飞云浦
山湖庄：拍马屁的“学问”
星期三 二月 05, 2014 8:56 pm
人是社会动物，社交是必备的生存本领之一。在人与人之间交往时，不管是八卦闲聊还是正式场合，大都爱听好话和奉承话。即使知道这是虚情假意，我们听后仍然很受用。我不知道迎合奉承的本领是否天生或遗传，但小孩子们应该很早就观察到，嘴甜会得到大人的宠爱，因而也更容易得到自己想要的东西。长大后这种习惯自然会延续到日常生活和工作中，甚至成为一种社会风气。我们常用拍马屁和马屁精来形容这类行为和人。
我查了一下资料，发现百度百科是这样解释“拍马屁”的：
“拍马屁，源于元朝文化，蒙古族的一般百姓牵着马相遇时，常要拍拍对方马的屁股，摸摸马膘如何，并附带随口夸上几声“好马”，以博得马主人的欢心。可是相沿很久以后，有的人不管别人的马好坏、强弱，都一味地只说奉承话，把劣马也说成是好马了。逐渐人们就把对上司的奉承称为“拍马屁”，用于讽刺不顾客观实际，专门谄媚奉承、讨好别人的行为。”
至于中国的马屁文化，大家都熟悉，我就不想多说了。我们在海外工作和生活，多多少少也了解一些英美的“马屁”文化。我对文化没什么研究，但我们知道，如果某种现象在社会文化里特别常见，那么自然就会产生有很多词汇来描述它。据说，爱斯基摩人对 “冰”就有几十种说法。所以，我特意留意并搜集了一些与拍马屁有关的英文词汇和例句，与大家分享，权作迎接马年吧。
1.马屁精（作名词）
这些用语大都比较粗俗露骨，多用于口语，如 ass-kisser, butt-kisser, boot-licker, brown-noser，arse-licker, crawler, truckler 和lickspittle等。稍微能上台面的有apple-polisher, minion, yes-man, sycophant, lackey, hanger-on, toady, fawner, sidekick, henchman, flunky (或 flunkey ) 等。
2. 拍马屁（作动词）
上面提到的一些名词可以直接转换成动词，如bootlick (或lick boot）, asskiss, buttkiss, brown-nose。这些都比较粗俗露骨，多用于口语和蓝领阶层。能上书面的就更多了，如flatter, apple-polish, suck up, court favor, curry favor, toady, fawn, truckle, kotow, cringe, ingratiate等。
例句：I don’t like John. He’s such a boot-licker. He’s always toadying to his boss. In order to get the promotion he kept apple-polishing his manager. Oh, how he fawns over the guests! Isn't it terrible the way he tries to ingratiate himself into their favor? You will never succeed in ingratiating yourself into my good graces. Why do you have to ingratiate yourself with everyone? Don't you know how to be just plain friends? He was very obvious in his effort to ingratiate himself with the boss.
还有一个词是 Schmooze，它没有那么贬义，比较中性话, 是闲聊八卦拉拉扯扯套近乎的意思。例如，有人批评美国总统自恃清高，不愿跟一些要人如企业大亨们套近乎，这样写道：“It’s well known that President Obama doesn’t like to schmooze. But his schmoozing problem might undercut his presidency。”
我们即使不去拍马屁，这种利用闲聊八卦来套近乎的技巧还是必不可少的。To get ahead in business we have to master the art of the schmooze。
3. 拍马屁的行为（作名词）
表达拍马屁行为的名词多得很：sycophancy, subservience, obsequiousness, groveling, servility, cringing, fawning, adulation，flattery, kowtowing, truckling, bootlicking, toadyism, slavishness 等等。不同的词汇适用不同的场合，轻重程度也不完全一样。
例句：I had rather hoped that a much more modern body like the London Assembly could leave such displays of unctuous fawning and sycophancy to the experts down the river.
4.拍马屁的（作形容词）
描述拍马屁行为的形容词也得很：obsequious, obedient, ingratiating, servile, flattering, cringing, fawning, crawling，abject, submissive, groveling, subservient, sycophantic, unctuous, toadying, bootlicking等等，不胜枚举。例句：He is positively obsequious to anyone with a title.
5.马屁文化
马屁文化是普遍现象，在腐败落后国家更加猖獗。有人甚至说，拍马屁跟腐败是一个性质。“马屁文化”比较贴切的对应英文应该是 “The sycophantic culture” 或者 “The culture of sycophancy。” 下面举几个例子。
一位尼日利亚人这样自我反省：
“I learnt quite early in life that it is good to commend somebody if he achieves a rare feat or if he or she attains success in an enterprise or venture. It is for this reason I cherish any system that rewards people for their accomplishments. But what happens when such commendation is taken to another level – the level of praise-singing – to curry favour? This is the aspect that bothers me. Sycophancy, praise-singing and hagiography appear to have been institutionalized in our present-day Nigeria. Is it not preposterous to see able-bodied people, including the old, singing and dancing in praise of somebody who has only succeeded in impoverishing his people in the name of leadership?....How many Nigerians have paused to ponder the endemic waves of sycophancy sweeping across our political space, even to the point of threatening our current democracy?”
从下面这一段话可以看出，印度的马屁文化也很猖獗：
“Samajwadi Party president and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav on Saturday urged his son and incumbent Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to put an immediate stop to the culture of sycophancy in the state administration, as it was tarnishing the image of the Samajwadi Party.”
马屁文化在腐败的发展中国家更为猖獗，这是肯定的。但在英美等发达民主国家也不幸免。例如：
“Have American culture, two political party government and institutions become sycophantic? Once an adult takes his or her place within an organization, public or private, the dynamics of human interaction and reaction begin based as much on human emotions, weaknesses and biases than on fairness, objectivity and merit. The expression, “go along to get along” is almost an unsaid national slogan for many Americans. A sycophant is “a person who seeks favor by flattering people of wealth or influence” according to Webster’s New World Dictionary. Sycophants do not make waves or criticisms. …A sycophant will never criticize or correct his superiors, being careful to be fawningly pleasant. The stakes are high: paychecks, pay raises and promotions. Government itself easily makes the people subservient with its power of force always at the ready.”
至于拍马屁的好处，那是非常明显地：
“What drives people to be sycophantic towards others?... Perhaps sycophancy is solely a product of the pursuit of self-interest, but those further down the pecking order who are too simple to understand this mimic the behaviour of those they revere in the hope of gaining the appearance of elevated status. ”
马屁文化盛行，受用者应该至少有一半的功劳。自恋者和马屁精是天生的一对儿，地造的的一双。下面这一段描写的就是这种关系：
“Sycophants are self-serving servile flatterers and are often slavishly submissive to the narcissist. The narcissist and the sycophant need each other. The narcissist is completely dependent on the sycophant to feed his ego, to feel important and powerful. The sycophant, on the other hand, is also dependent on the narcissist for the narcissist makes the sycophant feel included and connected to someone the sycophant believes is powerful and important and will elevate the sycophant to great success, recognition or social standing. The sycophant derives a lot of self worth from the narcissist as the relationship with the narcissist gives the sycophant social standing he otherwise would not have. In short, the relationship between the narcissist and sycophant is symbiotic; each feeding and dependent on the other. Without sycophants, the narcissist struggles, becomes depressed and feels his or her life has no meaning. A narcissist must have blind allegiance and the adoration of sycophantic followers because that is the food of the narcissist. Most often, a narcissist surrounds him or herself with “yes men” (slavishly submissive flatterers) who the narcissist sees as no threat to him or herself but yet, who are also not much good for advancing the narcissist’s vision. But that is ok with the narcissist, because he or she has all the answers, knows what is best and right and doesn’t listen to others anyway. The “yes men” are the means to an end, they help the narcissist get what he or she wants and will only be kept close as long as they serve a purpose.”
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