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1、* * 第二册lesson 11 The Future of The English 英国人的未来 J . B. Priestley JB 普里斯特利 1 【 To write about the English in standard and cosmopolitan political terms, the usual Left-Centre-Right stuff, is almost always wasting time and trouble. The English are different. The English are even more different than t
2、hey think they are, though not more different than they feel they are. And what they feel Englishness again - is more important than what they think. It is instinctive feeling and not rational thought that shapes and colours actual events in England. 背诵】 若想用世界上流行的标准政治术 语，即左、 中、右三派这种毫无意义的陈腔老调 来描述 英国人
3、的话，那多半是白费时间，徒耗 精力。英国人可是与众不同。他们甚至比自己想象中 的英国人还要不同，倒是同他们自己感觉中的英国人差不多。而他们所感觉到的?这一点再 次反映出英国人的特性 比他们想象到的更为重要。在英国， 决定一切事物形式和色彩的 不是人的理性思维，而是人的本能感觉。 cosmopolitan (adj.) : common to or representative of all or many parts of the world ；not national or local 世界性的；不限于国家或地区范围的 - 2 For example, although the Englis
4、h seem to be so sharply divided, always indulging in plenty of loud political abuse, there are nothing like so many Communists or neo- or potential Fascists in England as there are in most other countries. Again, although the English seem to have more than their share of rallies , protest marches, c
5、onfrontations with authority, what could begin to look like a murderous encounter in France or America, or might be a bloody street battle in Japan, would in England end at the worst in a few scuffle s and arrests. This is because there are fewer fanatical believers among the English, and at the sam
6、e time, below the noisy arguments, the abuse and the quarrels, there is a reservoir of instinctive fellow-feeling, not yet exhausted though it may not be * filling up. Not everybody can draw on that reservoir. No doubt there are in England some snarl ing shop steward s who demand freedom for the wor
7、kers when what they really want is to bring the whole system crashing down, together with every guarantee of liberty. No doubt there are wealthy employers who smile at the TV cameras and declare that all they desire is the friendliest relation with their work force, when at heart they would like to
8、take a whip to the whole idle troublesome mob of them. But there are not many of these men, either on the board or the shop floor, and they are certainly not typical English. Some cancer in their character has eaten away their Englishness. 举例来说，尽管英国人表面上似乎存在着严重的意见分歧，彼此之间进行政治上的攻击 谩骂也是常有的事，但英国却不像许多其他国家
9、一样有那么多的共产主义者以及新的或潜在 的法西斯主义分子。再如，虽然英国人举行的群众集会、示威游行、与当局对抗的事件似乎 比一般国家多，但有些在法国或美国有可能发展成生死搏斗，在日本有可能演变成街头血战 的恶性事件，而在英国至多也不过以一阵扭打或几个人被拘捕的结局了事。这是因为在英国 人当中狂热的盲从分子较少，同时，在他们那一片乱哄哄的争论、谩骂和吵闹的背后，还蕴 藏着一股河海般深厚、纯真的同胞之情。这种情谊虽然还不到充溢的程度，却还没有枯竭。 当然， 也不是每个人都能够利用这种蕴藏的同胞之情。在英国，毫无疑问，还存在着那么一 些喜欢大声咆哮的工会代表，他们口口声声嚷着要为工人们争自由，而事实
10、上，其真正目的 是想破坏现行的社会制度及一切保障自由的措施。毫无疑问，也有那么一些腰缠万贯的资本 家，他们面对着电视摄像机，笑容可掬地宣称他们唯一的愿望是同自己的劳动队伍建立起最 亲密友好的关系，而实际上他们心里只想拿起鞭子狠狠抽打那群专爱惹事生非的懒虫。不过， 像这样的人，无论在管理者中间还是在劳动者中间，都不是很多，而且他们无疑也不是典型 的英国人。他们性格上的肿瘤已经吞噬了他们身上的英国人特性。 rally (n.) : a gathering of people for a common purpose ； mass meeting( 群众性 )集会 - scuffle (n.) :
11、a rough ， confused fight ；close ， haphazard struggle 扭打；混战 - fanatical (adj.) : unreasonably enthusiastic ；overly zealous 狂热的，过分热衷的 - snarl (v.) : speak harshly and sharply ， as in anger ，impatience ， etc怒吼，咆哮 - shop steward : a person chosen by his fellow trade unionists in an industrial establishm
12、ent to speak for them to the management and to watch over their interest( 资本主义国家中工 人选的)工人代表a union member elected to represent coworkers in dealings with management 工会管事，工人代表 - draw on : take or USe as a source 利用，凭，靠 例： If newspapermen cannot get facts for their stories ， they some-times draws on *
13、 t11eir imaginations 如果记者们采访不到事实真相来写报道，他们有时就凭想像力去编造。 - 3 The real English, who are different w ho, have inherited Englishness and have not yet thrown away their inheritance, cannot feel at home in the contemporary world, representing the accelerate d development of our whole age. It demands bigness,
14、 and they are suspicious of bigness. (And there is now not only Industrial bigness; there is also Scientific bigness, needing more and more to discover less and less.) Clearly everything cannot be done by smallish and reasonably human enterprises. No cosy shipyard can undertake to build a 150,000-to
15、n ship, though we may not be in our right minds if we want such a ship. But it is safe to say that while Englishness may reluctantly accept bigness, its monsters are never heartily welcomed. They look all right in America, itself so large, but seem altogether out of scale in England. Along with the
16、demand for bigness goes a demand for severe efficiency, often quite rational but not reasonable, therefore alien to Englishness. A further necessary demand, to feed the monster with higher and higher figures and larger and larger profits, is for enormous advertising campaigns and brigades of razor-k
17、een salesmen. Finally, from the monster and all its spokesmen comes a message, endlessly repeated. It runs more or less as follows: u ought to be Yo happy. But you are not happy. You can be happy, though, if you buy what we are making for you. And a postscript might be added from Iago: Put money in
18、thy purse. 那些?与众不同的?真正地道的英国人，由于继承了英国人的特性而又尚未抛弃这一祖传 特性，因而对于这个代表了整个时代日新月异的发展形势的现代世界感到不很习惯。现代世 界事事求?大 ?，而英国人却对此不以为然。(现在不仅工业上存在着大规模。科学上也存在 着大规模，需要的投资越来越多，而研究出的成果越来越小。)显然，不是一切工作都能由 规模较小而又较富人情味的企业来完成的。一座能令人感受到温情的小船厂就不可能造出一 * 艘十五万吨级的轮船，假如我们硬要造这样的轮船，那或许就会造成我们的决策失误。然而， 可以有把握地说，尽管英国人也有可能勉勉强强地接受大规模的东西，但英国所出现的庞
19、然 大物却决不会受到人们由衷的欢迎。那些庞然大物在美国看来好像倒没什么不对，因为美国 本身就有那么大，但在英国就显得完全不相称了。伴随着对大规模的要求而出现的是对严格 的高效率的要求，这种要求虽然常常是合乎理性的，但却是不合情理的，因而与英国人特性 格格不入。为了给那些庞然大物提供越来越高的投资，创造越来越多的利润，还有一个必不 可少的要求，这就是需要有声势浩大的广告运动和大批精明强干的推销员。最后， 从这些庞 然大物及其所有代言人那里不断重复地传来这样的信息，其大意为：?你本该快乐；但你并 不快乐。不过，你仍有可能得到快乐，只要你购买我们为你制造的产品。?这里也许应该加 上一句伊阿古的名言：
20、?把钱都装进你的口袋吧。? accelerate (v.) : cause to develop or progress more quickly 加快，促进 - alien (adj.) : opposed or repugnant 相反的；不相容的；格格不入的 - cosy (adj.) : smallish but comfortable and relaxing 舒适的，安逸的 - razor keen (adj.) : as sharp as a razor ；fig very smart and shrewd 犀如剃刀的；喻 伶 俐能干的 - safe to say : 英 )If
21、 it is safe to say something ， it may be said with-out exaggeration or falsehood 可以肯定地说，可以保险地说 例： Whether he call get a high score in the exam ，it is safe to say that he will pass it 不管他在考试中能不能拿到高分，但是可以肯定地说他能通过这项考试。 - out of scale : out of proportion 不成比例，不相称 例：The dog s head is out of scale in this
22、 painting在这幅画中这只狗的头与它身 体的其他部分不成比例。 - 4 I like to call this Admass , and will do so from now on. I will also announce what the future of the English hangs upon, while at the same time, unlike almost everybody else, keep ing well clear of economics. It hangs upon the final result of a battle that has
23、been going on for some years now and that explains why the English seem so odd, eccentric, unsatisfactory, not only abroad but to many persons at home. It is a battle that is being fought in the minds of the English. It is between Admass, which has already conquered * most of the Western world, and
24、Englishness, ailing and impoverish ed , in no position to receive vast subsidies of dollars, francs, deutschmarks and the rest, for public relations and advertising campaigns. The triumphs of Admass can be plainly seen. It operates in the outer visible world, where it offers more and more things - f
25、or more and more money of course - and creates the so- called GoodLife Ag.ainst this, at least superficially, Englishness seems a poor shadowy show - a faint pencil sketch beside a poster in full colour - belonging as it really does to the invisible inner world, merely offering states of mind in pla
26、ce of that rich variety of things. But then while things are important, states of mind are even more important. 我想将这种现象称作?商业广告推销?，此后将一直采用这一名称。我还要预告一下英国 人的未来取决于什么，而同时又几乎与所有的人背道而驰地避免谈及经济问题。英国人的未 来取决于一场已进行多年的战斗的最终结局。这场战斗说明了英国人不仅在外国人眼中，而 且在国内某些人眼中显得如此稀奇古怪、不令人满意的原因。这是一场发生在英国人思想领 域的战斗，它在商业广告推销和英国人特性之间展开。商
27、业广告推销业已征服了大半个西 方世界，而英国人特性则是贫病交加，无法取得大量美元、法郎、德国马克之类的官方津贴 来进行公关和广告宣传活动。商业广告推销的胜局已很明显，它的活动在可见的外部世界 进行，向世界提供越来越多的东西一一当然索取的钱也越来越多 从而创造了所谓的 ?美好生活?。相形之下，至少从表面上看，英国人特性似乎只是一场微不足道的影子戏 就像是五彩缤纷的广告画旁边贴着的一幅淡色的铅笔素描 它实际上属于不可见的内 心世界，不能为人们提供那品类繁多的物质用品，而只能提供精神上的境界。不过，物质 用品固然重要，精神境界则更加重要。 impoverish (v.) : make poor ；
28、reduce to poverty 使贫困，使处于贫困 - subsidy (n.) : a grant of money from the government or society ， etc补助金；津贴 - poster (n.) : a relatively large printed card or sheet of paper ， often illustrated ， posted to advertise or publicize something 海报；张贴的大幅广告 - keep clear of sth : avoid or refrain from stll 避开，离
29、着 例：Keep clear of that area! 不要去那个地方! - * 5 It is easy to understand why there should be this conflict between Admass and Englishness. What is central to Admass is the production and consumption of goods. If there is enough of this though of course there never is, because dissatisfaction is built in
30、to Admass - there will be sufficient money to pay for its Good Life . But it is worth noting along the way that while America has been for many years the chief advocate of Admass, America has shown us too many desperately worried executives dropping into early graves, too many exhausted salesmen tak
31、ing refuge in bars and breaking up their homes, too many workmen suffering from monotony or time-and-motion studies and wondering how the hell they got into these traps. And America, to its credit, can also show us a lot of sensible men and women who have denounced all this and have walked out of it
32、. But this book is about the English, not the Americans. Now Englishness, with its relation to the unconscious, its dependence upon instinct and intuition, cannot break its links with the past: it has deep long roots. Being itself a state of mind , it cannot ignore other states of mind and cannot he
33、lp feeling that Admass, with its ruthless competitiveness, its idea of man simply as a producer and consumer, its dependence upon dissatisfaction, greed and envy, must be responsible for bad and not good states of mind. Furthermore, while Englishness is not hostile to change, it is deeply suspicious
34、 of change for change s sake, rejecting the idea that we are now committed to some inevitable mechanical progress. Here we might take a concrete example. Englishness would support an immediate demand, at the expense of many other things, for more and better housing. Without adequate shelter and a de
35、cent place to call their own, people feel wretched. But people in England, not a big country, do not have to have more and more and larger and larger cars, with longer and wider motorways, wrecking the countryside, to take the * cars. If they think they do, this is Admass at work. People have wanted
36、 houses for centuries, and cars of their own only for a very short time. To put cars and motorways before houses seems to Englishness a communal imbecility . 商业广告推销同英国人特性之间会发生这样一场冲突，其原因也容易理解。商业广告 推销的核心内容是商品的生产和消费。如果这方面的条件充分具备 当然这是绝不可能 的，因为商业广告推销本身就含着永不满足的成分 人们就会有足够的钱去换取它所宣 传的 ?美好生活?。然而，值得顺便提一下的是，在多年
37、来一直是商业广告推销的主要倡导 者的美国，我们看到有太多太多的伤透了脑筋的经理人员过早地跌进了坟墓；有太多太多 的筋疲力竭的推销员躲进酒吧借酒浇愁，弄得家庭破裂；还有许许多多的工人成天忍受着单 调乏味的时间一动作研究的苦楚，心中在纳闷：不知自己究竟是怎样陷入这些坑人的陷井 的。足以令美国自豪的是，我们发现美国也有一些对这一切进行抨击并从中摆脱出来的有 识之士。不过，本书所要描写的是英国人，不是美国人。再说英国人特性，因与潜意识相 关联，又依赖于本能和直觉而存在，故不能割断与过去的联系：它根深蒂固。源远流长。 英国人特性本身是一种精神境界，因而它不能不注意其他的精神境界。也就不能不觉得商 业广告
38、推销，由于其残酷的竞争性，其将人仅仅看作生产者和消费者的思想观念，其对不 知足心理、贪婪和妒忌心理的依存性而必然会导致坏的而不是好的精神境界。而且， 尽管 英国人并不反对变革，但对于为变革而变革的做法却深怀疑虑，对那种认为我们现在必须 无条件地欢迎机械化的进步的观点也拒不接受。在此我们可以举一个具体的例子。英国人 会不惜一切代价来支持人们对于更多更好的住房的刻不容缓的需求。如果没有足够的安身之 处，没有一个属于自己的像样的房子，人们会感到凄惨。但在英国这样一个不太大的国家里， 人们并不一定需要拥有越来越多、越来越大的轿车以及供这些轿车使用的越来越长、越来越 宽的高速公路，因为这样会破坏乡村自然
39、景色。假如他们认为需要这些，那便是商业广告推 销在作祟。人们渴望拥有自己的房屋已经有千百年的历史了而渴望拥有自己的汽车才只是 很短时期的事。就英国人特性而言，把汽车和公路摆到住房之上的做法似乎是一种社会性的 愚蠢之举。 advocate (n.) : a person who speaks or writes in support of something 提倡者；拥护者 - state of mind : a particular mental or emotional condition such as be ing in a state of bliss ， in a state of
40、depression ， in a state of despair,etc. 心境，思想(精神 )状态 例：This is just a state of mind ， not a reality 这只是一种心情而不是现实。 - 6 The battle that will decide the future of the English is going on all round us. At this time of writing, we in England are in the middle of it. I must add that while Englishness can
41、still fight on, Admass could be winning. There are various reasons why this may be happening. To begin with, not all the English hold fast to Englishness. Some important and influential men carefully train * themselves out of it - politicians, academics, bureaucrats, ambitious financiers and industr
42、ialists, can be found among these men - and a horde of others, shallow and foolish, wander away from it, shrugging off their inheritance. Englishness is not as strong as it was even thirty years ago. It needs to be nourished by a sense of the dignity and possible destiny of mankind. It must have som
43、e moral capital to draw upon, and soon it may be asking for an overdraft . The Zeitgeist seems to be working for Admass. So does most of what we read and what we hear. Even our inflation, which keeps everybody nudging everybody for more money, is often seen not as a warning, not as an enemy of the g
44、enuine good life, but as a proof that we need more and not less Admass. 决定英国人的未来的战斗正在我们周围进 行 着 。就在本人撰写本文的时候，我们英国人 正处于激战之中。本人还要补充说明的是，尽管英国人特性目前尚能在战斗中坚持下去 ，但 最终取胜的可能还是商业广告推销。之所以会出现这种结果，其原因是多种多样的。首先， 并不是每一个英国人都牢固地保持着英国人特性。一些有权势有影响的人物正处心积 虑 地 设 法使自己摆脱它 这些人中有政客、有文人、 有官僚、 有野心勃勃的金融家和企业家一一 而另外还有一大群浅薄愚鲁的人也丢掉了它随随便便地抛弃了自己的传统。英国人特性的 影响力连三十年前也比不上了。它需要用人们对于人类的尊严和命运的认识来培育和加强。 它必须拥有一些可以支取的道德资本，而且不久以后就有可能要求透支。?时代精神 ?似乎在 为商业广告推销推波 助澜，我们所读到和听到的东西，一多半都是如