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[2012.03.05] 现场有一个可靠线人

2012-3-7 09:48| 发布者: migmig| 查看: 11115| 评论: 10|原作者: nayilus

摘要: 在相关圈子内部,术语的使用可以增快通讯,高效地传递一些复杂的概念。
术语

现场有一个可靠线人


Mar 5th 2012, 19:16 by L.M.

维基解密最新公开的文件可能无法引起人们的兴趣,但至少里面有些内容很有娱乐性。德克萨斯一间喜欢对外自称为私人情报公司的研究机构Strator的电子邮件服务器被一个名为“无名”的恶作剧黑客集团给黑了。挖掘出来的有趣内容中包括该公司声称欧盟在背后策划了整个伊朗军事行动,目标是转移外界对其金融问题的注意力。读了这个消息,以后请千万不要再说情报(intelligence)和智力(intelligence)有关系了。不过那是我们的国防专栏博客(注:Clausewitz)该讨论的问题。对于Johnson专栏博客来说,我们更大的兴趣在于一篇名为“Stratfor情报常用词、难词和生僻词汇录”的文章,这是一篇带有点讽刺意味的新员工间谍术语指南。

 本博客过去曾对航空术语、企业术语、品酒术语、军事术语和欧盟术语(这我们还讨论了两次)表示过不满。术语本身并不是一件坏事,但是如果用得混乱不清,或是在不必要的时候使用,或是在非特定的语境中使用时,它对读者来说都是一种困扰。但是在相关圈子内部术语的使用可以增快通讯,高效地传递一些复杂的概念。术语也可以创造一种亲近感,就好像你和别人在用暗号联系一样(这似乎是这份Stratfor文件的作用之一)。

 Strator的汇录长达20页,共有170个术语,全文写得很好,很多地方还非常幽默。中情局是“持有外交政策的邮局”。“克郎西”是指“读过大量汤姆·克郎西小说的人”。同情“不是温暖的多愁善感”,而是“以其他人思考世界的方式来思考世界”。就表面来看,这份指南似乎是为了让新员工了解在这儿工作有多酷。但是再深入一些,这是一本教人怎么进行批判性思维的入门书。实际上,这本术语指南中有一部分提醒了读者术语的危险性:

    现场:我有个特工在现场。这句话就算是真话也毫无意义。“在华盛顿现场有我的特工”可以指我认识华盛顿K大街上一间汉堡王里的某个员工,也可以指我在白宫里有人。如果是前者,那有什么用?如果是后者,他根本就不会这么告诉你。基本规则:说自己在现场有特工的人只是想给你留下深刻印象。

     线人:提供你信息的人士。所有曾经和情报特工交谈过的人都能算是线人。……线人是一个很有趣,但毫无意义的词语。用“可靠线人”一词会比较好。一定要问特工为什么他觉得这位线人是可靠的。这么一来在特工绞尽脑汁想答案的时候你就有时间读报纸了。


 情报工作就是从噪音里把有用的信号找出来(或者说如果你比较偏好牧师的比喻,那就是把麦从糠里分出来)。不过询问人们他们为什么选择使用特定词语在任何职业内都是很有用的。Stratfor因为标榜自己是某种“类中情局”机构来拉生意而受到各方指责。但是正如这份文件所讲的。相信这种鬼话的天真顾客(还有维基解密)只能怪它们自己。

感谢译者 nayilus 点击此处阅读双语版

3

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刚表态过的朋友 (3 人)

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引用 yannanchen 2012-3-7 09:58
见到你的文章, 完全可以先不读,就把它移到我的自留地里。
谢谢你的高产,丰产。
引用 yannanchen 2012-3-7 10:19

http://www.odi.org.uk/work/projects/pdn/papers/26a.pdf

Hardin (1968) in his essay, "The Tragedy of the Commons", reasoned that
communal resources were subject to inevitable degradation. Using a pastoral
analogy,
he argued that a herder who abused his pasture by increasing his
flock size beyond the pasture’s capacity would gain all the benefit of his
private decision in the form of the extra animals. But he would share the
reduction in forage availability with all other herders on a communal pasture.
Given this lack of incentives, no rational herder would restrain his herd
size. Communal pastures, under Hardin’s paradigm, are inevitably overgrazed
and degraded if animal numbers have reached the productive capacity of the
land, and can only be limited by uncoerced human decision
引用 yannanchen 2012-3-7 10:24
Tough Times
When has life gotten you down? How do you pull yourself out of your funk?

We all have moments, even seasons, of dejection. We seem to be on the losing end. Life just doesn’t seem fair. Our ambitions and life’s work comes to nought. While these depressing thoughts might not have a basis in reality, their perception seems real enough.

The author of Psalm 90 experienced such a funk. He appealed to God for help, but didn’t seem to have hope. Yet, in the end, his faith overrode his depression.


A Prayer by Moses, the man of God.

1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place for all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
before you had formed the earth and the world,
even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
3 You turn man to destruction, saying,
“Return, you children of men.”
4 For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past,
like a watch in the night.
5 You sweep them away as they sleep.
In the morning they sprout like new grass.
6 In the morning it sprouts and springs up.
By evening, it is withered and dry.

World English Bible


The psalm began with a recognition of God’s omnipotence and eternal nature (90:1-2). Then, the author compared God’s overwhelming power and presence with the transient nature of the human condition. The psalmist implied that death was a part of the divine plan; certainly, the limited span of human life was a part of divine providence. The author used a pastoral analogy to make his point (90:3-6).

引用 yannanchen 2012-3-7 10:25
牧师的比喻???
以上两则引文, 都表示pastoral不是牧师, 而是田园牧场的意思。
引用 nayilus 2012-3-7 11:00
回复 yannanchen 的帖子

MW:
Definition of PASTORAL
1 a (1) : of, relating to, or composed of shepherds or herdsmen
      (2) : devoted to or based on livestock raising

b : of or relating to the countryside : not urban <a pastoral setting>

c : portraying or expressive of the life of shepherds or country people especially in an idealized and conventionalized manner <pastoral poetry>

d : pleasingly peaceful and innocent : idyllic

2 a : of or relating to spiritual care or guidance especially of a congregation
b : of or relating to the pastor of a church

这里是取2的意思,因为"to separate the wheat from the chaff"是出自圣经的,步道牧师很喜欢用这个比喻。
引用 yannanchen 2012-3-7 11:05
Matthew 3:12

但是 wheat 何尝不是牧场之物呢?

引用 林忆纾 2012-3-7 18:39
Bro.N:don't be that frustrated about your Chinese delivery, since
a linguistic theory of transaltion is inevitably inadequate unless it takes situational context, addresser and addressee into account, their own almost identical theories rest almost entirely on intuition and reflexes,and allows for perhaps far too wide a translations for each utterance, since only the sense, not the word are important.--Peter.Newmark

引用 yannanchen 2012-3-7 23:28
Theocritus' Pastoral AnalogiesThe Formation of a Genre
Kathryn J. Gutzwiller

Wisconsin Studies in Classics


In a book as beautifully written as the poetry it celebrates, Kathryn Gutzwiller uses the famous Idylls of Theocritus to show us the formative processes at work in the creation of a literary genre—the pastoral—and how the very structure of a genre both shapes and limits judgments about it.

Gutzwiller argues that Theocritus' position as first pastoralist has haunted critical assessments of him. Was he merely a beginner, whose simple descriptions of country life were reworked by Vergil into poems of imagination and tender feeling? Or was he a genius of great creative ability, who first found the way to encapsulate in humble detail a metaphysical vision of man's emotional core? Examining Theocritus from the point of view of "beginnings," Gutzwiller succeeds in placing him both within his native Greek intellectual tradition and within the tradition of critical commentary on pastoral. As she points out, "beginnings are hard to pin down . . . the thing begun did not exist before and yet its composite parts were already somewhere in existence."

Gutzwiller provides an analysis of the herdsman figure in pre-Hellenistic Greek literature, showing that the simple shepherd or goatherd had long been used as a figure of analogy for characters of higher rank. Theocritus was the first poet to focus on the shepherd himself and bring the analogies down into the pastoral world. Through her careful analyses of the seven pastoral Idylls, Gutzwiller demonstrates that in turning the focus on the shepherd Theocritus created a group of literary works with an inner structure so unique that later readers considered it a new genre.

In her conclusion Gutzwiller explores subsequent controversies about the pastoral, from ancient to modern times, revealing how they continue to reflect the structural pattern that originated in Theocritus's poetry.

Kathryn J. Gutzwiller is associate professor of classics at the University of Cincinnati.



引用 nayilus 2012-3-8 02:47
回复 yannanchen 的帖子

我又去查了一下,发现pastoral analogy是一个专用文学术语,对应于pastoral poetry,即田园风格的比喻。这么看来我一开始的翻译可能有误,但是这句我还是有一点存疑,关键在于这句俗语非常常用,而且一听到就立刻让人联想起牧师布道。另外我个人觉得把麦从糠里分出来和田园风格关系不大,这句话和pastoral一起出现时一般都是理解为牧师。这里有可能Johnson用了一个双关,不过我还是不太确定。

This sustained and careful study is invaluable in sorting the wheat from the chaff amid intense religious experiences. It offers contemporary believers sage pastoral wisdom in discerning the marks of genuine saving faith from Satanic counterfeit marks that would deceive unto destruction.
引用 nayilus 2012-3-8 02:49
回复 yannanchen 的帖子

再次查证,忽然有恍然大悟的感觉,英语里pastoral的两个意思是同源的,即牧师本身就有田园风格的意思,因为牧师pastor一词来自于放牧人的意思,即主的牧者。

所以圣经里的比喻,如牧人当如牧羊,将麦从糠里分出来这些被称为pastoral analogy是对的,其本身就是从牧场用语比喻过来的。但是牧师传道久了,这些被看成是宗教比喻也没错,因为两者其实是一体的。

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