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非常发人深省的一封邮件，作者是加州大学伯克利分校数学系讲师，来自英国牛津大学的Coward。时间仓促，翻译水平见笑。下附原文。

各位同学，

 

你们可能已经听说会有人在明天组织罢课。

我要申明的一点是，我将不会参与罢课，换句话说，我将站在罢课的对立面上。此外，我知道你们的两个助教已经决定罢课，恰好明天下午他们负责的小组讨论的时间段我没什么事儿，我也很喜欢小班教学而且有段时间没有教过小课了，因此我决定亲自代课。如果你本来打算明天下午在我的办公时间来找我，就直接来我代的这两节课找我好了。

我做出上述决定的理由非常简单：从现在到学期结束我们还剩下七个课时，就算不考虑课程进展良好、我们很有可能会有几节课的富裕时间进行复习，余下的课时也是很宝贵的，更何况考虑到你们应接受的教育的重要性，随意取消一节不必须取消的课都是不可接受的。无论明天的抗议事关什么样的不公平，有一点显而易见的是，你们并没有责任。不管这些不公平究竟是什么，我都不认为你们应该以放弃教育的方式为其他人的抗议买单，这与你们无关。当然，我尊重两位助教关于罢课的决定。对于一个社会而言，身处其中的人能够站起来表明主张与信仰总归是比所有人都沉默要来得好，有的时候要好的多。此外，我不得不承认，我可能是错的，而他们可能是对的。我之前有过关于政治问题的错误判断，我也很确信我将来可能还会犯错。但从最实际的角度，我决定明天的大课和小组讨论仍然照常进行。

在这些最现实的问题之外，我觉得我们有必要从更宏观的角度思考政治与教育的关系，而我在这个问题上也有一些想法与你们分享，希望对你们有所帮助。

我做出上述决定是有担忧的。一般情况下，我总是避免与我的学生和同事探讨政治，因为人们的观点各不相同，而有些人的观点是极其坚定的，抑或带有极强的感情色彩。如果我和你们或我的同事产生了政治问题上的分歧，这可能给我们最核心的工作，也就是带个你们最好的教育这一使命，造成负面影响。

但是有的时候，政治事件总是不请自到或者不由我们控制，我们除了参与其中，没有别的选择。历史上，政治事件带来的暴力和破坏远比一次罢课来的多，因此，在精神上，我们应该对此有着充分的准备。

如果说我在你们的年龄学到的唯一一点关于政治的事，那就是，政治，与包括数学在内的很多值得思考的事物一样，是很宏大的，很复杂的，是与很多事物相互关联的。我曾经在四大洲的四个国家居住、工作，四个国家的在社会层面和政治层面上都是迥然不同的。因而，我发觉并没有独一无二的、明显的最好的社会组织方式。总会有人因为你所做出的决定和判断而获益，也会有人因而受损。就好像我上课的方式一样，我知道无论我怎样教学，总会有人从中受益，也会有人可以在其他教学方式下做的更好。这是我们无法避免的，我们生命中所做的每一个决定无非都是不同利益、理念的平衡。理性的、善良的人可以在类似于罢课与否这样的政治问题上求同存异，同样，在更具争议的问题上，他们也能做到兼容并包，兼收并蓄。

我说的这些听上去很迂腐。但是，考虑到你们是这么的年轻，我觉得这些观点还是有价值的。年轻最大的优势在于你们的思想非常清晰而你们的大脑还没有被记忆和经历弄乱。清晰的思想可以带给你们坚定的信念，但它也可能令你误入歧途，因为你们还并不了解这个世界有多么复杂。你们长大后会逐渐积累更多的生活阅历，这就是智慧的源泉。可是问题在于，我们从生活中获得的经验教训并不总指向一个方向，有的时候，从生活阅历中摘取正确的教训是比较困难的。

所以我们面临这样的抉择。我们年轻的时候，因为视野不够开阔而不能明确地判断对与错，而随着我们逐渐成熟，我们有更多的生活阅历以支撑我们的判断，可这些阅历在不同人之间甚至在同一个人身上可能是相互矛盾的。我们该怎么办？

我不知道。

但是我很明确的是，你们无法避免这样的判断。正如我无法逃避到底罢课与否这个问题一样。无论如何，我都必须做出一个政治上的决定，而我还必须跟你们解释。对我而言，决定不罢课是很轻松的，但是对于你们而言，你们在未来人生终将面对的判断、抉择将是困难重重。在程度上，它们与前人所面对的判断与抉择相比，要复杂、重要的多。你们可能还不能体会到这个世界变化的速度是多么的惊人。以网络革命为例。十年前，我和你们一样大，还是一个本科生。如果我想查邮件，我必须要到地下室的一个小房间去用电脑；如果我想了解什么东西，我会去图书馆。就在过去的这十年间，互联网和电话通信服务已经实实在在地改变了世界上每一个人的生活，无论富裕与否。我们正经历的生物技术领域的跨越式发展让我联想到二十世纪初的电力革命。虽然我不知道，也没人知道，但我猜想，生物技术之于二十一世纪的变革性，正如满负荷的电力运转之于二十世纪全盛时期一样。最近有关国家安全的论战已经显示了信息技术之于当今社会可能有怎样的作用（至少可能成为一把双刃剑），还有类似于气候变化这样有争议和复杂的问题，它们带给社会的影响还未可知。这只是我们可预见的一些挑战，而我们都知道历史喜欢捉弄世人，没人知道还会有什么新的情况在等待着我们。在这些庸庸扰扰中，我们对于人类和平与幸福得求索尽管仍然重要，却变得更加困难。当一切看上去暗无天日时，我们的上一代人躲避掉了毁灭人类的核战争向我们射出的子弹，但对于你们这一代人而言，子弹来的更密集，更猛烈。之于这一代人，你们所拥有的潜力可能带来的善与恶都将是空前的。

我揣测你们或多或少都听到过类似的观点。但是我猜想，你们可能有人听到这些是这样想的：“这些事情交给别人处理就好了。”

毫无疑问，这是错误的。

在诸如伯克利这样的最顶级的学府读书，你们很可能忘记的一个事实就是你们有多么优秀、多么了不起。我每次与你们交流都会被深深打动。你们问的问题是如此深入，你们在两次期中考试期间的进步是如此之大，你们对我成为一个更好的老师的不断挑战，都让我惊诧不已。你们真的很了不起。我教过的学生来自世界各地，而我从没有见过像你们一样有天赋的。我不是指你们之中的一些人，而是指你们全部。成为你们的教授是我的荣幸。不幸的是，我知道你们之中很多人并不这么想。人比人，气死人，尤其是你们看到周围同学做的比你好的时候。或者，我应该说，他们看上去做的比你好的时候。事实上，人们所学多少是很难衡量的，失败乃成功之母。

我跟你们说这些干嘛？

我是想告诉你们，除此之外，再没有别的地方有这样一群优秀的人，这样一群将要在未来的岁月里改变人类命运的人。最简单的事实莫过于，科技无论如何都将改变我们的生活方式，而你们将要解决很多困难的问题、探索如何最大化科技的作用，同时面对古往今来一直萦绕在人道主义周围的来自人的危险。

你们这一代人将面临的一部分事业将是科技层面的，用科学的思想服务于社会利益，而另一部分则在根本上是人性层面的，无可避免地与主导整个历史的人的情感相关联。这些事业并不是割裂开来的，而是紧密相连的，而你们将比我更能领会这两个事业的联系。

我无法告诉你们在二十一世纪你们具体会承担什么样的职责。究竟是关注科技层面、以革新推动社会前进，还是关注最根本的人性层面、肩负自古有之的使命，或是两者兼备。

但是我能告诉你们的是：

无论你决定从事什么，它都将是非常非常复杂的。

科学和技术是复杂的。历史和政治是复杂的。人是复杂的。哪怕是弄明白怎么才能开心，做最简单的诸如照顾孩子、保持友谊与爱情这样的事情，都是复杂的。

为了能够在愈发复杂的二十一世纪中前行，你需要世界级的教育。谢天谢地，你拥有这样的机会。我并不只是说你们在课堂上接受的教育，我所说的，是你们做每一件事、读每一本书、进行每一次交流、每一次思考所获得的教育。

为了教育，你们应该乐观对待生活。

为了教育，你需要活着、呼吸。

你应该着迷于你所接受的教育。

不要因为身处这样一群耀眼的、优秀的同学中而陷入自责，觉得自己不够好。这绝不是事实。

不要觉得只关注书本是一件自私的事情。这并不自私。这是你能做的最高尚的事情。

社会对你们投入了巨资，期待你们能够在未来的岁月里解决我们面临的挑战，无论是科技上的挑战，还是对于人类幸福的求索。

这是我为什么不取消明天的大课。你们接受的教育真的非常非常重要，不只是对你们，而是在更宏大、更甚于的层面上，在我认为你们尚不能体会的层面上。

 

明天见，

亚历山大

Dear All,

 

As some of you may have heard, there is some strike activity taking place on campus tomorrow.

 

I want to let you know that I will not be striking, which means that I will be, so-to-speak, crossing a picket line. Moreover, I know that two of your GSIs have decided to strike, but because I happen to be free in the afternoon when they teach, and because I enjoy teaching smaller classes from time to time and I haven’t had a chance to in a while, I’ll be covering those sections. If you were planning to see me at office hours tomorrow afternoon, then feel free to come to one of the sections I’ll be covering. I will be in Stephens 230c from 2:10 to 4pm, Cory Hall 285 from 4:10pm to 5pm, and Evans Hall 6 from 5:10pm-6pm.

 

The reason for me taking this decision is extremely simple: We have 7 class days left until the end of the course. Despite the fact that we've made good time and are likely to finish the syllabus with a few lectures in hand for review, class hours are valuable and your education is too important to just cancel a class if we don’t have to. Whatever the alleged injustices are that are being protested about tomorrow, it is clear that you are not responsible for those things, whatever they are, and I do not think you should be denied an education because of someone else’s fight that you are not responsible for. I say this with no disrespect whatsoever to the two GSIs who have decided to strike. Societies where people stand up for what they believe in are generally better than societies where people do not, sometimes dramatically so. Further, I cannot discount the possibility that I may be in the wrong on this and they may be right. I have certainly been on the wrong side of political judgements before and I’m sure I will be again. However from a practical point of view I’ve made my decision and you should all turn up to class and discussion tomorrow as normal.

 

Beyond practical matters, I think it’s also worth reflecting a little on the broader relationship between politics and your education, and I think I have some important things to share on this topic that may be helpful to you.

 

I do this with some trepidation. Normally I try to avoid talking about politics with my students and also my professional colleagues because people have a wide variety of views, sometimes held with great conviction and feeling. If I was to get into a political disagreement with one of you or one of my colleagues, it might get in the way of or distract us from the central mission we have of working together to give you a great education. 

 

However sometimes political events reach into our lives without our invitation or control, and we have no choice but to engage with each other about politics. Many times in history it has done so with far more violence and disruption than a strike, and it is wise to be psychologically prepared for this fact.

 

If I’ve learned one thing about politics since I was your age, it is this: Politics, like most things in life worth thinking about, including mathematics, is very big, very complicated, and very interconnected. I’ve lived and worked in four countries on four continents, all with societies set up differently both politically and socially. I’ve discovered that there is no unique or obviously best way of setting up society. For every decision and judgement you reach, there are people who benefit and people who lose out. It’s the same with the way I teach my classes. I know that for every decision I make about how to teach you there are some of you who benefit and there are others who would do better if I did things differently. There is no way of getting around that. Every judgement you make in life is a question of balancing different interests and ideals. Reasonable good people can disagree on political questions like whether to strike or not, and they can disagree about far more contentious topics also.

 

All this may sound like speaking in platitudes. However it is a point worth making to all of you because you are so young. One of the nice things about being young is that your thinking can be very clear and your mind not so cluttered up with memories and experiences. This clarity can give you a lot of conviction, but it can also lead you astray because you might not yet appreciate just how complicated the world is. As you get older you tend to accumulate life experiences to learn from, and this is the source of wisdom, but the trouble is that the lessons we glean from life do not all point in the same direction. Sometimes it is hard to tease the correct learning from the experiences life throws at us.

 

So what are we to do with the fact that when we are young we lack a lot of the perspective we need to make definitive judgements about what is right, but that as we get older our judgements tend to be informed by our experiences, and these experiences guide us in contradictory ways, both between different people and within the same person? 

 

I don’t know. 

 

However one thing I do know is that you are not going to be able to avoid making these kinds of judgements, just as I cannot avoid making a judgment about whether to strike or not. Like it or not, I have to make a political choice, and I have to talk to you about it. For me, the choice not to strike is quite easy, but for you the kinds of judgements and choices you are going to face in your lives are going to be far from easy; they are going to be of a complexity and importance that will rival that faced by any previous generation. To an extent that you may not yet appreciate, the world is changing incredibly quickly. In just a decade, since I was your age, the internet and telecommunications has truly transformed the way we live, not just in rich countries but around the world. When I was an undergraduate, if I wanted to check my email I went to a little room in the basement to use a computer, and if I wanted to learn something I went to a library. The kinds of breakthroughs we are seeing in biotechnology remind me of the way people were talking about electricity in 1900. Of course I don’t know - nobody knows - but my guess is that biotechnology in the 21st century could be similarly transformative to the way the full power of electricity only hit prime-time in the 20th century. The recent controversy about the NSA has shown that the role of information technology on society can be, or at least might become, double edged. There is climate change, another controversial and difficult topic, the exact impact of which we do not yet know. These are just a few of the challenges we can see, and we should remember that history has a habit of throwing curve balls at each generation that nobody saw coming. And among all this tumult, our search for common human peace and happiness on some level becomes more difficult, though no less important. A previous generation dodged the bullet of nuclear armageddon when things looked bleak, but for your generation the bullets are coming thicker and faster than ever before. The potential all of you in your generation are going to have for both good and harm is tremendous. 

 

I suspect many of you have heard sentiments along these lines before. However I also suspect that many of you will think something in response along the lines of `I know all that, but these things are for someone else to figure out, not me.’

 

That is a mistake. 

 

One of the things you can lose track of when you attend a top tier university like Berkeley is just how exceptional and amazing you really are. I’m blown away every time I talk to you. The way you ask penetrating questions, the way you improved so much between midterm 1 and 2, the way you challenge me to be a better teacher, it just knocks my socks off. You really are amazing. I’ve taught students all over the world, and I’ve never seen a group of students so talented. I’m not just talking about some of you. I’m talking about all of you. It’s a privilege to be your professor. Sadly, however, I know many of you don’t feel that way. The difficulty you all face is that as you look around at all your fellow students, it’s easy to have your eye drawn by people doing better than you. Or rather, I should say people who look like they’re doing better than you. In reality the true extent of how much people are learning can be difficult to measure. Sometimes failures and adversity are better preparations for long term success than effortless progress.

 

Why am I telling you all this? 

 

I’m telling you this because you all need to know that there is not some great pool of amazing people in some other place who are going to shape the way our species navigates the coming decades. The simple fact is that, like it or not, technology is going to change the way we live in the future, and you’re going to have to solve some very hard problems, as well as figure out how best to use new technology for good, while at the same time facing human dangers that have haunted humanity throughout history.

 

Part of the work of your generation is going to be technological, using scientific ideas to serve the interests of society, and part of the work is going to be fundamentally human, tied inexorably with qualities of the human condition - human emotion - that dominate the whole of history. These things are not separate, but are inexorably linked, and you are in a better place to understand that connection than me.

 

I can’t tell you what your particular role should be in the new realities of the 21st century. It’s up to you to decide if you want to make the focus of your life technological, focused on new innovations to drive society forward, or essentially human, focused on the age-old struggles of trying to get along, work together, and find happiness, or some combination of the two. 

 

However I can tell you this:

 

Whatever you decide to do with your life, it’s going to be really, really complicated. 

 

Science and technology is complicated. History and politics is complicated. People are complicated. Figuring out how to be happy, and do simple things like take care of our kids and maintain friendships and relationships, is complicated.

 

In order for you to navigate the increasing complexity of the 21st century you need a world-class education, and thankfully you have an opportunity to get one. I don’t just mean the education you get in class, but I mean the education you get in everything you do, every book you read, every conversation you have, every thought you think. 

 

You need to optimize your life for learning. 

 

You need to live and breath your education. 

 

You need to be *obsessed* with your education. 

 

Do not fall into the trap of thinking that because you are surrounded by so many dazzlingly smart fellow students that means you’re no good. Nothing could be further from the truth. 

 

And do not fall into the trap of thinking that you focusing on your education is a selfish thing. It’s not a selfish thing. It’s the most noble thing you could do.

 

Society is investing in you so that you can help solve the many challenges we are going to face in the coming decades, from profound technological challenges to helping people with the age old search for human happiness and meaning. 

 

That is why I am not canceling class tomorrow. Your education is really really important, not just to you, but in a far broader and wider reaching way than I think any of you have yet to fully appreciate. 

 

See you tomorrow,

Alexander