李刚·《“反对”的力量》英译

李世民之所以能够成为中国历史上出了名的好皇帝，有着魏征这样的反对的力量，是一个重要的原因。

那么，“反对”究竟是什么？为什么“兼听则明，偏听则暗”？科学家们很爱做实验，于是他们也对“反对”的真正作用进行了实验。他们找来一些人，让这些被试者就一个有着明确答案的问题进行讨论，结果很惊讶，那些看似一团和气、全体一致的讨论，得出的结果距离答案很可能差得很远，而那些各有各的意见、表面上很喧嚣的讨论，居然距离正确答案越来越近。

于是，科学家们恍然大悟，所谓“反对”其实并不是一种冲突，而更多的是一种防止偏执和错误的有力保证。

而放至如今的互联网时代，意见纷呈，众说纷纭，但是当大多数人都希望能够更好地解决一个问题时，即使各自水平参差不齐，而最终的主流答案，也往往是能够带来更好结果的选项。这，其实就是互联的精髓所在。

所以，我们在讨论方韩之争的时候，才会发现，正是有了一种反对力量的存在，那个如日中天的韩先生才会努力扮演出一种公知的形象，如果没有制约，那么这个拥有强大话语权的人物，只有一件事可以做了，那就是滥权！

Opposition

Li Shimin is well-known as an eminent emperor of the Tang Dynasty (618-917) in Chinese history. That’s because he had Wei Zheng, his prime minister, to play the role of opposition.

What does it mean by opposition? Why the saying is true: listen to both sides and you’ll be enlightened; heed only one side and you’ll be biased? Scientists have made an experiment on the true meaning of opposition.

They gathered a group of people, letting them discuss a problem that already had a definite answer. A part of them talked amiably and soon reached unanimity. They gave their answer, which turned out to be far apart from the correct one. Another part seemed very noisy in discussing, with each holding a different opinion. But their answers were more and more approaching the solution. Not until then did the scientists become awakened to the truth: opposition doesn’t mean conflict. It actually provides an effective guarantee against stubborn bias and fault of one-sidedness.

Now is an era of internet, it’s bound to be full of various opinions and all sorts of ideas. When a question on it needs an answer, people will offer answers, each hoping his better than others. Though they are on different levels of correctness, the ones chosen as most representative will surely bring out the best options. This indicates the essence of internet function.

However, if control or restriction is lacking, the man possessing an influential say will definitely do one thing; abuse his power.