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In a perfect world, the relationship between private opinion and public opinion would be basically like a mirror.
在一个完美的世界里，个人意见和公众意见之间的关系基本上就像一面镜子。
At its best, public opinion holds a mirror to us, and it reflects exactly who we are.
在最佳状况下，公众意见就是我们的一面镜子，它准确地反映了我们是谁。
What 'collective illusions' do to that relationship is turn it into a funhouse of mirrors.
而“集体幻觉”却把这种关系变成了一个满是镜子的游乐场。
You're still seeing yourself, but it is distorted in ways that make it almost unrecognizable.
你仍然能看到自己，但扭曲得几乎认不出来。
A collective illusion is a situation where most people in a group go along with an idea that they don't agree with, simply because they incorrectly believe that most people in the group agree with it.
集体幻觉是指群体中的大多数人会认同自己不认同的观点，仅仅因为他们错误地以为群体中的大多数人都认同这个观点。
The majority of people in a group believe the majority thinks something that they don't.
一个群体中的大多数人相信多数人认同他们不认同的事情。
They lead individuals to make decisions that are contrary to their private values.
这会让人们做出与他们个人价值观相反的决定。
And as a result, the entire group can end up doing something that almost nobody wants, which is fatal to free society.
因此，整个群体最终可能会做一些几乎没有人真心想做的事情，这对自由社会来说是致命的。
My think tank, Populace, studies collective illusions, and uses what we call 'private opinion methods,' which are just methods that help reveal people's private views, free of social pressure and other distorting influences on public opinion.
我的智囊团，大众，研究集体幻觉，使用我们所谓的“个人意见方法”，它帮助人们在不受社会压力和其他公众意见扭曲的影响下，揭露出人们的个人观点。
And every question we ever ask, we always ask what the individual thinks, and what they believe most people would say to that question.
我们问的每一个问题，都会问这个人是怎么想的，以及他们认为大多数人会怎么回答这个问题。
And that combination of methods helps surface collective illusions all across society.
结合这些方法可以揭露整个社会出现的集体幻觉。
We have found them almost everywhere we look- from the kind of lives we want to live, to the country we want to live in, to the way we want to treat each other.
从我们想要的生活方式，到我们想要生活的国家，再到我们想要对待彼此的方式，几乎方方面面都存在集体幻觉。
And even what we expect out of our institutions from education to the workplace.
甚至我们对从教育到工作的机构的期望，也存在集体幻觉。
The most damaging consequence is that an illusion in one generation tends to become the private opinion of the next generation.
最具破坏性的后果是，一代人的集体幻觉往往会成为下一代人的个人意见。
One of the most important collective illusions we've ever discovered, has to do with the way that people define a successful life.
我们发现的最重要的集体幻觉之一，与人们定义成功生活的方式有关。
It turns out that the vast majority of the American Public believes that most people in the country care about: Wealth, Status, Power.
事实证明，绝大多数美国公众认为，这个国家的大多数人在乎的是：财富、地位和权力。
When in fact, the opposite is true.
但事实恰恰相反。
The vast majority of the American Public are focused on a more personal fulfillment orientation, but our kids are paying an incredible price because they do not understand that this is an illusion.
绝大多数的美国公众更关注个人成就感，但我们的孩子却在付出难以估量的代价，因为他们并不知道财富、地位和权力只是一种幻象。
They try to chase fame because they believe that's what other people will recognize as success.
他们努力追求名声，因为他们相信别人会把出名当做成功。
So, if we do nothing about collective illusions now, our silence will virtually guarantee that our children and our grandchildren will have this view as their private opinion.
因此，如果我们现在不对集体幻觉采取任何行动，我们的沉默实际上会让我们的子孙把这种观点当成他们的个人意见。
We've known about collective illusions for over a hundred years.
一百多年前我们就知道集体幻觉的存在了。
And up until the last, say, 20 years, you could've probably counted on two hands and two feet the number of serious, societal, collective illusions that had existed.
直到过去20年里，我们可能用双手双脚就能数清当时社会上存在的严重的集体幻觉的数量。
Since then, that number has exploded.
从那之后，这个数字就开始激增。
They affect society as a whole, but we are all part of creating and sustaining the illusions.
它们影响着整个社会，但我们都是创造和维持这些幻觉的一分子。
Even when we fundamentally end up disagreeing, a truthful disagreement is always better than a collective illusion.
即使我们最终产生了分歧，一个真实的分歧也比一个集体幻觉要好。
Being aware that collective illusions exist is the starting point.
意识到集体幻觉的存在只是一个起点。
The only way to discover those is the same way that you actually dismantle them.
发现集体幻觉的方法就是摧毁它们的方法。
You got to have conversations. You got to talk to each other.
你需要跟别人对话，跟别人交流。
If you understand that fact, and you create the enabling conditions, that allow everyday people to reveal who they really are to each other,
如果你了解了这个事实，创造一个可行的条件，让人们有机会在彼此面前展现真实的自己，
these illusions can crumble in a hurry, and social change can happen at a scale and pace that would otherwise seem unimaginable.
这些幻象就会瞬间破灭，社会会以你原本想象不到的规模和速度出现变革。
