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 cosmopolitanpolitical terms, the usual Left-Centre-Right stuff, is almost alwayswasting time and trouble. The English are different. The English areeven more different than they think
2、 they are, though not moredifferent than they feel they are. And what they feel Englishnessagain - is more important than what they think. It is instinctivefeeling and not rational thought that shapes and colours actualevents 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的话，那多半是白费时间，徒耗精力
3、。 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 ；notnational or local 世界性的；不限于国家或地区范围的-2 For example, although the English seem to be so sharpl
4、ydivided, always indulging in plenty of loud political abuse, there arenothing like so many Communists or neo- or potential Fascists inEngland as there are in most other countries. Again, although theEnglish seem to have more than their share of rallies , protestmarches, confrontations with authorit
5、y, what could begin to looklike a murderous encounter in France or America, or might be abloody street battle in Japan, would in England end at the worst ina few scuffle s and arrests. This is because there are fewer fanaticalbelievers among the English, and at the same time, below the noisyargument
6、s, the abuse and the quarrels, there is a reservoir ofinstinctive fellow-feeling, not yet exhausted though it may not be*filling up. Not everybody can draw on that reservoir. No doubtthere are in England some snarl ing shop steward s who demandfreedom for the workers when what they really want is to
7、 bring thewhole system crashing down, together with every guarantee ofliberty. No doubt there are wealthy employers who smile at the TVcameras and declare that all they desire is the friendliest relationwith their work force, when at heart they would like to take a whipto the whole idle troublesome
8、mob of them. But there are notmany of these men, either on the board or the shop floor, and theyare certainly not typical English. Some cancer in their character haseaten 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
9、、 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
10、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.) : a rough ，confused fight ；close ，haphazar
11、d 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 establishmentto speak for them to the management and to watc
12、h 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 withmanagement 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 ont11eir 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 Th
13、e real English, who are different who, have inheritedEnglishness and have not yet thrown away their inheritance, cannotfeel at home in the contemporary world, representing theaccelerate d development of our whole age. It demands bigness,and they are suspicious of bigness. (And there is now not onlyI
14、ndustrial bigness; there is also Scientific bigness, needing moreand more to discover less and less.) Clearly everything cannot bedone by smallish and reasonably human enterprises. No cosyshipyard can undertake to build a 150,000-ton ship, though we maynot be in our right minds if we want such a shi
15、p. But it is safe to saythat while Englishness may reluctantly accept bigness, its monstersare never heartily welcomed. They look all right in America, itself solarge, but seem altogether out of scale in England. Along with thedemand for bigness goes a demand for severe efficiency, oftenquite ration
16、al but not reasonable, therefore alien to Englishness. Afurther necessary demand, to feed the monster with higher andhigher figures and larger and larger profits, is for enormousadvertising campaigns and brigades of razor-keen salesmen. Finally,from the monster and all its spokesmen comes a message,
17、endlessly repeated. It runs more or less as follows: u ought to be Yohappy. But you are not happy. You can be happy, though, if youbuy what we are making for you. And a postscript might be addedfrom Iago: Put money in 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
18、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
19、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： ?把钱都装进你的口袋吧。 ?accelerate (v.) : cause to develop or progress more quickl
20、y 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 it is safe to say something ，it may be said with-out exaggeration orfalsehood 可以肯
21、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 passit 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 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
22、 on. I willalso announce what the future of the English hangs upon, while atthe same time, unlike almost everybody else, keep ing well clear ofeconomics. It hangs upon the final result of a battle that has beengoing on for some years now and that explains why the Englishseem so odd, eccentric, unsat
23、isfactory, not only abroad but to manypersons at home. It is a battle that is being fought in the minds ofthe English. It is between Admass, which has already conqueredmost of the Western world, and Englishness, ailing andimpoverish ed , in no position to receive vast subsidies of dollars,francs, de
24、utschmarks and the rest, for public relations andadvertising campaigns. The triumphs of Admass can be plainlyseen. It operates in the outer visible world, where it offers more andmore things - for more and more money of course - and createsthe so- called GoodLife Ag.ainst this, at least superficiall
25、y,Englishness seems a poor shadowy show - a faint pencil sketchbeside a poster in full colour - belonging as it really does to theinvisible inner world, merely offering states of mind in place of thatrich variety of things. But then while things are important, states ofmind are even more important.我
26、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
27、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 ；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-post
28、er (n.) : a relatively large printed card or sheet of paper ，often illustrated ，posted toadvertise or publicize something 海报；张贴的大幅广告-keep clear of sth : avoid or refrain from stll 避开，离着例： Keep clear of that area! 不要去那个地方 !-5 It is easy to understand why there should be this conflictbetween Admass an
29、d Englishness. What is central to Admass isthe production and consumption of goods. If there is enough ofthis though of course there never is, because dissatisfaction isbuilt into Admass - there will be sufficient money to pay for its Good Life . But it is worth noting along the way that while Ameri
30、cahas been for many years the chief advocate of Admass, Americahas shown us too many desperately worried executives droppinginto early graves, too many exhausted salesmen taking refuge inbars and breaking up their homes, too many workmen sufferingfrom monotony or time-and-motion studies and wonderin
31、g howthe hell they got into these traps. And America, to its credit, canalso show us a lot of sensible men and women who havedenounced all this and have walked out of it. But this book is aboutthe English, not the Americans. Now Englishness, with its relationto the unconscious, its dependence upon i
32、nstinct and intuition,cannot break its links with the past: it has deep long roots. Beingitself a state of mind , it cannot ignore other states of mind andcannot help feeling that Admass, with its ruthless competitiveness,its idea of man simply as a producer and consumer, its dependenceupon dissatis
33、faction, greed and envy, must be responsible for badand not good states of mind. Furthermore, while Englishness is nothostile to change, it is deeply suspicious of change for change ssake, rejecting the idea that we are now committed to someinevitable mechanical progress. Here we might take a concre
34、teexample. Englishness would support an immediate demand, at theexpense of many other things, for more and better housing.Without adequate shelter and a decent place to call their own,people feel wretched. But people in England, not a big country, donot have to have more and more and larger and larg
35、er cars, withlonger and wider motorways, wrecking the countryside, to take thecars. If they think they do, this is Admass at work. People havewanted houses for centuries, and cars of their own only for a veryshort time. To put cars and motorways before houses seems toEnglishness a communal imbecilit
36、y .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 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
37、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
38、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 s
39、peaks 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 ofbliss ，in a state of 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 th
40、e future of the English is goingon all round us. At this time of writing, we in England are in themiddle of it. I must add that while Englishness can still fight on,Admass could be winning. There are various reasons why this maybe happening. To begin with, not all the English hold fast toEnglishness
41、. Some important and influential men carefully trainthemselves out of it - politicians, academics, bureaucrats, ambitiousfinanciers and industrialists, can be found among these men - and ahorde of others, shallow and foolish, wander away from it,shrugging off their inheritance. Englishness is not as
42、 strong as itwas even thirty years ago. It needs to be nourished by a sense ofthe dignity and possible destiny of mankind. It must have somemoral capital to draw upon, and soon it may be asking for anoverdraft . The Zeitgeist seems to be working for Admass. So doesmost of what we read and what we hear. Even our inflation, whichkeeps everybody nudging everybody for more money, is often seennot as a warning, not as an enemy of the genuine good life, but as aproof 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
