評論
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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.
從總體上看，我們的社會正演變為一個由官僚機構指揮的龐大企業，而人在這架機器成了一只上好潤滑油的小小齒輪。所用的潤滑油就是較高的工資、附加福利、通風良好的廠房 和揚聲器播送的音樂，上油的是心理學家和"人際關系"專家。但所有這些使齒輪運轉的措施都不能改變人已喪失權力的事實、不會全心全意投人工作而且對工作感到厭倦的事實。實際上，藍領與白領工人都成了經濟舞臺上跟著自動化機器和官僚式管理的指揮棒轉的木偶。
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.
工人和雇員都焦慮不安，這不僅因為他們有可能失業(況且還欠著分期支付的款項），還因為他們無法獲得一點人生真正的滿足與樂趣。他們一生都未能做一個感情豐富、極具才智的 人，獨立自主的真正的人，去面對人生重大的現實問題。
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.
那些在社會階梯上爬得較高的人也同樣焦慮不安，他們的生活和他們下屬的生活同樣空虛。在某些方面他們甚至更加缺少安全感，這是因為他們處于激烈的競爭之中。獲得晉升還是落在后面，這不但是個薪金多少的問題，而且更是個關系到自尊心的問題。他們在申請第一份工作時,雇主就要測試他們的智力，還要考查他們是否能把順從與獨立恰到好處地融為一體。從那一刻起，他們一次次地接受測試。測試者有心理學家；對這些人來說，測試是筆大買賣。他們的上司也是測試者，評判他們舉止如何、是否喜歡交際以及能否與人和睦相處等等。 除了測試他們本人，還要測試他們的太太。他們必須得一再證明自己與競爭對手旗鼓相當或者更勝一籌,以致他們經常感到焦慮不安、壓力重重。這正是造成他們不幸和致使他們罹患身心疾病的原因。
