上海的月亮: CN — LARRY ROMANOFF: 美国反乌托邦——宣传机器的面具和乌托邦综合症

American Dystopia – The Propaganda Mask and the Utopia Syndrome

美国反乌托邦——宣传机器的面具和乌托邦综合症

翻译：珍珠

In an article in the NYT on America’s “Racial Democracy” (or racist democracy), (1) Jason Stanley and Vesla Weaver noted “The philosopher Elizabeth Anderson argued that when political ideals diverge very widely from reality, the ideals themselves may prevent us from seeing the gap. When the official story differs greatly from the reality of practice, the official story becomes a kind of mask that prevents us from perceiving it.”

在《纽约时报》关于美国“种族民主”（或种族主义民主）的一篇文章中，（1）杰森·斯坦利和维斯拉·韦弗指出：“哲学家伊丽莎白·安德森认为，当政治理想与现实大相径庭时，理想本身可能会阻止我们看到差距。当官方故事与实践的现实大不相同时，官方故事就成了一种面具，阻止我们感知它。”

This means that if propaganda is not only incessant and pervasive but if its tenets are too far removed from factual truth, the victims of this propaganda lose their ability to separate fact from fiction and become unable to recognise the discrepancy between their beliefs and their actions, believing their actions correspond with the religiously-inspired tenets of their propaganda even when they patently and most obviously do not correspond. The theory is not intuitively obvious, but it is heavily supported by facts. Perhaps it is for this reason that Americans are guilty of what I call “the Utopia Syndrome”, comparing themselves not with the real world of their actions but with some utopian standard that exists only in their own imaginations, a world of fancy and illusion where they meet the standards but all others do not. In this light, it may be that much of what we attribute to American hypocrisy may in reality be due to a peculiarly American kind of mass insanity.

这意味着，如果宣传不仅持续不断且无处不在，而且其原则与事实真相相去甚远，那么这种宣传的受害者将失去将事实与虚构区分开来的能力，无法认识到他们的信仰和行为之间的差异，相信他们的行为符合他们宣传中受宗教启发的原则，即使这些原则明显不符。这个理论并不直观，但它得到了事实的有力支持。也许正是出于这个原因，美国人犯下了我所说的“乌托邦综合症”，他们不是将自己与自己行为的现实世界进行比较，而是将自己与只存在于自己想象中的乌托邦标准进行比较，这是一个充满幻想和幻觉的世界，他们符合标准，但其他人都不符合。从这个角度来看，我们认为美国虚伪的大部分实际上可能是由于一种特殊的美国式的大规模疯狂。

Dictionaries generally define ‘aberration’ as a deviation from the normal or typical, an event or characteristic that may be unpleasant or even criminal but that is seldom encountered. In 1975, a US Senate Committee was investigating the documented tales of the CIA engaging in widespread killings of world leaders obstructive to US hegemony. (2) (3) Their conclusion?

字典通常将“异常”定义为偏离正常或典型，一种可能令人不快甚至犯罪但很少遇到的事件或特征。1975年，美国参议院的一个委员会正在调查中央情报局广泛杀害阻碍美国霸权的世界领导人的记录故事。（2）（3）结论？

“The committee does not believe that the acts of assassination which it has examined represent the real American character. They do not reflect the ideals which have given the people of this country and the world hope for a better, fuller, fairer life. We regard the assassination plots as aberrations.”

“委员会认为，它所审查的暗杀行为并不代表真正的美国性格。它们没有反映出让这个国家和世界的人民对更美好、更充实、更公平的生活抱有希望的理想。我们认为暗杀阴谋是反常的。”

So, as William Blum noted, (4) the assassinations by the CIA of more than 50 national leaders and 100 lesser targets spanning at least 50 years and continuing in uninterrupted form through twelve US Presidents, are mere “aberrations” that don’t reflect “the real American character”. Reading from the same script, the US military casually described all the circumstances and events at its worldwide network of US torture prisons over twelve decades as “aberrations”.

因此，正如威廉·布鲁姆所指出的那样，（4）中央情报局暗杀了50多名国家领导人和100名较小的目标，这些暗杀事件至少持续了50年，并在12位美国总统任期内持续不断，这仅仅是“失常”，并不反映“真正的美国性格”。从同一个剧本中，美国军方随意地将其全球酷刑监狱网络在120年里的所有情况和事件描述为“异常”。

It is worth re-reading the above quote telling us the 150 or more murders “do not represent the real American character”, the quote forming a perfect introduction to the Propaganda Mask and the Utopia Syndrome. The assassinations of all these foreign leaders are not denied; instead they are described as inconsistent with the American utopian ideal, and it is the ideal rather than the act against which America judges itself, the fictitious utopian ideal providing the real measure of American moral supremacy. This pathological reasoning is a stunning tribute to the efficacy of the propaganda methods of Lippman and Bernays, who almost single-handedly turned Americans into raving lunatic war-mongers during both World Wars. (5) It is from precisely this propaganda that Americans today can commit multiple horrendous atrocities, violate every measure of human rights, yet claim the high moral ground and see no inconsistency or conflict. The propagandised utopian ideal of creating peace and stability in the world will supersede America’s actions of creating only war and instability. The propagandised ideal of fostering and protecting democracy will overwhelm and mask the reality that the US has never anywhere installed a democracy, has never supported democracy, and has instead almost exclusively installed and supported brutal Right-Wing dictatorships. This patently illogical logic applies across the entire spectrum of US behavior.

值得重读的是，上面这句话告诉我们，150起或更多的谋杀案“并不代表真正的美国人性格”，这句话完美地介绍了宣传面具和乌托邦综合症。所有这些外国领导人的暗杀都是不可否认的；相反，他们被描述为与美国的乌托邦理想不一致，这是美国评判自己的理想，而不是行为，虚构的乌托邦理想提供了美国道德至上的真正衡量标准。这种病态的推理是对利普曼和伯奈斯宣传方法有效性的惊人致敬，他们在两次世界大战期间几乎一手将美国人变成了疯狂的战争贩子。（5）正是从这种宣传中，今天的美国人可以犯下多种可怕的暴行，侵犯人权的每一项措施，却声称拥有崇高的道德基础，看不到任何不一致或冲突。在世界上创造和平与稳定的宣传乌托邦理想将取代美国只制造战争和不稳定的行为。宣传的促进和保护民主的理想将压倒并掩盖这样一个现实，即美国从未在任何地方建立过民主，从未支持过民主，而是几乎完全建立和支持了残暴的右翼独裁政权。这种明显不合逻辑的逻辑适用于美国的所有行为。

Following the same line of reasoning, an American writer named Dana Williams (6) wrote a reasonably good article detailing that America’s military interventions have always been waged only on behalf of big business and the elites, but then added: “America’s most priceless treasure is its democratic values and its growing sense of human rights”. What? A growing sense of human rights? Evidenced by what? This woman had just written of the increasingly devastating litany of American atrocities and destruction of so many governments and nations and in the next breath tells us of this same country’s priceless and growing treasure of democracy and human rights, apparently unaware of any conflict. Such is the power of propaganda and the ability of myths to insinuate themselves into the human heart and mind.

按照同样的推理，一位名叫达纳·威廉姆斯（Dana Williams）的美国作家（6岁）写了一篇相当不错的文章，详细说明了美国的军事干预一直只代表大企业和精英阶层，但随后补充道：“美国最无价的财富是其民主价值观和日益增强的人权意识”。什么？日益增强的人权意识？证据是什么？这位妇女刚刚写下了美国对如此多的政府和国家的暴行和破坏，这些暴行和破坏越来越具有破坏性，下一句话告诉我们，这个国家的民主和人权是无价之宝，而且日益丰富，显然没有意识到任何冲突。这就是宣传的力量和神话将自己渗透到人类心灵和思想中的能力。

Michael Parenti, for whom I have considerable admiration, did essentially the same thing, writing, “… the American way is to criticize and debate openly, not to accept unthinkingly the doings of government officials of this or any other country.” (7) But where were all these openly-debating Americans when their government was progressively destroying Iraq for more than ten years? Where were they when Madeline Albright was killing 500,000 Iraqi infants? Where was the open public debate about the destruction of Jugoslavia or Libya? Where are they today when the US is destroying Venezuela? Due to the intensive propaganda and ideological programming, Americans are taught to venerate the process, but ignore the result. This is truly a kind of mass insanity, with all the credit due to Bernays, “the father of Public Relations in America”.

我非常钦佩迈克尔·帕伦蒂，他基本上也做了同样的事情，写道：“……美国的方式是公开批评和辩论，不要不假思索地接受这个国家或任何其他国家政府官员的行为。”（7）但是，当他们的政府在十多年里逐步摧毁伊拉克时，这些公开辩论的美国人在哪里？马德琳·奥尔布赖特杀害50万伊拉克婴儿时，他们在哪里？关于摧毁南斯拉夫或利比亚的公开辩论在哪里？当美国摧毁委内瑞拉时，他们今天在哪里？由于密集的宣传和意识形态规划，美国人被教导要尊重这个过程，但忽略结果。这确实是一种大规模的疯狂，所有的功劳都归功于“美国公共关系之父”伯奈斯。

Nations Built on Lies Free E-Book

建立在无谎言电子书之上的国家

Further examples of this mass delusion are not difficult to find. US President Obama was asked why the US managed to rise for more than 200 years without apparent failure. His response was to say, “The true strength of our nation comes not from power of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the staying power of our ideals of democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.” (8) We can be forgiven for questioning the man’s sanity, that he could make such a blatantly nonsense statement. Even worse, how ignorant and gullible can Americans be, that they will cheer and wave their flags on hearing such rubbish? We have already examined the sources of wealth of this nation, and they most emphatically have never been related, not even in imagination, to ideals of democracy or liberty.

这种大规模妄想的其他例子并不难找到。有人问美国总统奥巴马，为什么美国在200多年的时间里成功崛起而没有明显的失败。他的回应是：“我们国家的真正力量不是来自我们的武器力量或财富规模，而是来自我们对民主、自由、机会和不屈希望的理想的持久力。”。更糟糕的是，美国人是多么无知和容易上当受骗，以至于他们一听到这样的垃圾就会欢呼并挥舞国旗？我们已经研究了这个国家的财富来源，最重要的是，它们从未与民主或自由的理想有过联系，甚至在想象中也没有。

In another case illustrative of the pervasive nature of this illness, in 2014 an American football team cancelled the employment contract of one of their star players for having made a vicious assault on his wife. In a casino hotel, the elevator camera recorded the man punching his wife in the head so hard that he drove her head-first into the steel wall, rendering her unconscious on the floor. (9) (10) A moment later, the CCTV camera in the hallway recorded him dragging her unconscious body out of the elevator and dumping her on the floor like a rag doll. When the videos were released and went viral, the man made a statement to the media in which he said, “That is not the kind of person I am.” But of course it is the kind of person he is; this was the third time the police had to intervene when he had done something similar. But, as with most Americans and with the nation itself, he doesn’t compare himself to the reality of his actions but rather to the utopian ideals he pretends to hold in his mind. So even though he repeatedly punches his wife unconscious, that’s not the kind of person he is. This story is a perfect illustration of America today.

另一个例子说明了这种疾病的普遍性，2014年，一支美国橄榄球队取消了他们的一名明星球员的雇佣合同，因为他对妻子进行了恶毒的攻击。在一家赌场酒店，电梯摄像头记录到这名男子猛烈地击打妻子的头部，导致她的头先撞到了钢墙上，使她昏迷在地板上。（9）（10）过了一会儿，走廊里的闭路电视摄像机记录到他把她昏迷的身体拖出电梯，像布娃娃一样把她扔在地板上。当这些视频被发布并在网上疯传时，这名男子向媒体发表声明说：“我不是那种人。”但当然，他就是那种人；这是他第三次做类似的事情，警方不得不介入。但是，与大多数美国人和国家本身一样，他不会将自己与自己行为的现实进行比较，而是将自己与他假装在脑海中持有的乌托邦理想进行比较。所以，尽管他一再把妻子打晕，但他不是那种人。这个故事完美地说明了当今的美国。

Bush and Obama flatly stating “we do not torture”

布什和奥巴马明确表示“我们不折磨”

On another occasion, James Fallows, an American author and correspondent for the Atlantic magazine, wrote in one of his diatribes comparing China with the US: “… though we fall short of the ideal, we strive for a reliable rule of law.” (11) I have no particular wish to throw stones at Fallows, but this man is painting targets on his forehead with such a clearly ridiculous statement. All of the current domestic and international evidence – all of it – supports an unqualified assertion that the US freely ignores and violates every manner of law, both its own and those of other nations, whenever they become inconvenient or hinder unilateral action, yet we have Fallows with his delightfully patronising arrogance pontificating about America striving for perfection in following the rule of law, while suggesting that China does not do so. His claim is not different in quality than Bush and Obama flatly stating “we do not torture” after we have seen all the evidence and the torture prisons are all still open. Black is white. Nothing else to see here. Let’s move on. And move on Fallows does, secure in his fairyland mythology of American moral superiority, oblivious to the enormous contradictions snapping at his heels.

在另一个场合，美国作家、《大西洋月刊》记者詹姆斯·法洛斯在一篇抨击中美关系的文章中写道：“……虽然我们没有达到理想，但我们努力争取可靠的法治。”。所有当前的国内和国际证据——所有这些证据——都支持一个无条件的断言，即美国在任何时候变得不便或阻碍单方面行动时，都会自由地忽视和违反本国和其他国家的各种法律，但我们有法洛斯，他以令人愉快的傲慢自大自居，宣称美国在遵守法治方面力求完美，同时暗示中国不会这样做。他的说法与布什和奥巴马在我们看到所有证据和酷刑监狱仍然开放后直截了当地说“我们不酷刑”的说法在质量上没有什么不同。黑色是白色的。这里没什么可看的了。让我们继续前进。法洛斯确实如此，他沉浸在美国道德优越感的仙境神话中，对紧随其后的巨大矛盾视而不见。

Fallows, in his suspended consciousness, conforms perfectly to this utopian syndrome, comparing the actions of his country to a high standard which exists only in his imagination and to which the US has never adhered. He does the same with his foolish criticisms of China, imagining the existence of some idolised standard which he then claims China fails to meet.

法洛斯在他悬浮的意识中，完全符合这种乌托邦综合症，将他的国家的行动与一种只存在于他想象中、美国从未遵守过的高标准进行了比较。他对中国的愚蠢批评也是如此，想象着存在一些偶像化的标准，然后声称中国没有达到这些标准。

It is of extreme importance for readers to realise and fully understand that expressions like ‘rule of law’, ‘freedom’, and ‘democratic values’ are merely hypothetical idealistic constructs. They are myths and, like all myths, they are “designed to serve an emotive rather than cognitive function, not to provide fact based on reason but as propaganda to arouse emotions in support of an idea”. (12) Their purpose, and their clever effect, is not to provide information but to make one’s heart swell with pride at one’s own moral superiority. Think again of Fallows’ “though we fall short of the ideal, we strive for a reliable rule of law.” As Americans, we instantly feel that surge of pride in our breasts that we are so law-abiding while others by insinuation are not. Even further, we feel yet more pride that we so openly admit our (occasional and trivial) failures but, being good incarnate, we face and overcome these failings and continue striving in the best Olympic spirit. How can our god not love us?

读者必须意识到并充分理解“法治”、“自由”和“民主价值观”等表达只是假设的理想主义结构，这一点极其重要。它们是神话，与所有神话一样，它们“旨在服务于情感而非认知功能，不是提供基于理性的事实，而是作为宣传来唤起情感以支持一个想法”。（12）他们的目的和聪明的效果不是提供信息，而是让一个人为自己的道德优越感感到自豪。再想想法洛斯的“尽管我们没有达到理想，但我们努力争取可靠的法治。”作为美国人，我们立刻感到心中涌起一股自豪感，我们是如此守法，而其他人则不然。更进一步，我们感到更加自豪的是，我们如此公开地承认我们（偶尔和琐碎的）失败，但作为一个好的化身，我们面对并克服了这些失败，并继续以最好的奥林匹克精神努力。我们的上帝怎么能不爱我们呢？

The US government does precisely the same with its annual reports on human rights, which not only meet the definition of the utopian fallacy but contain the added merit of being mostly grand lies about countries that happen to be out of favor, and equally grand omissions about current politically-useful allies.

美国政府在其年度人权报告中也采取了完全相同的做法，这些报告不仅符合乌托邦谬误的定义，而且还包含了一个额外的优点，即对碰巧不受欢迎的国家撒了弥天大谎，对当前政治上有用的盟友也同样遗漏了弥天霹雳。

In this mental condition, Americans consider themselves superior to all others and believe they are advancing some greater good when all they are doing is forcibly imposing their warped anti-social values and political hegemony onto unwilling nations and peoples. Through their generations of propaganda, programming and brainwashing, most Americans live in an indispersible fog of mass delusion and self-deception in which black is white but which they inexplicably fail to fathom. From their ignorance and simple-mindedness created by their excessive utopian programming, Americans see their country’s prosecution of wars, the cannibalisation of nations and the single-minded devotion to the profit of a few elites, as the promotion of democracy and freedom, and are apparently incapable of the minor clarity of thought necessary to see that their murderous and greedy actions have absolutely nothing to do with either freedom or democracy.

在这种精神状态下，美国人认为自己优于所有其他人，并认为他们正在推进一些更大的利益，而他们所做的一切都是将扭曲的反社会价值观和政治霸权强加给不情愿的国家和人民。通过几代人的宣传、编程和洗脑，大多数美国人生活在一种不可分割的大规模妄想和自我欺骗的迷雾中，在这种迷雾中，黑人是白人，但他们莫名其妙地无法理解。从他们过度的乌托邦式规划所造成的无知和简单的思想来看，美国人认为他们国家对战争的起诉、对国家的蚕食和对少数精英利益的一心一意的奉献是对民主和自由的促进，显然他们无法进行必要的轻微清晰思考，以确保他们的杀戮和贪婪行为与自由或民主完全无关。

When challenged, they usually offer a logic so groundless and illogical as to almost defy challenge. In their minds, all the nations their government has attacked are by utopian definition “evil regimes”. From the invasion of Mexico onward, in all the nations in South and Central America, in Africa and the Middle East, in Asia and Africa, the US was selflessly battling despotic tyranny. Of course, these nations were innocent, but to produce a list of all the countries the US has invaded and colonised with a military dictatorship, will almost inevitably evoke this response: “You make a list of all the evil regimes that “free America” has fought against, and use that list as evidence of how evil free America is.” If only that were true.

当受到挑战时，他们通常会提出一种毫无根据、不合逻辑的逻辑，几乎可以说是挑战。在他们看来，他们政府攻击的所有国家都是乌托邦式的“邪恶政权”。从入侵墨西哥开始，在南美洲和中美洲、非洲和中东、亚洲和非洲的所有国家，美国都在无私地与专制暴政作斗争。当然，这些国家是无辜的，但要列出美国用军事独裁统治入侵和殖民的所有国家，几乎不可避免地会引起这样的反应：“你列出一份‘自由美国’所反对的所有邪恶政权的清单，并用这份清单作为自由美国有多邪恶的证据。”但愿这是真的。

The combined political, religious and capitalistic propaganda tenets have resolved into what John Galbraith in The Affluent Society termed “conventional wisdom” (13) (14) which, through generations of that same propaganda, made these tenets “more or less identical with sound scholarship”, and their status being “virtually impregnable”, as he put it. The tenets of course have not actually been adhered to by any US government or indeed by the elites and their corporations, which means in Galbraith’s terms that the tenets are “highly acceptable in the abstract” rather than in reality. And this is the source of our dystopia of utopia in America today. We have the bizarre situation where this conventional wisdom – propaganda, in fact – makes a vigorous advocacy of these beliefs a substitute for behavior according to these beliefs.

政治、宗教和资本主义相结合的宣传原则已经演变成约翰·加尔布雷斯在《富裕社会》中所说的“传统智慧”（13）（14），通过几代人的宣传，这些原则“或多或少与健全的学术相同”，正如他所说，它们的地位“几乎坚不可摧”。当然，这些原则实际上并没有得到任何美国政府或精英及其公司的遵守，这意味着用加尔布雷斯的话说，这些原则是“抽象的高度可接受的”，而不是在现实中。这就是我们今天美国乌托邦反乌托邦的根源。我们面临着一种奇怪的情况，即这种传统智慧——事实上是宣传——使对这些信仰的大力倡导取代了根据这些信仰的行为。

So we have Americans preaching democracy while their government installs brutal dictatorships everywhere, and they see no disconnect. We have Americans preaching human rights while kidnapping people in other countries and “rendering” them to be mostly tortured to death, and see no disconnect. We have Americans fervently preaching and defending free-market capitalism while that same animal relieved about 30% of them of their homes and jobs, yet they see no disconnect.

因此，我们看到美国人宣扬民主，而他们的政府却在各地建立残酷的独裁政权，他们看不到任何脱节。我们看到美国人在宣扬人权的同时，在其他国家绑架人们，并“使”他们大多被折磨致死，而且看不到任何脱节。我们有美国人狂热地宣扬和捍卫自由市场资本主义，而这只动物却让大约30%的人失去了家园和工作，但他们没有看到任何脱节。

This massive delusion is constantly reinforced by public repetition where each knows that many others share these beliefs. It all functions as a kind of religious morality play, the repetitive propaganda not only providing reassurance but serving as additional and pervasive evangelising of these foolish beliefs. Galbraith stated that “In some measure, the articulation of the conventional wisdom is a religious rite. It is an act of affirmation like reading aloud from the Scriptures or going to church.” He went on to say that this evangelising as a religious rite is not negligible because “its purpose is not to convey knowledge but to beatify learning and the learned”. In other words, statements like “we strive for a rule of law” are empty and nonsense pronouncements providing religious reinforcement of the mythical utopian tenets of American propaganda, then used as evidence of a superior morality tantamount to God’s will. Only in America do we find rampant self-adoration for preaching a gospel that we totally ignore in our real lives, in fact a monstrous hypocrisy re-branded as religion.

这种巨大的错觉不断被公众的重复所强化，每个人都知道许多其他人也有这些信仰。这一切都是一种宗教道德剧，重复的宣传不仅提供了保证，而且是对这些愚蠢信仰的额外和普遍的传播。加尔布雷斯表示，“在某种程度上，对传统智慧的阐述是一种宗教仪式。这是一种肯定的行为，就像大声朗读圣经或去教堂一样。”他接着说，这种作为宗教仪式的传福音是不可忽视的，因为“它的目的不是传达知识，而是祝福学习和学习者”。换言之，像“我们争取法治”这样的声明是空洞和无稽之谈的声明，为美国宣传的神话般的乌托邦原则提供了宗教强化，然后被用作相当于上帝意志的优越道德的证据。只有在美国，我们才会发现，在现实生活中，我们完全忽视了传福音，这是一种被重新定义为宗教的可怕虚伪。

This is precisely what John Kozy was telling us (15) when he wrote that subjects in American schools were taught as if they were comprised of revealed religious truths, and in which the fundamentals of American patriotism, religious and political ideology, consumerism and free market capitalism were not different than studying the Bible in that they could not be questioned because they were by nature unquestionable, and therefore critical evaluation was proscribed. And again, “those who ask inconvenient questions are silenced in shame; books that present inconvenient truths are removed from libraries”. In the US as in no other country in the world, is it so necessary to adhere to the accepted narrative, nor so likely to provide acceptance and even applause for regurgitating that same narrative. And in no other nation does there exist the vast discrepancy between beliefs and actions or between theory and practice. The American political gospel tells us that we protect and install democracies everywhere. In real life this has never occurred even one time, but that doesn’t alter our faith in our political religion and nobody excommunicates us for our sins.

这正是约翰·科齐告诉我们的（15），他写道，美国学校的科目被教授得好像是由揭示的宗教真理组成的，在这些科目中，美国爱国主义、宗教和政治意识形态、消费主义和自由市场资本主义的基础与学习圣经没有什么不同，因为它们本质上是无可置疑的，因此批判性评价是被禁止的。再说一次，“那些提出不便问题的人会羞愧地沉默；那些提出不便真相的书籍会被从图书馆中删除”。在美国，就像在世界上任何其他国家一样，是否有必要坚持公认的叙事，也不太可能为重复同样的叙事提供接受甚至掌声。在任何其他国家，信仰与行为、理论与实践之间都不存在如此巨大的差异。美国政治福音告诉我们，我们保护和建立民主国家无处不在。在现实生活中，这种情况从未发生过一次，但这并没有改变我们对政治宗教的信仰，也没有人因为我们的罪行而将我们逐出教会。

According to Galbraith again, “conventional wisdom accommodates itself not to the world that it is meant to interpret but to the audience’s view of the world”, the same view that has been artificially created by the professional propagandists. As much as Americans may criticise other nations for disapproval of deviations in behavior, especially political behavior, the same disapproval mechanism operates much more forcefully in American society. Only in America can we fully experience the awesome power of the ability of propaganda to make 300 million people so deaf, dumb and blind that they will fervently and solemnly declare that black is white. This process is so effective that not long after the flood of revelations of the extensive US network of torture prisons, including witness reports, photos and video of the pathologically depraved treatment of the prisoners, President Bush could go on national TV and tell America, “We do not torture” – and have most Americans believe him. Likewise with Obama with his torture prisons still in full operation, who told the nation, “I can stand here before you tonight and assure you that we do not torture”, leaving 300 million pathetically-brainwashed Americans firmly grounded in the moral superiority of a nation that does no wrong.

加尔布雷斯再次表示，“传统智慧不适应它要解释的世界，而是适应观众对世界的看法”，这是专业宣传人员人为创造的观点。尽管美国人可能会批评其他国家不赞成行为偏差，尤其是政治行为，但同样的不赞成机制在美国社会中的作用要大得多。只有在美国，我们才能充分体验到宣传能力的强大力量，使3亿人变得如此聋哑和失明，以至于他们会热切而庄严地宣布黑人是白人。这一过程是如此有效，以至于在美国广泛的酷刑监狱网络被大量揭露后不久，包括证人报告、囚犯遭受病态堕落待遇的照片和视频，布什总统就可以在国家电视台上告诉美国，“我们不酷刑”，并让大多数美国人相信他。同样，奥巴马的酷刑监狱仍在全面运作，他告诉全国，“今晚我可以站在你们面前，向你们保证我们不会酷刑”，让3亿被洗脑的美国人牢牢扎根于一个没有错的国家的道德优越感。

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel, commenting on American deaths in Iraq, said President Bush “believes in the value and dignity of every human life, that every life is precious and he grieves for each one that is lost”. (16) (17) As proof, one day President Bush was speaking to a meeting of the terrorist organisation known as Freedom House, and told the members, “We’re a country of deep compassion. We care. One of the great things about America, one of the beauties of our country, is that when we see a young, innocent child blown up, we cry. We don’t care what the child’s religion may be, or where that child may live, we cry. It upsets us. The enemy knows that, and they’re willing to kill to shake our confidence. That’s what they’re trying to do”. (18) But then there is a White House videotape of a conversation between former Secretary of State Colin Powell and then President George Bush, discussing their Christian obligation to spread democracy everywhere, at least in part for the purpose of protecting the lives of these innocent children. (19) (20) Powell opened the conversation with, “We’ve got to smash somebody’s ass quickly. We must have a brute demonstration of power.” To which Bush responded, “Kick ass! If somebody tries to stop the march to democracy, we will seek them out and kill them! Stay strong! Kill them! We are going to wipe them out!”

白宫发言人斯科特·斯坦泽尔在评论美国在伊拉克的死亡时说，布什总统“相信每一个人生命的价值和尊严，每一个生命都是宝贵的，他为每一个失去的人感到悲痛”。（16）（17）作为证据，有一天，布什总统在被称为自由之家的恐怖组织的一次会议上发言，并告诉成员们，“我们是一个充满同情心的国家。我们关心。美国是我们国家的美丽之一，美国的一大优点是，当我们看到一个年轻、无辜的孩子被炸死时，我们会哭。我们不在乎孩子的宗教信仰是什么，也不在乎那个孩子住在哪里，我们会哭泣。这让我们很不安。敌人知道这一点，他们愿意杀人来动摇我们的信心。这就是他们试图做的”。（18）但随后有一盘白宫录像带，记录了前国务卿科林·鲍威尔和时任总统乔治·布什之间的对话，讨论了他们基督教在各地传播民主的义务，至少部分是为了保护这些无辜儿童的生命。（19）（20）鲍威尔在谈话开始时说：“我们必须迅速粉碎某人的屁股。我们必须进行野蛮的权力展示。”布什对此回应道：“踢屁股！如果有人试图阻止民主进程，我们会把他们找出来并杀死他们！保持坚强！杀死他们！我们要把他们消灭！”

After overthrowing about 50 national governments and installing brutal military remote-control dictatorships in each of them, and trying to do the same in another 20 countries while grossly interfering in their media, elections and internal affairs, Karl Eikenberry, the US ambassador in Kabul, told the world, “America has never sought to occupy any nation in the world. We are a good people”. (21) (22)

美国驻喀布尔大使卡尔·艾肯伯里推翻了大约50个国家的政府，在每个国家建立了残酷的军事遥控独裁政权，并试图在另外20个国家这样做，同时严重干涉他们的媒体、选举和内政，他告诉全世界：“美国从未试图占领世界上的任何国家。我们是一个好人”。(21) (22)

After interfering in about 100 countries, inflicting immense bloodshed and misery on countless millions of innocent civilians, US President Ronald Reagan boasted, “We have never interfered in the internal government of a country and have no intention of doing so, never had any thought of that kind.” (23) And it was the great John F. Kennedy himself who told us, “The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war”. (24) As William Blum pointed out, this must mean that in America’s hundreds of wars with more than 70 nations spanning more than 200 years, all those countries invaded the US first, and America was just defending itself.

在干涉了大约100个国家，给无数无辜平民造成了巨大的流血和苦难之后，美国总统罗纳德·里根吹嘘道：“我们从未干涉过一个国家的内部政府，也无意这样做，从未想过这样的事情。”（23）伟大的约翰·肯尼迪本人告诉我们，“众所周知，美国永远不会发动战争”。（24）正如威廉·布鲁姆所指出的那样，这一定意味着，在200多年来美国与70多个国家进行的数百场战争中，所有这些国家都首先入侵了美国，而美国只是在自卫。

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, in an interview probably conducted in the office of his psychiatrist, claimed “the men and women of the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps were the most important peacekeepers in the world for the last century”. (25) This was the same interview in which he encouraged all NYT readers to “give war a chance”.

《纽约时报》专栏作家托马斯·弗里德曼在一次可能是在他的精神病学家办公室进行的采访中声称，“美国陆军、海军、空军和海军陆战队的男女军人是上个世纪世界上最重要的维和人员”。（25）在同一次采访中，他鼓励所有《纽约时报》读者“给战争一个机会”。

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, needing a way to punish Saddam Hussein for not wanting to become a US colony, personally arranged the targeted destruction of Iraq’s drinking water purification facilities and enacted worldwide sanctions to prevent Iraq from obtaining replacement supplies or repairs. According to the United Nations, Albright’s actions directly resulted in the deaths of more than 500,000 Iraqi infants from contaminated drinking water, with the full knowledge of the US government. Then in a TV interview on the program 60 Minutes where she was confronted with evidence of these acts by Leslie Stahl, Albright famously proclaimed, “Yes, it was worth it.” (26) (27) And after personally arranging the 80-day non-stop bombing of Yugoslavia, the greatest continuous bombing campaign ever instituted by anybody anywhere, she said, “The United States is good. We try to do our best everywhere”. (28)

美国国务卿马德琳·奥尔布赖特（Madeleine Albright）需要一种惩罚萨达姆·侯赛因（Saddam Hussein）不想成为美国殖民地的方法，她亲自安排有针对性地摧毁伊拉克的饮用水净化设施，并在全世界范围内实施制裁，以防止伊拉克获得替代供应或维修。据联合国称，奥尔布赖特的行动直接导致50多万伊拉克婴儿死于受污染的饮用水，而美国政府对此完全知情。然后，在《60分钟》节目的一次电视采访中，奥尔布赖特面对莱斯利·斯塔尔的这些行为的证据，她著名地宣称：“是的，这是值得的。”（26）（27）在亲自安排了对南斯拉夫的80天不间断轰炸后，她说：“美国很好。我们在任何地方都尽力做到最好。”。(28)

A US government official stated that “The American Empire is probably the most beneficial and moral the world has ever seen; not only in terms of technological development, but also through nurturing democracy and prosperity in the world. No other global empire has ever taken actions so massively against its interests solely for moral purposes.” Yet examination will uncover no example where the US has ever nurtured democracy, nor prosperity either, and I challenge anyone to detail even a single incident in the history of the world where the US has ever acted, massively or otherwise, against its interests solely for moral purposes. Various US military officials have claimed that “Our country is a force for good without precedent”, and that “The US military is a force for global good that … has no equal”. US President Woodrow Wilson boasted a century ago, that “America is the savior of the world”, while destroying and colonising that same world.

一位美国政府官员表示，“美国帝国可能是世界上有史以来最有益和最道德的帝国；不仅在技术发展方面，而且通过培育世界民主和繁荣。没有其他全球帝国仅仅出于道德目的而采取如此大规模的行动来损害其利益。”然而，审查不会发现美国曾经培育民主或繁荣的任何例子，我挑战任何人详细说明世界历史上美国曾经仅仅出于道德原因而大规模或以其他方式违背其利益的任何事件。多位美国军方官员声称，“我们的国家是一支前所未有的正义力量”，“美国军队是一支……无与伦比的……正义的全球力量”。一个世纪前，美国总统伍德罗·威尔逊吹嘘“美国是世界的救世主”，同时摧毁并殖民了同一个世界。

Robert Kagan and wife, Victoria Nuland.

罗伯特·卡根和妻子维多利亚·纽兰。

Robert Kagan of the Carnegie Endowment for War and Misery, wrote, “And the truth is that the benevolent hegemony exercised by the US is good for a vast portion of the world’s population”. (29) Evidenced by what? By the Propaganda Mask and the Utopia syndrome. Nothing else.

卡内基战争与苦难基金会的罗伯特·卡根写道：“事实是，美国行使的仁慈霸权对世界上绝大多数人口都有好处”。（29）证据是什么？通过宣传面具和乌托邦综合症。没有别的。

American Christianity is a major part of this national insanity. George Bush informed the world that God told him to invade Iraq and, during the invasion, said “I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job”. And when the war was over, after having killed a million or more innocent Iraqi civilians, Bush said, “When we lift our hearts to God, we’re all equal in his sight. We’re all equally precious. … In prayer we grow in mercy and compassion. … When we answer God’s call to love a neighbor as ourselves, we enter into a deeper friendship with our fellow man”. We are apparently to conclude that no one has had greater love for his fellow man than George Bush had for the million civilians he killed in Iraq and that Madeleine Albright was just exhibiting her great love for mankind by killing half a million infants. And of course, Obama can’t be left out of this parade. After countless thousands of deaths in the illegal destruction of Libya and the countless civilian deaths incurred by his drones in Pakistan, he fulfilled his propaganda obligation by telling us, “I believe that Christ died for my sins and I am redeemed through him. That is a source of strength and sustenance on a daily basis”. (30) The people in Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and Pakistan might have a different interpretation of Obama’s relationship with his god.

美国基督教是这种民族精神错乱的重要组成部分。乔治·布什告诉全世界，上帝告诉他入侵伊拉克，在入侵期间，他说：“我相信上帝通过我说话。没有上帝，我就无法完成我的工作”。战争结束后，在杀害了100万或更多无辜的伊拉克平民后，布什说：“当我们向上帝致敬时，在他眼中我们都是平等的。我们都是同样珍贵的……在祈祷中，我们的怜悯和同情与日俱增……当我们响应上帝的号召，像爱自己一样爱邻居时，我们与同胞建立了更深层次的友谊”。我们显然可以得出结论，没有人比乔治·布什对他在伊拉克杀害的数百万平民更爱他的同胞，马德琳·奥尔布赖特只是通过杀害50万婴儿来表达她对人类的伟大爱。当然，奥巴马不能被排除在这场游行之外。在利比亚的非法破坏造成无数人死亡，他的无人机在巴基斯坦造成无数平民死亡之后，他履行了宣传义务，告诉我们：“我相信基督为我的罪而死，我通过他得到救赎。这是每天力量和生计的源泉”。（30）阿富汗、利比亚、叙利亚和巴基斯坦的人民可能对奥巴马与上帝的关系有不同的解释。

Another result of this utopian syndrome is what we term “the pot calling the kettle black”, in other words, attributing to others the sins that “our side” commits and being apparently oblivious to the gross illogic and falsehoods in our position. The only reason the US accuses Huawei of being a potential spy is because Cisco, Microsoft, Intel, Xerox, and so many other American IT firms have been spying for the CIA and NSA for decades. The US media accuse anyone writing articles sympathetic to China, Russia or Iran of being paid shills, only because American correspondents have been paid CIA shills since the 1950s.

这种乌托邦综合症的另一个结果是我们所说的“锅叫锅黑”，换句话说，将“我们一方”犯下的罪行归咎于他人，显然对我们立场中的严重不合逻辑和谎言视而不见。美国指责华为是潜在间谍的唯一原因是，思科、微软、英特尔、施乐和许多其他美国IT公司几十年来一直在为中央情报局和国家安全局从事间谍活动。美国媒体指责任何撰写同情中国、俄罗斯或伊朗的文章的人都获得了先令的报酬，仅仅是因为自20世纪50年代以来，美国记者一直获得中央情报局先令的报酬。

Another example that recently crossed my path was an article in the Financial Times by Jamil Anderlini who was at the time the FT’s station chief in Beijing. In an article titled ‘Patriotic education distorts China world view’, (31) Anderlini claimed that China’s “selective teaching of history influences its self-image”, imagining a great “disconnection between how the world views China and how China – from ordinary citizens to top leaders – sees itself.” He stated the world sees China as a frightening monster that bullies all other nations, his ignorance rendering him blissfully unaware that this sentiment is not true for China but for the US that he defends.

最近我遇到的另一个例子是《金融时报》上Jamil Anderlini的一篇文章，他当时是英国《金融时报。安德里尼在一篇题为《爱国主义教育扭曲了中国的世界观》的文章中声称，中国的“选择性历史教学影响了其自我形象”，想象了一种“世界如何看待中国与中国——从普通公民到高层领导人——如何看待自己之间的巨大脱节”。他说，世界将中国视为一个欺负所有其他国家的可怕怪物，他的无知使他幸福地意识到这种情绪不仅适用于中国，也适用于他所捍卫的美国。

He wrote that China’s “selective teaching” of history and emphasis on “patriotic education” cultivates a “nationalistic, anti-western victim mentality among young Chinese”, again apparently ignorant of the typical Western (US) patriotic education cultivating US patriotism. This mentality is typical for all Western media correspondents who are selected primarily for the extent of their conversion by US propaganda. This is perhaps a good place to note that prior to joining the Financial Times, Anderlini was employed as a male underwear model which employment no doubt contributed to his deep understanding of Chinese culture while solidifying his credentials as the FT’s Beijing station chief.

他写道，中国对历史的“选择性教学”和对“爱国主义教育”的强调培养了“中国年轻人的民族主义、反西方受害者心态”，这显然是对培养美国爱国主义的典型西方（美国）爱国主义教育的无知。这种心态对于所有西方媒体记者来说都是典型的，他们主要是根据美国宣传的转化程度而被选中的。这或许是一个值得注意的地方，在加入英国《金融时报》之前，安德里尼是一名男性内衣模特，这无疑有助于他对中国文化的深刻理解，同时巩固了他作为英国《金融报》北京站站长的资历。

Mr. Romanoff’s writing has been translated into 28 languages and his articles posted on more than 150 foreign-language news and politics websites in more than 30 countries, as well as more than 100 English-language platforms. Larry Romanoff is a retired management consultant and businessman. He has held senior executive positions in international consulting firms, and owned an international import-export business. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, presenting case studies in international affairs to senior EMBA classes. Mr. Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently writing a series of ten books generally related to China and the West. He is one of the contributing authors to Cynthia McKinney’s new anthology ‘When China Sneezes‘.

罗曼诺夫的文章已被翻译成28种语言，并在30多个国家的150多个外语新闻和政治网站以及100多个英语平台上发表。拉里·罗曼诺夫是一位退休的管理顾问和商人。他曾在国际咨询公司担任高级管理职务，并拥有国际进出口业务。他一直是上海复旦大学的客座教授，为高级EMBA课程提供国际事务案例研究。罗曼诺夫先生住在上海，目前正在写一系列与中国和西方有关的十本书。他是辛西娅·麦金尼（Cynthia McKinney）新选集《当中国打喷嚏》（When China Sneeze）的特约作者之一。

His full archive can be seen at

他的完整文章库可以在以下看到

https://www.moonofshanghai.com/ + https://www.bluemoonofshanghai.com/

He can be contacted at:

他的联系方式：

2186604556@qq.com

Notes

注释

(1) https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/is-the-united-states-a-racial-democracy/

(2) https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/intelligence/2017-06-02/white-house-cia-pike-committee-1975

(3) https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKassassinationsC.htm

(4) https://williamblum.org/essays/read/us-government-assassination-plots