中。“我们是在1789年吗？”是法国报刊隔三差五就会用到的标题。事实上，混乱的前景并非完全空穴来风。在法国，“大规模抗议”的文化比任何其他欧洲国家都要根深蒂固，理性的辩论常常让位于派系表演和蓄意破坏。先是1968年5月的学生起义；50年后“黄背心”洗劫了巴黎；今年7月反疫苗者入侵了位于阿尔卑斯山尚贝里的市政厅，并破坏了疫苗接种中心。
Inflating fears of violence or totalitarianism may also suit some politicians. Many a French election campaign has been won on the promise of calm after chaos. Over four-fifths of the French say that feelings of "insecurity" will influence their vote at the presidential election next year, even though violent crime (sexual and domestic violence aside) has been falling for years and the murder rate is stable. Some 200,000 people grabbed headlines on August 7th by marching against the new health rules. Yet, after they were announced, over 8.5m quietly got vaccinated for the first time. As for allegations of dictatorship, Mr Macron put it this way: "If we empty words of their meaning, the risk is that we threaten our democracy itself."
一些政客也极度恐惧暴力或极权主义。许多法国大选都是在承诺了平息混乱后赢得的。超过五分之四的法国人表示，尽管暴力犯罪(性暴力和家庭暴力除外)多年来一直在下降，谋杀率保持稳定，但“不安全感”仍将影响他们在明年总统选举中的投票。8月7日，大约20万人参加游行活动反对健康通行证，登上了新闻头条。然而，在他们被通报后，超过850万人悄悄进行了第一次疫苗接种。至于对独裁的指控，马克龙是这样说的：“如果我们把它们的意义说得空洞无词，风险就是我们威胁到了我们的民主本身。”
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
