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罗讷德．里根 (RONALD REAGAN) 在莫斯科国立大学的演说 Speech at Moscow State University进步不是预先注定的。关键是自由──思想的自由，信息的自由，交流的自由。 罗讷德．里根(1911─ )于 1980年被选为美国总统。他的当选标志着八十年代一股强劲的保守潮流的胜利。里根生于伊利诺伊州，在进入政坛之前是个电影明星，以后曾当选为加州州长。 在他的整个政治生涯中，罗讷德．里根一直表现出对政治上压抑、经济上停滞的共产主义制度深恶痛绝。自从米哈伊．戈尔巴乔夫掌权以后，苏美关系突然向好的方向转变。戈尔巴乔夫在苏联的生活中导致广泛的政治和经济变革，最终促成1989年东欧各国共产党统治的崩溃。 在这发生历史性变化的时期，戈尔巴乔夫邀请里根访问苏联。1988年5月31日，里根对莫斯科国立大学的学生发表演讲，形成他苏联之行最精彩的场面之一。在该校一幅列宁像前，里根描述了全球民主革命的扩展以及在实时通讯时代中自由思想的力量。 ……站在这儿，一幅描绘你们的革命的壁画前，我想谈谈目前正发生的一场完全不同的革命，它悄悄地席卷全球，没有流血和冲突。它的作用是和平的，但将从根本上改变我们的世界，砸碎陈旧的想法，重塑我们的生活。 人们很容易低估这场革命，因为它并未伴随着旌旗飘舞的场面和嘹亮的喇叭声。它被称作工艺革命或信息革命，而人们可以把小小硅片──跟指纹印一般大小──当作它的象征。这样的一块硅片比摆满一间屋子的老式计算器的计算能力更强。 作为一项交流计划的一部分，现在我们有一个展览正在贵国巡回展出，显示信息技术正如何改变我们的生活──用机器人代替体力劳动，为农民预报天气，或是为医学研究人员绘制脱氧核糖酸的遗传密码。这些微型电子计算器如今帮助人们设计各种东西，从房屋、汽车直到宇宙飞船──它们甚至可以用来设计运作更好更快的电子计算器。它们能把英语译成俄语，或使得盲人也能阅读，甚至帮助迈克尔．杰克逊在一个合成器上奏出管弦乐队全部乐器的声音。一个人通过与一个卫星和光纤电缆的网络联系，用一架摆在桌面的计算机和一门电话便可获得几年前最庞大的政府也无法得到的资料。就像一只蝶蛹，我们正从产业革命的经济──被地球的自然资源所束缚和限制的经济──进入……一个新时代。 在这个新时代中，人具有无限的想象力，而创造的自由则是最宝贵的自然资源。 想想那小小硅片吧。它的价值不在制作它的原料──沙子，而在由机灵的人脑设计的它内部的细微结构。或者再以卫星全球转播为例，它替代了成千上万吨经采矿、 烧铸制成的铜丝。在新的经济中，人的创造发明越来越使得自然资源成为过时的东西。我们正突破生存的物质条件，跨入一个人类缔造自己命运的世界。甚至当我们探索科学最先进的领域时，我们也追溯到人类文化的古老智慧，它包含在《圣经》的《创世纪》卷中；最初只有圣灵，正是从这一圣灵源源不断地创造出天地万物。 但进步不是预先注定的。关键是自由──思想的自由，信息的自由，交流的自由。著名科学家，学者，贵校的创办人米哈伊．罗蒙诺索夫深知这一点。"众所周知，"他说，"科学成绩斐然，发展迅速，特别是当奴隶的枷锁被解除，代之以哲学的自由之后。"…… 现代纪元的探索者是企业家，他们高瞻远瞩，敢冒风险，具有坚定的信念，勇于涉足未知领域。这些企业家和他们的小型企业几乎造成了美国的整个经济发展。他们是技术革命的原动力。实际上，美国最大的个人计算机公司中的一家便是由两名与你们年龄相仿的大学生在他们家宅后面的汽车间里创立的。 有些人，甚至在我自己的国家，面对自由市场经济试验中的骚乱，眼中只看见浪费。所有遭到失败的企业家的情况怎样呢? 其实许多企业家都失败过，特别是成功的企业家。他们往往失败过好几次。假如你向他们询问成功的秘诀，他们会告诉你，那是他们在摸爬滚打中学到的东西──是他们从失败中学到的东西。正如对于一名参加角逐的运动员或一位探求真理的学者，经验即是最伟大的导师。 这正说明为什么政府的制订计划的人员无论怎样精明也无法代替数百万夜以继日埋头苦干以实现自己梦想的个人。 我们美国人毫不掩饰我们对自由的信仰。事实上，在某种意义上它是全国人民的娱乐。每隔四年美国人民选一个新总统，1988年便是大选年。一度有13名重要的候选人在两大政党内竞选，且不提其它政党，包括社会党和自由意志 党的候选人──全都问鼎我的职位。 一千家地方电视台、八千五百家广播电台和一千七百家日报──每一家都是完全不受政府控制的独立私营企业──对这些候选人进行报导，轮番采访，把他们拽到一起辩论。最后由人民投票──由人民决定谁将任下一届总统。 但自由并不以选举为起点或终点。比方说，走进任何一座美国市镇，你都能看到代表各种不同信仰的十几座教堂(在许多地方还有犹太教堂和清真寺)，而且你看见属于各个不同民族的家庭聚集一堂做礼拜。 走进任何一所学校的教室，你都能看见孩子们正接受独立宣言精神的教育，以使他们懂得：他们被造物主赋予某些不可出让的权利，其中包括生活、自由和追求幸福的权利，任何政府都没有理由剥夺这些权利──它们是在他们的宪法中对言论、集会和宗教信仰自由的保证。 走进任何一所法庭，你都能看到主持人是一位不依附政府权力的独立的法官。每一个被告都有权受到通常由12名普通男女公民组成的陪审团的审判，完全由这些陪审员来考虑证据，作出有罪或无罪的判决。在法庭上，被告在证实有罪之前是无罪的，而一名警察或官员的话并不比被告的话具有更高的法律地位。 走进任何一所大学的校园，你都可以发现大学生们就美国社会问题及其矫正的方法进行公开的，有时是热烈的讨论。打开电视机，你可以看到立法机关就在摄像机前处理政府事务，就即将成为国家法令的审议事项进行辩论、表决。加入任何一场示威游行，你就会明白这种活动在美国司空见惯──人民的集会权得到宪法的保障和警察的保护。走进任何一座工会大楼，你会了解到工会会员们都知道，他们的罢工权利受法律保护。…… 然而自由的含义甚至比这更广：自由是提出质问的权利，是改变既定工作方式的权利。它是一个市场持续不断的革命。它是一种认识，使我们能看清缺点，寻求解决的途径。它是提出一种见解的权利，这见解被专家奚落，却在人民中大受欢迎。它是追求你的理想的权利，保持自己良心的权利，即便你一个人处在怀疑者们的重重包围中。 自由是这种认识，即没有任何一个人，没有任何一个权威或政府能垄断真理，而每一个人的生命都是无比珍贵的，我们每一个降临到这个世界上的人都是为某种原因而来，要作出某种贡献。…… 民主与其说是一个政府体制，不如说是一个限制政府，使其不能侵犯人权的制度：这种约束权力的制度使政治和政府从属于生活中的重要因素，即唯有在家庭和信仰中才能找到的价值的真正源泉。 但是我希望你们明白，我谈论这些问题不仅为颂扬美国的优点，也为了证明贵国的精神崇高伟大。究竟有谁需要对杜思妥耶夫斯基的祖国谈探索真理，对康定斯基和斯克里亚宾的祖国谈想象力，对乌兹别克作家阿利舍．纳维奥丰富、高尚的文化谈美和心灵呢? 贵国锦绣河山的伟大文化热情洋溢地向全人类发出呼吁。请允许我引用关于人类自由的最为意味深长的段落之一。它不是摘自美国文学，而是引自贵国二十世纪最杰出的作家之一鲍里斯．帕斯捷尔纳克的小说《齐瓦戈医生》。他写道："我认为，倘若藏在一个人体内的兽性能够用威胁──任何一种威胁，无论是监禁或是死后的报应──加以压制，那么人性的最高标志将是马戏团里手执鞭子的驯狮者，而不是牺牲自我的先知。但这恰恰是要害问题：千百年来使人类高于禽兽的不是棍棒，而是内心的音乐──手无寸铁的真理不可抗拒的力量。"手无寸铁的真理不可抗拒的力量。今天，整个世界殷切期待着苏联发生变化，迈向更大的自由。…… 你们这一代人生活在苏联历史上最令人激动，最有希望的时代。在这个时代，自由最初的气息在空中流动，人心随着希望不断加快的节奏跳动；在这个时代，在漫长的沈寂中积聚起来的精神力量喷薄欲出。 我记起果戈理《死魂灵》将近结尾的脍炙人口的一段文字。果戈理把他的祖国比作奔驰的三套车，并且问它的目的地在何方。然而他写道："除了传来美妙的铃声，没有任何回答。" 我们不知道这旅程将如何终结，但我们希望改革的许诺将得以实现。在这莫斯科之春，1988年5月，我们或许能获得这一希望──犹如托尔斯泰坟上嫩绿的树苗，自由将最终在你们人民和文化的肥沃土壤上欣欣向荣，蓬勃生长。我们或许能希望，一个新的开放格局的美妙铃声将响彻云霄，引向一个和解、友好与和平的新世界。…… 附注：
. . . Standing here before a mural of your revolution, I want to talk about a very different revolution that is taking place right now, quietly sweeping the globe, without bloodshed or conflict. Its effects are peaceful, but they will fundamentally alter our world, shatter old assumptions, and reshape our lives. It's easy to underestimate because it's not accompanied by banners or fanfare. It has been called the technological or information revolution, and as its emblem, one might take the tiny silicon chip― no bigger than a fingerprint. One of these chips has more computing power than a roomful of old-style computers. As part of an exchange program, we now have an exhibition touring your country that shows how information technology is transforming our lives― replacing manual labor with robots, forecasting weather for farmers, or mapping the genetic code of DNA for medical researchers. These microcomputers today aid the design of everything from houses to cars to spacecraft― they even design better and faster computers. They can translate English into Russian or enable the blind to read― or help Michael Jackson produce on one synthesizer the sounds of a whole orchestra. Linked by a network. of satellites and fiber-optic cables, one individual with a desktop computer and a telephone commands resources unavailable to the largest governments just a few years ago. Like a chrysalis, we're emerging from the economy of the Industrial Revolution― an economy confined to and limited by the Earth's physical resources― into . . . an era in which there are no bounds on human imagination and the freedom to create is the most precious natural resource. Think of that little computer chip. Its value isn't in the sand from which it is made, but in the microscopic architecture designed into it by ingenious human minds. Or take the example of the satellite relaying this broadcast around the world, which replaces thousands of tons of copper mined from the Earth and molded into wire. In the new economy, human invention increasingly makes physical resources obsolete. We're breaking through the material conditions of existence to a world where man creates his own destiny. Even as we explore the most advanced reaches of science, we're returning to the age-old wisdom of our culture, a wisdom contained in the book of Genesis in the Bible: In the beginning was the spirit, and it was from this spirit that the material abundance of creation issued forth. But progress is not foreordained. The key is freedom― freedom of thought, freedom of information, freedom of communication. The renowned scientist, scholar, and founding father of this University, Mikhail Lomonosov, knew that. "It is common knowledge," he said, "that the achievements of science are considerable and rapid, particularly once the yoke of slavery is cast off and replaced by the freedom of philosophy." ... The explorers of the modern era are the entrepreneurs, men with vision, with the courage to take risks and faith enough to brave the unknown. These entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States. They are the prime movers of the technological revolution. In fact, one of the largest personal computer firms in the United States was started by two college students, no older than you, in the garage behind their home. Some people, even in my own country, look at the riot of experiment that is the free market and see only waste. What of all the entrepreneurs that fail? Well, many do. particularly the successful ones. Often several times. And if you ask them the secret of their success, they'll tell you, it's all that they learned in their struggles along the way― yes, it's what they learned from failing. Like an athlete in competition, or a scholar in pursuit of the truth, experience is the greatest teacher. And that's why it's so hard for government planners, no matter how sophisticated, to ever substitute for millions of individuals working night and day to make their dreams come true.... We Americans make no secret of our belief in freedom. In fact, it's something of a national pastime. Every four years the American people choose a new president, and 1988 is one of those years. At one point there were 13 major candidates running in the two major parties, not to mention all the others, including the Socialist and Libertarian candidates― all trying to get my job. About 1,000 local television stations, 8,500 radio stations, and 1,700 daily newspapers, each one an independent, private enterprise, fiercely independent of the government, report on the candidates, grill them in interviews, and bring them together for debates. In the end, the people vote― they decide who will be the next president. But freedom doesn't begin or end with elections. Go to any American town. to take just an example, and you'll see dozens of churches, representing many different beliefs― in many places synagogues and mosques― and you'll see families of every conceivable nationality, worshipping together. Go into any schoolroom, and there you will see children being taught the Declaration of Independence, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights― among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ― that no government can justly deny― the guarantees in their Constitution for freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion. Go into any courtroom and there will preside an independent judge, beholden to no government power. There every defendant has the right to a trial by a jury of his peers, usually 12 men and women― common citizens, they are the ones, the only ones, who weigh the evidence and decide on guilt or innocence. In that court, the accused is innocent until proven guilty, and the word of a policeman, or any official, has no greater legal standing than the word of the accused. Go to any university campus, and there you'll find an open, sometimes heated discussion of the problems in American society and what can be done to correct them. Turn on the television, and you'll see the legislature conducting the business of government right there before the camera, debating and voting on the legislation that will become the law of the land. March in any demonstration, and there are many of them― the people's right of assembly is guaranteed in the Constitution and protected by the police. Go into any union hall, where the members know their right to strike is protected by law.... But freedom is even more than this: Freedom is the right to question, and change the established way of doing things. It is the continuing revolution of the marketplace. It is the understanding that allows us to recognize short-comings and seek solutions. It is the right to put forth an idea, scoffed at by the experts, and watch it catch fire among the people. It is the right to follow your dream, to stick to your conscience, even if you're the only one in a sea of doubters. Freedom is the recognition that no single person, no single authority or government has a monopoly on the truth, but that every individual life is infinitely precious, that every one of us put on this earth has been put here for a reason and has something to offer. . . . Democracy is less a system of government than it is a system to keep government limited, unintrusive: A system of constraints on power to keep politics and government secondary to the important things in life, the true sources of value found only in family and faith. But I hope you know I go on about these things not simply to extol the virtues of my own country, but to speak to the true greatness of the heart and soul of your land. Who, after all, needs to tell the land of Dostoevsky about the quest for truth, the home of Kandinsky and Scriabin about imagination, the rich and noble culture of the Uzbek man of letters, Alisher Navio, about beauty and heart? The great culture of your diverse land speaks with a glowing passion to all humanity. Let me cite one of the most eloquent contemporary passages on human freedom. It comes, not from the literature of America, but from this country, from one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, Boris Pasternak, in the novel Dr. Zhil'ago. He writes, "I think that if the beast who sleeps in man could be held down by threats― any kind of threat, whether of jail or of retribution after death― then the highest emblem of humanity would be the lion tamer in the circus with his whip, not the prophet who sacrificed himself. But this is just the point― what has for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel, but an inward music― the irresistible power of unarmed truth." The irresistible power of unarmed truth. Today the world looks expectantly to signs of change, steps toward greater freedom in the Soviet Union.... Your generation is living in one of the most exciting, hopeful times in Soviet history. It is a time when the first breath of freedom stirs the air and the heart beats to the accelerated rhythm of hope, when the accumulated spiritual energies of a long silence yearn to break free. I am reminded of the famous passage near the end of Gogol's Dead Souls. Comparing his nation to a speeding troika, Gogol asks what will be its destination. But he writes, "There was no answer save the bell pouring forth marvelous sound." We do not know what the conclusion of this journey will be, but we're hopeful that the promise of reform will be fulfilled. In this Moscow spring, this May 1988, we may be allowed that hope― that freedom, like the fresh green sapling planted over Tolstoi's grave, will blossom forth at last in the rich fertile soil of your people and culture. We may be allowed to hope that the marvelous sound of a new openness will keep rising through, ringing through, leading to a new world of reconciliation, friendship, and peace.... |