社会主义下人的灵魂（十）

//emmm，翻了1w多字了啊，估计有1/3了吧…..暂时咕一段时间，搞点别的东西

And I have no doubt that it will be so. Up to the present, man has been, to a certain extent, the slave of machinery, and there is something tragic in the fact that as soon as man had invented a machine to do his work he began to starve. This, however, is, of course, the result of our property system and our system of competition. One man owns a machine which does the work of five hundred men. Five hundred men are, in consequence, thrown out of employment, and, having no work to do, become hungry and take to thieving. The one man secures the produce of the machine and keeps it, and has five hundred times as much as he should have, and probably, which is of much more importance, a great deal more than he really wants. Were that machine the property of all, every one would benefit by it. It would be an immense advantage to the community. All unintellectual labour, all monotonous, dull labour, all labour that deals with dreadful things, and involves unpleasant conditions, must be done by machinery. Machinery must work for us in coal mines, and do all sanitary services, and be the stoker of steamers, and clean the streets, and run messages on wet days, and do anything that is tedious or distressing. At present machinery competes against man. Under proper conditions machinery will serve man. There is no doubt at all that this is the future of machinery, and just as trees grow while the country gentleman is asleep, so while Humanity will be amusing itself, or enjoying cultivated leisure – which, and not labour, is the aim of man – or making beautiful things, or reading beautiful things, or simply contemplating the world with admiration and delight, machinery will be doing all the necessary and unpleasant work. The fact is, that civilisation requires slaves. The Greeks were quite right there. Unless there are slaves to do the ugly, horrible, uninteresting work, culture and contemplation become almost impossible. Human slavery is wrong, insecure, and demoralising. On mechanical slavery, on the slavery of the machine, the future of the world depends. And when scientific men are no longer called upon to go down to a depressing East End and distribute bad cocoa and worse blankets to starving people, they will have delightful leisure in which to devise wonderful and marvellous things for their own joy and the joy of everyone else. There will be great storages of force for every city, and for every house if required, and this force man will convert into heat, light, or motion, according to his needs. Is this Utopian? A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and, seeing a better country, sets sail. Progress is the realisation of Utopias.

而且我毫不怀疑未来会变成这样。时至今日，在某种程度上，人类已经成为了机器的奴隶。具有悲剧意味的是，当一个人的工作可以被机器取代时，他就面临着饥饿的威胁。而这，无疑是当前我们的财产制度和竞争机制的结果。一个人如果拥有一台能抵得上五百人的机器，那么同时就会有五百人面临着失业，他们饥肠辘辘，不得不走向偷窃的道路。更重要的是，那个拥有机器的人，将得到五百倍的产品，远远超过他真正需要的。只有那台机器属于集体，人们才能从中获益，它才能给社会做出巨大的贡献。而所有的非脑力劳动，手工制业，所有让人感到烦闷，沮丧的工作，甚至是令人不快的工作环境，都会被机器业给消除。机器可以挖煤，提供卫生服务，为蒸汽机添煤，打扫大街，在雨天送信，它可以做任何枯燥的事情。尽管如今机器是在和人们抢饭碗，但是在合适的条件下，机器将会全心全意为人民服务。这些都会在未来得到实现，就像树会生长，人会睡觉那样。人类将解放自身，享受闲暇。人们将有机会做美好的事，读有趣的书，人们将带着赞赏的眼光凝望这个世界。人们将不再需要体力劳动，而机器会承担所有必要的和令人不快的工作。这就是人类的目标。事实就是，文明离不开奴隶，而希腊人早就意识到了这一点。如果没有奴隶来做那些肮脏无趣的工作，就不会有文化和沉思。当然了，把人当作奴隶是荒谬的，不安全的，也是不道德的。只有用机器来代替奴隶，这个世界才有盼头。只有当科学家不再需要为了让濒临饿死的人多分到一点烂可可和破毛毯而去令人作呕的伦敦东区奔走呼告时，他们才会有闲暇做自己喜欢的事，才有机会设计出对所有人都有用的非凡杰作。每座城市都会拥有大量的力量。当有人需要时，这种力量会根据他的需求转变成光，转变成热量，转变成动力。这就是所谓的乌托邦吗？一张不包括乌托邦的世界地图是不值得人们去看的，因为它删去了那个人类永远在追求的王国。而一旦人类抵达了这里，就又会启程出发向下一个更美好的国度。人类的进步史，就是一部追求乌托邦的历史。