為何全世界都在黑索羅斯？

George Soros, the billionaire investor and philanthropist, has had a busy year. Since the beginning of 2017, he has faked a chemical attack in Syria, funded anti-Trump marches in Washington, come up with the “Soros plan” to flood Hungary with refugees, forced a change of government in Macedonia, undermined the Israeli prime minister and got several key White House aides sacked. Not bad for a man of 87.

億萬富翁投資者兼慈善家喬治•索羅斯(George Soros)今年很忙。自年初以來，他佯稱敘利亞發(fā)生化學武器襲擊、為華盛頓的反特朗普游行提供資金、提出讓難民大量涌入匈牙利的“索羅斯計劃”、迫使馬其頓政府更迭、削弱以色列總理的影響力并推動解雇白宮數(shù)位關鍵助手。這對一位87歲高齡的人來說不一般。

All of the above are, of course, conspiracy theories. But the fact that they have surfaced this year — and all feature the name of Mr Soros — is not just a curiosity. It says something important and worrying about global politics.

當然，上述所有這些說法都是陰謀論。但它們在今年浮出水面，而且全都冠以索羅斯的名義，這個事實不僅僅是讓人感到好奇，還表明了關于全球政治的一個重要且令人擔憂的問題。

In the 1990s, Mr Soros was in tune with the spirit of the age, as he used the billions he had made in finance to support the transition to democracy in post-communist Europe and elsewhere. But now the global political climate has changed and liberal ideas are in retreat. For a new generation of nationalists — from the US to Russia and Hungary — Mr Soros has become the perfect villain. He is an internationalist in an age of nationalism. He is a supporter of individual rights, not group rights. He is the 29th-richest man in the world, according to the Forbes rich list. And he is also Jewish, so is easily cast in the role of the shadowy and manipulative international financier, once reserved for the Rothschilds.

在上世紀90年代，索羅斯與時代精神合拍，他使用在金融領域賺取的數(shù)十億資金，支持后共產(chǎn)主義時代的歐洲以及其他地方的民主過渡。但如今全球政治氣候改變，自由主義觀點退潮。對從美國到俄羅斯和匈牙利等地新一代的民族主義者來說，索羅斯是個十足的惡棍。在民族主義盛行的時代，他是一個國際主義者。他支持個人權利而非組織權利。他在《福布斯》(Forbes)的全球財富榜單上排名第29位。他還是猶太人，很容易被人認為是那種躲在幕后操縱一切的國際金融家——曾經(jīng)只有羅斯柴爾德家族(Rothschilds)才會被人這么認為。

One of the nastier bits of anti-Soros propaganda this year explicitly linked him to the old slurs against the Rothschilds. When America First nationalists became worried that HR McMaster, national security adviser to President Donald Trump, was purging their allies in the White House, they set up a website called “McMaster leaks” which featured a cartoon of Mr McMaster being manipulated by puppetmasters labelled “Soros” and “Rothschilds”.

今年反索羅斯宣傳的較為討厭的一點是，明確將他與過去那種對羅斯柴爾德家族的詆毀聯(lián)系在一起。當信奉“美國優(yōu)先”(America First)的民族主義者擔心總統(tǒng)唐納德•特朗普(Donald Trump)的國家安全顧問赫伯特•雷蒙德•麥克馬斯特(HR McMaster)將清洗他們在白宮的盟友的時候，他們成立了一個名為“曝光麥克馬斯特”(McMaster leaks)的網(wǎng)站，上面有麥克馬斯特受到被貼有“索羅斯”和“羅斯柴爾德家族”標簽的傀儡師操縱的漫畫。

In 1989, one of the beneficiaries of a Soros scholarship to study at Oxford was a young Hungarian activist named Viktor Orban. Today, the same Mr Orban is prime minister of Hungary and demonises his one-time benefactor. The Hungarian leader has made denunciation of an alleged “Soros plan” to flood Hungary with Muslims central to his re-election campaign. There is no such plan. What is true is that Mr Soros is a generous backer of refugee charities and has also supported the EU’s plan to resettle Syrian refugees across the bloc, including in Hungary. That was excuse enough for Mr Orban to plaster the country with posters featuring a grinning Mr Soros, and urging: “Don’t let Soros have the last laugh.”

1989年，牛津大學(Oxford)的索羅斯獎學金受益人之一是一位名為歐爾班•維克托(Viktor Orban)的年輕匈牙利活動人士。如今，正是這位歐爾班成為了匈牙利總理，并妖魔化其曾經(jīng)的捐助人。歐爾班指責所謂的讓穆斯林涌入匈牙利的“索羅斯計劃”，并將其作為競選連任活動的核心。根本沒有此類計劃。真相是，索羅斯是難民慈善活動的慷慨支持者，他還支持歐盟將敘利亞難民重新安置在歐盟各地(包括匈牙利)的計劃。它讓歐爾班有足夠的借口將索羅斯咧嘴微笑的海報貼滿匈牙利，并敦促匈牙利人“不要讓索羅斯笑到最后”。

The demonisation of Mr Soros in Hungary, where he was born, is not an isolated case. In the past year, he has been denounced by political leaders in Macedonia, Poland, Romania and Turkey, all of whom claim he is plotting against them.

索羅斯在匈牙利——他的出生地——遭到妖魔化并非孤例。在過去一年里，索羅斯遭到馬其頓、波蘭、羅馬尼亞和土耳其政治領導人的指責，這些人全都指責前者陰謀反對他們。

The paranoid right in America also churns out anti-Soros material. As long ago as 2007, Mr Soros was denounced on Fox News as the “Dr Evil of the whole world of leftwing foundations”. The origins of Soros-hatred in the US may date back to his opposition to the Iraq war. His support of liberal causes in the US, as well as of international institutions such as the UN, has kept the far-right pot boiling.

美國的偏執(zhí)狂右翼也炮制了反索羅斯的材料。早在2007年，索羅斯就被福克斯新聞(Fox News)指責為“整個左翼基金會世界的邪惡博士”。在美國，憎恨索羅斯的根源可能要追溯至他反對伊拉克戰(zhàn)爭。他支持美國的自由事業(yè)以及聯(lián)合國等國際機構，讓極右翼分子群情激奮。

There is clearly an echo-chamber element to the anti-Soros campaigns around the world, as far-right groups pick up on the same conspiracy theories. But some strongman leaders have more concrete reasons to fear Mr Soros’s Open Society Foundation, which funds civil society organisations that promote education, a free press, minority rights and anti-corruption initiatives. In 2015, Vladimir Putin’s government chucked the Open Society Foundation out of Russia since it was no longer willing to tolerate the latter’s support for organisations such as Memorial, which promoted research into the Soviet terror.

世界各地的反索羅斯運動顯然有回聲室的作用，極右翼團體領悟到了同樣的陰謀論。但一些手腕強硬的領導人有更確切的理由擔憂索羅斯的開放社會基金會(Open Society foundation)，后者為促進教育、自由媒體、少數(shù)族裔權利和反腐舉措的公民社會組織提供資助。2015年，弗拉基米爾•普京(Vladimir Putin)的政府將開放社會基金會逐出了俄羅斯，因為它不愿再容忍后者對推動研究蘇維埃恐怖行為的Memorial等組織的支持。

Mr Soros’s activities have even made him a target in Israel. The obvious anti-Semitism in many of the anti-Soros campaigns around the world evidently matters less to the Netanyahu government than Mr Soros’s support for Palestinian rights and other causes unpopular on the Israeli right.

索羅斯的活動甚至讓他成為以色列的攻擊目標。雖然世界各地的許多反索羅斯運動都有明顯的反猶太主義色彩，但這一點對內(nèi)塔尼亞胡(Netanyahu)政府的重要性，顯然不如索羅斯支持巴勒斯坦權利以及其他不受以色列右翼分子歡迎的事業(yè)。

There is also a personal element in prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s anti-Soros ire. As an anti-corruption probe has got closer and closer to Israel’s first family, so they have lashed out against Mr Soros. Yair Netanyahu, the prime minister’s son, complained recently that the “Fund for the Destruction of Israel, funded by Soros and the European Union, is threatening me”. He even re-published a cartoon of Mr Soros dangling the world in front of a reptilian creature, the kind of image that his father would routinely denounce as anti-Semitic if it had been published by another source.

以色列總理本雅明•內(nèi)塔尼亞胡(Benjamin Netanyahu)對索羅斯的不滿也有個人因素。隨著反腐調(diào)查日益牽涉到以色列第一家族，他們開始抨擊索羅斯。內(nèi)塔尼亞胡的兒子亞伊爾•內(nèi)塔尼亞胡(Yair Netanyahu)最近抱怨稱，“索羅斯和歐盟提供資助的‘摧毀以色列基金’(Fund for the Destruction of Israel)正在威脅我”。他甚至重新發(fā)表了一幅索羅斯在一只爬行動物前操控整個世界的漫畫——如果其他渠道發(fā)表這種漫畫，他的父親按慣例會將其指責為反猶太主義。

Conspiracy theorists have an explanation for everything. So the fact that the FT should publish a column defending Mr Soros will simply be taken as further evidence of his nefarious influence. For the record, I have had precisely two conversations with Mr Soros. On both occasions, we were on the same public panel at seminars organised by the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank that he partially funds.

陰謀論家們對一切都有解釋。因此英國《金融時報》發(fā)表一篇捍衛(wèi)索羅斯的專欄文章，只會被視為他擁有極壞影響力的進一步證據(jù)。我在此鄭重聲明，我與索羅斯確實有過兩場談話。兩次都是在歐洲對外關系委員會(European Council on Foreign Relations)組織的研討會上的同一個公共小組進行的。歐洲對外關系委員會是一家由索羅斯提供部分資助的智庫。

We have never had a private conversation and I certainly would not claim him as a friend. But I have no hesitation in applauding his philanthropy. The fact that it even needs to be defended says something sad about the times we are living in.

我們從未私下交談，我當然也不會宣稱他是我的朋友。但我毫不猶豫地為其慈善事業(yè)喝彩。這都需要辯解一番，表明我們生活的時代有些可悲。

[email protected] 譯者/裴伴