Their economy dwindling, population shrinking, of which 15% are Muslims. They face the biggest clock bomb of Islamic terrorism in the world, and seem quite unable to cut the wire. 

译 冬川豆

俄罗斯是一个威胁，但不像力薄儒的“自由主义”那样具有威胁性。因为俄罗斯不在我们内部，不能从我们这里获取任何东西。普京正在试图营造一个超出俄国国力所能支撑的超级力量的假象。冒着黑烟的库兹涅佐夫号航母刚刚通过英吉利海峡去轰炸叙利亚，结果立刻沦为了全世界的笑柄。他们的船破败不堪，年久失修；他们的飞机老旧落后，缺乏保养。土耳其击落了他们的喷气式轰炸机，普京回应了什么？没有。他们的经济正在萎缩，人口正在衰减，其中15％是穆斯林。他们面对世界上最大的伊斯兰恐怖主义时钟炸弹，却无法切断电线。

Russia is trying to be influential, however it's not even a nice try. Nobody is subject to their soft power, if they ever have any. As the article pointed out, that there's no ideology and vision whatsoever Russia or Mr. Putin could offer. I think that Mr. Putin doesn't even have an agenda or a plan to promote anything or to reshape anything. He just acted manly to show off to Russians his manliness for the sake of his manliness, and of course power grip and personal cult building. Such image engineering effort doesn't work outside Russia. They don't even have made up statistics as China has to look good. China's second hand Admiral Kuznetsov, Liaoning is by itself better equipped and less smoky, though it lacks planes to make itself really matter.

俄罗斯一直努力成为有影响力的大国，但它连有效的尝试都做不到。没有人受到它软实力的影响，如果它还有什么软实力可言。正如那篇文章指出，俄罗斯或普京不能提出任何意识形态和愿景。而我认为，普京甚至没有一个议程或计划来推销或重塑任何东西。他只是为了自己的男人气概，很男人气概地向俄罗斯人炫耀自己的男人气概，当然也为了巩固自己的权威和树立个人崇拜。这样的面子工程不会在俄罗斯以外的地方管用。他们甚至没有像中国一样编造统计数据，因为中国必须看起来不错。中国的二手库兹涅佐夫航母——辽宁号，拥有更好的设备，不会冒黑烟，但它缺乏飞机使自己真的具备战斗力。

Of course, We are not as corrupt as Russia and China are. But we are becoming more like Russia and China year by year. They are serfdoms, and we are on the road to serfdom. The youngsters are abandoning what it means to be the West under the manipulation of the intelligentsia and the media. We are losing the commanding height, maybe we have already lost it. No young people takes David Hume and Adam Smith seriously, they think that affirmative action and transgenderism represent the values and essence of the West. They take cults as canons and they don't even bother with the canons. Logical and critical thinking almost vanished in our classes, and more food stamps are rationed thoughout our society. 

当然，我们不像俄罗斯和中国那么腐败。但我们在逐年变得更像俄罗斯和中国。他们是奴役，而我们走在“通向奴役之路”上。年轻人在知识分子和媒体的操纵下正在放弃身为一个西方人的意义。我们正在失去战略制高点，也许我们已经失去了。没有年轻人认真对待大卫·休谟和亚当·斯密，他们认为平权运动和变性主义代表了西方的价值观和本质。他们把西方负典当作正典，甚至对正典不屑一顾。逻辑和批判性思维在我们的课堂上几乎消失了，更多的食品券在我们的社会中被像大锅饭一样配给。

Yes, we must admit the fact that we are more divided than ever and we have already lost the faith that we could shape the world, making it a better place as we did 150 years ago. In addition to that, we as well lost the courage to face our problems. Europeans have been relying on their governments and welfare institutions for too long until the Eurozone crisis and the refugee crisis broke out. They suddenly discovered their entrusted and beloved nanny states' inability to indentify children among some 40-olds, not to mention the inability to stop terrorism. Now, Molenbeek, a district of Brussels where their highest Soviet is seated, is a hotbed for terrorism and a no police zone. And Sweden now has a rape center called Malmö. The European elites such as the French PM and the mayor of London have made it clear that you folks have to live with terrorism because we don't want to talk about it in case some feelings get hurt. Get your candles and flowers prepared for the next mass murder. 

是的我们必须承认，我们比以往任何时候都更加分裂，我们已经失去了我们可以塑造世界的信念，以及让这个国家成为比她在150年前更伟大的国度的信心。除此之外，我们也失去了面对我们自身问题的勇气。欧洲人一直依赖他们的政府和福利机构太久，直到欧元区危机和难民危机爆发。他们突然发现他们委托和热爱的保姆国家无法从一些40岁左右的人当中识别出儿童，更不用说无法阻止恐怖主义。现在，布鲁塞尔的莫伦贝克区——欧盟最高苏维埃所在地，变成了恐怖主义的温床和没有警察看管的区域。而瑞典现在有一个叫马尔默的强奸中心。欧洲的精英们，比如法国总理以及伦敦市长已经明确表示，你们大众必须习惯和恐怖主义一起生活，因为我们不想讨论这个话题，这会伤害某些人的感情。准备好你们的蜡烛和鲜花吧，准备在下一场大屠杀之后继续祈福。

Such absurdity only happened under Mao's regime, or so I thought. 

这种荒谬只能发生在Mao政权之下，我以前大概会这么想。

Our enemies are not kindergarten goers, they are not bothered by petty feelings. They behead.

我们的敌人不是幼儿园的孩子，他们不会受什么小清新式的感情伤害。他们不断在全世界面前割下敌人的头。

The strongest fortresses are always taken from within. It is never the West versus the rest but always the Canon versus the Cult. The West could be never defeated if it doesn't defeat itself. 

最强的堡垒总是从内部攻破的。真正的对抗永远不是发生在西方文明与其他文明之间，而是发生在西方正典与西方负典之间。如果西方永远不屈服于自己的叛逆者，就永远不会被他人击败。

Maybe it's time for us to unite behind not the sainthood but an anti-hero who could dust off the choking smog before our eyes and in our minds.

现在到了需要我们团结的时候了，我们可以团结在一个平凡的主角身后，他可以拨开那些长久遮蔽在我们眼前和头脑中的令人窒息的烟雾——这就足够了，而不一定要求他必须是一位圣徒。

The Islamic invasions of the West are consequences of the decline of the West rather than the causes of it. We don't fix Islam, let them kill each other off, let Russia bomb Aleppo. We didn't pay attention to tens of millions starved to death by Mao, why should we care about a few thousands killed by Al-Assad anyway. What needs to be fixed is the mentality at large in the West. Only that people are more sensitive to bloody consequences rather than the intricate mechanism behind them. 

伊斯兰入侵西方是西方衰落的后果，而不是原因。我们不必修理伊斯兰教，他们会互相攻伐，俄罗斯会轰炸阿勒颇。我们既然没有关注过Mao治下数千万的饿殍，为什么还要关心阿萨德杀害的几千人。我们真正需要治疗的是西方的整体心态。只是因为人们对血腥的后果更敏感，却不去关注它背后错综复杂的机理。

Trump may be poor at policies. But he dare say that the government is stupid and corrupt, not a solution per se, and political correctness is extremely poisonous to our political discourse, which are true. He has the right direction that Hillary doesn't have.

特朗普本人可能不善于制定政策。但他敢说：“政府等于愚蠢和腐败，而不是解决方案本身”，“政治正确严重毒害着我们的政治讨论”，这些都是大实话。他有着希拉里没有的正确方向。

We have to kick start something needed for long and work on it in the following years with whatever we have and whatever we can do. The Renaissance was not planed, neither was the United States. Good presidents are not usually good scholars; George Washington was not a scholar, neither was Ronald Reagon, maybe with the only exception of Teddy Roosevelt. But a president is in command of an army of scholars with the corresponding mindset, and plans and tactics are made by those people. 

在接下来的几年里，无论我们有什么，能做什么，我们都必须开始着手准备那些长远的未来会需要的东西。文艺复兴本身并没有计划，美国的诞生也没有。好的总统通常不是好的学者；乔治·华盛顿不是学者，罗纳德·里根也不是，也许唯一的例外是泰迪·罗斯福。但是总统领导着一批拥有相应理念体系的学者，这些人制定了计划和战术。

Trump has successfully mobilized tens of millions people who are concerned with the future of this country. A pretty good kick start for a political outsider. Maybe together we could do something, like restoring the freedom of speech. 

特朗普成功动员了数千万关心这个国家未来的人。这是一个政治局外人的良好开端。也许我们团结在一起可以做很多事情，例如恢复言论自由。

No one now has a clear road map of how to reverse the decline of the West. But I think the West at least deserves a death with struggles. You don't sit back and peacefully watch a Muslim or oligarch takeover.

现在没有人拥有一个明确的路线图，指导如何扭转西方的衰落。但我认为西方至少值得为了理想而去战斗牺牲。请您不要作壁上观，平静地坐视穆斯林或寡头接管这个世界。

We do not want to be imposed on with a breathe tax simply because some careerist nuts in the academia think this is better for the planet, neither do we want to be bombed to death by some very hairy 40 year-old terrorists who came to this country 3 months ago as children. Taxation and death are both inevitable, but taxation and death out of absurdity are something we try our best to avoid.

如果学术界的一些野心家坚持认为呼吸税可以更好地保护地球，就要强加呼吸税到我们每个人的头上，这种事我们根本不会答应。我们也不想被一些毛茸茸的40岁恐怖分子炸死，这些人3个月前刚刚作为“孩子”来到这个国家。税收和死亡都是不可避免的，但是荒唐的税收和荒唐的死亡是我们应该尽最大努力避免的。

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