评论
打印
In general, our society is becoming one of giant enterprises directed by a bureaucracy in which man becomes a small, well-oiled cog in the machinery. The oiling is done with higher wages, fringe benefits, well-ventilated factories and piped music, and by psychologists and "human relations" experts ; yet all this oiling does not alter the fact that man has become powerless, that he does not wholeheartedly participate in his work and that he is bored with it. In fact, the blue-and the white-collar workers have become economic puppets who dance to the tune of automated machines and bureaucratic management.
从总体上看，我们的社会正演变为一个由官僚机构指挥的庞大企业，而人在这架机器成了一只上好润滑油的小小齿轮。所用的润滑油就是较高的工资、附加福利、通风良好的厂房 和扬声器播送的音乐，上油的是心理学家和"人际关系"专家。但所有这些使齿轮运转的措施都不能改变人已丧失权力的事实、不会全心全意投人工作而且对工作感到厌倦的事实。实际上，蓝领与白领工人都成了经济舞台上跟着自动化机器和官僚式管理的指挥棒转的木偶。
The worker and employee are anxious, not only because they might find themselves out of a job (and with installment payments due); they are anxious also because they are unable to acquire any real satisfaction or interest in life. They live and die without ever having confronted the fundamental realities of human existence as emotionally and intellectually productive, authentic and independent human beings.
工人和雇员都焦虑不安，这不仅因为他们有可能失业(况且还欠着分期支付的款项），还因为他们无法获得一点人生真正的满足与乐趣。他们一生都未能做一个感情丰富、极具才智的 人，独立自主的真正的人，去面对人生重大的现实问题。
Those higher up on the social ladder are no less anxious. Their lives are no less empty than those of their subordinates. They are even more insecure in some respects. They are in a highly competitive race. To be promoted or to fall behind is not only a matter of salary but even more a matter of self-esteem. When they apply for their first job, they are tested for intelligence as well as for the right mixture of submissiveness and independence. From that moment on they are tested again and again — by the psychologists, for whom testing is a big business, and by their superiors, who judge their behavior, sociability, capacity to get along, etc., their own and that of their wives. This constant need to prove thatone is as good as or better than one’s fellow-competitor creates constant anxiety and stress, the very causes of unhappiness and psychosomatic illness.
那些在社会阶梯上爬得较高的人也同样焦虑不安，他们的生活和他们下属的生活同样空虚。在某些方面他们甚至更加缺少安全感，这是因为他们处于激烈的竞争之中。获得晋升还是落在后面，这不但是个薪金多少的问题，而且更是个关系到自尊心的问题。他们在申请第一份工作时,雇主就要测试他们的智力，还要考查他们是否能把顺从与独立恰到好处地融为一体。从那一刻起，他们一次次地接受测试。测试者有心理学家；对这些人来说，测试是笔大买卖。他们的上司也是测试者，评判他们举止如何、是否喜欢交际以及能否与人和睦相处等等。 除了测试他们本人，还要测试他们的太太。他们必须得一再证明自己与竞争对手旗鼓相当或者更胜一筹,以致他们经常感到焦虑不安、压力重重。这正是造成他们不幸和致使他们罹患身心疾病的原因。
