評論
打印
Western civilization is particularly vulnerable at this moment, for our material abundance has brought us neither peace of mind nor serenity of spirit. An Asian writer has portrayed our dilemma in candid terms:
目前的西方文明尤為脆弱，因為我們物質上的富裕既沒有給我們帶來心靈上的平和，也沒有給我們帶來精神上的安寧。—位亞洲作家用十分坦率的語言這樣描寫我們的困境：
You call your thousand material devices "labor-saving machinery," yet you are forever "busy." With the multiplying of your machinery you grow increasingly fatigued, anxious, nervous, dissatisfied. Whatever you have, you want more; and wherever you are, you want to go somewhere else... your devices are neither time-saving nor soul-saving machinery. They are so many sharp spurs which urge you on to invent more machinery and to do more business.
你們把自己成千上萬的器具叫做“省力的機械”，但是你們永遠那么“忙碌”。隨著你們機器的不斷增加，你們變得越來越疲勞、焦慮、緊張、不滿。不管你們有什么，你們都還想再要更多；不管你們在哪里，你們仍想到別的什么地方去……你們的各種器具既不省時，也拯救不了你們的靈魂。它們就像很多尖尖的馬刺，迫使你們發明更多的機器，經營更多的業務。
This tells us something about our civilization that cannot be cast aside as a prejudiced charge by an Eastern thinker who is jealous of Western prosperity. We cannot escape the indictment.
這段話向我們指出了我們文明的問題所在。我們不能對其置之不理，將其看成某個東方思想家由于嫉妒西方的繁榮而做出的帶有偏見的指責。我們無法逃脫這樣的譴責。
