2007年NPR美国国家公共电台三月-A Potential for Brutality（在线收听）

Welcome to This I Believe, an NPR series presenting the personal philosophies of remarkable men and women from all walks of life. Support for NPR Podcasts comes from Visa, offering the Visa signature card, featuring concierge services for travel, dinning and entertainment at Visasignature.com.

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Among the listeners who've sent us essays for our series This I Believe is today's contributor Dr. Yinong Young-Xu. He grew up in China, in Shanghai and immigrated to United States when he was 16. He's now an epidemiologist at the National Center for posttraumatic stress disorder in White River junction Vermont. Here is our series curator independent producer Jay Allyson.

In his clinical work with PTSD, Dr. Young-Xu sees mainly Iraq war veterans. Every day he reckons with the consequences of human violence. But the foundation of his belief goes back to heroine events he experienced many years ago as a child in China. Here is Dr. Yinong Young-Xu with his essay for This I Believe.

I believe in our innate potential for brutality. When I was 6, in the streets of Shanghai, near the end of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, I watched the parade of trucks carrying political dissidents on their way to be publicly executed. At the front of each truck was a young man roped from head to toe and wearing a sign that said "Counter-Revolutionary".
If not for that, you would have a trouble guessing what the event was. There was an air of festivity. Thousands of bystanders were laughing, talking, gesturing and pointing at the prisoners. The whole population of Shanghai must have been there. It was like a traditional Chinese New Year celebration, except the city was celebrating its own brutality. I believe that we're brutal because innocence can be corrupted, like mine was as a 6-year-old in a time of revolution. When I entered first grade, I started to wave flags, denounced the politically fallen of the day and shout "Death to counter-revolutionaries!" My friends and I did not want to miss any of the meetings where political dissidents were publicly tortured and humiliated. That was entertainment for us. Just the way movies are for Americans kids.

Science has taught us that normal genes in cells can be damaged or mutated to become deadly "oncogenes" that result in cancer. I believe brutality is a disease just like cancer. Each and every one of us is at risk, including me. I used to fantasize about revenge against the Japanese for the tragedies they committed against the Chinese in World War Two. Once I reduced an utterly innocent Japanese girl to tears. I said many cruel things and couldn't stop the venom from pouring out even though I had already begun to feel sorry for her. When our better instincts are suppressed, isn't that the beginning of brutality? I am fortunate. I was too young to be a red guard where my brutality would have been codified. And I had a grandmother who showed me the value of kindness. My own capacity for brutality has never been fully tested. But I believe it is always there. We are taught not to smoke in order to prevent carcinogens from damaging the genes in our cells. I wish we could learn to prevent hatred from forming and brutality from actualizing. I teach my children that hating is not allowed, period. I encourage them to be compassionate, to aid those in need and to stand up for the weak. Most of all, I try to be vigilant over the purity of my motives and cautious about my actions. I believe I must guard against my own potential for brutality and the mutation of my own humanity.

Dr. Yinong Young-Xu with his essay for This I Believe. Dr. Young-Xu's belief finds echoes in his work with Iraq War veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder. For them he says the human capacity for brutality has been proven, and they are changed by the irrevocable knowledge of it. If you like Dr. Young-Xu would like to join in the more than 22, 000 people who have sent us essays for our series, please visit NPR. org. For This I Believe, I'm Jay Allyson.

Next Monday on Morning Edition a This I Believe essay from Emmy Liles Wilson of Nashrow who draws on the resilience of old women.

This I Believe is produced for NPR by This I Believe incorporated and Atlanta Public Media. For more essays in the series please visit NPR.Org/ThisIBelieve.
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  原文地址：http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/NPR2007/40979.html