AUTONOMY
自主性
Autonomy as a part of the power process may not be necessary for every individual. But most people need a greater or lesser degree of autonomy in working toward their goals. Their efforts must be undertaken on their own initiative and must be under their own direction and control. Yet most people do not have to exert this initiative, direction and control as single individuals. It is usually enough to act as a member of a SMALL group. Thus if half a dozen people discuss a goal among themselves and make a successful joint effort to attain that goal, their need for the power process will be served. But if they work under rigid orders handed down from above that leave them no room for autonomous decision and initiative, then their need for the power process will not be served. The same is true when decisions are made on a collective bases if the group making the collective decision is so large that the role of each individual is insignificant [5].
42
自主性作为权力过程的一部分,可能并非对所有人都有必要。但是大多数人朝着自己的目标努力时都需要或多或少的自主。他们的努力必须由自己主动进行,并且必须遵从自己的方向,受自己的控制。然而,大多数人都不必非得作为单一个体发挥主动性、遵从方向并进行控制。通常只要作为一个小团体的一员就够了。因此,如果有五六个人彼此讨论共同的目标并且成功地联合努力来实现这一目标,他们对于权力过程的需求就会得到满足。但是如果他们在上级下发的死板命令下工作,毫无自主主动的空间,他们对于权力过程的需求就得不到满足。同样,当进行集体决策时,假如集体人数过多,每个个人的作用都微不足道 [5],那么也会出现这种情况。
[5],(Paragraph 42) It may be argued that the majority of people don't want to make their own decisions but want leaders to do their thinking for them. There is an element of truth in this. People like to make their own decisions in small matters, but making decisions on difficult, fundamental questions require facing up to psychological conflict, and most people hate psychological conflict. Hence they tend to lean on others in making difficult decisions. The majority of people are natural followers, not leaders, but they like to have direct personal access to their leaders and participate to some extent in making difficult decisions. At least to that degree they need autonomy
[5](第42段)有人认为多数人都不想自己进行决策,而是更希望有领导者替他们思考。这话也有一定的道理。人们喜欢在小事上自行决策但是在困难而根本性的问题上进行决策必须面对激烈的心理冲突,而大多数人都讨厌心理冲突。因此他们更希望他人替他们进行困难决策。大多数人都是天然的跟随者而不是领导者,但是他们喜欢与自己的领导者保持直接联系并且部分参与困难决策的制定。至少在这种程度上他们还是需要自主性的。
It is true that some individuals seem to have little need for autonomy. Either their drive for power is weak or they satisfy it by identifying themselves with some powerful organization to which they belong. And then there are unthinking, animal types who seem to be satisfied with a purely physical sense of power(the good combat soldier, who gets his sense of power by developing fighting skills that he is quite content to use in blind obedience to his superiors).
43
的确,有些人似乎并不需要自主。可能他们的权欲并不强,或者他们通过从属于强大的组织来获得了满足感。还有一类不假思索的、动物般的人,似乎单纯的肉体权力感就能使其感到满足(优秀的士兵通过战斗技能来获得权利感,他对于盲从上级感到相当满意)。
But for most people it is through the power process-having a goal, making an AUTONOMOUS effort and attaining t the goal-that self-esteem, self-confidence and a sense of power are acquired. When one does not have adequate opportunity to go throughout the power process the consequences are (depending on the individual and on the way the power process is disrupted) boredom, demoralization, low self-esteem, inferiority feelings, defeatism, depression, anxiety, guilt, frustration, hostility, spouse or child abuse, insatiable hedonism, abnormal sexual behavior, sleep disorders, eating disorders, etc. [6]
44
但大多数人还是要通过权力过程——确立目标,自主努力,实现目标——来获得自尊,自信和权力感。当一个人没有足够的机会来经历整个权力过程的时候,将会导致(取决于个人条件和权力过程遭到中断的方式)无聊,士气低落,低自尊,自卑感,失败主义,抑郁,焦虑,内疚,沮丧,敌意,虐待配偶或子女,永不满足的享乐主义,不正常的性行为,睡眠障碍,进食障碍等 [6]。
[6],(Paragraph 44) Some of the symptoms listed are similar to those shown by caged animals.
[6](第44段)这里列出的一些症状类似于长期囚禁在笼中的动物所显示的症状。
To explain how these symptoms arise from deprivation with respect to the power process:
这里解释一下权力过程的剥夺如何导致这些症状的出现:
Common-sense understanding of human nature tells one that lack of goals whose attainment requires effort leads to boredom and that boredom, long continued, often leads eventually to depression. Failure to obtain goals leads to frustration and lowering of self-esteem. Frustration leads to anger, anger to aggression, often in the form of spouse or child abuse. It has been shown that long-continued frustration commonly leads to depression and that depression tends to cause guilt, sleep disorders, eating disorders and bad feelings about oneself. Those who are tending toward depression seek pleasure as an antidote; hence insatiable hedonism and excessive sex, with perversions as a means of getting new kicks. Boredom too tends to cause excessive pleasure-seeking since, lacking other goals, people often use pleasure as a goal. See accompanying diagram. The foregoing is a simplification. Reality is more complex, and of course deprivation with respect to the power process is not the ONLY cause of the symptoms described. By the way, when we mention depression we do not necessarily mean depression that is severe enough to be treated by a psychiatrist. Often only mild forms of depression are involved. And when we speak of goals we do not necessarily mean long-term, thought out goals. For many or most people through much of human history, the goals of a hand-to-mouth existence (merely providing oneself and one's family with food from day to day) have been quite sufficient.
根据对于人性的常识理解,缺乏需要努力才能实现的目标会导致无聊,而长期无聊最终往往会导致抑郁症。未能达成目标会导致挫折并降低自尊。挫折导致愤怒,愤怒导致攻击性,往往以虐待配偶或子女的形式表现出来。人们已经证明了长期持续的挫折通常会导致抑郁症,抑郁症往往会造成内疚,睡眠障碍,进食障碍和不良情绪。倾向患抑郁症的人寻求快感作为解药,因此导致了无法满足的享乐主义和过度性生活,变态行为也成为了获取新刺激的手段。无聊之所以容易造成过度享乐,还因为在没有其他目标的情况下人们经常将快感当做目标(请参阅附图)。前述是简化表述,现实更为复杂。当然权力过程的缺失并不是这里描述症状的唯一原因。顺便说一下,当我们提到抑郁症时,并不一定意味着严重到必须由精神科医生进行治疗的抑郁症。通常情况下只会出现轻微的抑郁症。我们所谓的目标也不必然意味着深思熟虑之后的长期目标。因为人类历史上的许多或大多数人都仅仅将糊口作为目标(为自己和自己的家庭获取日常的食物)。
SOURCES OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS
社会问题的根源
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。
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。
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。
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。)
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。
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。
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。
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]
52
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。)
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。
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。
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。
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。
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。
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。
DISRUPTION OF THE POWER PROCESS IN MODERN SOCIETY
现代社会对于权力过程的打断
We divide human drives into three groups: (1) those drives that can be satisfied with minimal effort; (2) those that can be satisfied but only at the cost of serious effort; (3) those that cannot be adequately satisfied no matter how much effort one makes. The power process is the process of satisfying the drives of the second group. The more drives there are in the third group, the more there is frustration, anger, eventually defeatism, depression, etc.
59
我们将人类的欲望分为三类,(1)可以通过最少努力得到满足的欲望;(2)需要付出大量努力才能满足的欲望;(3)无论如何努力也无法充分满足的欲望。权力过程满足的是第二种欲望。第三类欲望越多,人们就越发沮丧愤怒,最后则会发展成失败主义与抑郁症。
In modern industrial society natural human drives tend to be pushed into the first and third groups, and the second group tends to consist increasingly of artificially created drives.
60
现代工业社会倾向于将人类的自然欲望推向第一类与第三类,第二类欲望则越发人为化。
In primitive societies, physical necessities generally fall into group 2: They can be obtained, but only at the cost of serious effort. But modern society tends to guaranty the physical necessities to everyone [9] in exchange for only minimal effort, hence physical needs are pushed into group 1. (There may be disagreement about whether the effort needed to hold a job is "minimal"; but usually, in lower- to middle-level jobs, whatever effort is required is merely that of obedience. You sit or stand where you are told to sit or stand and do what you are told to do in the way you are told to do it. Seldom do you have to exert yourself seriously, and in any case you have hardly any autonomy in work, so that the need for the power process is not well served.)
61
在原始社会,物质需求一般属于第二类,必须付出大量努力才能获取。现代社会在倾向于保证令所有人 [9] 都能用最小努力换取物质必需品,因此物质需求就被推到了第一类。(有人可能并不认为保住工作只需要“最小化”的努力;但是一般来说,中低层工作所要求的只是服从而已。只需要在规定地点站着或坐下,根据指定的方式完成指定的任务。在工作中基本上没有自主,因此对于权力过程的需求也就没有得到满足。)
[9]. (Paragraph 61) We leave aside the underclass. We are speaking of the mainstream.
[9](第61段)我们这里忽略了下层阶级,只讨论社会主流。
Social needs, such as sex, love and status, often remain in group 2 in modern society, depending on the situation of the individual. [10] But, except for people who have a particularly strong drive for status, the effort required to fulfill the social drives is insufficient to satisfy adequately the need for the power process.
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社会需求,例如性、爱与社会地位,在现代社会中往往属于第二类,当然这还要取决于每个个人的具体情况。[10] 但是,除非某人对于社会地位有着特别强大的欲望,满足社会欲望所需的努力依然不足以充分满足权力过程的需要。
[10]. (Paragraph 62) Some social scientists, educators, "mental health" professionals and the like are doing their best to push the social drives into group 1 by trying to see to it that everyone has a satisfactory social life.
[10](第62段)有些社会科学家、教育者、“精神健康”专业人士以及其他类似人物正在竭力将社会欲望推入第一类,从而使所有人都能拥有满意的社会生活。
So certain artificial needs have been created that fall into group 2, hence serve the need for the power process. Advertising and marketing techniques have been developed that make many people feel they need things that their grandparents never desired or even dreamed of. It requires serious effort to earn enough money to satisfy these artificial needs, hence they fall into group 2. (But see paragraphs 80-82.) Modern man must satisfy his need for the power process largely through pursuit of the artificial needs created by the advertising and marketing industry [11], and through surrogate activities.
63
因此属于第二类的特定人为需求就被创造了出来,借以满足权力过程的需要。广告与营销的发展使人们觉得他们需要他们的祖父母们做梦也没有想过的东西。他们需要花大力气挣钱来满足这些人为需求,因此这些需求就归于了第二类。(见80-82段)现代人想要满足权力过程的需要就必须主要依靠追求由广告与营销工业创造出来的人为需求 [11] 以及替代行为。
[11]. (Paragraphs 63) Is the drive for endless material acquisition really an artificial creation of the advertising and marketing industry? Certainly there is no innate human drive for material acquisition. There have been many cultures in which people have desired little material wealth beyond what was necessary to satisfy their basic physical needs (Australian aborigines, traditional Mexican peasant culture, some African cultures). On the other hand there have also been many pre-industrial cultures in which material acquisition has played an important role. So we can't claim that today's acquisition-oriented culture is exclusively a creation of the advertising and marketing industry. But it is clear that the advertising and marketing industry has had an important part in creating that culture. The big corporations that spend millions on advertising wouldn't be spending that kind of money without solid proof that they were getting it back in increased sales. One member of FC met a sales manager a couple of years ago who was frank enough to tell him, "Our job is to make people buy things they don't want and don't need." He then described how an untrained novice could present people with the facts about a product, and make no sales at all, while a trained and experienced professional salesman would make lots of sales to the same people. This shows that people are manipulated into buying things they don't really want.
[11](第63段)对于获取物质的无尽欲望是否真是广告和营销行业的人为创造呢?当然,人并没有与生俱来的获取物质欲望。在许多文化中,人们对于物质必需品之外的物质财富并没有多大兴趣,以满足他们的基本生理需求(澳大利亚原住民,传统墨西哥农民文化,一些非洲文化)。另一方面,在工业革命前,获取物质行为作用重大的文化也有许多。因此,我们不能说当今以获取物质为导向的文化完全就是广告和营销行业的创造。但很显然,广告和营销行业对于这种文化的创造有着重大的作用。如果没有确凿证据表明如此大手笔的开支一定能增加销量,大公司是不会花费数百万美元做广告的。一名FC成员几年前遇到了一个销售经理,此人坦率地告诉他,“我们的工作是让人购买他们不想要且不需要的东西。”然后他描述了一个未经训练的新手如何向人们介绍关于产品的事实却卖不出去,而一个训练有素,经验丰富的专业销售员却可以面向同一批人打开销路。这表明人们在操纵之下购买了他们并不真正想要的东西。
It seems that for many people, maybe the majority, these artificial forms of the power process are insufficient. A theme that appears repeatedly in the writings of the social critics of the second half of the 20th century is the sense of purposelessness that afflicts many people in modern society. (This purposelessness is often called by other names such as "anomic" or "middle-class vacuity.") We suggest that the so-called "identity crisis" is actually a search for a sense of purpose, often for commitment to a suitable surrogate activity. It may be that existentialism is in large part a response to the purposelessness of modern life. [12] Very widespread in modern society is the search for "fulfillment." But we think that for the majority of people an activity whose main goal is fulfillment (that is, a surrogate activity) does not bring completely satisfactory fulfillment. In other words, it does not fully satisfy the need for the power process. (See paragraph 41.) That need can be fully satisfied only through activities that have some external goal, such as physical necessities, sex, love, status, revenge, etc.
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看来对于很多人甚或大多数人来说,人为形式的权力过程是不够的。二十世纪后半期社会批评家的著作中反复出现的一个主题是困扰很多现代社会成员的无目的性。 (这种无目的性通常有其他名称,如“失范”或“中产阶级空虚”)。我们认为,所谓的“身份危机”其实是对于目的性的寻找,往往是为了投入一项合适的替代活动。存在主义可能在很大程度上是是现代生活对于无目的性的回应。[12] 对于“满足感”的搜寻在现代社会中非常普遍。但我们认为,大多数以获得满足感为主要目标的活动(即替代活动)并不能带来完全令人满意的满足感。换句话说,它并不能完全满足对于权力过程的需要。(见第41段),这一需要只有通过拥有外部目标的活动才可以得到完全满足,如物质必需品,性,爱情,地位,复仇等
[12]. (Paragraph 64) The problem of purposelessness seems to have become less serious during the last 15 years or so, because people now feel less secure physically and economically than they did earlier, and the need for security provides them with a goal. But purposelessness has been replaced by frustration over the difficulty of attaining security. We emphasize the problem of purposelessness because the liberals and leftists would wish to solve our social problems by having society guarantee everyone's security; but if that could be done it would only bring back the problem of purposelessness. The real issue is not whether society provides well or poorly for people's security; the trouble is that people are dependent on the system for their security rather than having it in their own hands. This, by the way, is part of the reason why some people get worked up about the right to bear arms; possession of a gun puts that aspect of their security in their own hands.
[12](第64段)在过去的15年里,无目的性的问题似乎已经变得不那么严重了,因为人们现在感觉自己在身体与经济方面都没那么安全了,对于安全的需要为他们提供了目标。但无目的性已经被实现安全的难度所带来的挫败感所取代了。我们强调无目的性的问题,因为自由派和左派主义者希望通过使社会保障所有人的安全来解决我们的社会问题,但如果真能做到这一点只能令无目的性卷土重来。真正的问题不在于社会为其成员提供的安全是否足够,而是在于人们依赖体系为他们提供安全而不是将安全掌握在自己手中。顺便说一句,之所以有些人对于携带武器的权利如此热衷,这也是部分原因;手里有枪意味着他们把某一方面的安全掌握在了自己手中。
Moreover, where goals are pursued through earning money, climbing the status ladder or functioning as part of the system in some other way, most people are not in a position to pursue their goals AUTONOMOUSLY. Most workers are someone else's employee as, as we pointed out in paragraph 61, must spend their days doing what they are told to do in the way they are told to do it. Even most people who are in business for themselves have only limited autonomy. It is a chronic complaint of small-business persons and entrepreneurs that their hands are tied by excessive government regulation. Some of these regulations are doubtless unnecessary, but for the most part government regulations are essential and inevitable parts of our extremely complex society. A large portion of small business today operates on the franchise system. It was reported in the Wall Street Journal a few years ago that many of the franchise-granting companies require applicants for franchises to take a personality test that is designed to EXCLUDE those who have creativity and initiative, because such persons are not sufficiently docile to go along obediently with the franchise system. This excludes from small business many of the people who most need autonomy.
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此外,如果通过赚钱、攀爬等级阶梯、充当体系一部分或其他方式来追求目标,大多数人都不会自主追求自己的目标。大多数工人是别人的雇员,正如我们在第61段中指出的那样,他们每天都必须按照指定的方式做指定的事情。甚至独立经营的人也只有有限的自主。小企业经营者和创业者一直都在抱怨政府过度监管束缚住了他们的双手。有些规定无疑是不必要的,但在大多数情况下政府规定对于我们这个极其复杂的社会来说是必要且不可避免的。今天很大一部分小企业以特许经营制度为基础。几年前据《华尔街日报》报道,许多大公司在授予专营权时都需要申请者接受性格测试,目的是为了排除那些有创造性和主动性的人,因为这样的人不够顺从,无法乖乖地沿袭特许经营体系。这就将许多最需要自主的人排除在了小企业之外。
Today people live more by virtue of what the system does FOR them or TO them than by virtue of what they do for themselves. And what they do for themselves is done more and more along channels laid down by the system. Opportunities tend to be those that the system provides, the opportunities must be exploited in accord with the rules and regulations [13], and techniques prescribed by experts must be followed if there is to be a chance of success.
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今天的人们更多依靠体系为他们或对他们所作的事情生活,而不是依靠自己为自己所作的事情生活。而他们为自己所作的事情也越来越依靠体系安排的渠道。机会大都是体系提供的,对于机会的利用也要符合规则与规定[13] 且如果想要有机会成功就必须遵从专家指定的方法。
[13]. (Paragraph 66) Conservatives' efforts to decrease the amount of government regulation are of little benefit to the average man. For one thing, only a fraction of the regulations can be eliminated because most regulations are necessary. For another thing, most of the deregulation affects business rather than the average individual, so that its main effect is to take power from the government and give it to private corporations. What this means for the average man is that government interference in his life is replaced by interference from big corporations, which may be permitted, for example, to dump more chemicals that get into his water supply and give him cancer. The conservatives are just taking the average man for a sucker, exploiting his resentment of Big Government to promote the power of Big Business.
[13](第66段)保守派减少政府监管的努力对于普通人没有多少好处。首先,真正能够消除的监管措施只有一小部分,绝大多数监管措施都是必需的。其次,绝大多数去监管措施都是对行业而不是普通人起作用。因此这些举措的主要作用是将权力从政府手中转移到私人企业手中。对于普通人来说这意味着之前干涉他生活的是大政府,现在则是大企业,而这些企业可能会允许对他不利的行为,例如向水源倾倒化学物质使他患上癌症。保守派将普通人当成了冤大头,利用他对大政府的怨气来加强大企业的权力。
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.
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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。
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.
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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。
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.
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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。
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.)
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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)
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.
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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。
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.
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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。
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.
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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文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。
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.
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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。
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.
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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。
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.
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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。