The Unhappy American Way由刀豆文库小编整理，希望给你工作、学习、生活带来方便，猜你可能喜欢“fendibytheway尺寸”。
The Unhappy American Way [1 ]
By Bertrand Ruell
It used to be said that English people take their pleasures sadly.No doubt this would still be true if they had any pleasures to take, but the price of alcohol and tobacco in my country has provided sufficient external causes for melancholy.I have sometimes thought that the habit of taking pleasures sadly has croed the Atlantic, and I have wondered what it is that makes so many English-speaking people somber in their outlook in spite of good health and a good income.In the course of my travels in America I have been impreed by a kind of fundamental malaise which seems to me extremely common and which poses difficult problems for the social reformer.Most social reformers have held the opinion that, if poverty were abolished and there were no more economic insecurity, the millennium would have arrived.But when I look at the faces of people in opulent cars, whether in your country or in mine, I do not see that look of radiant happine which the aforesaid social reformers had led me to expect.In nine cases out of ten, I see instead a look of boredom and discontent and an almost frantic longing for something that might tickle the jaded palate.But it is not only the very rich who suffer in this way.Profeional men very frequently feel hopelely thwarted.There is something that they long to do or some public object that they long to work for.But if they were to indulge their wishes in these respects, they fear that they would lose their livelihood.Their wives are equally unsatisfied, for their neighbor, Mrs So-and-So, has gone ahead more quickly, has a better car, a larger apartment and grander friends.Life for almost everybody is a long competitive struggle where very few can win the race, and those who do not win are unhappy.On social occasions when it is derigueur to seem cheerful, the neceary demeanor is stimulated by alcohol.But the gaiety does not ring true and anybody who has just one drink too many is apt to lapse into lachrymose melancholy.One finds this sort of thing only among English-speaking people.A Frenchman while he is abusing the Government is as gay as a lark.So is an Italian while he is telling you how his neighbor has swindled him.Mexicans, when they are not actually starving or actually being murdered, sing and dance and enjoy sunshine and food and drink with a gusto which is very rare north of the Mexican frontier.When Andrew Jackson[2] conquered Pensacola from the Spaniards, his wife looked out of the window and saw the population enjoying itself although it was Sunday.She pointed out the scandal to her husband, who decreed that cheerfulne must cease forthwith.And it did.When I try to understand what it is that prevents so many Americans from being as happy as one
might expect, it seems to me that there are two causes, of which one goes much deeper than the other.The one that goes least deep is the neceity for subservience in some large organization.If you are an energetic man with strong views as to the right way of doing the job with which you are concerned, you find yourself invariably under the orders of some big man at the top who is elderly, weary and cynical.Whenever you have a bright idea, the bo puts a stopper on it.The more energetic you are and the more vision you have, the more you will suffer from the impoibility of doing any of the things that you feel ought to be done.When you go home and moan to your wife, she tells you that you are a silly fellow and that if you became the proper sort of yesman your income would soon be doubled.If you try divorce and remarriage it is very unlikely that there will be any change in this respect.And so you are condemned to gastric ulcers and premature old age.It was not always so.When Dr.Johnson[3] compiled his dictionary, he compiled it as he thought fit.When he felt like saying that oats is food for men in Scotland and horses in England, he said so.When he defined a fishing-rod as a stick with a fish at one end and a fool at the other, there was nobody to point out to him that a remark of this sort would damage the sale of his great work among fishermen.But if, in the present day, you are(let us say)a contributor to an encyclopedia, there is an editorial policy which is solemn, wise and prudent, which allows no room for jokes, no place for personal preferences and no tolerance for idiosyncrasies.Everything has to be flattened out except where the prejudices of the editor are concerned.To these you must conform, however little you may share them.And so you have to be content with dollars instead of creative satisfaction.And the dollars, alas, leave you sad.This brings me to the major cause of unhappine, which is that most people in America act not on impulse but on some principle, and that principles upon which people act are usually based upon a false psychology and a false ethic.There is a general theory as to what makes for happine and this theory is false.Life is concerned as a competitive struggle in which felicity consists in getting ahead of your neighbor.The joys which are not competitive are forgotten.Now, I will not for a moment deny that getting ahead of your neighbor is delightful, but it is not the only delight of which human beings are capable.There are innumerable things which are not competitive.It is poible to enjoy food and drink without having to reflect that you have a better cook and a better wine merchant than your former friends whom you are learning to cold shoulder.It is poible to be fond of your wife and your children without reflecting how much better she drees than Mrs.So-and-So and how much better they are at athletics than the children of that old stick-in-the-mud Mr.Such-and-Such.There are those who can enjoy music without thinking how cultured the other ladies in their women’s club will be thinking them.There are even people who can enjoy a fine day in spite of the fact that the sun shines on everybody.All these simple pleasures are destroyed as soon as competitivene gets the upper hand.But it is not only competitivene that is the trouble.I could imagine a person who has turned against competitivene and can only enjoy after conscious rejection of the competitive element.Such a person, seeing the sunshine in the morning, says to himself, “Yes, I may enjoy this and indeed I must, for it is a joy open to all.” And however bored he may become with the sunshine he goes on persuading himself that he is enjoying it because he thinks he ought to.“But,” you will say, “are you maintaining that our actions ought not to be governed by moral principles? Are you suggesting that every whim and every impulse should be given free rein? Do you consider that if So-and-So’s nose annoys you by being too long, that gives you a right to tweak it?” “Sir,” you will continue with indignation,” “your doctrine is one which would uproot all the sources of morality and loosen all the bonds which hold society together.Only self-restraint, self-repreion, iron self-control make it poible to endure the abominable beings among whom we have to live.No, sir!Better misery and gastric ulcers than such chaos as your doctrine would produce!”
I will admit at once that there is force in this objection.I have seen many noses that I should have liked to tweak, but never once have I yielded to the impulse.But this, like everything else, is a matter of degree.If you always yield to impulse, you are mad.If you never yield to impulse, you gradually dry up and very likely become mad to boot.In a life which is to be healthy and happy, impulse, though not allowed to run riot, must have sufficient scope to remain alive and to preserve that variety and diversity of interest which is natural to a human being.A life lived on a principle, no matter what, is too narrowly determined, too systematic and uniform, to be happy.However much you care about succe, you should have times when you are merely enjoying life without a thought of subsequent gain.However proud you may be, as president of a women’s club, of your impeccable culture, you should not be ashamed of reading a lowbrow book if you want to.A life which is all principle is a life on rails.The rails may help toward rapid locomotion, but preclude the joy of wandering.Man spent some million years wandering before he invented rails, and his happine still demands some reminiscence of the earlier ages of freedom.不幸福的美国方式
伯兰特·罗素
以前常有人说英国人用悲哀的方式享受快乐。倘若英国人现在仍然有乐可享，其情形无疑还是如此。不过，我的国家的烟酒价格，已经为忧郁提供了充足的外在根源。我有时想，悲哀地享受快乐的习惯业已漂洋过海，不知大西洋彼岸那些说英语的人，身体健康收入丰厚，为什么也忧郁不快。
我数度访美，每每被一种深切的不快感染。我好像特别容易感觉出不快，而这不快，也给社会改革者提出了一些费解的难题。大多数社会改革者认为，摒弃贫穷以后，经济有了保障，太平盛世便随之来临。可是，无论是你们国家还是我的国家，我看到那些豪华轿车里的人们
并没像前面那些社会改革家预计的那样，一脸容光，喜气洋洋。相反，我看到十之八九的人却是满脸厌烦和不满，或者是极度的物欲渴望。
也不是只有富有者才饱受如此之苦，工薪阶层也常有这样无望的挫败感。他们有自己想干的事业或奋斗的目标，但又唯恐会因太沉浸事业而失掉自己的生活。夫人们亦同样不满，因为邻家的夫人已远远走在前头，有了更好的车更大的房，交了更有身份的朋友。
生活对于每一个人，几乎都是一场长期的、充满竞争的较量。较量中，胜者寥寥，而没有取胜的人，定是闷闷不乐。气氛愉快的社交场上的欢悦的举止全是靠酒精刺激的，那愉快完全是一种假相，无论谁只要再多喝一杯，就会陷入极度的悲哀之中。
你只会在说英语的人群中发现这种情形。一个在谩骂政府的法国人说不定正乐得像个云雀；意大利人跟你抱怨邻居怎么欺骗他时，似乎也是乐呵呵的；墨西哥人只要还没饿死，没被谋杀，都会兴致勃勃的唱歌、跳舞，享受阳光、食物和美酒。这情景在墨西哥边界以北是很难见到的。当安德鲁·杰克逊从西班牙人手里占领彭萨科拉时，他夫人从窗口看到，虽然是礼拜天，人们却在尽情欢乐。夫人指给丈夫看这一丑行，丈夫下令立即停止欢乐，欢悦停止了。
我在试图弄清什么阻碍了如此众多的美国人获得预计的幸福时，觉得好像有两个原因在作祟，其中一个较深层的原因是，大部门里的人们必须具有从属性。假如你精力充沛，又很有见地，完全知道自己该怎么工作，却发现那个已上年纪却依然愤世嫉俗、令人讨厌的顶头上司总在对你指手画脚，你的思想被他扼制，精力越充沛，见解越独到，就越别想干出自己想干的事来。回家向妻子悲叹时，妻子说你笨蛋，告诫你对上司言听计从工资马上翻番。你离了这个老婆重找一个，情形并不会有所改观。你就像得了胃溃疡似的，未老先衰了。
也并不是凡事皆如此。约翰逊编字典时，就是自己认为怎么合适就怎么编的，他想说燕麦是苏格兰人吃的食粮、英格兰的马食，他就这样写进字典；他把鱼杆说成是一头钩着鱼儿一头连着傻瓜的棍子，并没有人指示他说，这样的词条会影响其字典在渔民中的销售量。但是现在的百科全书投稿者，可是要受到一个非常严格、非常明智和慎重的编辑政策的规范，编写的文稿不能带有丝毫玩笑成分，不能显露个人偏见和个人风格，一切都须统一规划，除非是编辑个人的偏见。无论你对此多么不以为然，你不得不遵循这些规则，因为钱能给你带来实惠，而成就感却不能。呵，钱！钱让你生出多少悲哀！
由此可见，美国人不幸福的主要原因，是因为大多数的美国人不是凭冲动而是凭原则行事，这原则往往又是建立在错误的心理学和道德观之上。人们普遍持有的如下这个幸福观，其实是一个完全错误的理论：生活是充满竞争的搏击，其幸福在于你能超越邻里。不含竞争的快乐早已被人遗忘掉了。
我暂时并不否认，超越邻里会给你带来快乐，但人类并不是只能感受这一种快乐，有很多事情是没有竞争性的。比如，你在品味食品和酒菜时，不见得会想着你的厨师和酒商的技术，比你现在冷待的旧友的厨师和酒商的高明。你与妻小享受天伦时，会老想着自己的老婆比那家的老婆穿得好、自己的孩子比那个固执的先生的孩子竞技水平高吗？欣赏音乐时，我们也可能并不在意妇女俱乐部的太太们是否嫌我们有无文化。甚至有人会快乐地享受着一日的阳光，尽管太阳照耀在每一个人身上。所有这些平常的快乐一旦受竞争主宰，其快乐感便荡然无存了。
其实，不仅是竞争本身令人烦恼。我们可以想象出一个开始反感竞争的人的初始状态，只有当他有意识地拒绝竞争因素以后，他才可能尽情享受乐趣。早晨见到阳光，他自言自语，“我可以享受阳光了。其实，是我必须享受阳光，因为阳光普照着每一个人。”这时无论他多么讨厌阳光，却一个劲儿告诫自己他在享受，因为他应该这样。
“但是，”你会反问我，“你是不是坚持认为人的行动不该受道德原则制约，人应该放纵每一个狂想、每一次冲动吗？某先生鼻子长得太长，你看不顺眼，有权拧他的鼻子吗？”你继而怒斥，“先生，你的学说会铲除一切道德根源，放松所有规范社会的约束的。人只有靠自我约束、自我抑制，方可忍受周围讨厌的人和事。不，先生！宁愿痛苦，宁愿得胃溃疡，都比你那学说将造成的混乱要好得多！”
我得赶紧解释的是，人的厌恶冲动，是受一定的力量控制的。想拧许多人的鼻子，但我从没屈服过自己的这种冲动，它和其他事情一样，有一个度的问题。如果你总是屈服于自己的冲动，你是一个疯子。如果你从不屈服冲动，你会逐渐失去创造力，也会变成疯子。健康和幸福的生活不允许冲动肆无忌惮，但必须给它留有足够的空间，保证人类生活兴趣的多样化。任何依据原则的生活总是因太局限、太规则、太无变化而无幸福可言。不管你怎么在乎成功，你应该有不问收获、专门享受生活的时刻。妇女俱乐部主席无论多么自豪自己的学养，想读不入流的书时完全可大胆去读，不必为此羞怯。过分依据原则的生活就像火车轨道的限制，轨道有助加速行进，但防碍了漫游的乐趣。人类在漫游了数万之年之后才发明了轨道，人类的幸福依然需要追忆早期的自由。
------------------
[1]伯兰特·罗素（1872 － 1970），英国 思想家、哲学家、数学家, 1950年获诺贝尔文学奖。罗素1950年获诺贝尔文学奖的演讲中指出，多数人的原始动机是获取、竞争。虚荣和权欲。本篇文章分析了他认为这些动机导致美国生活不幸的两大原因。
[2] 安德鲁·杰克逊（1767－1784），美国第7任总统。
[3] 塞缪尔·约翰逊（1709－1784），英国诗人，批评家，散文家和字典编撰家。（编辑：赵露）
（何朝阳，中国科学技术大学外语系）
