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主题:【原创】炮打工业党:《论工业社会及其未来》 -- 万年看客

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家园 45-58:社会问题的根源

SOURCES OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS

社会问题的根源

45. Any of the foregoing symptoms can occur in any society, but in modern industrial society they are present on a massive scale. We aren't the first to mention that the world today seems to be going crazy. This sort of thing is not normal for human societies. There is good reason to believe that primitive man suffered from less stress and frustration and was better satisfied with his way of life than modern man is. It is true that not all was sweetness and light in primitive societies. Abuse of women and common among the Australian aborigines, transexuality was fairly common among some of the American Indian tribes. But is does appear that GENERALLY SPEAKING the kinds of problems that we have listed in the preceding paragraph were far less common among primitive peoples than they are in modern society.

45,上述任何症状都可能发生在任何一个社会,但在现代工业社会中它们的存在规模尤其大。我们并非首先提出当今世界似乎正在发疯的人。这样的事情对于人类社会来说是不正常的。有充分的理由相信,与现代人相比,原始人所遭受的压力和挫折更少并更满足于自己的生活方式。的确,原始社会的生活也并非充满轻松与甜蜜。澳洲原住民经常虐待妇女,性变装在美国的一些印第安部落当中也相当常见。但总体来说,我们在上文各段当中列举的各种问题对于原始民族来说远不如在现代社会中那样常见。

46. We attribute the social and psychological problems of modern society to the fact that that society requires people to live under conditions radically different from those under which the human race evolved and to behave in ways that conflict with the patterns of behavior that the human race developed while living under the earlier conditions. It is clear from what we have already written that we consider lack of opportunity to properly experience the power process as the most important of the abnormal conditions to which modern society subjects people. But it is not the only one. Before dealing with disruption of the power process as a source of social problems we will discuss some of the other sources.

46。我们将现代社会的社会与心理问题归咎于以下事实:现代社会要求人们在一套截然不同的条件下生活,在这套条件下,人类种族的的生活和行为方式与早先条件下所养成的行为模式发生了冲突。我们在上文中明确认为缺乏恰当体验权力过程的机会是现代社会加诸于人们头上的最主要非正常条件。但这不是唯一的问题。在讨论作为社会问题来源之一的权力过程打断之前,我们将讨论其他几个来源。

47. Among the abnormal conditions present in modern industrial society are excessive density of population, isolation of man from nature, excessive rapidity of social change and the break-down of natural small-scale communities such as the extended family, the village or the tribe.

47,现代工业社会所造成的异常情况是人口密度过大,人与自然相隔离,社会变革过快的和突破以及自然小规模社区——如大家庭、村庄或部落——的瓦解。

48. It is well known that crowding increases stress and aggression. The degree of crowding that exists today and the isolation of man from nature are consequences of technological progress. All pre-industrial societies were predominantly rural. The industrial Revolution vastly increased the size of cities and the proportion of the population that lives in them, and modern agricultural technology has made it possible for the Earth to support a far denser population than it ever did before. (Also, technology exacerbates the effects of crowding because it puts increased disruptive powers in people's hands. For example, a variety of noise-making devices: power mowers, radios, motorcycles, etc. If the use of these devices is unrestricted, people who want peace and quiet are frustrated by the noise. If their use is restricted, people who use the devices are frustrated by the regulations... But if these machines had never been invented there would have been no conflict and no frustration generated by them.)

48,众所周知,人群聚集会增加压力与攻击性。目前的拥挤程度以及人与自然的隔离是技术进步的必然结果。所有前工业社会都以农村为主。工业革命极大增加了城市规模和城市人口比例,现代农业技术使人们有可能供养远比之前任何时代更为密集的人口。 (此外,技术也加剧了人群聚集的影响,因为它将更强大的破坏力交给了人群。例如,现在存在着各种发出噪声的设备:电动剪草机,收音机,摩托车等。假如这些设备的使用不受限制,希望享受和平与安宁的人们就会因为噪音而感到沮丧。如果其应用受到限制,使用这些设备的人就会感到沮丧,但如果这些机器从来不曾问世,就不会造成冲突与沮丧。)

49. For primitive societies the natural world (which usually changes only slowly) provided a stable framework and therefore a sense of security. In the modern world it is human society that dominates nature rather than the other way around, and modern society changes very rapidly owing to technological change. Thus there is no stable framework.

49,对于原始社会来说,自然世界(通常只会进行缓慢的改变)提供了一个稳定的框架,因此他们有安全感。现代世界当中人类社会主导了自然而不是相反,而且由于技术变革现代社会的变化十分迅速。因此不存在稳定的框架。

50. The conservatives are fools: They whine about the decay of traditional values, yet they enthusiastically support technological progress and economic growth. Apparently it never occurs to them that you can't make rapid, drastic changes in the technology and the economy of a society with out causing rapid changes in all other aspects of the society as well, and that such rapid changes inevitably break down traditional values.

50,保守派是傻瓜:他们抱怨传统价值观的衰败,但同时又积极支持技术进步和经济增长。显然他们从来没有想到技术与经济快速而剧烈的变化必然导致所有其他社会方面的快速变化,这种快速变化又将不可避免地打破传统价值观。

51.The breakdown of traditional values to some extent implies the breakdown of the bonds that hold together traditional small-scale social groups. The disintegration of small-scale social groups is also promoted by the fact that modern conditions often require or tempt individuals to move to new locations, separating themselves from their communities. Beyond that, a technological society HAS TO weaken family ties and local communities if it is to function efficiently. In modern society an individual's loyalty must be first to the system and only secondarily to a small-scale community, because if the internal loyalties of small-scale small-scale communities were stronger than loyalty to the system, such communities would pursue their own advantage at the expense of the system.

51,传统观念的崩溃在一定程度上意味着维系传统小规模社会群体的纽带的崩溃。现代社会环境往往要求或诱使个人脱离自己的社区移动到新的地点,这一事实对于小规模社会群体的解体也有促进作用。除此之外,科技社会如果要有效地发挥作用,就必须削弱家庭关系和地方社区。在现代社会中个人首先必须忠于体系,其次才能忠于小规模社区,因为如果小规模社区的内部忠诚强于对体系的忠诚,这样的社区会牺牲体系来为自己追求好处。

52. Suppose that a public official or a corporation executive appoints his cousin, his friend or his co-religionist to a position rather than appointing the person best qualified for the job. He has permitted personal loyalty to supersede his loyalty to the system, and that is "nepotism" or "discrimination," both of which are terrible sins in modern society. Would-be industrial societies that have done a poor job of subordinating personal or local loyalties to loyalty to the system are usually very inefficient. (Look at Latin America.) Thus an advanced industrial society can tolerate only those small-scale communities that are emasculated, tamed and made into tools of the system. [7]

假设公职人员或公司的执行总裁任命他的表兄弟、他的朋友或者教友担任某职位而不是任命最能胜任这项工作的人。他将个人忠诚放在了体系忠诚之前,这就是“裙带关系”或“歧视”,这两项在现代社会中都是可怕的罪行。未能成功地将个人或地区忠诚置于体系忠诚之下的准工业社会通常是非常低效的(例如拉丁美洲)。因此,一个先进的工业社会只能容忍那些遭到阉割与驯服并被体系当做工具的小规模社区。【7】

[7]. (Paragraph 52) A partial exception may be made for a few passive, inward looking groups, such as the Amish, which have little effect on the wider society. Apart from these, some genuine small-scale communities do exist in America today. For instance, youth gangs and "cults". Everyone regards them as dangerous, and so they are, because the members of these groups are loyal primarily to one another rather than to the system, hence the system cannot control them. Or take the gypsies. The gypsies commonly get away with theft and fraud because their loyalties are such that they can always get other gypsies to give testimony that "proves" their innocence. Obviously the system would be in serious trouble if too many people belonged to such groups. Some of the early-20th century Chinese thinkers who were concerned with modernizing China recognized the necessity of breaking down small-scale social groups such as the family: "(According to Sun Yat-sen) The Chinese people needed a new surge of patriotism, which would lead to a transfer of loyalty from the family to the state. . .(According to Li Huang) traditional attachments, particularly to the family had to be abandoned if nationalism were to develop to China." (Chester C. Tan, Chinese Political Thought in the Twentieth Century," page 125, page 297.)

【7】(第52段)少数被动内向的群体,例如阿米什人,可能会部分例外于这一原则,这些群体对于更广泛的社会影响不大。除此之外,在美国确实存在一些真正的小规模社区,例如青少年团伙和“邪教”。所有人都认为他们很危险,他们也的确如此,因为这些群体的成员主要忠于彼此而不是体系,因此体系无法控制他们。拿吉普赛人举例。吉普赛人往往不会因为盗窃和欺诈行为遭受惩处,因为他们忠于彼此,其他吉普赛人总是可以 “证明”自己的清白。显然,如果这类群体成员太多,该体系将面临很大的麻烦。二十世纪初期一些关心中国现代化的中国思想家认识到有必要打破小规模社会群体,如家庭:“(孙中山认为)中国人民需要接受新一轮的爱国主义影响,这将使得忠诚从家庭向国家转移……(李璜认为)如果中国的国家主义想要得到发展,就不得不放弃传统的牵绊,特别是家庭的牵绊。”(Chester C. Tan, Chinese Political Thought in the Twentieth Century,第125页,第297页。)

53. Crowding, rapid change and the breakdown of communities have been widely recognized as sources of social problems. but we do not believe they are enough to account for the extent of the problems that are seen today.

53,人们广泛认为人群聚集与社区的快速变化瓦解是社会问题的根源。但是我们不认为仅凭这些就足以造成今天我们所见的如此严重的问题。

54. A few pre-industrial cities were very large and crowded, yet their inhabitants do not seem to have suffered from psychological problems to the same extent as modern man. In America today there still are uncrowded rural areas, and we find there the same problems as in urban areas, though the problems tend to be less acute in the rural areas. Thus crowding does not seem to be the decisive factor.

54,有几座工业社会之前的城市也十分庞大而拥挤,但是其中的居民似乎并没有遭受像现代社会成员那样严重的心理问题。今天的美国依然存在着人口稀少的农村地区,在那里也出现了与城市地区类似的问题,尽管程度上没有这么剧烈。因此人群聚集似乎并不是关键因素。

55. On the growing edge of the American frontier during the 19th century, the mobility of the population probably broke down extended families and small-scale social groups to at least the same extent as these are broken down today. In fact, many nuclear families lived by choice in such isolation, having no neighbors within several miles, that they belonged to no community at all, yet they do not seem to have developed problems as a result.

55,在十九世纪不断推进的美国边疆,人口流动性对于大家庭与小社区的破坏作用至少与今天一样强。实际上许多核心家庭都是自愿选择隔离生活的,几里以内没有邻居,不属于任何社区,但他们似乎也没有出问题。

56.Furthermore, change in American frontier society was very rapid and deep. A man might be born and raised in a log cabin, outside the reach of law and order and fed largely on wild meat; and by the time he arrived at old age he might be working at a regular job and living in an ordered community with effective law enforcement. This was a deeper change that that which typically occurs in the life of a modern individual, yet it does not seem to have led to psychological problems. In fact, 19th century American society had an optimistic and self-confident tone, quite unlike that of today's society. [8]

56,进一步来说,美国边疆社会的发展也十分快速而深刻。某人可能生长于木屋中,不受法律秩序的制约,以野物为主食。而到老时他可能已经有了稳定的工作,生活在法律约束的社区当中。与典型现代人在一生中遭遇的变化相比,这种变化更为深刻,但是看起来似乎也没有导致心理问题。实际上,十九世纪的美国社会基调乐观而自信,与今天大不相同。【8】

[8]. (Paragraph 56) Yes, we know that 19th century America had its problems, and serious ones, but for the sake of breviety we have to express ourselves in simplified terms.

【8】的确,我们清楚十九世纪的美国也存在着自己的问题,而且还十分严重。但是为了方便讨论起见我们在这里姑且简化一下实际情况。

57. The difference, we argue, is that modern man has the sense (largely justified) that change is IMPOSED on him, whereas the 19th century frontiersman had the sense (also largely justified) that he created change himself, by his own choice. Thus a pioneer settled on a piece of land of his own choosing and made it into a farm through his own effort. In those days an entire county might have only a couple of hundred inhabitants and was a far more isolated and autonomous entity than a modern county is. Hence the pioneer farmer participated as a member of a relatively small group in the creation of a new, ordered community. One may well question whether the creation of this community was an improvement, but at any rate it satisfied the pioneer's need for the power process.

57,我们认为这其中的区别在于现代人(基本有理地)感到变化是强加在他身上的,而十九世纪的边疆开拓者则(也同样基本有理地)感到他自己造成了变化。开拓者定居在自己选择的地点,并用自己的努力将其改造成农田。当时一个郡县里往往只有几百户居民,这个郡县的孤立性与自主性也远远超过今天的郡县。因此,开拓边疆的农夫参与了一个相对较小的团体并创建了一个新的有秩序社区。这种社区的创立算不算进步尽管可以讨论,但无论如何开拓者的权力过程得到了满足。

58. It would be possible to give other examples of societies in which there has been rapid change and/or lack of close community ties without the kind of massive behavioral aberration that is seen in today's industrial society. We contend that the most important cause of social and psychological problems in modern society is the fact that people have insufficient opportunity to go through the power process in a normal way. We don't mean to say that modern society is the only one in which the power process has been disrupted. Probably most if not all civilized societies have interfered with the power ' process to a greater or lesser extent. But in modern industrial society the problem has become particularly acute. Leftism, at least in its recent (mid-to-late -20th century) form, is in part a symptom of deprivation with respect to the power process.

58,变化迅速且/或缺乏密切社区纽带但却没有像今日工业化社会那样发生大规模行为异常的社会可能还有其他例证。我们意图说明现代社会当中社会与心理问题的最主要原因就是人们没有足够的机会来正常地完成权力过程。我们并不认为现代社会是唯一一个打断权力过程的社会。很可能绝大多数文明社会都会在不同程度上干涉权力过程。但是在现代社会这个问题尤为尖锐。左派主义,或者起码说最近形式(二十世纪中后期)的左派主义,正是权力过程剥夺所导致的症状的一部分

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