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lations" experts; yet all this oiling does not alter the fact that man has become power-
less, that he does not wholeheartedly participate in his work and that he is bored with it. In fact ,
the blue-and the white-collar workers have become economic puppets who dance to the tune of au-
tomated machines and bureaucratic management .
The worker and employee are anxious, not only because they might find themselves out of a
job; they are anxious also because they are unable to acquire any real satisfaction or interest in
life. They live and die without ever having confronted the fundamental realities of human exis-
tence as emotionally and intellectually independent and productive human beings.
Those higher up on the social ladder are no less anxious. Their lives are no less empty than
those of their subordinates. They are even more insecure in some respects. They are in a highly
competitive race. To be promoted or to fall behind is not a matter of salary but even more a matter
of self-respect. When they apply for their first job, they are tested for intelligence as well as for
the tight mixture of submissiveness and independence. From that moment on they are tested a-
gain and again-by the psychologists, for whom testing is a big business, and by their superiors,
who judge their behavior, sociability, capacity to get along , etc. This constant need to prove that
one is as good as or better than one' s fellow-competitor creates constant anxiety and stress, the
very causes of unhappiness and illness.
Am I suggesting that we should return to the preindustrial mode of production'or to nine-
teenth-century "free enterprise" capitalism? Certainly not. Problems are never solved by returning
to a stage which one has already outgrown. I suggest transforming our social system from a bu-
reaucratically managed industrialism in which maximal production and consumption are ends in
themselves into a humanist industrialism in which man and full development of his potentialities-
those of love and of reason-are the aims of all social arrangements. Production and consumption
should serve only as means to this end, and should be prevented from ruling man.
36. By "a well-oiled cog in the machinery" the author intends to render the idea that man is
A. a necessary part of the society though each individual's上一页 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] ... 下一页 >> |
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