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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 59-76:现代社会对于权力过程的打断(下)

67. Thus the power process is disrupted in our society through a deficiency of real goals and a deficiency of autonomy in pursuit of goals. But it is also disrupted because of those human drives that fall into group 3: the drives that one cannot adequately satisfy no matter how much effort one makes. One of these drives is the need for security. Our lives depend on decisions made by other people; we have no control over these decisions and usually we do not even know the people who make them. ("We live in a world in which relatively few people - maybe 500 or 1,00 - make the important decisions" - Philip B. Heymann of Harvard Law School, quoted by Anthony Lewis, New York Times, April 21, 1995.) Our lives depend on whether safety standards at a nuclear power plant are properly maintained; on how much pesticide is allowed to get into our food or how much pollution into our air; on how skillful (or incompetent) our doctor is; whether we lose or get a job may depend on decisions made by government economists or corporation executives; and so forth. Most individuals are not in a position to secure themselves against these threats to more [than] a very limited extent. The individual's search for security is therefore frustrated, which leads to a sense of powerlessness.

67,因此在我们的社会里权力过程经常因为缺乏真正目标与缺乏追求目标的自主权而遭到打断。不过打断权力过程的因素还有第三类欲望:无论付出多么大的努力都不能充分满足的欲望。其中一项欲望就是对安全的需要。我们的生活依赖于其他人的决定,我们无法控制这些决定,通常我们甚至不知道作出这些决定的是什么人。(“我们生活在一个由相对不多的人——也许500或100人——做出重要决定的世界里。” 菲利普.B.海曼,哈佛大学法学院,《纽约时报》,1995年4月21日,安东尼.刘易斯)我们的生命取决于核电厂是否得到了恰当维护,食品中许可的农药残留量或者空气中许可的污染物含量有多高,我们的医生有多么高明(或不称职),我们是否有工作取决于政府经济学家或企业管理者的决策,大多数人都只能在一个非常有限的范围内确保自己免受威胁,个人对于安全的追寻因此而受挫,这也导致了无力感。

68. It may be objected that primitive man is physically less secure than modern man, as is shown by his shorter life expectancy; hence modern man suffers from less, not more than the amount of insecurity that is normal for human beings. but psychological security does not closely correspond with physical security. What makes us FEEL secure is not so much objective security as a sense of confidence in our ability to take care of ourselves. Primitive man, threatened by a fierce animal or by hunger, can fight in self-defense or travel in search of food. He has no certainty of success in these efforts, but he is by no means helpless against the things that threaten him. The modern individual on the other hand is threatened by many things against which he is helpless; nuclear accidents, carcinogens in food, environmental pollution, war, increasing taxes, invasion of his privacy by large organizations, nation-wide social or economic phenomena that may disrupt his way of life.

68,可能有人提出反对,认为原始人与现代人相比更欠缺身体安全,因为原始人的寿命更短,因此现代人承受的不安全感与人类能够承受的正常值相比要更少而不是更多。但心理安全与身体安全的关系并不密切。我们之所以感到安全与其说是因为客观安全的现实,倒不如说是对我们有能力保障自身安全的信心。原始人在面对猛兽袭击或饥饿威胁时可以奋力自卫或长途跋涉寻找食物。他的这些努力未必总能成功,但他面对那些威胁他的事物绝非束手无策。另一方面现代个人对于自己所受到的威胁往往十分无奈:核事故,食品里的致癌物质,环境污染,战争,税收上调,大型企业对于隐私的侵犯以及全国性的社会或经济问题都会打乱他的生活方式。

69. It is true that primitive man is powerless against some of the things that threaten him; disease for example. But he can accept the risk of disease stoically. It is part of the nature of things, it is no one's fault, unless is the fault of some imaginary, impersonal demon. But threats to the modern individual tend to be MAN-MADE. They are not the results of chance but are IMPOSED on him by other persons whose decisions he, as an individual, is unable to influence. Consequently he feels frustrated, humiliated and angry.

69,的确,原始人面对某些威胁时同样无能为力,例如疾病。但是他坚忍地接受了疾病带来的风险。疾病是自然的一部分,不是任何人的错,除非是某个想象出来的、毫无感情的魔鬼。但是现代人面对的威胁都是人为的,并不是运气不好的结果,而是他人的决策强加于他的结果,而他又无力影响这些决策。因此他自然会感到沮丧,羞辱与愤怒。

70. Thus primitive man for the most part has his security in his own hands (either as an individual or as a member of a SMALL group) whereas the security of modern man is in the hands of persons or organizations that are too remote or too large for him to be able personally to influence them. So modern man's drive for security tends to fall into groups 1 and 3; in some areas (food, shelter, etc.) his security is assured at the cost of only trivial effort, whereas in other areas he CANNOT attain security. (The foregoing greatly simplifies the real situation, but it does indicate in a rough, general way how the condition of modern man differs from that of primitive man.)

70,因此原始人的安全大体而言是掌握在自己手里的(无论作为个体还是小群体的成员)。而现代人的安全则掌握在那些距离他太远或规模太大,以致他无法施加个人影响的机构组织手里。因此现代人追求安全的欲望大致可归于第一类与第三类;在某些领域(例如食物与住所)他的安全只需要一丁点努力就能得到保证,而在其他方面他则完全无法自行获得安全。(这段论述极大地简化了实际情况,但是的确十分粗略地概括了现代人与原始人的区别)

71. People have many transitory drives or impulses that are necessary frustrated in modern life, hence fall into group 3. One may become angry, but modern society cannot permit fighting. In many situations it does not even permit verbal aggression. When going somewhere one may be in a hurry, or one may be in a mood to travel slowly, but one generally has no choice but to move with the flow of traffic and obey the traffic signals. One may want to do one's work in a different way, but usually one can work only according to the rules laid down by one's employer. In many other ways as well, modern man is strapped down by a network of rules and regulations (explicit or implicit) that frustrate many of his impulses and thus interfere with the power process. Most of these regulations cannot be disposed with, because the are necessary for the functioning of industrial society.

71,现代生活中人们有很多暂时性的欲望或冲动也会遭到抑制,因此也会落入第三类。一个人可能会生气,但现代社会不允许斗殴,很多情况下甚至不允许言语攻击。某人前往某地是可能急着赶路,也可能希望慢慢走,但一般来说都只能跟随车流行动并遵守交通信号。在许多其他方面,现代人都被一张规则之网所笼罩(或明或暗),使他的冲动无法释放并因此打断他的权力过程。大部分此类规则都不能废除,因为这些规则对于工业社会的运作是必需的。

72. Modern society is in certain respects extremely permissive. In matters that are irrelevant to the functioning of the system we can generally do what we please. We can believe in any religion we like (as long as it does not encourage behavior that is dangerous to the system). We can go to bed with anyone we like (as long as we practice "safe sex"). We can do anything we like as long as it is UNIMPORTANT. But in all IMPORTANT matters the system tends increasingly to regulate our behavior.

72,现代社会在某些方面是极为放纵的。在不影响体系运作的方面我们基本上想做什么都可以。我们可以任意信仰任何宗教(只要该宗教不鼓励威胁体系的行为)。我们可以和任何人上床(只要注意“安全性交”)。我们想做什么都可以,只要所作的事情无关紧要。但是在所有重要方面体系都倾向于越发规范我们的行为。

73. Behavior is regulated not only through explicit rules and not only by the government. Control is often exercised through indirect coercion or through psychological pressure or manipulation, and by organizations other than the government, or by the system as a whole. Most large organizations use some form of propaganda [14] to manipulate public attitudes or behavior. Propaganda is not limited to "commercials" and advertisements, and sometimes it is not even consciously intended as propaganda by the people who make it. For instance, the content of entertainment programming is a powerful form of propaganda. An example of indirect coercion: There is no law that says we have to go to work every day and follow our employer's orders. Legally there is nothing to prevent us from going to live in the wild like primitive people or from going into business for ourselves. But in practice there is very little wild country left, and there is room in the economy for only a limited number of small business owners. Hence most of us can survive only as someone else's employee.

73。管束人们行为的因素不止限于明确的规则以及政府。控制往往是政府以外的其他机构或者作为整体的体系通过间接胁迫、心理压力或操纵来进行的。大多数大型组织都会使用某种形式的宣传[14]操纵公众的态度和行为。宣传不限于“广告”,有时制作人甚至没有自觉意识到自己正在进行宣传。例如,娱乐节目的内容就是一种功能强大的宣传形式。举一个间接胁迫一个例子:没有法律规定我们必须去工作,每天必须遵守雇主的命令。在法律上没有什么条纹能阻止我们像原始人那样生活在野外或自行创业。但在现实当中野外环境已经极为有限,经济生活当中所能容纳的小企业主数量也是有限的。因此,我们大多数人只有成为别人的雇员才可以生存。

[14]. (Paragraph 73) When someone approves of the purpose for which propaganda is being used in a given case, he generally calls it "education" or applies to it some similar euphemism. But propaganda is propaganda regardless of the purpose for which it is used.

【14】(第73段)如果某人同意某个特例当中使用宣传的目的,他一般称之为“教育”或使用其他委婉用语。但是宣传就是宣传,无论出于什么目的。

74. We suggest that modern man's obsession with longevity, and with maintaining physical vigor and sexual attractiveness to an advanced age, is a symptom of unfulfillment resulting from deprivation with respect to the power process. The "mid-life crisis" also is such a symptom. So is the lack of interest in having children that is fairly common in modern society but almost unheard-of in primitive societies.

74,我们认为现代人对于长寿的痴迷以及在老年阶段维持身体活力与性吸引力的执着是一种不满足的症状,原因则在于权力过程遭到了剥夺。所谓“中年危机”也是此类症状之一。缺乏养育子女的兴趣对于现代社会来说也十分常见,但是在原始社会这种事可谓闻所未闻。

75. In primitive societies life is a succession of stages. The needs and purposes of one stage having been fulfilled, there is no particular reluctance about passing on to the next stage. A young man goes through the power process by becoming a hunter, hunting not for sport or for fulfillment but to get meat that is necessary for food. (In young women the process is more complex, with greater emphasis on social power; we won't discuss that here.) This phase having been successfully passed through, the young man has no reluctance about settling down to the responsibilities of raising a family. (In contrast, some modern people indefinitely postpone having children because they are too busy seeking some kind of "fulfillment." We suggest that the fulfillment they need is adequate experience of the power process -- with real goals instead of the artificial goals of surrogate activities.) Again, having successfully raised his children, going through the power process by providing them with the physical necessities, the primitive man feels that his work is done and he is prepared to accept old age (if he survives that long) and death. Many modern people, on the other hand, are disturbed by the prospect of death, as is shown by the amount of effort they expend trying to maintain their physical condition, appearance and health. We argue that this is due to unfulfillment resulting from the fact that they have never put their physical powers to any use, have never gone through the power process using their bodies in a serious way. It is not the primitive man, who has used his body daily for practical purposes, who fears the deterioration of age, but the modern man, who has never had a practical use for his body beyond walking from his car to his house. It is the man whose need for the power process has been satisfied during his life who is best prepared to accept the end of that life.

75,在原始社会,生活是一连串的阶段。一个阶段的需要和目的已经达成之后,原始人就会自然进入下一阶段而并不感到特别勉强。一名年轻男子通过成为一个猎人来完成权力过程,他的狩猎活动不是为了取乐或满足感,而是为了得到必要的肉食。 (年轻女性的权力过程更加复杂,更加注重社会权力,我们在此姑且不加讨论)。顺利通过这一阶段后,年轻人就会毫不勉强地承担起养家的责任。(相比之下,一些现代人无限期推迟生育子女,因为他们太忙于寻求某种“圆满”。我们认为,他们所需要的是权力过程的充分经验——这里的权力过程要有真正的目标,而不是替代活动的人为目标。)同样,在成功地养育了他的孩子,通过为他们提供物质必需品而完成权力过程之后,原始人会认为他的工作已经完成并坦然接受老年(如果他能活这么久)与死亡。另一方面,许多现代人对于死亡的前景感到不安,他们付出了大量努力试图维持自己的身体状况、外观和健康。我们认为这是由于他们从来没有以任何方式使用自己的身体,从来没有通过认真地使用自己的身体来完成权力过程,因此感到不满足。原始人每天为了实际目的而使用自己的身体,而现代人对于身体的实际应用无非是每天下车走回家,真正担心年岁增长却是后者。在人生当中满足了权力过程需要的人最能接受人生的结束。

76. In response to the arguments of this section someone will say, "Society must find a way to give people the opportunity to go through the power process." For such people the value of the opportunity is destroyed by the very fact that society gives it to them. What they need is to find or make their own opportunities. As long as the system GIVES them their opportunities it still has them on a leash. To attain autonomy they must get off that leash.

76,有些人对本段论述的反应是“社会必须设法为人们提供经历权力过程的机会。”但是对于这些人来说,由社会向他们提供机会这一事实就已经摧毁了这些机会的价值。他们必须自己寻找或创造自己的机会。只要这些机会是体系提供的,体系就依然制约着他们。为了获得自主他们必须摆脱这种制约。

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