芝加哥大学2025毕业演讲全文 -- David Axelrod

“未来不是一份礼物，而是一项成就。”

David Axelrod 是美国著名的政治顾问和策士，因担任巴拉克·奥巴马2008年和2012年总统竞选的首席策略师而闻名。他也曾在奥巴马政府中担任高级顾问。他以深刻理解美国政治、卓越的沟通能力和塑造有力政治叙事的才能著称。除了政治工作外，他还是备受尊敬的评论员、作家和演讲者。

这篇毕业演讲面向芝加哥大学2025届的毕业生。David 回顾了当今民主面临的挑战——包括技术变革、社交媒体带来的贫富差异以及社会分裂。

David同时提醒毕业生，民主理念经历了250年的风风雨雨，展现出强大的韧性，却也在不断遭受挑战。他强调了年轻一代作为公民的责任，呼吁他们积极捍卫民主制度、更新民主理念，并鼓励大家拥抱技术变革，捍卫宪法价值，以希望和领导力共建更美好的未来。

（以下是演讲稿全文，附本人翻译）

What a beautiful, beautiful day in every way. 

今天无论从哪一方面来说都是多么美好、多么美好的一天。

And as a graduate of the class of '76, I'm honored to be standing here today. Actually, as a graduate of the class of '76, I'm honored to be standing anywhere today. So I am.  

作为76届的毕业生，我很荣幸今天站在这里。事实上，作为76届的毕业生，我很荣幸今天能站在任何地方。确实如此。

But I'm also humbled. I'm truly, truly humbled to be invited to participate in what I know as such a joyous and exciting and bittersweet rite of passage, not just for you students, but for your families as well, a weekend on which my words should and probably will be the least memorable part. 

但我也感到谦卑。我非常非常荣幸能够受邀参加这个我所知的如此快乐、激动人心、苦乐参半的成年礼，这不仅对你们学生如此，对你们的家人也是如此。在这个周末，我的话语应该、或许也将是最不值得铭记的部分。

But I want you to know this is an emotional day for those of us at the college as well. 

但我想让你们知道，对于我们学院的每一位成员来说，今天也是一个令人感伤的日子。

You arrived here four years ago as teenagers, and some of you were a bit unsure of yourselves. Some of you were way too sure of yourselves. 

四年前，你们十几岁的时候来到这里，有些人对自己有些不自信。有些人则过于自信了。

You know who you are. Or you should by now, if you don't. 

你们知道自己是谁。或者说，如果你们不知道，你们现在应该知道了。

We taught and we mentored and we watched you grow and thrive, but truth be told, it wasn't a one-way street. You challenged us and you tested us, a bit irritating at times. But at the end of the day, enriched us as well and opened our eyes. 

我们教书育人，指导你们，看着你们成长和发展，但说实话，这并不是一条单行道。你们挑战我们，考验我们，有时甚至令人恼火。但最终，你们也丰富了我们，开阔了我们的视野。

You made us love you. And now in a blink of an eye, you are leaving us, which is necessary. I know, but it seems a bit unfair. What about our needs? 

你们让我们爱上了你们。而现在，转眼间，你们就要离开了，这是必然的。我知道，但这似乎有点不公平。那我们的需求呢？

I know you'll leave this campus with great and lasting memories. I can tell you that it has been central to my life. 

我知道你们离开这个校园时，会留下美好而永恒的回忆。我可以告诉你们，这里一直是我生命的中心。

Here I met my wife Susan, who's with us today. A hero not just for enduring 45 years with me, but because of her trailblazing work to advance the global search for cures to the epilepsy that roiled our daughter Lauren's life. 

在这里，我遇到了我的妻子苏珊，她今天也和我们在一起。她是一位英雄，不仅因为她陪伴我度过了45年，还因为她开创性地推动了全球对癫痫病的探索，这种癫痫病曾困扰着我们的女儿劳伦。

We were married right over there in Bonn Chapel. Beautiful place if you haven't seen it. 

我们就在波恩教堂结婚了。如果你还没去过，那真是个美丽的地方。

Susan's father, Dr. Richard Landau, spent his entire distinguished career on the medical faculty here. 

苏珊的父亲理查德·兰道医生，他杰出的整个职业生涯都在这里的医学院度过。

And I tell you with great pride, that when he died at the age of 99, that flag across from Levy Hall was lowered to half-mast in honor of his contributions. 

我非常自豪地告诉你们，他99岁去世时，莱维楼对面的旗帜降半旗，以纪念他的贡献。

And here after my own career in journalism and campaigns and government, I was thrilled to return to launch the Nonpartisan Institute of Politics — an experience as rewarding as any I've ever known. 

在我结束新闻、竞选和政府生涯后，我很高兴能回到这里，创办无党派政治研究所，这是我从未经历过的最有意义的经历。

And I know that somewhere here, the small but mighty staff of the Institute of Politics is sitting.

我知道，政治研究所那些人数不多但非常强大的员工就坐在这里的某个地方。

See how mighty they are? 

看看他们有多强大吧？

And I just want to tell them how proud I am of them for the miracles they pull off every single day to make that program the magic that it is. So thank you so much. 

我只想告诉他们，我为他们感到多么自豪，因为他们每天都在创造奇迹，让这个项目如此神奇。非常感谢你们。

But thinking back to my own years as a student, I'm actually more than honored and humbled to be here. I'm also a little surprised. 

回想起我自己的学生时代，能来到这里，我感到的不仅仅是荣幸和谦卑。我也有点惊讶。

And I think it's safe to say, were my professors here — may they rest in peace — they would be more like astonished. 

我想，如果我的教授们在这里安息，他们一定会感到无比惊讶。

Because mine was not a stellar academic career. 

因为我的学术生涯并不辉煌。

You saw those awards up here. I didn't get within a mile of that table when I was a student here. 

你们也看到了上面那些奖项。我在这里读书的时候，离那张桌子不到一英里。

Looking back at those years, I was exposed to a treasure trove of important, stimulating subjects and ideas that taught the habits of critical thinking, but I didn’t take the time to fully digest or appreciate them. 

回首那些年，我接触到了许多重要且令人振奋的学科和思想，养成了批判性思维的习惯，但我并没有花时间去充分消化或欣赏它们。

Instead, as someone who grew up in the 1960s, called to politics and news by the idealism and activism and profound struggles of that era, my attention was drawn more to the city than to the college. 

相反，作为一个在20世纪60年代长大的人，被那个时代的理想主义、行动主义和深刻的斗争所吸引，我对政治和新闻的关注更多集中在城市而不是大学。

Chicago itself was the greatest attraction. 

芝加哥本身才是最吸引人的。

It was a time of racial, cultural, and generational divisions even greater than today’s. 

那是一个种族、文化和世代分歧比今天更加严重的时代。

There was rioting in the streets of our cities, the assassination of our leaders, a deeply unpopular war halfway across the world that would claim 50,000 American lives, and a government that lied to us about it. 

我们城市的街头发生了骚乱，我们的领导人被暗杀，一场发生在地球另一端、极不受欢迎的战争夺走了五万美国人的生命，而政府却在这件事上对我们撒谎。

It felt as if things were coming apart. 

感觉一切都快要崩溃了。

In Chicago, where ghettos had burned and baton-wielding police battered anti-war protesters at the Democratic National Convention, it was right in the middle of it. 

在芝加哥，贫民窟被焚毁，民主党全国大会上，反战抗议者被挥舞警棍、遭到警察殴打，这一切正值巅峰。

Now, the college at that time was much more inward and monastic, focused squarely on the life of the mind. 

当时的大学更加内敛、墨守成规，专注于精神生活。

But I came to Chicago because I was focused on the life of the world. 

但我选择芝加哥是因为我关注的是世界生活。

And since there was no institute of politics then, I created my own pathways to experience it as a fledgling journalist. 

由于当时没有政治学院，我作为一名初出茅庐的记者，开辟了自己的道路去体验它。

The problem was, I wound up spending a lot more time experiencing than studying, more hours covering the news and political events than hitting the books at Regenstein. 

问题是，我最终花在体验上的时间远远多于学习，花在报道新闻和政治事件上的时间比在雷根斯坦图书馆学习的时间多。

And all this caught up with me in my final quarter. 

所有这些都在我的最后一个学期给我带来了麻烦。

In order to graduate with my class, I had to finish the work from five previous courses and take four new ones. And I had to graduate because two days later, I was scheduled to begin an internship at the Chicago Tribune that I hoped would lead to a job. 

为了和班上其他同学一起毕业，我必须完成之前五门课程的作业，并选修四门新课程。我必须毕业，因为两天后，我将开始在《芝加哥论坛报》实习，希望能找到一份工作。

I worked 24/7 to get it all done, and I thought I had. 

我每周7天、每天24小时地工作，只为完成所有工作，我以为我做到了。

But the day the final grades were due, I got a message from the registrar, "Mr. Axelrod, it appears you never fulfilled your freshman swimming requirement." This really happened, folks. "If you don’t pass a swim test by 3 p.m. today, you won’t be graduating with your class." 

但到了期末成绩公布的那天，我收到了教务长的一条消息：“阿克塞尔罗德先生，看来你从未达到新生游泳要求。”朋友们，这可是真的发生了。“如果你今天下午3点之前没通过游泳测试，你就不能和你的班级一起毕业。”

So, clock ticking, I raced over to Bartlett Gym, and I found a coach to give me the test. 

于是，时间一分一秒地过去，我飞奔到巴特利特体育馆，然后我找了一位教练让我参加考试。

I wasn’t a particularly good swimmer, and I told him, "Look, if I start to drown, just let me go."Because I didn’t want to have to tell my friends and family and the Chicago Tribune that I didn’t graduate because I failed the freshman swimming test. 

我游泳不太好，我告诉他：“听着，如果我快要溺水了，就让我走吧。”因为我不想告诉我的朋友、家人和《芝加哥论坛报》，我没能毕业是因为没通过新生游泳考试。

And he must have heard me because he generously interpreted my three variations of the dog paddle as the mandatory separate strokes the test required. And he passed me. 

他肯定听到了，因为他慷慨地把我的三种狗刨式游泳动作解释为考试要求的强制性单独划水动作。然后他让我通过了。

I still remember staggering back to these quads on which you sit today and collapsing under a tree. If you give me long enough, I could probably identify it. 

我还记得我踉踉跄跄地回到你们今天坐着的四方草坪上，瘫倒在一棵树下。如果给我足够的时间，我大概都能认出来。

Depleted but triumphant. 

胜利的喜悦让我精疲力竭。

Martin Luther King famously said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." And one small reflection of this is today, 49 years later, the college no longer has a freshman swimming requirement. 

马丁·路德·金有句名言：“道德宇宙的弧线很长，但它最终会向正义弯曲。” 一个小小的体现就是，49年后的今天，这所大学不再要求新生参加游泳考试。

That is the applause of grateful, hydrophobic students. 

这是感恩的、充满恐惧的学生们的掌声。

Now, let me talk about that arc of Dr. King’s. You graduate at another noisy, fractious time in our history in which the very idea of democracy, what it means and what it demands, are in question as much as any time since my days as a student.

现在，让我来谈谈马丁·路德·金博士的这段经历。你们毕业之际，正值我们历史上又一个喧嚣而动荡的时期。民主的理念本身，它的意义和要求，都像我学生时代以来的任何时候一样，受到极大的质疑。

Exponential leaps in science and technology offer us hope for discoveries that can help stem hunger, disease, and maybe even climate change. And the astonishing path of technological progress America has led has spurred enormous growth and wealth over the past 40 years. But that progress also has divided us between people and communities who are well positioned to take advantage of it and those who are not.

科技的飞速发展为我们带来了希望，让我们看到了能够帮助消除饥饿、疾病，甚至气候变化的发现。美国引领的惊人技术进步之路，在过去40年里，刺激了巨大的增长和财富。但这种进步也分裂了我们，一部分人和社区能够从中受益，另一部分人则无法从中受益。

From where we meet today, you don’t have to travel very far for evidence of this. Just to the north of us are gleaming corporate and financial headquarters and luxury condominiums. Just to the south, our communities struggling mightily in the shadow of long-closed steel mills, which once supported a thriving middle class. Drive in any direction, and you’ll find old industrial towns where longtime residents remember better days and their children leave in search of a better future.

从我们今天见面的地方出发，你们不用走很远就能看到这一点。就在我们北边，矗立着闪闪发光的公司和金融总部以及豪华公寓。就在南边，我们的社区在长期关闭的钢铁厂的阴影下苦苦挣扎，而这些钢铁厂曾经支撑着蓬勃发展的中产阶级。驱车前往任何方向，你都会发现一些古老的工业城镇，那里的长期居民回忆着美好的时光，而他们的子女则离开这里去寻找更美好的未来。

And with the advent of AI, these challenges that divide will only become more intense. As many jobs, including well-paying white-collar jobs, will soon become obsolete. More efficiently managed by machines than humans. These accelerating trends are straining societies and democracies as more people come to believe that they’ve been dealt out of the game, that their voices and concerns are overwhelmed by the power of elites and money and special interests.

随着人工智能的出现，这些分裂的挑战只会变得更加严峻。许多工作，包括高薪的白领工作，很快就会被淘汰，机器比人类更有效地管理。这些加速发展的趋势正在给社会和民主带来压力，因为越来越多的人开始相信他们已经被淘汰出局，他们的声音和担忧被精英、金钱和特殊利益集团的力量所淹没。

And let me tell you, social media hasn’t helped. The folks who run these platforms have a powerful interest in keeping us online. And their insight is to incite, to keep us online by catering to our fears, our anger and resentments, to shove us into silos in which our views are always affirmed but not always informed, to make us feel that those who disagree with us are all enemies and ignoramuses who want to destroy the country.

而且，让我告诉你，社交媒体毫无帮助。运营这些平台的人有强烈的利益诉求，希望我们能够继续上网。他们的意图是煽动，通过迎合我们的恐惧、愤怒和怨恨来让我们持续在线，把我们推入一个个孤立无援的圈子，在那里我们的观点总是被肯定，却并不总是被理解，让我们觉得那些不同意我们的人都是敌人，都是想要毁灭国家的无知之徒。

All of this has created a caustic mix, easily exploitable by demagogues and malign actors who also see profit in our division. And it’s helped produce another anxious era like the one in which I came of age when our assumptions about our democracy and whether it can survive have come into question.

所有这些都制造了一种充满恶意的氛围，很容易被煽动家和恶意人士利用，他们也从我们的分裂中获利。这催生了另一个焦虑的时代，就像我成年时那样，当时我们对民主制度的假设以及它能否生存下去都受到了质疑。

But Class of ’25, the word “another” is important here. We’re a country that has endured many periods of disruption and turbulence and doubt. A civil war for God’s sake. And we’ve been through some oppression. We’ve been through some stuff. And it’s really important to remember that.

但是25届的同学们，“另一边”这个词在这里很重要。我们国家经历过许多动荡、动荡和怀疑的时期。天哪，还有一场内战。我们也经历过一些压迫。我们经历过一些事情。记住这一点非常重要。

Next year we’ll mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with picnics and parades and concerts and fireworks. But as we think about that occasion, what’s more important to remember is just how speculative, how revolutionary this American experiment of self-governance was.

明年，我们将以野餐、游行、音乐会和焰火庆祝《独立宣言》发表250周年。但当我们回顾那一天时，更重要的是要记住，这项美国自治实验是多么具有推测性，多么具有革命性。

We don’t think that democracy, if it worked, would be far better than subservience to a mad king. But being students of human nature, they also had plenty of doubts about its viability. That’s why they built elaborate systems of checks and balances, of freedom of speech and freedom of the press to make sure that people were informed, that government would be held accountable, and that no one branch or leader would exercise monarchical power.

我们认为，即使民主行之有效，也不过是屈从于一个疯狂的国王。但作为人性的探索者，他们也对民主的可行性抱有诸多疑虑。正因如此，他们建立了复杂的权力制衡体系，保障言论自由和新闻自由，以确保民众知情，政府承担责任，并且任何部门或领导人都无法行使君主权力。

In the pageant when Benjamin Franklin was asked what kind of government the drafters of the Constitution had created, he answered, “A republic, if you can keep it.” It was an audacious bet.

在庆典上，当本杰明·富兰克林被问及宪法起草者创建了什么样的政府时，他回答说：“一个共和国——如果你能保住它。”这真是一次大胆的赌注。

The fact that our democracy has survived for 250 turbulent years through all the trials we’ve endured is really the miraculous triumph of hope over cynicism. We’ve survived because in times of maximum stress, Americans, and particularly the young, took up the challenge, grabbed the wheel of history, and against all odds helped steer us to a better place.

我们的民主在250年的动荡岁月中，历经种种考验，依然屹立不倒，这实乃希望战胜愤世嫉俗的奇迹。我们之所以能够幸存，是因为在最艰难的时刻，美国人，尤其是年轻人，勇于接受挑战，抓住历史的车轮，克服一切困难，带领我们走向更美好的未来。

That challenge now falls to you. There’s no doubt that cynicism is having its day. And your lives have been bracketed by a devastating financial crisis and a brutal global pandemic that has exposed government at both the best and the worst of government.

现在，这项挑战落在了你们身上。毫无疑问，愤世嫉俗正盛行。你们的生活被搁置一旁。一场毁灭性的金融危机和一场残酷的全球疫情，暴露了政府的优缺点。

And it’s pretty tempting to watch the small squallet, the small squallet nasty nature of so much of our politics, and want to avert your eyes and walk away. And believe me, that’s exactly what those in power who find the constraints of democracy cumbersome and inconvenient are counting on.

人们很容易目睹政治中如此多的丑恶本质，想要置之不理，一走了之。相信我，这正是那些认为民主的束缚繁琐不便的当权者所指望的。

So I’m urging you to resist that impulse. I’m begging you to lean in. It’s absolutely right. In fact, it’s our responsibility as citizens to question and challenge a system that periodically cries out for renewal and real, even radical reform.

所以我敦促你们抵制这种冲动。我恳求你们向前看。这完全正确。事实上，作为公民，我们有责任质疑和挑战一个周期性地呼唤更新和真正甚至彻底改革的体制。

And that’s our history. Time and again, the people of this country, abolitionists and soldiers, muck breakers and suffragists and freedom writers, past classes of graduates of this university who sat in the very seats you’re sitting in today. They claim their power as citizens, sometimes in our darkest and most dangerous hours, and took up the work of every generation to perfect our union. Their struggles and triumphs aren’t just parables from the past, but a message for today and tomorrow.

这就是我们的历史。一次又一次，这个国家的人民，废奴主义者和士兵，揭露丑闻的人、妇女参政主义者和自由作家，以及这所大学的往届毕业生，他们今天就坐在你们的座位上。他们以公民的身份行使权力，有时在我们最黑暗、最危险的时刻，为了完善我们的联邦，他们承担了一代又一代人的使命。他们的奋斗和胜利不仅是过去的寓言，更是对今天和未来的警示。

As we meet, there’s no doubt we’re facing profound questions that go right to the heart of who we are as Americans. About the rule of law and separation of powers. About freedom of speech and freedom of the press. About our role in the world and the future of universities and research institutions like this, which have driven so much of its progress.

我们相聚之际，无疑面临着一些深刻的问题，这些问题直指我们作为美国人的本质。这些问题关乎法治和权力分立，关乎言论自由和新闻自由，关乎我们在世界上的角色，以及像这样的大学和研究机构的未来，它们推动了世界的巨大进步。

But related to it, we’re also grappling with the dizzying and disruptive pace of technological change, the impacts of which are very much at the core of the disaffection many feel with politics and government. And yet, it seems so many of our politicians are locked in the pitch battle over whether the answers lie in the policies of the 20th century or the 19th.

但与此相关的是，我们也在努力应对令人眼花缭乱、颠覆性的技术变革，其影响正是许多人对政治和政府不满的核心原因。然而，我们的许多政客似乎仍在争论答案究竟在于20世纪的政策还是19世纪的政策。

Well, you’re the children of the 21st century. For you, relentless technological change has been the only constant. You’re not intimidated by it. You embrace it, and boy, do we need you now.

好吧，你们是21世纪的孩子。对你们来说，无情的技术变革是唯一不变的。你们无所畏惧，而是拥抱它。天哪，我们现在多么需要你们！

We need you not only to be vigilant in defense of fundamental constitutional principles, but to imagine and build a world in which we harness change for the greatest good rather than allowing it to harness us.

我们需要你们不仅要警惕捍卫基本的宪法原则，更要构想并构建一个我们能够驾驭变革、造福人类而非任其奴役我们的世界。

The late Supreme Court Justice, Louis Brandeis, said, “The most important office in our democracy is the office of private citizen.”

已故最高法院大法官路易斯·布兰代斯曾说过：“我们民主制度中最重要的职位是私人公民。”

Regardless of where you go from here or what you do, your voices, your votes, and your commitment to the life of the world will make the difference, unless you come to believe that they won’t and walk away.

无论你们今后走向何方，无论你们做什么，你们的声音、你们的选票以及你们对世界生活的承诺都将带来改变，除非你们最终相信它们不会改变，然后弃之不顾。

I’m betting you won’t. I’m betting on you.

我打赌你们不会改变。我赌的正是在座的你。

What are my political heroes, Robert F. Kennedy, senior, I should add? I died 57 years ago today of an assassin’s bullet at the age of 42. So it seems particularly fitting on this occasion to remember his words.

我的政治英雄是谁？老罗伯特·F·肯尼迪，我应该补充一下？57年前的今天，我因刺客的子弹而去世，享年42岁。因此，在这个时刻缅怀他的话语显得尤为恰当。

“The future is not a gift,” he told us, “it’s an achievement.” I’ve come to know many of you and what you can, and I’m sure will achieve. And the wonderful, nourishing gift you’ve given me is hope.

“未来不是一份礼物，”他告诉我们，“而是一项成就。”我认识了你们中的许多人，也了解了你们所能做到的一切，我相信你们终将取得成就。你们给予我的美好而滋养的礼物就是希望。

And for that, I can’t thank you enough, Class of ’25. Best of luck to you and all you do. Thank you.

为此，我对你们，25届的毕业生们，感激不尽。祝你们好运，一切顺利。谢谢。