纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 031亚历山大头像硬币(7)

"The more democratic a culture is, the harder it is to appropriate a previous leader.

社会越民主，就越难盗用前任领导人的声誉。

I mean it's very interesting at the moment to see the revival of Stalin for instance in Putin's Russia as an admired figure, having been knocked down as a bloodthirsty tyrant before.

在如今普京统治下的俄罗斯，看到曾被视作嗜血暴君而被打倒的斯大林的影响逐渐复苏，实在是很有意思。

So the possibility of taking a figure from the past is always open, but as I say the more conversational, the more confrontational, more democratic, the more argumentative a political culture is, the harder it is.

因此，利用已逝领导人形象的案例屡见不鲜，但如果社会更民主，对争议与对抗更宽容，这样的情况就会减少。

"You can see this in the case of Churchill, because there are still lots and lots of people who know a great deal about what Churchill thought and said.

以丘吉尔为例，他的思想与言论广为人知，

Any mainstream party which tried to say 'we are the party of Churchill' would get into trouble, because Churchill changed his mind so much that he can be quoted against you as often as he can be quoted in favour of you."

如今，如果有主流政党声称自己奉行丘吉尔政策，就一定会惹上麻烦，因为他的言论常常自相矛盾。你能找到对你有利的话，也一定能找到相反的例子。

Dead rulers are still very present, and they're still on the currency.

逝世的统治者依然长存，他们的身影留在我们的货币上。

A thoughtful alien handling the banknotes of China and the United States today might well assume that one was ruled by Mao and the other by George Washington.

如果此刻一个外星人同时拿着中国与美国的货币，大概会认为这两国的现任领导人一个是毛泽东，一个是乔治华盛顿。

And in a sense, that's exactly what the Chinese and American leaders want us all to think.

而从某种意义上说，这正是两国领导人所希望的。

Political giants like these lend an aura of stability, legitimacy, and above all of unquestionable authority, to modern regimes struggling with huge problems.

政治伟人为面临巨大问题的现代国家带来稳定的氛围、合法性以及不容置疑的权威性。

Lysimachus's gambit still sets the pace for the world's superpowers.

利西马科斯的政策与现代超级大国的政治依然合拍。