評論
打印
What follows does apply to old-age pensioners, to people still overworked and underpaid, to all the English who have some integrity, some individual judgment and real values.
下面所說的情況不適用于上了年紀的退休人員，不適用于那些仍然在多勞少得的人，也不適用于所有那些具有正直的品格、獨立的判斷力和正確的價值觀的英國人。
Far too many of the other English-though 1 don't say a majority-are sloppy people.
其余的英國人中有許多-雖不能說是大多數一都是一些馬大哈式的人物。
They are easy to get along with, rarely unkind, but they are not dependable; they are inept,shiftless, slovenly , messy.
他們容易相處，通常都是和和氣氣的，但就是不可信賴。他們平庸無能，懶懶散散，辦事草率，拖泥帶水。
This is not entirely their own fault.
這也不完全是他們自己的過錯。
Unlike their fathers or grandfathers, they have not been disciplined by grim circumstances.
和自己的父輩或祖輩們不一樣，他們沒有經受過嚴峻環境的鍛煉。
They are no longer facing starvation if they don't work properly or go on strike, no longer told to clear out if they aren't properly respectful and start answering back, no longer find themselves the victims of too many hard facts.
他們不再會因為干活馬虎或參加罷工而面臨挨餓的威脅，不再會因為對上司不恭或無禮頂撞而被攆出去，不再發現自己成為許多嚴酷事實的犧牲品了。
And this, in my opinion, is how things should be in a civilized society.
在我看來，這正是文明社會中應有的現象。
But people who have been liberated from the harsh discipline of circumstance should then move on to acquire some measure of self-discipline.
但人們從嚴酷的環境約束中解放出來之后就應該努力學會一些自我約束的方法。
Without self- discipline a man cannot play an adequate part in a civilized society: he will be just slopping around, accepting no responsibility, skimping the work he is supposed to be doing, cheating not only the bosses, the capitalists, but even his neighbours.
一個人沒有自我約束，便不能在文明社會中充分發揮作用，而只能無所事事地混日子，什么責任也不承擔，工作起來馬馬虎虎，敷衍塞責，不但欺騙老板、資本家，甚至連自己的左鄰右舍也一樣欺騙。
And unless he is an unusual type, he will not even find much satisfaction in this scrounging messy existence, which does nothing for a man's self-respect.
除非他屬于某種不一般的類型，他甚至對自己這種有損于人的自尊的不勞而獲的混帳生活都不會感到太大的滿足。
