The email arrived in early February from the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen, carrying a blunt message. It informed the organizers of a Danish lecture series — one I was soon scheduled to speak at — that the final portion of American funding would be released only after they signed a statement essentially saying they were in compliance with a U.S. executive order banning diversity, equity and inclusion.

这封电子邮件是美国驻哥本哈根大使馆今年2月初发来的，里面的信息直截了当。它通知丹麦一个系列讲座的组织者——已安排我不久来讲课——需要他们在一份声明上签名，美国才会发放最后一部分资金，声明的核心内容是要求他们表示该系列讲座遵守美国禁止多元、公平与共融项目(DEI)的行政命令。

It was a head-spinning turn of events; under President Joe Biden, attention to D.E.I. issues had been a requirement for receiving the grant. Unwittingly, Denmark seemed to have been swept into America’s culture wars.

这一变化令人瞠目；在乔·拜登担任总统期间，关注DEI问题是获得这笔资金的必要条件。丹麦无意间卷入了美国的文化战。

Before the organizers at the University of Southern Denmark could respond, the U.S. State Department sent an even blunter message: The grant was “being terminated for the convenience of the U.S. government.” It concluded by thanking the Danes “for your partnering with the Department of State and God bless America.”

南丹麦大学的组织者们还没来得及回复，美国国务院就发来了一条更直截了当的信息：“为方便起见，美国政府终止了”这项资金。邮件结尾感谢丹麦方面“与国务院的合作关系，愿上帝保佑美国”。

Some partnership!

好一个合作关系！

The stakes here were relatively small. The lecture series was respected but not overly prominent, and the savings amounted to a minuscule $10,000. Sometimes, though, a small story reveals a great deal — in this case, about the priorities and obsessions of the Trump administration.

这件事的利害关系相对较小。该系列讲座虽然受尊重，但并不十分出名，取消资助省下来的钱只不过是微不足道的1万美元。然而，一件小事有时能揭示很多东西——在这件事中，它揭示了特朗普政府的优先事项与执念。

First, the two notices suggested there might have been no communication between the State Department and the embassy in Copenhagen — an apparent lack of coordination that we’re likely to see more of as the administration hollows out the government. A recent New York Times/Siena College survey noted that two-thirds of Americans thought the word “chaotic” “described President Trump’s second term in office well.

第一，这两份通知表明，美国国务院与驻哥本哈根大使馆之间可能缺乏沟通。随着这届政府不断掏空行政体系，我们可能会看到更多与这种明显缺少协调类似的情况。《纽约时报》和锡耶纳学院最近的一项民意调查注意到，三分之二的美国人认为，“混乱”一词恰如其分地描述了特朗普总统的第二届任期。

Second, the cutoff of funding was followed, nearly two weeks later, by another message to the university. (I viewed copies of all the emails.) It said that a recent court hearing prevented the State Department from holding up congressionally appropriated foreign aid funds and ordered it to make the financing available. It further ordered the department to “provide written notice of this order” to recipients of grants. Notifying the Danish university was as far as the administration went in complying with the court. The remaining funds haven’t been released yet, organizers say — typical of the Trump administration’s defiance of the courts.

第二，资金停止近两周后，南丹麦大学又收到了另一封电子邮件。（我看到了所有邮件的副本。）邮件称，法院在最近一次听证会上阻止了国务院扣发国会已经拨款的外援资金，责令其恢复资金的发放。法院还进一步命令国务院“以书面形式将法院命令通知”受助者。就服从法庭命令而言，特朗普政府止步于仅仅通知校方。组织者说，最后那部分资金尚未发放，这是特朗普政府藐视法庭的惯常做法。

Most important, the episode showed the Trump administration’s willingness — indeed, its determination — to extend its control to the smallest of ventures, in this case the remaining $10,000 for a university lecture series funded by its own embassy.

最重要的是，这件事表明特朗普政府肆意——甚至可以说是处心积虑地——把控制的触角延伸到最微小的活动上去，就这件事而言，不过是使馆资助大学系列讲座的1万美元尾款。

Ultimately, the dean of the faculty of humanities stepped in to provide the necessary money, and I will deliver my lecture on Wednesday. If the school hadn’t had the resources, I would have gone anyway.

南丹麦大学人文学院院长最终出面提供了必要的资金，我将在周三的讲座上做主讲。即使校方没有这笔资金，我也不会爽约。

Ironically, the subject of my talk is my recent book, “The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society,” in which I explain my view of what freedom really means, why it’s so important and what must be done to achieve it. I also discuss ways in which freedom gets suppressed.

具有讽刺意味的是，我讲的主题是我最近出的新书《通往自由之路：经济学与美好社会》(The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society)。书中阐述了我对自由真谛的看法、自由为什么如此重要，以及实现自由必须付出的努力。我也讨论了自由受压制的方式。

A core element of freedom is the ability of each person to live up to his or her potential. A liberal education is essential for this to happen, because it helps students develop their skills and capabilities to the utmost, frees them from shibboleths and enables them to think critically. But this kind of approach is threatening to authoritarianism, which wants to impose particular views on a nation’s citizens.

自由的核心在于每个人都能充分发挥自身的潜力。通识教育对实现这点至关重要，因为它能帮助学生最大限度地发挥才能，破除思想的桎梏，培养批判性思维。但这种教育恰是威权主义的眼中钉，后者企图把特定的观点强加给国民。

In the case of the Danish lecture series, simply discussing diversity, equity and inclusion was apparently deemed threatening to the administration, which asserts that those qualities, by their very nature, are discriminatory against a majority of the population. But Mr. Trump’s “1984”-ish thought police have not stopped at D.E.I. Climate change and gender are other terms that are being expunged.

在丹麦系列讲座这件事上，只是讨论多元、公平与共融显然就被特朗普政府视为威胁，他们声称这些理念本质上是针对多数群体的歧视。但特朗普《1984》式的思想警察并未止步于DEI。气候变化和性别是正在被删除的其他词语。

Another core element of freedom — something essential to its survival — is that power must be limited; there have to be checks and balances not just within government but also within society. I have long warned that the concentration of wealth among a small percentage of the population would provide a fertile field for a demagogue and that there was an ample supply of people who might play the part.

自由的另一个核心要素是权力必须受到限制，这对自由的存续至关重要；不仅政府内部需要有制约与平衡，在社会范围内亦如此。我早就警告过，当社会财富过度集中于极少数人时，就会为蛊惑民心的政客提供肥沃的土壤，而这类角色从不乏人选。

Universities, which protect academic freedom, are as important to this system of checks and balances as other civil rights protections like freedom of the press.

大学的责任之一是捍卫学术自由。对制衡体系来说，大学与新闻自由等其他民权保护措施一样重要。

One of the main justifications for tenure is that it gives professors like me the freedom to speak out when we see the government doing something foolish, like imposing high tariffs on our allies, or something that might impair our freedom over the long run, such as what the Trump administration is doing in areas like immigration and national security.

存在大学终身教职的主要理由之一是，它赋予像我这样的教授们自由，当我们看到政府做某些蠢事，比如对我们的盟友征收高额关税，或做一些可能对我们的自由造成长远损害的事情时，比如特朗普政府在移民和国家安全等方面的所作所为，我们有发声的自由。 

Over time, as the partnership between government and universities in producing basic research grew, legislators recognized that a cutoff of federal funding would be disastrous, so they carefully inserted provisions to make sure there was due process if funds were canceled. Little did they imagine, I’m guessing, that the government would try to bypass these provisions.

随着政府与大学在基础研究领域的合作日益深化，立法者们已意识到，切断联邦资金会给大学带来灾难性后果，所以他们在立法中精心设置了一些条款，以确保如果资金被终止，需要走正当程序。我的猜想是，他们完全没想到政府会试图绕过这些条款。

The purpose of the lecture series in Denmark is to reinforce “that the United States and the Kingdom of Denmark share core democratic values.” The Trump administration’s actions have led many Danes to question whether that is, in fact, the case.

丹麦系列讲座的目的是加强“美国与丹麦王国共同拥有的核心民主价值观”。特朗普政府的行为让许多丹麦人怀疑，这一共识是否真的存在。

Denmark saw the termination of the lecture series money for what it was: an attack on the core foundations of freedom.

丹麦把终止系列讲座的资金视为对自由的核心基础的攻击。

And, of course, the episode has taken place against the backdrop of Mr. Trump’s aggressive posture toward Greenland, the vast island overseen by Denmark. On March 4, Mr. Trump declared that the United States would gain control of Greenland “one way or the other.” The barely veiled threat was not received well, either by our close NATO ally Denmark or by Greenland.

当然，这件事发生在特朗普对格陵兰岛采取强硬姿态的背景下，这座巨大岛屿归丹麦管辖。他曾在今年3月4日宣布美国将以“某种方式”获得格陵兰岛的控制权。无论是在与美国关系密切的北约盟友丹麦，还是在格陵兰岛，此番几乎不加掩饰的威胁都没有得到好的响应。

When I was a graduate student, I was lucky enough to be the beneficiary of a Fulbright fellowship, which allowed me to study overseas, so I understand the importance of international knowledge sharing, as well as how it can help to enhance America’s soft power.

我读研究生时有幸成为富布赖特奖学金的受益者，有机会去海外学习，因此我懂得国际知识共享的重要性，以及这种共享如何有助于提升美国的软实力。

For decades, that soft power has been far more important in extending the country’s influence than our military power, as the political scientist Joseph Nye, who died last week, has pointed out.

几十年来，这种软实力在扩大美国影响力上远比我们的军事实力重要，正如上周去世的政治学家约瑟夫·奈已经指出的那样。

This episode with the lecture series has been a lesson in civics and where America is today, and that’s perhaps why it’s received such attention in the Danish media. The Danes have had a front row view of the erosion of America’s democracy.

丹麦系列讲座的这个插曲犹如一堂公民课，展现了美国当下的真实境况，这也许是这件事在丹麦媒体受到如此关注的原因。丹麦人已清楚地看到美国的民主制度在受到侵蚀。

One of the longstanding aims of programs such as the speaker series at the University of Southern Denmark has been to enhance the understanding of America and what is going on in the country. Unintentionally, in this case, it might have been truly successful.

南丹麦大学系列讲座这种项目的一个长期目标是增进人们对美国以及美国正在发生的事情的了解。本次事件可能已经无意地在实现这个目标上取得了真正的成功。