I worked as a bartender/waitress at a bar inside an upscale health-food grocery store (it's a real thing, I promise). Most of our clientele was well-off retirees and 30-something recently divorced men hoping to get a date with someone coming in after a yoga class. Generally a nice group of customers, but definitely rich, uptight people. Forgetting to bring salt to some might be a huge offense, but automatically bringing it causes others to give you a lecture about sodium intake. It was a difficult balancing act.
“我曾在一家高档健康食品杂货店里面担任酒吧的酒保兼服务生（真的是健康食品，我保证）。我们的大多数客户是富裕的退休人员和30岁刚离婚并希望与一个刚上完瑜伽课的女人约会的男人。基本上都是些很友善的顾客，不过都真的有钱，而且要求比较高。忘记给他们送上盐可能会引起他们的强烈反感，但拿了盐的话他们又会给你上一门有关钠摄入量的课。这个动作的轻重真的很难拿捏。”
"It was St. Patrick's Day. There was also a March Madness game with the local university team playing and we were short-staffed. Needless to say, it was an insane evening with me rushing around serving corned beef and cabbage, pouring Guinness, and making sure no one was becoming belligerent.
“那天是圣帕特里克节，当时正在进行“疯狂三月”的比赛，当地大学的校队有参加，我们人手不够。不用说，这是一个疯狂的夜晚，我不断奔波着为客户提供腌牛肉和卷心菜，以及吉尼斯黑啤酒，并确保没有人要斗殴。”
"For some reason, the bar supervisor always liked to have food specials on display for people to see. While I get the concept, it generally just caused us to get mean looks when we told people they probably shouldn't eat it, as it wasn't a sample and had been sitting out for hours. Since it was St. Patrick's Day, we had a giant display of the corned beef and cabbage dinner special, complete with gravy, potatoes, and Irish beer bread.
“由于某些原因，酒吧主管总是喜欢把特荐美食陈列出来给人看。虽然我懂这是为什么，但这对于我们（服务人员）来说真的很麻烦，总是让我们糟人冷眼，因为我们必须告诉顾客这些不是试吃品，而且它们已经被放在这里几小时了。由于当时是圣帕特里克节，我们摆出了大量的腌牛肉配卷心菜特餐，并且还配有肉汁、土豆和爱尔兰啤酒面包。
“随着当晚的高峰期开始结束，我让一对老夫妇坐在仅剩的空位上----与我们摆出的食物相邻。当时我正在清理桌子，但身体也向们倾斜好让他们知道我马上会去他们那里，就在这时，手里堆在最上面的一个盘子滑落了，正好砸向了陈列出的食物。那保存了十二小时的肉汁和马铃薯不知怎么居然还没凝固，溅了起来，而后又掉落，不偏不倚落到了男人的膝盖上。
"I was horrified and apologizing profusely while trying to set down the mountain of dishes. The man looked up at me and said, 'I just have one thing to tell you.' He slowly leaned in -- at which point I was thinking he was about to spit in my face -- and he said, 'I don't have to fart anymore, you scared it out of me.'
“我顿时感到了惊骇，一边放下手里堆积如山的盘子一边不停地道歉。那个男人抬头看了我说道，‘我只想告诉你一件事。’他慢慢将身体倾斜------当我以为他要向我脸上吐唾沫时------然后他说，‘我终于不用再放屁了，你已经把它吓出来了。”
"It was the laugh I needed that night, and he wouldn't even let me give him a free beer as an apology." -- Belinda Farragut
“于是我开怀大笑了起来，而这正是我当晚需要的，他甚至不要我给他免费的啤酒作为道歉。”------Belinda Farragut
And now we come to the most alarming delusion of all.
现在，我们要讲所有幻觉中最需要防范的一种。
The idea that other people don't matter. Their feelings. Their needs.
这种幻觉就是：觉得其他人都不重要，他们的感受、他们的需求都不重要。
Imagine a cave where those inside never see the ourside world.
来想象一个洞穴吧，这里面的人从来没有见过外面的世界。
Instead, they see shadows of their world projected on a wall.
他们看见的只有投射在墙上的影子。
The world they see in the shadows is not the real world. But it's real to them.
他们在影子中看到的那个世界当然不是真实的世界，但他们就认为这是真的。
If you were to show them the world as it actually is, they would reject it as incompreshensible .
而如果你把真实的世界展示给他们看，他们反而会抵制它，因为他们理解不了这个世界。
Now what if, instead of being in a cave, you were out in the world, except you couldn't see it.
那么现在，如果你不是住在一个洞穴里，而是住在真实的世界里，只是你看不见这个世界呢？
Because you weren't looking. You were only looking at what the media has shown you.
你看不见它，因为你并没有在看它，你只是在看媒体呈现给你的东西。
You trusted that the world you saw through the prison was the real world.
你坚信你从这个牢笼中看到的世界就是真实的世界。
But there's a difference.
不过刚刚举的这两个例子是有区别的。
You see. Unlike the allegory of the cave where the people are real and the shadows are false, here other people are the shadows.
你看，在那个寓言里面，人是真实的而影子是虚假的；但在这个世界里，其他的人就是那些影子。
This is the delusion of the narcissists who believe that they alone are real, that their feelings are the only feelings that matter because other people are just shadows.
这就是那些自恋者的幻觉，他们认为这个世界上只有他们才是真实的，他们认为只有他们自己的感受是算数的，因为其他人都只是影子。
And shadows don't feel, because they are not real.
而影子是不会有感受的，因为他们不是真的。
But what if everyone lived in caves. Than no one would be real, not even you, unless you woke up one day and left the cave.
但如果所有人都是住在自己的洞窟里呢？那么就没有人是真实的了，连你自己都不是，除非你有一天突然醒悟然后离开这个洞窟。
And then, how strange would the world look after a lifetime of staring at shadows.
这时候你才会发现，这个世界是如此的奇怪；毕竟，你至今为止都不过是在盯着影子看而已。
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