And now we come to the most alarming delusion¹ of all.

现在，我们要讲所有幻觉中最需要防范的一种。

The idea that other people don't matter. Their feelings. Their needs.

这种幻觉就是：觉得其他人都不重要，他们的感受、他们的需求都不重要。

Imagine a cave where those inside never see the ourside world.

来想象一个洞穴吧，这里面的人从来没有见过外面的世界。

Instead, they see shadows of their world projected on a wall.

他们看见的只有投射在墙上的影子。

The world they see in the shadows is not the real world. But it's real to them.

他们在影子中看到的那个世界当然不是真实的世界，但他们就认为这是真的。

If you were to show them the world as it actually is, they would reject it as incompreshensible .

而如果你把真实的世界展示给他们看，他们反而会抵制它，因为他们理解不了这个世界。

Now what if, instead of being in a cave, you were out in the world, except you couldn't see it.

那么现在，如果你不是住在一个洞穴里，而是住在真实的世界里，只是你看不见这个世界呢？

Because you weren't looking. You were only looking at what the media² has shown you.

你看不见它，因为你并没有在看它，你只是在看媒体呈现给你的东西。

You trusted that the world you saw through the prison was the real world.

你坚信你从这个牢笼中看到的世界就是真实的世界。

But there's a difference.

不过刚刚举的这两个例子是有区别的。

You see. Unlike³ the allegory of the cave where the people are real and the shadows are false, here other people are the shadows.

你看，在那个寓言里面，人是真实的而影子是虚假的；但在这个世界里，其他的人就是那些影子。

This is the delusion of the narcissists who believe that they alone are real, that their feelings are the only feelings that matter because other people are just shadows.

这就是那些自恋者的幻觉，他们认为这个世界上只有他们才是真实的，他们认为只有他们自己的感受是算数的，因为其他人都只是影子。

And shadows don't feel, because they are not real.

而影子是不会有感受的，因为他们不是真的。

But what if everyone lived in caves. Than no one would be real, not even you, unless you woke up one day and left the cave.

但如果所有人都是住在自己的洞窟里呢？那么就没有人是真实的了，连你自己都不是，除非你有一天突然醒悟然后离开这个洞窟。

And then, how strange would the world look after a lifetime⁴ of staring at shadows.

这时候你才会发现，这个世界是如此的奇怪；毕竟，你至今为止都不过是在盯着影子看而已。