主题：【原创】炮打工业党：《论工业社会及其未来》 -- 万年看客

SURROGATE ACTIVITIES

替代性活动

38. But not every leisured aristocrat becomes bored and demoralized. For example, the emperor Hirohito, instead of sinking into decadent hedonism, devoted himself to marine biology, a field in which he became distinguished. When people do not have to exert themselves to satisfy their physical needs they often set up artificial goals for themselves. In many cases they then pursue these goals with the same energy and emotional involvement that they otherwise would have put into the search for physical necessities. Thus the aristocrats of the Roman Empire had their literary pretensions; many European aristocrats a few centuries ago invested tremendous time and energy in hunting, though they certainly didn't need the meat; other aristocracies have competed for status through elaborate displays of wealth; and a few aristocrats, like Hirohito, have turned to science.

38，但是并非所有有闲贵族都会变得厌倦而意气消沉。例如裕仁天皇就没有沉湎于颓废的享乐主义，而是投身于海洋生物学并取得了相当的成就。当人们不必为了满足物质需求而发挥能力时，他们经常为自己设定人为目标。在很多情况下他们为了追求这些目标而投入的精力与感情就像其他人为了获取物质必需品所进行的投入一样。因此罗马贵族会用文学修饰自己；几个世纪以前的许多欧洲贵族投入大量的时间与精力来打猎，尽管他们肯定不缺肉食；其他贵族则通过展示财富来进行社会地位的比拼；还有少数贵族转向了科学领域，例如裕仁天皇。

39. We use the term "surrogate activity" to designate an activity that is directed toward an artificial goal that people set up for themselves merely in order to have some goal to work toward, or let us say, merely for the sake of the "fulfillment" that they get from pursuing the goal. Here is a rule of thumb for the identification of surrogate activities. Given a person who devotes much time and energy to the pursuit of goal X, ask yourself this: If he had to devote most of his time and energy to satisfying his biological needs, and if that effort required him to use his physical and mental facilities in a varied and interesting way, would he feel seriously deprived because he did not attain goal X? If the answer is no, then the person's pursuit of a goal X is a surrogate activity. Hirohito's studies in marine biology clearly constituted a surrogate activity, since it is pretty certain that if Hirohito had had to spend his time working at interesting non-scientific tasks in order to obtain the necessities of life, he would not have felt deprived because he didn't know all about the anatomy and life-cycles of marine animals. On the other hand the pursuit of sex and love (for example) is not a surrogate activity, because most people, even if their existence were otherwise satisfactory, would feel deprived if they passed their lives without ever having a relationship with a member of the opposite sex. (But pursuit of an excessive amount of sex, more than one really needs, can be a surrogate activity.)

39，我们使用 “替代活动”这个名词来表示追求自行设立的人为目标的行为，人们之所以树立这些目标只是为了能够为之努力，或者说仅仅是为了追逐目标过程中的“满足感”。这是识别替代活动的关键。假设某人投入了大量时间和精力去追求目标x，你不妨问自己：如果他要投入大部分时间和精力来满足自己的生理需求，而且他需要以多种不同且有趣的方式发挥自己的体力与脑力，他是否会因为没能达到目标x而感到非常失落呢？如果答案是否定的，则此人对于目标X的追求就是替代活动。裕仁的海洋生物研究显然是替代活动，因为很肯定，如果裕仁要将他的时间花在有趣的非科学性任务上从而获取生活必需品，他不会因为自己不知道海洋动物的解剖结构和生命周期而感到失落。另一方面，性与爱的追求（打个比方）不是替代活动，因为大多数人即使在其他方面享受着令人满意的生活，如果终其一生没有与一名异性建立关系，依旧会感到失落。（但追求超出需要的过度性生活就是替代活动了）

40. In modern industrial society only minimal effort is necessary to satisfy one's physical needs. It is enough to go through a training program to acquire some petty technical skill, then come to work on time and exert very modest effort needed to hold a job. The only requirements are a moderate amount of intelligence, and most of all, simple OBEDIENCE. If one has those, society takes care of one from cradle to grave. (Yes, there is an underclass that cannot take physical necessities for granted, but we are speaking here of mainstream society.) Thus it is not surprising that modern society is full of surrogate activities. These include scientific work, athletic achievement, humanitarian work, artistic and literary creation, climbing the corporate ladder, acquisition of money and material goods far beyond the point at which they cease to give any additional physical satisfaction, and social activism when it addresses issues that are not important for the activist personally, as in the case of white activists who work for the rights of nonwhite minorities. These are not always pure surrogate activities, since for many people they may be motivated in part by needs other than the need to have some goal to pursue. Scientific work may be motivated in part by a drive for prestige, artistic creation by a need to express feelings, militant social activism by hostility. But for most people who pursue them, these activities are in large part surrogate activities. For example, the majority of scientists will probably agree that the "fulfillment" they get from their work is more important than the money and prestige they earn.

40。在现代工业社会中，只需付出很少的努力就足以满足自己的生理需求。只需要参加技能培训计划并学一点手艺，按时上下班，为了完成工作而投入最少的努力，这就足够了。唯一的要求是一般水平的智力以及单纯的服从，后者才是最重要的。如果你有这些特质，社会就会从摇篮到坟墓一直照顾你（的确，对于下层社会来说生存必需品的获得并不这么理所当然，但我们这里说的是主流社会）因此毫不奇怪的是，现代社会充满了替代活动。这些活动包括科研工作，运动成绩，人道主义工作，艺术和文学创作，企业升职，获取远远超出需要的金钱和物质财富直到它们无法带来任何额外的生理满足，还有参与社会活动，尽管活动所要解决的问题对于活动家个人来说并不重要，例如为了非白人少数族裔的权利而工作的白人活动家。这些行为并不总是单纯的替代活动，因为对很多人来说，他们的动机并不只是需要用来追求的目标。科学工作的动机可能是追求声望，艺术创作是为了表达感情，激进社会活动主义则受到了敌意的驱使。但对于大多数追求这些目标的人来说，这些活动在很大程度上是替代活动。例如，大多数的科学家们可能会同意他们从工作获得的“满足感”比他们所赚取的金钱和声望更重要。

41. For many if not most people, surrogate activities are less satisfying than the pursuit of real goals ( that is, goals that people would want to attain even if their need for the power process were already fulfilled). One indication of this is the fact that, in many or most cases, people who are deeply involved in surrogate activities are never satisfied, never at rest. Thus the money-maker constantly strives for more and more wealth. The scientist no sooner solves one problem than he moves on to the next. The long-distance runner drives himself to run always farther and faster. Many people who pursue surrogate activities will say that they get far more fulfillment from these activities than they do from the "mundane" business of satisfying their biological needs, but that it is because in our society the effort needed to satisfy the biological needs has been reduced to triviality. More importantly, in our society people do not satisfy their biological needs AUTONOMOUSLY but by functioning as parts of an immense social machine. In contrast, people generally have a great deal of autonomy in pursuing their surrogate activities. have a great deal of autonomy in pursuing their surrogate activities.

41。对于许多人（如果不是大多数人）来说，替代活动都不如追求真正的目标（也就是即使权力过程的需求已经满足之后依然希望获得的目标）那样令人满意。这一点的表现之一是，在许多或者大多数情况下，深入参与替代活动的人永远不会满足，从来没法休息。因此，商人不断致力于获取越来越多的财富。科学家刚解决了一个问题就又着手解决下一个。长跑运动员总是驱使自己跑得更远更快。很多追求替代活动的人会说他们从这些活动中得到的满足感远远多从“平凡”的工作或生理需求的满足，但是这是因为在我们的社会满足生理需求所需要的努力已经降低到了不值一提的程度。更重要的是，在我们的社会中，人们满足生理需求的方式并非自主，而是充当巨大社会机器零件。相反，在追求自己的替代活动时人们普遍有很大的自主性。