经济学人185:德国政治 为了更短的枪炮和额外的睡眠

 　　German politics

　　德国政治
　　For curvy cannons 1 and extra sleep
　　为了更短的枪炮和额外的睡眠
　　The election of a satirical party to the European Parliament speaks volumes
　　一个讽刺党派为了进入欧盟议会进行选举是很有意义的
　　The chairman and the faux fanatics 2
　　党派领导人和“粉丝”
　　“SATIRE cannot have any consequences,” argued Martin Sonneborn in his masters thesis in 1994. Almost by accident, he has proved himself wrong. Die Partei, the elaborate joke of a party he heads, won 0.62% of the German vote in the elections for the European Parliament in May. That was enough for Mr Sonneborn to win a seat.
　　1994年马丁·索恩伊博在他的硕士毕业论文中宣扬“讽刺是没有任何意义的！”但是出乎意料的，他却证明自己的言论是错误的。他领导的Die Partei“政党”就是一个讽刺性政党，这对他来说无疑是一个精心准备的玩笑。今年5月在德国举行的欧洲议会选举投票中，索恩伊博领导的政党赢得了0.62%的选票。那已经足够让索恩伊博赢得一个席位了。
　　The Party mimics 3 the grandiosity 4 of the Nazi 5 and East German communist parties. Its much longer official name mentions animal rights and the “promotion of elites”. Mr Sonneborn is its GroVaZ. The Party, he proclaims, is “always right”.
　　该党派模仿纳粹以及东德社会主义政党的“壮举”。事实上，它更加冗长的官方名称更着重于维护动物权利和“发展精英阶层”。而索恩伊博先生则是它的终生荣誉主席。在该党中，他所说的一切都是“正确的”。
　　德国政治.jpg
　　Its platform has evolved since its founding in 2004. Early on it advocated a war of aggression 6 against Liechtenstein and the rebuilding of the Berlin Wall. Lately it has become less bellicose 7. It wants to get rid of daylight-saving time while continuing to set the clocks back every autumn, giving Germans an extra hour of sleep. As a member of the European Parliament Mr Sonneborn plans to revive the EU's infamous 8 cucumber-curvature law . But now it will apply to weapons exports and will promote curviness rather than discouraging it: every 10cm of gun or tank barrel will have to curve by 2cm.
　　从它2004年成立起，它的活动范围一直在发展。早期，它甚至一直鼓动对列支敦士登的侵略战争和重建柏林墙。随后它变得不那么好战了，转而追求去除夏令时，在每个秋天将钟表时间向后拨以给德国人民额外一小时睡眠时间。成为欧盟议会一员之后，索恩伊博居然计划恢复欧盟臭名昭著的农产品外观出口限制法案。但是现在，它们将目光投向了武器出口条例，开始推荐改装出口而不是禁制：每把枪支长度或者坦克的油桶将在被削减2厘米后再出口。
　　The Party's big theme, though, is “the transcendence of Inhalte”, a word which translates as “issues” or “content”. Mr Sonneborn campaigns for contentlessness before standing-room-only crowds at cabaret-style book launches and at rallies of faux-fanatical supporters.
　　尽管该党派的主基调是“卓越的Inhalte””，但是索恩伊博总是在人山人海的人群前为一些毫无意义的事情抗争，要么是在歌舞表演式的新书发布会上，要么是在“粉丝”集会上。
　　That message has a particular resonance 9 now, with Germany's two biggest parties—Angela Merkel's Christian 10 Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party—governing together in a “grand coalition”. One calls itself centre-right, the other centre-left. Normally they are fierce rivals. But in moments of honesty and inebriation 11 even their members admit they can no longer tell the difference. Mr Sonneborn celebrates this ideological 12 and stylistic sameness. “We do modern turbo politics, by going in no direction much faster” than the mainstream 13 parties, he says.
　　这些言论现在有了实际上的共鸣者，因为众所周知，德国两个最大的政党—默克尔的基社盟和社民党组成了“大联盟”共同执政。而它们两者一个宣称自己是右倾政党，另一个则自称左倾派。通常意义上两者应该是水火不容的。但现在，说实话，无论是从哪一方面即便是他们各自的追随者也没办法区分清楚。索恩伊博为这种意识形态和语言上的同化而鼓掌。他表示：“我们正运行的是现代混合政治，通过无目的的前进，相比传统政党我们能前进得更快。”
　　Mr Sonneborn's American equivalent is Stephen Colbert of “The Colbert Report”, a mock-news show on a comedy channel. Both assume a political persona and rarely step out of it. Unlike Mr Sonneborn's turbo-centrist, Mr Colbert's on-screen character is a lovably deranged 14 right-winger who would do well with the real-life audience of Fox News if he traded his irony 15 for earnestness. “Satire is not comedy,” says Mr Sonneborn. “It has aggressive momentum 16.” In America, that means mocking partisanship 17. In Germany, the target is the featureless blob that passes for party politics.
　　在美国，索恩伊博的同道中人就是斯蒂芬·科尔伯特，他是某个喜剧频道的一个讽刺新闻节目——“科尔伯特报告”的主持人。两者都假定自己是一个政治家但却极少真正涉足政治。不同于索恩伊博的中立主义，科尔伯特在荧幕上表现的是一个可爱的，滑稽的右翼分子。如果他用自己的讽刺行为去换取观众的热心，他就能和福克斯新闻的真实观众们极好地相处。索恩伊博表示，“讽刺并不只有哗众取宠的成分，它同时也富有一定的攻击性。”在美国那只是意味着党派性偏见和讽刺。而在德国，它目标则放在了被误认为是党派政治行为的一些平淡无奇琐事上。