人蠢無藥醫

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25/09/2012

人蠢無藥醫 毛孟靜

人蠢無藥醫, 係事實陳述, 一句statement of fact。英文是——

1. There is no medicine for stupidity.

2. There is no cure for stupidity.

第1 句比第2 句更通用; medicine 係「藥」,cure 解「治療」。

這句話,通常前面會多加一個字,sadly(悲哀地、遺憾地),以加重一點嘲諷。

Sadly there’s no cure for stupidity. 「遺憾人蠢真係無藥醫」。這番遺憾,有點像我們口語的「對唔住囉」,帶好些言不由衷。若要繼續說下去,指此人如此地蠢, 「算罷啦」:We have to give up on him.

Give up,放棄;但感情上放棄一個人,是give up on。

一直有科學家想研究出「聰明藥」,但已有所謂anti-stupidity pill、「抗蠢丸」,其實都不過是移走腦細胞中的過度活躍(hyperactivity) 成分—— 讓病人不要太hyper(過度活躍),不要看似神經兮兮—— 同時也幫助穩定短期記憶力(short-term memory),亦即幫助改善注意力,不要心散,學東西就比較容易上手。

一個人蠢, 到底是nature ( 天性) 、nurture ( 教養) 還是kids on the block( 「一棟樓的其他孩子」,即朋輩影響)的關係? 有遺傳學家就一口咬定, 答案係nature。他們認為,一個人蠢抑或聰明,是hereditary(遺傳)的,不要怪包括貧窮等等的後天際遇,提倡use genetics to curestupidity、以遺傳學來醫治愚蠢。

So no more stupid mums and dads?於是不准有蠢爸蠢媽?不會吧。

當今之世,做人不要自作聰明(Don’t bea smart ass)之餘,最好也不要兜口兜面話人蠢:He is dumb、She is dim,講得委婉一點,有He’s not very bright、She’s abit slow, 等於我們口語話人「唔係好醒」。

而政治正確一派,就更有刁鑽的一句:He is intellectually challenged. 他智能上受到挑戰!

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