评论
打印
Mr Houghton thought with his neck.
霍顿先生是用他的脖子在思考。
This was my introduction to the nature of what is commonly called thought. Through him I discovered that thought is often full of unconscious prejudice, ignorance and hypocrisy. It will lecture on disinterested purity while its neck is being remorselessly twisted toward a skirt. Technically, it is about as proficient as most businessmen's golf, as honest as most politicians' intentions, or as coherent as most books that get written. It is what I came to call grade-three thinking, though more properly, it is feeling, rather than thought.
这就是我对人们通常称之为思考的本质的最初体验。透过霍顿先生，我发现思考经常充斥着无意识的偏见、无知和虚伪。这类思考者会一边滔滔不绝于清心寡欲的纯洁，而他们的脖子却不依不饶地扭向外面的短裙。严格地说，他脖子的动作就和大多数生意人打高尔夫一样地熟练，就和大多数政客的用意一样的诚实，就像大多数的图书一样条理清楚。我把这称为第三级思考，然而，更为准确地说是感觉，而非思考。
True, often there is a kind of innocence in prejudices, but in those days I viewed grade-three thinking with contempt and mockery. I delighted to confront a pious lady who hated the Germans with the proposition that we should love our enemies. She taught me a great truth in dealing with grade-three thinkers; because of her, I no longer dismiss lightly a mental process which for nine tenths of the population is the nearest they will ever get to thought. They have immense solidarity. We had better respect them, for we are outnumbered and surrounded. A crowd of grade-three thinkers, all shouting the same thing, all warming their hands at the fire of their own prejudices, will not thank you for pointing out the contradictions in their beliefs. Man enjoys agreement as cows will graze all the same way on the side of a hill.
诚然，偏见里也常包含有一种天真无邪，但在那时，我是用一种轻蔑和嘲笑的态度来对待第三级思考的。我很高兴能当面向一位虔诚的却仇恨德国人的女士指出《圣经》主张我们应该热爱敌人。她让我明白了一个在同第三级思考者打交道时的真理；因为她，我不再轻易放弃第三级的思考过程，而那对十分之九的人来说是他们所能达到的最接近思考的程度。他们惊人的团结。我们最好尊重他们，因为他们的人数超过了我们，我们被他们包围着。这许许多多的第三级思考者们拥有相同的口号，就像在炉火上烤手一样，因为彼此拥有相同的偏见而感到快乐和满足，但并不会因为你指出了他们的信仰中的矛盾之处而感谢你。人类喜欢彼此意见统一，就像牛群会以同样的方式在山坡上吃草一样。
