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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.
精湛的裁剪只能带你走到这一步。西班牙国王费利佩六世(Felipe VI)因其西装的完美贴合而闻名于网络——合适长度的夹克，轻轻翻卷的翻领。
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.
几乎没有其他君主能拥有他这样的王者气概。费利佩六世身高近两米。他的体态让一个久坐办公桌的工作者愿意牺牲一年的薪水，而他的面容仿佛可以雕刻在中世纪的大教堂上。波旁家族没有香肠手指。
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!”
但上周末，国王的新衣和皇帝的一样没什么用。在致命洪水发生数小时后，费利佩六世和他的妻子莱蒂齐亚王后(Queen Letizia)在巴伦西亚郊区派波尔塔的街道上漫步时，发现自己被泥浆泼中，并遭到“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.
也许，大规模死亡不可避免地剥夺了君主制的光环。同样不可避免的是，国王决定面对愤怒的人群，而首相佩德罗•桑切斯(Pedro Sánchez)则退回到他的车里，这被视为既过分又不够。这就是君主立宪制：你不能发布紧急警报，但你可以为别人未能这样做而承担责任。
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.
没有人可以否认受害者表达愤怒的权利。但是，希望愤怒只是悲伤过程中的一个暂时阶段，这是否期望过高？从逻辑上讲，灾难应该定义我们。羊从电围栏中学习。然而，我们人类却无法集体做出同样的航向修正。
Floridians are happily electing climate-denying Republicans, even as extreme weather makes parts of their state uninsurable
佛罗里达人愉快地选举否认气候变化的共和党人，即使极端天气使他们州的部分地区无法投保
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.
危机只会在社会上留下不一致的印记。金融危机催生了各种政治冲动，其中大多数（缩减国家支出、削减贸易联系）加剧了困境。威斯敏斯特的开支丑闻及其后的腐败丑闻，只是加深了公众的敌意，进一步阻止有才华的人选择从政。对他们所有人的诅咒很快就会变成对你自己的诅咒。
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，看起来难以想象我们不会从新冠疫情中吸取教训：我们肯定会尽一切努力避免这种情况再次发生。但我们的中期反应却是否认。在危机中没有人是自由意志主义者，但危机过后不久，许多人又成为自由意志主义者。美国人刚刚重新选举了一位曾建议他们喝漂白剂的人。
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?
即使在较为理智的英国，保守党(Conservative party)也选出了一位声称新冠限制措施过于严格的领导人。凯米•巴德诺赫(Kemi Badenoch)还错误地表示，围绕鲍里斯•约翰逊(Boris Johnson)在唐宁街(Downing Street)举办派对的风波被夸大了。但她的批评者应该反思，对“派对门”的愤怒是否更应该转化为呼吁建立疫情预警系统和远离工厂化养殖。或者，我们处理灾难的唯一方式就是专注于羞辱权势者吗？
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.
在他的小说《未来部》中，金•斯坦利•罗宾森(Kim Stanley Robinson)设想了一场在印度引发气候行动的灾难性热浪。该国执政党被赶下台，政治精英声名狼藉。新的共识逐渐形成，投资于可再生能源、电池储存和地球工程。
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.
这只是令人满意的虚构，而非现实。如果是现实，那么每辆被西班牙洪水摧毁的汽车都会被电动车替换，每个地区的住房计划都会停止在洪泛平原上建造，没有承诺采取气候行动的政客将不会当选。别指望了。巴伦西亚政府中包括了否认气候变化的政党Vox。尽管极端天气使佛罗里达州部分地区无法投保，佛罗里达人仍然乐此不疲地选举否认气候变化的共和党人。
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.
对费利佩六世的羞辱不会带来任何结果。反君主主义者应该克制自己的喜悦。我们假设有一天西班牙和英国的君主制会走上法国的道路，但这个日期似乎并不迫在眉睫。
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.
如果国王的顾问们有头脑，他会安然度过这段时期。他将与洪水受害者建立特殊的联系。当愤怒平息后，他会再次见到其中一些人。明年夏天，他将在温布尔登的皇家包厢里穿着得体，受到礼貌的接待。
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.
但如果一个人成为故事的焦点，社会将失去从灾难中学习的机会。要寻找更好的榜样，可以看看体育。周六，英格兰在橄榄球比赛中以微弱劣势输给新西兰后，他们的飞人马库斯•史密斯(Marcus Smith)为一名错失制胜球的队友辩解。他承诺，失败是团队的责任，团队会变得更强大。
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，泼脏水往往成为一种目的。但如果你想要成功，它必须成为达到目的的手段，否则就像费利佩六世的衣领一样毫无意义。
Henry Mance is the FT’s chief feature writer
亨利•曼斯(Henry Mance)是英国《金融时报》的首席特写作家。
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