评论
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:
目前的西方文明尤为脆弱，因为我们物质上的富裕既没有给我们带来心灵上的平和，也没有给我们带来精神上的安宁。—位亚洲作家用十分坦率的语言这样描写我们的困境：
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.
你们把自己成千上万的器具叫做“省力的机械”，但是你们永远那么“忙碌”。随着你们机器的不断增加，你们变得越来越疲劳、焦虑、紧张、不满。不管你们有什么，你们都还想再要更多；不管你们在哪里，你们仍想到别的什么地方去……你们的各种器具既不省时，也拯救不了你们的灵魂。它们就像很多尖尖的马刺，迫使你们发明更多的机器，经营更多的业务。
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.
这段话向我们指出了我们文明的问题所在。我们不能对其置之不理，将其看成某个东方思想家由于嫉妒西方的繁荣而做出的带有偏见的指责。我们无法逃脱这样的谴责。
