雙語散文:新新人類——波波族
【英文原文】
Are You a Bourgeois Bohemian
We've had Happies, Yuppies, Buppies and Dinkies, Now it's time for the bobos.
酷、時尚、另類，似乎還有點反叛不羈；然而，他們是知識經濟時代的當權派，主流價值的領航人，他們在成長與探索中追求着心靈的顛峯……
It's hard to miss them: the epitome of casual 'geek chic' and organised within the warranty of their Palm Pilots, they sip labour-intensive cafelattes, chat on sleek cellphones and ponder the road to enlightenment. In the US they worry about the environment as they drive their gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles to emporiums of haute design to buy a $50 titanium spatula; they think about their tech stocks as they explore speciality shops for Tibetan artefacts in Everest-worthy hiking boots. They think nothing of laying out $5 for a wheatgrass muff, much less $500 for some alternative rejuvenation at the day-spa -but don't talk about raising their taxes.
They are 'Bourgeois Bohemians' -or 'Bobos' -and they're the new 'enlightened elite' of the information age, their lucratively busy lives a seeming synthesis of comfort and conscience, corporate success and creative rebellion. Well-educated thirty-to-fortysomethings, they have forged a new social ethos from a logic-defying fusion of 1960s counter-culture and 1980s entrepreneurial materialism.
Combining the free-spirited, artistic rebelliousness of the Bohemian beatnik or hippie with the worldly ambitions of their bourgeois corporate forefathers, the Bobo is a comfortable contortion of caring capitalism. 'It's not about making money, it's about doing something you love. Life should be an extended hobby. It's all about working for a company as cool as you are.'
It is a world inhabited by dotcom millionaires, management consultants, 'culture industry' entrepreneurs and all manner of media folk, most earning upwards of $100,000 a year -their money an incidental byproduct of their maverick mores, the kind of money they happen to earn while they are pursuing their creative vision. Often sporting such unconventional job titles as 'creative paradox', 'corporate jester' or 'learning person', Bobos work with a monk-like self-discipline because they view their jobs as intellectual, even spiritual. It is a reverse the Midas touch: everything a Bobo touches turns to spirituality, everything has to be about enlightenment. Even their jobs are a mission to improve the world.
It is now impossible to tell an espresso-sipping artist from a cappuccino-gulping banker, but it isn't just a matter of style. If you investigate people's attitudes towards sex, morality, leisure time and work, it is getting harder and harder to separate the anti-establishment renegade from the pro-establishment company man. Most people seemed to have rebel attitudes and social-climbing attitudes all scrambled together.
These Bobos are just normal middle-class people who are living out a protracted adolescence. Their political interests are either 'intensely close and personal' (abortion or gun control), or very remote (the rainforests, Tibet or Third World poverty). But they will most likely express their conscience in their consumerism, relieved to be helping someone somewhere by collecting the hand-carved artifacts of distant cultures.
Motivated by spiritual participation, but cautious of moral crusades and religious enthusiasms, they tolerate a little lifestyle experimentation, so long as it is done safely and moderately. They are offended by concrete wrongs, such as cruelty and racial injustice, but are relatively unmoved by lies or transgressions that don't seem to do anyone any obvious harm.
It is an elite that has been raised to oppose elites. They are by instinct anti-establishmentarian, yet in some sense they have become a new establishment. They are prosperous without seeming greedy; they have pleased their elders, without seeming conformists; they have risen toward the top without too obviously looking down on those below.
While bemoaning the Bobo's 'boring politics', the Bobos are an elite superior to their intolerant and warring predecessors -they've certainly made shopping more fun, and they have a good morality for building a decent society.
【中文譯文】
你很難不去注意他們：身着“酷斃了”的休閒裝，日程在掌上電腦的“打理下”安排得井然有序，啜飲着精工細磨的牛奶咖啡，對着豪華手機侃侃而談，同時思考着如何開展文化啓蒙運動。在美國，當他們爲買一個50美元的鈦制刮刀而駕駛着耗油量大的多功能廂式跑車奔赴高級購物中心時，他們爲環境憂慮着；當他們腳踏適於登珠穆朗瑪峯的登山靴在特色店淘弄西藏的手工藝品時，心裏卻還惦記着自己的科技股票。他們覺得花5美元買一副草編手套不算什麼，而花500美元去享受一次日間時尚水療這樣的另類休閒就更不在話下了——但千萬別跟他們說增稅的事兒。
這些人就是“布爾喬亞-波西米亞族”——或者說“波波族”——他們是信息時代新興的“知識型精英”，他們富足而又繁忙的生活似乎是舒適享受與道德良知、事業成功與創新叛逆的結合體。 這些三四十歲、受過良好教育的人將20世紀60年代的反文化和80年代的實利主義這兩種邏輯上相互牴觸的東西融合成一種新的社會精神特質。
“波波”們將波西米亞式或嬉皮式的精神自由和藝術家式的叛逆與其小資白領前輩們的世俗追求相結合，是愛心資本主義的愜意的另類版。“這不是爲了賺錢，而是做自己喜歡的事情；生活本應是興趣的延伸，是爲一個和你一樣“酷”的公司工作。”
這是一個由網絡富翁、管理諮詢人士、“文化產業”企業家以及各式媒體人士組成的羣體，他們中的大多數年收入超過10萬美元——但金錢只不過是他們獨特道德觀的偶然的副產品而已，是他們在追求創造性時於不經意間獲得的。“波波”們經常給自己冠以另類的頭銜，如“創新怪人”，“企業諫言家”或“修行者”等，他們視工作爲智力性的，甚至是精神性的，因而如僧侶般嚴格自律。與“點石成金”正好相反：“波波”們“點”到的每件事都上升到精神境界，每件事都要和智慧有關。甚至他們工作的使命就是改良世界。
現在人們很難區分一位淺啜蒸餾咖啡的藝術家和一位吞飲卡普契諾的銀行家——但這不僅僅是風格問題。如果你去調查人們對於性、道德、休閒和工作的態度，會發現現在越來越難區分反傳統的叛逆者和維護傳統的企業人士。大多數人似乎將反叛和追求社會地位提高這兩種態度糅合在一起了。
這些“波波”們只不過是一羣延長着青春期生活的普通中產階級。他們感興趣的，或者“與己息息相關”（比如墮胎或槍支管制問題），或者遠得不沾邊（如雨林，西藏或第三世界貧窮的問題）。但是他們很可能會通過消費來表明自己的良知，欣慰地認爲收集異域風格的手工藝品就是在幫助某些地方的某些人。
受“精神參與”的鼓舞，卻又惟恐自己變成道德的聖鬥士和狂熱的宗教信徒，他們會嘗試一些新的生活方式，只要這些做法安全且適度。他們會爲具體的違法行爲而動怒，如虐待行爲和種族歧視，但是對於似乎不對任何人造成明顯傷害的謊言和小過失卻無動於衷。
他們是在反對精英的過程中成長起來的另一羣精英。他們天生就是現行秩序的反對者，然而在某種意義上，他們本身又成了新的社會秩序的代表。他們富而不貪；他們會取悅長輩，但不盲從；他們的社會地位逐步上升，卻沒有太明顯表現出對下層社會的藐視與不屑。
在人們爲“波波”們的“乏味政治”感到悲哀的同時，他們卻勝過那些缺乏容忍且好戰的先輩精英們——他們起碼會把購物變得更爲有趣，並且對於建設美好社會有一套很好的道德標準。
【重點講解】
1. bourgeois: 中產階級（的）；追求物質享受的人，小資。
2. bohemian: 波西米亞（的）；放蕩不羈、反俗世陳規的文化人。
3. Hippie: 嬉皮士，20世紀60年代出現於美國的青年頹廢派，對社會現實抱某種不滿情緒，常服用引起幻覺的麻醉劑，信奉非暴力或神祕主義，實行羣居、蓄長髮、穿奇裝異服。
4. Yuppie: (young urban professionals) 雅皮士，指生活在大城市，受過高等教育，生活富裕的成功職業人士。
5. Buppie: 黑人雅皮士 （＝bluppy）。
6. Dinky: (dual income, no kids yet) 雙收入尚無子女的家庭成員，也稱“丁克”。
7. epitome: 典型，象徵。
8. geek chic: (= very cool)很時尚的。
9. Palm Pilot: U.S. Robotics公司 (現已被 3Com 收購) 的系列產品，是真正可以放入上衣口袋的 PDA (Personal Digital Assistant，個人數碼助理）。
10. cafelatte: 牛奶咖啡，源於意大利語，意爲coffee+milk,也作cafelatte。
11. artefact: (=artifact) 手工藝品。
12. spa: 礦泉療養旅遊勝地；day-spa: 一種日間、非住宿性，以健康服務爲主的休閒中心。
13. beatnik: 垮掉的一代 （＝beat generation），指第二次世界大戰後美國出現的一批年輕人，對社會現實不滿，蔑視傳統觀念，在服飾和行爲方面摒棄常規，追求個性自我表現，長期浪跡於社會底層，形成獨特的社會圈子和處世哲學。
14. caring capitalism: 一種新型的企業經營理念，最具代表性的是位於美國佛蒙特州的Ben & Jerry's乳品店，它提出企業既要追求商業利潤，使員工在最大程度上獲得利益，同時又要關注像環境這樣的社會問題，併發揮一定作用。
15. maverick mores: 不合常規、與衆不同的道德觀念。
16. creative paradox: 企業中設立的聽取員工的建議和創造性的想法，然後把這些想法和企業的管理有機地結合起來，從而推動企業發展的職位，這裏指從事這樣工作的人。
17. corporate jester: 以幽默方式指出公司的缺點並提出解決之道的員工、顧問等。
18. the Midas touch: Midas（邁達斯），弗裏吉亞（Phrygia）國王，愛財，能點物成金。這個短語後用來指賺大錢的本領。
19. espresso: （用蒸汽加壓煮出的）濃咖啡。
20. cappuccino: <意>卡普契諾咖啡，加牛奶或奶油用蒸汽加熱煮出的濃咖啡。
