On Human Nature and Politics 中英

On Human Nature and Politics 论人性和政治Bertrand Russel1. Undoubtedly the desire for food has been, and still is, one of the main causes of great political events. But man differs from other animals in one very important respect, and that is that he has desires which are, so to speak, infinite, which can never be fully gratified, and which would keep him restless even in Paradise. The boa constrictor, when he has had an adequate meal, goes to sleep, and does not wake until he needs another meal. Human beings, for the most part, are not like this. When the Arabs, who had been used to living sparingly on a few dates, acquired the riches of the Eastern Roman Empire and dwelt in palaces of almost unbelievable luxury, they did not, on that account, become inactive. Hunger could no longer be a motive, for Greek slaves supplied them with exquisite viands at the slightest nod. But other desires kept them active: four in particular, which we can label acquisitiveness, rivalry, vanity and love of power.无疑，要得到食物的强烈欲望一直是并仍然是导致巨大政治事件的主要原因之一。

但人与其它动物有一个很重要的区别，那就是他有着可谓无尽头的欲望，永远不可能完全得到满足，即使到了天堂也会使他不得安宁。

巨蟒饱吃一顿后就睡觉，不到需要再吃一顿时不醒。

人大多不是这样。

当惯于靠吃几个椰枣节俭为生的阿拉伯人获得东罗马帝国的财富，居住在几乎令人难以置信的豪华宫殿中时，他们并未因此就闲居不动了。

饥饿不可能再是一个动机了，因为只需稍一颔首，希腊奴隶便奉上精美佳肴。

但是别的欲望使他们继续活动，主要有四种欲望，我们可称之为：占有欲，竞争欲，虚荣心，权力欲。

2. Acquisitiveness -- the wish to possess as much as possible of goods, or the title to goods -- is a motive which, I suppose, has its origin in a combination of fear with the desire for necessaries.占有欲——占有尽可能多的财产或财产的所有权——这一动机想来根源在于恐惧和拥有生活必需品的愿望的结合。

3. I once befriended two little girls from Esthonia, who had narrowly escaped death from starvation in a famine. They lived in my family, and of course had plenty to eat. But they spent all their leisure visiting neighbouring farms and stealing potatoes, which they hoarded. Rockefeller, who in his infancy had experienced great poverty, spent his adult life in a similar manner. Similarly the Arab chieftains on their silken Byzantine divans could not forget the desert, and hoarded riches far beyond any possible physical need. But whatever the psychoanalysis of acquisitiveness, no one can deny that it is one of the great motives -- especially among the more powerful, for, as I said before, it is one of the infinite motives. However much you may acquire you will always wish to acquire more; satiety is a dream which will always elude you.我曾经帮助过两个爱沙尼亚来的小姑娘，她们在一场饥荒中九死一生幸免饿死。

她们住在我家中，当然有足够的东西吃，但是她们却把闲暇时间用在到邻近的农场去偷土豆，然后贮藏起来。

洛克菲勒在童年时经受过极度的贫困，也以与此类似的方式度过他的成年岁月。

同样，坐在拜占庭帝国柔软光滑的长沙发上的阿拉伯酋长们也无法忘记沙漠，贮藏起远远超过肉体可能需要的财富。

但不论对占有欲作怎样的精神分析，没有人能够否认这是巨大的动机中的一个——特别是对较有权势的人更是如此，因为如前所说，这是一个无尽头的动机，不论你获得的有多么多，你永远还希望获得更多，完全的满足是一个你永远无法实现的梦。

4. But acquisitiveness, although it is the mainspring of the capitalist system, is by no means the most powerful of the motives that survive the conquest of hunger. Rivalry is a much stronger motive. Over and over again in Muhammadan history, dynasties have come to grief because the sons of a sultan by different mothers could not agree, and in the resulting civil war universal ruin resulted. The same sort of thing happens in modern Europe. When the British Government very unwisely allowed the Kaiser to be present at a naval review at Spithead, the thought which arose in his mind was not the one which we had intended. What he thought was, "I must have a Navy as good as Grandmamma's. And from this thought have sprungall our subsequent troubles. The world would be a happier place than it is if acquisitiveness were always stronger than rivalry. But in fact, a great many men will cheerfully face impoverishment if they can thereby secure complete ruin for their rivals. Hence the present level of taxation.虽然占有欲是资本主义制度的主要动力，但它却远不是征服了饥饿以后诸动机中最强大的一个。

竞争欲是一个强大得多的动机。

在伊斯兰教的历史上，一次又一次由于苏丹的不同妻子所生之子意见相左，·王朝遭难，在因此而生的内战中造成普遍的破坏。

同样一类的事情也在现代欧洲发生，当英国政府极不明智地允许德皇出席在斯匹特海德举行的检阅时，在德皇脑子里出现的想法并不是我们想要他有的想法。

他想的是：“我必须有一支与老奶奶的一样优秀的海军。

”我们此后的一切麻烦都来自这个想法。

如果占有欲总是强于竞争欲的话，世界将是一个比现在幸福的地方。

事实上，许多人会心甘情愿地去面对穷困，只要这样做能招致对手的彻底毁灭。

因此有了目前的税制。

5. Vanity is a motive of immense potency. Anyone who has much to do with children knows how they are constantly performing some antic and saying "Look at me". "Look at me" is one of the most fundamental desires of the human heart. It can take innumerable forms, from buffoonery to the pursuit of posthumous fame. There was a Renaissance Italian princeling who was asked by the priest on his deathbed if he had anything to repent of. "Yes," he said. "There is one thing. On one occasion I had a visit from the Emperor and the Pope simultaneously. I took them to the top of my tower to see the view, and I neglected the opportunity to throw them both down, which would have given me immortal fame." History does not relate whether the priest gave him absolution. One of the troubles about vanity is that it grows with what it feeds on. The more you are talked about, the more you will wish to be talked about. The condemned murderer who is allowed to see the account of his trial in the Press is indignant if he finds a newspaper which has reported it inadequately. And the more he finds about himself in other newspapers, the more indignant he will be with those whose reports are meagre. Politicians and literary men are in the same case. And the more famous they become, the more difficult the presscutting agency finds it to satisfy them. It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the influence of vanity throughout the range of human life, from the child of three to the potentate at whose frown the world trembles. Mankind have even committed the impiety of attributing similar desires to the deity, whom they imagine avid for continual praise.虚荣心是一个有着极大潜在力的动机。