評論
打印
This is the world out of which grows the hope, for the first time in history, of a society where there will be freedom from want and freedom from fear. Our very anxiety is born of our knowledge of what is now possible for each and for all. The number of people who consult psychiatrists today is not, as is sometimes felt, a symptom of increasing mental ill health, but rather the precursor of a world in which the hope of genuine mental health will be open to everyone, a world in which no individual feels that he need be hopelessly broken-hearted, a failure, a menace to others or a traitor to himself.
這是一個產生希望的世界，歷史上人們第一次可以希望生活在一個沒有貧困沒有恐懼的社會里。我們的焦慮之所以產生正是因為我們明了我們每個人以及我們大家現在可以做到什么程度。現在看精神科醫生的人數增加，并不像人們有時候所認為的那樣，是心理不健康上升的表現，相反，它預示著一個世界的到來，在這個世界中，所有人都有希望享有真正的心理健康，沒有人感到要絕望心碎，沒有人感到會成為一個失敗者，沒有人感到會對他人構成威脅或是背叛自己。
But if, then, our anxieties are actually signs of hope, why is there such a voice of discontent abroad in the land? I think this comes perhaps because our anxiety exists without an accompanying recognition of the tragedy which will always be inherent in human life, however well we build our world. We may banish hunger, and fear of sorcery, violence, or secret police; we may bring up children who have learned to trust life and who have the spontaneity and curiosity necessary to devise ways of making trips to the moon; we cannot — as we have tried to do — banish death itself.
但是，既然我們的焦慮實際上是希望的征兆，那為什么在這塊土地上到處有不滿的聲音呢？我想，或許這是因為在我們焦慮的同時沒有認識到，不管我們如何建設我們的世界，人生固有的悲劇永遠存在。我們可以驅逐饑餓，驅除對巫術、暴力和秘密警察的恐懼，我們可以養兒育女，讓他們學會相信生活并具有足夠的主動精神和好奇心想方設法到月球旅行，但是，我們不能，像我們嘗試想做的那樣，驅逐死亡本身。
