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Exquisite tailoring takes you only so far. Felipe VI, king of Spain, is known to the internet for the perfect hug of his suits — the right-length jackets, the gently rolled lapels.
精湛的裁剪只能帶你走到這一步。西班牙國王費利佩六世(Felipe VI)因其西裝的完美貼合而聞名於網路——合適長度的夾克，輕輕翻卷的翻領。
A monarch could scarcely look more the part. Felipe is nearly two metres tall. He has the posture for which a desk-bound worker would sacrifice a year’s salary, and a visage you’d expect to see chiselled into a medieval cathedral. No sausage fingers in the House of Bourbon.
幾乎沒有其他君主能擁有他這樣的王者氣概。費利佩六世身高近兩米。他的體態讓一個久坐辦公桌的工作者願意犧牲一年的薪水，而他的面容彷彿可以雕刻在中世紀的大教堂上。波旁家族沒有香腸手指。
But last weekend, the king’s new clothes were about as much use as the emperor’s. Walking the streets of Paiporta, a suburb of Valencia, hours after deadly floods, Felipe and his wife Queen Letizia found themselves pelted with mud and subjected to cries of “Murderers!”
但上週末，國王的新衣和皇帝的一樣沒什麼用。在致命洪水發生數小時後，費利佩六世和他的妻子萊蒂齊亞王后(Queen Letizia)在巴倫西亞郊區派波爾塔的街道上漫步時，發現自己被泥漿潑中，並遭到「凶手！」的呼喊。
Inevitable, perhaps, that mass death should strip away the aura of monarchy. Inevitable, too, that the king’s decision to face angry crowds, while prime minister Pedro Sánchez retreated to his car, should be seen as both too much and too little. That’s constitutional monarchy: you can’t send out emergency alerts but you can take the blame for other people’s failure to do so.
也許，大規模死亡不可避免地剝奪了君主制的光環。同樣不可避免的是，國王決定面對憤怒的人羣，而首相佩德羅•桑切斯(Pedro Sánchez)則退回到他的車裏，這被視爲既過分又不夠。這就是君主立憲制：你不能發佈緊急警報，但你可以爲別人未能這樣做而承擔責任。
No one can deny victims’ right to express their anger. But is it too much to hope that the anger might only be a temporary stage of the grieving process? Logically, disasters should define us. Sheep learn from electric fences. Yet we humans, collectively, cannot make the same course correction.
沒有人可以否認受害者表達憤怒的權利。但是，希望憤怒只是悲傷過程中的一個暫時階段，這是否期望過高？從邏輯上講，災難應該定義我們。羊從電圍欄中學習。然而，我們人類卻無法集體做出同樣的航向修正。
Floridians are happily electing climate-denying Republicans, even as extreme weather makes parts of their state uninsurable
佛羅里達人愉快地選舉否認氣候變化的共和黨人，即使極端天氣使他們州的部分地區無法投保
Crises leave only an inconsistent mark on society. The financial crisis spawned various political impulses, most of which (shrink state spending, cut trade ties) worsened the malaise. Westminster’s expenses scandal — and subsequent sleaze — simply deepened public hostility, further deterring talented people from choosing politics as a career. A plague on all their houses quickly becomes a plague on your own.
危機只會在社會上留下不一致的印記。金融危機催生了各種政治衝動，其中大多數（縮減國家支出、削減貿易聯繫）加劇了困境。威斯敏斯特的開支醜聞及其後的腐敗醜聞，只是加深了公衆的敵意，進一步阻止有才華的人選擇從政。對他們所有人的詛咒很快就會變成對你自己的詛咒。
In 2020, it looked inconceivable that we wouldn’t learn lessons from Covid: surely we would do whatever it took to avoid this happening again. But our medium-term response has been denial. No one is a libertarian in a crisis, but quite a few are libertarians shortly after. Americans just re-elected a man who suggested they drink bleach.
2020年，看起來難以想像我們不會從新冠疫情中吸取教訓：我們肯定會盡一切努力避免這種情況再次發生。但我們的中期反應卻是否認。在危機中沒有人是自由意志主義者，但危機過後不久，許多人又成爲自由意志主義者。美國人剛剛重新選舉了一位曾建議他們喝漂白劑的人。
Even in saner Britain, the Conservative party has elected a leader who says that Covid restrictions were too strict. Kemi Badenoch also wrongly said that the furore around Boris Johnson’s parties at Downing Street was overblown. But her critics should ask themselves if the anger at Partygate would now be better channelled into calls for a pandemic warning system and a move away from factory farming. Or is the only way that we can process disasters to focus on humiliating the powerful?
即使在較爲理智的英國，保守黨(Conservative party)也選出了一位聲稱新冠限制措施過於嚴格的領導人。凱米•巴德諾赫(Kemi Badenoch)還錯誤地表示，圍繞鮑里斯•強森(Boris Johnson)在唐寧街(Downing Street)舉辦派對的風波被誇大了。但她的批評者應該反思，對「派對門」的憤怒是否更應該轉化爲呼籲建立疫情預警系統和遠離工廠化養殖。或者，我們處理災難的唯一方式就是專注於羞辱權勢者嗎？
In his novel The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson imagines a catastrophic heatwave in India catalysing climate action. The country’s ruling party is thrown from office, the political elite is discredited. A new consensus takes hold, with investments in renewable energy, battery storage and geo-engineering.
在他的小說《未來部》中，金•斯坦利•羅賓森(Kim Stanley Robinson)設想了一場在印度引發氣候行動的災難性熱浪。該國執政黨被趕下臺，政治精英聲名狼藉。新的共識逐漸形成，投資於可再生能源、電池儲存和地球工程。
Satisfying fiction, but not reality. If it were, then every car destroyed by the Spanish floods would be replaced by an electric vehicle, every regional housing plan would stop building on flood plains, and no politician would be elected without committing to climate action. Don’t bet on it. Valencia’s government has included the climate-denying party Vox. Floridians are happily electing climate-denying Republicans, even as extreme weather makes parts of their state uninsurable.
這只是令人滿意的虛構，而非現實。如果是現實，那麼每輛被西班牙洪水摧毀的汽車都會被電動車替換，每個地區的住房計劃都會停止在洪泛平原上建造，沒有承諾採取氣候行動的政客將不會當選。別指望了。巴倫西亞政府中包括了否認氣候變化的政黨Vox。儘管極端天氣使佛羅里達州部分地區無法投保，佛羅里達人仍然樂此不疲地選舉否認氣候變化的共和黨人。
The humbling of Felipe will lead nowhere. Anti-monarchists should check their delight. We assume one day that the Spanish and British monarchies will go the way of the French, but the date does not appear imminent.
對費利佩六世的羞辱不會帶來任何結果。反君主主義者應該剋制自己的喜悅。我們假設有一天西班牙和英國的君主制會走上法國的道路，但這個日期似乎並不迫在眉睫。
The king will come out of this fine, if his advisers have any sense. He will espouse a special bond to the victims of the flood. He will meet some of them again when anger has subsided. And he will be perfectly tailored, and politely received, in Wimbledon’s royal box next summer.
如果國王的顧問們有頭腦，他會安然度過這段時期。他將與洪水受害者建立特殊的聯繫。當憤怒平息後，他會再次見到其中一些人。明年夏天，他將在溫布爾登的皇家包廂裏穿著得體，受到禮貌的接待。
But if an individual becomes the story, the opportunity for society to learn from disaster will be lost. For a better model, look to sport. After England narrowly lost at rugby to New Zealand on Saturday, their fly-half Marcus Smith excused a teammate who missed a match-winning kick. Defeat was a team responsibility, and the team would emerge stronger, he promised.
但如果一個人成爲故事的焦點，社會將失去從災難中學習的機會。要尋找更好的榜樣，可以看看體育。週六，英格蘭在橄欖球比賽中以微弱劣勢輸給紐西蘭後，他們的飛人馬庫斯•史密斯(Marcus Smith)爲一名錯失制勝球的隊友辯解。他承諾，失敗是團隊的責任，團隊會變得更強大。
In politics, slinging mud often becomes an end in itself. But if you want success, it must be a means to an end — or it is as pointless as Felipe’s lapels.
在政治中，潑髒水往往成爲一種目的。但如果你想要成功，它必須成爲達到目的的手段，否則就像費利佩六世的衣領一樣毫無意義。
Henry Mance is the FT’s chief feature writer
亨利•曼斯(Henry Mance)是英國《金融時報》的首席特寫作家。
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