評論
打印
But if the truth can be found, there is no other system which will normally and habitually find so much truth. Until we have thoroughly understood this principle, we shall not know why we must value our liberty, or how we can protect and develop it.
不過，真理要是能夠為人發現，那就沒有其他體制可以正常和慣常地發現這類真理。只有在徹底理解了這條原則之后，我們才會懂得為什么必須珍惜我的自由或我們怎樣才能保護和發展這種自由。
Let us apply tJiis principle to the system of public speech in a totalitarian state. We may, without any serious falsification, picture a condition of affairs in which the mass of the people are being addressed through one broadcasting system by one man and his chosen subordinates. The orators speak. The audience listens but cannot and dare not speak back. It is a system of one-way communication; the opinions of the rulers are broadcast outwardly to the mass of the people. But nothing comes back to the rulers from the people except the cheers; nothing returns in the way of knowledge of forgotten facts, hidden feelings, neglected truths, and practical suggestions.
我們且把這條原則應用于一個極權國家公眾言論的體制。我們可以不做嚴重歪曲地想象這樣一個事態：通過廣播設備，一個人和由他選出的下屬在向民眾發表演講。演講者髙談闊論。聽眾靜聽而不能也不敢回嘴。這是一言堂的交流體制，統治者的意見向外廣播給民眾聽。除了喝彩聲，人民沒有任何聲音反饋給統治者；也沒有任何東西以了解遺忘的事實、隱藏的情緒、忽視的真相、實際的建議的途徑轉達回來。
But even a dictator cannot govern by his own one-way inspiration alone. In practice, therefore, the totalitarian rulers get back the reports of the secret police and of their party henchmen down among the crowd. If these reports are competent, the rulers may manage to remain in touch with public sentiment. Yet that is not enough to know what the audience feels. The rulers have also to make great decisions that have enormous consequences, and here their system provides virtually no help from the give-and-take of opinion in the nation. So they must either rely on their own intuition, which cannot be permanently and continually inspired, or, if they are intelligent despots, encourage their trusted advisers and their technicians to speak and debate freely in their presence.
不過即使一個獨裁者也無法單憑一言堂的授意實行統治。因此，實際上極權統治者們從秘密警察和安插在群眾中的黨徒親信那里弄回匯報內容。如果這些匯報內容是法定許可統治者有可能設法與公眾情緒保持一致。但是知道聽眾的感受還遠遠不夠，統治者還得做出具有巨大影響的重大決策，在這方面上他們的體制在全國進行意見交流過程中其實提供不了任何幫助。所以他們要么必須依靠手中的權力機構，而機構是無法永遠不斷地起激勵作用的，要么如果是聰明的專制君主的話，就鼓勵受到信賴的顧問和專家當面暢所欲言、自由辯論。
