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The tradition of good argument that I'm trying to advocate for is very much rooted in history.
我想要倡导的传统的优秀辩论在很大程度上植根于历史。
It goes back all the way to antiquity: where in ancient Greece, the ability to make your point persuasively, to engage other citizens in discussion and debate was seen as a kind of a requirement of citizenship.
它可以追溯到古代：在古希腊，能让人信服地表达自己的观点，让其他公民参与到讨论和辩论中，是对公民的一种要求。
That's what it meant for us to govern ourselves.
这就是我们自我管理的意义所在。
And that developed through tea houses and pubs and coffee houses in London, where while the debates of parliament were going on, citizens would gather and have the same debates between themselves.
这种现象在伦敦的茶馆、酒吧和咖啡馆里发展起来，当议会进行辩论时，市民们也会聚在这些场所，进行同样的辩论。
That tradition kind of carries forth in the United States with a lot of the founding fathers starting debate clubs and colleges; viewing part of their role as leaders and as founders of a new country as instilling in the nation, that spirit of debate.
这一传统在美国得到了延续，许多开国元勋创办了辩论俱乐部和大学；他们认为自己作为领导人和新国家的缔造者，其中一部分责任就是向国家灌输辩论精神。
And though that tradition has become harder and harder to discern in our everyday lives, there have been periods in the history of the U.S. and the history of democracies, and the history of the world, where those debates were a feature of people's day-to-day lives.
尽管这一传统在我们的日常生活中变得越来越难以察觉，但在美国历史、民主历史和世界历史中，有一段时期，这些辩论是人们的家常便饭。
One high-profile debate that comes to mind is the series of debates between the civil rights leader, James Farmer, and Malcolm X.
会在人们脑海中浮现的一场备受瞩目的辩论是民权领袖詹姆斯·法默和马尔科姆·X之间的一系列辩论。
'If a dark-skinned Puerto Rican went down to Mississippi, he probably would be lynched too.'
如果一个黑皮肤的波多黎各人去密西西比州，他很可能也会被私刑处死。
'If he was Spanish, he wouldn't be lynched.' 'No.'
‘如果他是西班牙人，他就不会被处以私刑。’‘不是的’。
These were a series of disagreements between people who are ostensibly on the same side, whose objectives were in some sense allied, but they were not shy about voicing their disagreements in really candid, strong, forth throated ways in the view of the public,
这些表面上在同一阵营的人之间也存在一些分歧，在某种意义上他们的目标是一致的，但在公众看来，他们会毫不掩饰地以非常坦率、强烈、直言不讳的方式来表达分歧，
knowing that the other side would respond respectfully, that they would be candid about the disagreements, and through that conversation, that they would be able to get somewhere they couldn't on their own.
他们知道对方会恭敬地做出回应，他们会坦率地面对分歧，通过这种对话，他们能够到达仅靠自己无法抵达的目标。
There are three lessons that I take away from the Farmer-Malcolm X debates: The first is the importance of training.
我从法默和马尔科姆·X之间的辩论中学到了三个教训：第一是培训的重要性。
In order for us to be able to host the kinds of public debates again that enlarges our understanding of what's possible, we have to start training, and we have to start training our young people; we have to train ourselves to be able to engage in those conversations.
为了让我们能够再次主持公共辩论，扩大我们对可能性的理解，我们必须开始培训，我们必须开始培训年轻人；我们必须培训自己，使自己能够参与到这些对话中来。
The second is the importance of format.
第二是流程的重要性。
It's striking how long they were given to make their points.
令人惊讶的是，他们有很长的时间去阐述自己的观点。
Often, they would be given quite a long stretch of time to present their arguments with the knowledge that once they had spoken, the other person would speak and they would get another turn.
通常，他们会被给予相当长的时间来陈述自己的论点，因为他们知道只要他们发言，对方就会回应，这样就会有另一个回合。
The third thing that you see in those debates is the importance of having a relationship with the person that you're disagreeing with, that's greater than just the disagreement itself.
这些辩论让我学到的第三点是，与你持不同意见的人建立关系非常重要，这比分歧本身更重要。
By introducing the family to one another. By seeing the other areas of life. By doing other things together.
可以介绍彼此的家人，可以观察对方其他的生活领域，可以一起做其他事情。
You can often enlarge the possibility of what you do within the debate.
你经常可以扩大你在辩论中所做事情的可能性。
'I find myself in so much agreement with Mr. Mondale.'
‘我发现自己非常同意蒙代尔先生的观点。
Debates are only as good as the information and the knowledge and the skills that debaters bring to it.
辩论的好坏取决于辩论者带来的信息、知识和技能。
One of the more concerning things that we see, at the moment, is people's information diets not being sufficiently varied, not being sufficiently rich to sustain the kinds of conversations that we want to have.
目前我们看到的更令人担忧的事情之一是，人们的信息摄入不够多样化，不足以维持我们想要的那种对话。
We cannot allow the debates that we see on cable television to be a kind of a replacement for the disagreements that we should be having in our day-to-day lives.
我们在电视上看到的辩论并不能替代日常生活中本就该有的一些分歧。
So our political leaders or our favorite media personalities can't be like avatars to whom we outsource the work of thinking for ourselves and having these conversations for ourselves.
所以，我们并不能将本该由自己去思考和讨论的工作外包给政治领导人或我们最喜欢的媒体人物。
And I think in order for us to start building back the skills of good argument, we usually need to do it face-to-face.
而且，为了塑造良好的辩论技巧，我认为面对面的辩论效果会更好。
And we might need to do it in the absence of an audience to start with, so that we resist the urge to perform for an audience, but rather listen and respond to the person across from us.
这样做的时候最好没有观众，从而避免为了观众去表演的冲动，而是去倾听和回应我们对面的那个人。
So it may well be, that we can one day equip ourselves to engage in a better form of social media, but I tend to think the starting place has to be face-to-face, has to be maybe away from an audience to begin with, so that we're building one interaction at a time, the skills that we have lost.
所以很可能有一天，我们能够去参与一种更好的社交媒体形式，但我还是认为，一开始最好是面对面的、远离观众的，这样我们才能沉浸式地产生互动，而这种技能已被我们弄丢。
