雲帆
雲帆

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七月忧思:从公民的不服从想起

7月,要读《独立宣言》和梭罗的《论公民的不服从》。

今年的7月,是怎样的日子。

新冠病毒在肆虐。美国单日新增冲上7万。许多海滩还是看到密密麻麻的人们。一些州过早过快重启后病例激增却不想停下重启的步伐。一些大学生开新冠party,为了嘲笑或者测试新冠疫情是否是民主党的阴谋。学校重开的战役也打响了,有人随之炮制出与民主党阴谋论相匹配的理论:孩子染疫后果严重是人们尤其是家长们新冠恐惧症的幻觉。

黑人生命也重要的抗议依然在进行。俄勒冈的妈妈们,包括大肚子的妈妈们,走上街头,站在联邦警察和抗议的人群之间,成立一堵妈妈墙。她们喊话联邦警察,让他们回家。她们无法,也不能喊话她们的孩子们回家,因为她们知道,抗议不公是所有人必须站出来的道德责任。当然,也有人在哀叹,美国还有言论自由吗?还有不站出来的自由吗?还有支持警察慰问警察的自由吗?

马丁·路德·金的亲密战友约翰·刘易斯去世了。在六十年代,为了争取到我们此时享有的居住、教育等平等民权,马丁·路德金遇刺,刘易斯被警察打到头骨开裂。

他们为公正付上了代价,为信仰付上了代价,为子孙后代包括我们在美国的华人付上了代价。我们是他们精神遗产的泽被者,虽然很多人不配,甚至还是背叛者,在用诡诈的言辞和行动去伤害那些继承他们精神遗产、不顾危险继续为公正付上代价的人。

这样的风起云涌,暴露出的却是历史交织成现实的伤口。

数十年繁荣,数十年霸业,全球驻兵和推行新自由主义经济,美国成就的是谁伤害的是谁,愚弄的是谁失望的是谁呢?

世界范围内资本与权力的媾和,成就的是世界资本与权贵的崛起。发达国家的资本,发展中国家的权贵。最终,资本即权贵,权贵即资本,完美对接和转化。

跟民主与自由,没有一分钱的关系。他们说“我们被骗了”,是“我们太romantic”了。实在是好听。对本国国民抱委屈,对他国国民报歉意。其实依然在表演,依然在欺骗。历史给他们以机会,但在每一个关键点,他们站边的都是资本,而不是民主自由。那年的风波,伊朗的权力更迭,拉美的颠覆,当局的选择与外交或情报处的表现不难查到。他们与他国权贵合谋收割的金钱是他们一路如何走来的见证。至于斩首的借口,听听就好。

现在他们似乎突然硬起来,仿佛“恍然大悟”,要掉头了,其实不过是资本与权力闹翻了,自己养来为自己捕食的老虎要吃自己了。以民主自由之名站在他们一边的人,如果是投机获利,可以理解,如果真以为自己为了民主自由献身,那就好笑了。人可以被欺骗一次,但为何还要一而再被欺骗呢?或许信了耶稣基督,或者保罗,相信万事相互效力?但是,那是为了叫爱神的人得益处。他们所爱的,究竟是什么?为虎作伥着实可恨,与虎谋皮也是妄想。

而国内资本与权力媾和,留下的是国民的凋敝,残酷的自我挣扎与沉沦。他们信奉的,就是这样。这是自由,在国家政府护航下资本的来去自由,但国家政府却不护航劳动者或者生民的生存自由。他们认为(借口?),基本保障会导致懒惰,会导致经济无活力。反对最低工资、反对基本生存保障、反对免费医疗、反对免费高等教育……新冠疫情几乎要击破美国经济,而共和党党鞭麦康奈尔依然以此为借口拒绝延长新冠疫情期间的失业补助金,数百万美国家庭将遭受重创。

国民受困,资本却能在全世界收割。全球化时代背景下,整个国家机器都在为资本在全世界自由收割服务。国民呢?自我挣扎。而且,美其名曰自由。

普遍的、不可剥夺的生命权、自由权和追求幸福的权力,被资本与权力绑架,成为一页发黄的纸上的文字,一张美丽的支票,但如今,要像马丁·路德·金那样去兑现,难上加难。隔离,从显性变为隐性,从肤色,又加上阶层。

白人乡巴佬的哀歌和黑人不能呼吸的跪杀,在华府与华尔街的辉煌照耀下,有本质的区别吗?

只是底层与最底层的伤与痛、悲与苦罢了。

早在2016年,远方的教皇就对着美国哀叹:贫困,贫困,触目惊心。

那时,美国刚刚从一场经济危机中走出来,经济数字,失业人数,似乎一切利好。甚至,对内有了全民医保的奥巴马care,尽管已经被反复修剪的面目全非;对外,有了安全脱身的TPP。

但教皇,看到了华美袍子的底下。美国中产的凋零,底层的挣扎,数十年累积而至的岌岌可危。

所谓世界最富庶的国家,最强大的国家,最自由的国家,“最文明”的国家,从远方看来,是一座光芒万丈的灯塔,而近处,却千疮百孔,摇摇欲坠。

几十年来得过且过。每一个危机,都修修补补,不动根本,不改方向,都积蓄力量,酝酿更大的危机。

繁华盛世,资本与权力把酒言欢,小人物被弃置于名利场之外,甚至知识与教育之外。

你问我这反智式抗疫的根源何在?你说可以追溯到野蛮的美国牛仔,可以追溯到英国发配来的反社会罪犯,可以追溯到僵化的清教徒。

我们真的需要追溯到那么远吗?70年代以来的保守主义意识形态渗透和新自由主义经济主导的生产分配结构,还不够吗?

一个一个危机被修补,被忽略。几十年来,没有人筹备,何以保底,何以避免动荡,何以避免同归于尽,无论民主党白宫还是共和党白宫。

2016年,《时代周刊》就刊文警告,美国走在大危机的路上。时候到了。

美国大危机,如同一头怪兽,在等待一个时机。

没有人会想到庆&丰巨变。

没有人会想到川普上台。

没有人会想到新冠到来。

更没有人会想到新冠在美国停不下来。

没有人想到经济大萧条竟这样到来。

这是一场完美风暴。

风暴摧毁的,不仅是十几万生命和与之相关的家庭。也不仅是川普虚张声势的选情。也不仅是美国的“灯塔”形象。风暴摧毁的,更是美国底层薄如蝉翼的生存底线,美国保守主义意识形态和新自由主义经济几十年苦心孤旨联手打造的美国发展模式。

有时候,我想,我们是否真的要感谢川普,让我们如此真切地看到这一切,虽然代价如此高昂。

美国方向究竟能否改变和如何改变还是未知数。几十年经营的思想、生产、分配、政治、教育、医疗等等,要调整方向,如何调整,都是一个系统工程,而且是动奶酪的系统工程,需要勇气,更需要科学,难度可想而知。

四年来,我们唯一可知的,或者美国大多数人基本已经达成共识的是,川普不是那个带领美国走出危险沼泽的人。他在白宫的存在,本身就是美国的危险。当然,因为白宫在世界上的地位,他在白宫的存在,也是世界的危险。

曾经的民主党候选人、麻州参议员沃伦“有一个计划”。她的计划是否可行,是否能在未来被采用?我不知道。但或许值得我们认真看看,想想,毕竟,她当年被奥巴马请去治理华尔街的时候可圈可点,在她宣布参选之前华尔街就闻讯变色、跟民主党在参议院的领袖舒默说:如果民主党提名沃伦,华尔街就不支持民主党夺回参议院,转而支持川普。

在新冠肆虐夺走十几万人性命和经济倒退到大萧条之际,或许,华尔街和两党议员们会基于自己的利益考量而有所不同?

而美国人,在这个七月,是否会想起《独立宣言》和《论公民的不服从》?在今后,是否还会秉承《独立宣言》和《论公民的不服从》精神,以固执地、抗议的姿态,要求政府兑现写在《宪法》上的承诺?

我相信会的。

行文至此,另有悲伤,却无法言及。只有举杯致敬,致敬所有为公义而挺身而出的抗议者了。

朋友说:“坐等天明。”

有时候,世人熙熙攘攘,并不知何谓光明何谓黑暗。你之为黑暗他之谓光明,你之谓光明他之谓黑暗。也或者,你看到黑暗,他说,瞧,这只是太阳黑子,不是还有大片光明吗?

罪恶之城被灭时在盛世,尼尼微险些被灭时在盛世,罗马倒下前岂不是也威震四海吗?问题是,这盛世,究竟是谁的盛世?

还有朋友拿来伟人的话:牢骚太盛防肠断。

恍兮惚兮,或许有人注定要守一点光亮,独坐待天明了。


附录:

Civil Disobedience

By Henry David Thoreau

1849

I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe- "That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for, in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure.

This American government- what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves. But it is not the less necessary for this; for the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have. Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage. It is excellent, we must all allow. Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way. For government is an expedient by which men would fain succeed in letting one another alone; and, as has been said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let alone by it. Trade and commerce, if they were not made of india-rubber, would never manage to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way; and, if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of their actions and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished with those mischievous persons who put obstructions on the railroads.

But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.

After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?- in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislation? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice. A common and natural result of an undue respect for law is, that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powder-monkeys, and all, marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay, against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart. They have no doubt that it is a damnable business in which they are concerned; they are all peaceably inclined. Now, what are they? Men at all? or small movable forts and magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous man in power? Visit the Navy-Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts- a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and standing, and already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniments, though it may be,

"Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,As his corse to the rampart we hurried;

Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot

O'er the grave where our hero we buried."



The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others- as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders- serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few- as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men- serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it. A wise man will only be useful as a man, and will not submit to be "clay," and "stop a hole to keep the wind away," but leave that office to his dust at least:

"I am too high-born to be propertied,

To be a secondary at control,

Or useful serving-man and instrument

To any sovereign state throughout the world."

He who gives himself entirely to his fellow-men appears to them useless and selfish; but he who gives himself partially to them is pronounced a benefactor and philanthropist.

How does it become a man to behave toward this American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slave's government also.

All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable. But almost all say that such is not the case now. But such was the case, they think, in the Revolution Of '75. If one were to tell me that this was a bad government because it taxed certain foreign commodities brought to its ports, it is most probable that I should not make an ado about it, for I can do without them. All machines have their friction; and possibly this does enough good to counterbalance the evil. At any rate, it is a great evil to make a stir about it. But when the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression and robbery are organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer. In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more urgent is the fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army.

Paley, a common authority with many on moral questions, in his chapter on the "Duty of Submission to Civil Government," resolves all civil obligation into expediency; and he proceeds to say that "so long as the interest of the whole society requires it, that is, so long as the established government cannot be resisted or changed without public inconveniency, it is the will of God... that the established government be obeyed- and no longer. This principle being admitted, the justice of every particular case of resistance is reduced to a computation of the quantity of the danger and grievance on the one side, and of the probability and expense of redressing it on the other." Of this, he says, every man shall judge for himself. But Paley appears never to have contemplated those cases to which the rule of expediency does not apply, in which a people, as well as an individual, must do justice, cost what it may. If I have unjustly wrested a plank from a drowning man, I must restore it to him though I drown myself. This, according to Paley, would be inconvenient. But he that would save his life, in such a case, shall lose it. This people must cease to hold slaves, and to make war on Mexico, though it cost them their existence as a people.

In their practice, nations agree with Paley; but does any one think that Massachusetts does exactly what is right at the present crisis?

"A drab of state, a cloth-o'-silver slut,

To have her train borne up, and her soul trail in the dirt."

Practically speaking, the opponents to a reform in Massachusetts are not a hundred thousand politicians at the South, but a hundred thousand merchants and farmers here, who are more interested in commerce and agriculture than they are in humanity, and are not prepared to do justice to the slave and to Mexico, cost what it may. I quarrel not with far-off foes, but with those who, near at home, cooperate with, and do the bidding of those far away, and without whom the latter would be harmless. We are accustomed to say, that the mass of men are unprepared; but improvement is slow, because the few are not materially wiser or better than the many. It is not so important that many should be as good as you, as that there be some absolute goodness somewhere; for that will leaven the whole lump. There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them; who, esteeming themselves children of Washington and Franklin, sit down with their hands in their pockets, and say that they know not what to do, and do nothing; who even postpone the question of freedom to the question of free trade, and quietly read the prices-current along with the latest advices from Mexico, after dinner, and, it may be, fall asleep over them both. What is the price-current of an honest man and patriot today? They hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes they petition; but they do nothing in earnest and with effect. They will wait, well disposed, for others to remedy the evil, that they may no longer have it to regret. At most, they give only a cheap vote, and a feeble countenance and God-speed, to the right, as it goes by them. There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man. But it is easier to deal with the real possessor of a thing than with the temporary guardian of it.

All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation, therefore, never exceeds that of expediency. Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men. When the majority shall at length vote for the abolition of slavery, it will be because they are indifferent to slavery, or because there is but little slavery left to be abolished by their vote. They will then be the only slaves. Only his vote can hasten the abolition of slavery who asserts his own freedom by his vote.

I hear of a convention to be held at Baltimore, or elsewhere, for the selection of a candidate for the Presidency, made up chiefly of editors, and men who are politicians by profession; but I think, what is it to any independent, intelligent, and respectable man what decision they may come to? Shall we not have the advantage of his wisdom and honesty, nevertheless? Can we not count upon some independent votes? Are there not many individuals in the country who do not attend conventions? But no: I find that the respectable man, so called, has immediately drifted from his position, and despairs of his country, when his country has more reason to despair of him. He forthwith adopts one of the candidates thus selected as the only available one, thus proving that he is himself available for any purposes of the demagogue. His vote is of no more worth than that of any unprincipled foreigner or hireling native, who may have been bought. O for a man who is a man, and, as my neighbor says, has a bone in his back which you cannot pass your hand through! Our statistics are at fault: the population has been returned too large. How many men are there to a square thousand miles in this country? Hardly one. Does not America offer any inducement for men to settle here? The American has dwindled into an Odd Fellow-one who may be known by the development of his organ of gregariousness, and a manifest lack of intellect and cheerful self-reliance; whose first and chief concern, on coming into the world, is to see that the almshouses are in good repair; and, before yet he has lawfully donned the virile garb, to collect a fund for the support of the widows and orphans that may be; who, in short, ventures to live only by the aid of the Mutual Insurance company, which has promised to bury him decently.

It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous, wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support. If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man's shoulders. I must get off him first, that he may pursue his contemplations too. See what gross inconsistency is tolerated. I have heard some of my townsmen say, "I should like to have them order me out to help put down an insurrection of the slaves, or to march to Mexico;- see if I would go"; and yet these very men have each, directly by their allegiance, and so indirectly, at least, by their money, furnished a substitute. The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by those who do not refuse to sustain the unjust government which makes the war; is applauded by those whose own act and authority he disregards and sets at naught; as if the state were penitent to that degree that it differed one to scourge it while it sinned, but not to that degree that it left off sinning for a moment. Thus, under the name of Order and Civil Government, we are all made at last to pay homage to and support our own meanness. After the first blush of sin comes its indifference; and from immoral it becomes, as it were, unmoral, and not quite unnecessary to that life which we have made.

The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most disinterested virtue to sustain it. The slight reproach to which the virtue of patriotism is commonly liable, the noble are most likely to incur. Those who, while they disapprove of the character and measures of a government, yield to it their allegiance and support are undoubtedly its most conscientious supporters, and so frequently the most serious obstacles to reform. Some are petitioning the State to dissolve the Union, to disregard the requisitions of the President. Why do they not dissolve it themselves- the union between themselves and the State- and refuse to pay their quota into its treasury? Do not they stand in the same relation to the State that the State does to the Union? And have not the same reasons prevented the State from resisting the Union which have prevented them from resisting the State?

How can a man be satisfied to entertain an opinion merely, and enjoy it? Is there any enjoyment in it, if his opinion is that he is aggrieved? If you are cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest satisfied with knowing that you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take effectual steps at once to obtain the full amount, and see that you are never cheated again. Action from principle, the perception and the performance of right, changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not consist wholly with anything which was. It not only divides States and churches, it divides families; ay, it divides the individual, separating the diabolical in him from the divine.

Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?

One would think, that a deliberate and practical denial of its authority was the only offence never contemplated by government; else, why has it not assigned its definite, its suitable and proportionate, penalty? If a man who has no property refuses but once to earn nine shillings for the State, he is put in prison for a period unlimited by any law that I know, and determined only by the discretion of those who placed him there; but if he should steal ninety times nine shillings from the State, he is soon permitted to go at large again.

If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth- certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.

As for adopting the ways which the State has provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much time, and a man's life will be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has not everything to do, but something; and because he cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he should do something wrong. It is not my business to be petitioning the Governor or the Legislature any more than it is theirs to petition me; and if they should not bear my petition, what should I do then? But in this case the State has provided no way: its very Constitution is the evil. This may seem to be harsh and stubborn and unconciliatory; but it is to treat with the utmost kindness and consideration the only spirit that can appreciate or deserves it. So is an change for the better, like birth and death, which convulse the body.

I do not hesitate to say, that those who call themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually withdraw their support, both in person and property, from the government of Massachusetts, and not wait till they constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the right to prevail through them. I think that it is enough if they have God on their side, without waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one already.

I meet this American government, or its representative, the State government, directly, and face to face, once a year- no more- in the person of its tax-gatherer; this is the only mode in which a man situated as I am necessarily meets it; and it then says distinctly, Recognize me; and the simplest, the most effectual, and, in the present posture of affairs, the indispensablest mode of treating with it on this head, of expressing your little satisfaction with and love for it, is to deny it then. My civil neighbor, the tax-gatherer, is the very man I have to deal with- for it is, after all, with men and not with parchment that I quarrel- and he has voluntarily chosen to be an agent of the government. How shall he ever know well what he is and does as an officer of the government, or as a man, until he is obliged to consider whether he shall treat me, his neighbor, for whom he has respect, as a neighbor and well-disposed man, or as a maniac and disturber of the peace, and see if he can get over this obstruction to his neighborliness without a ruder and more impetuous thought or speech corresponding with his action. I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name- if ten honest men only- ay, if one HONEST man, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this copartnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America. For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever. But we love better to talk about it: that we say is our mission, Reform keeps many scores of newspapers in its service, but not one man. If my esteemed neighbor, the State's ambassador, who will devote his days to the settlement of the question of human rights in the Council Chamber, instead of being threatened with the prisons of Carolina, were to sit down the prisoner of Massachusetts, that State which is so anxious to foist the sin of slavery upon her sister- though at present she can discover only an act of inhospitality to be the ground of a quarrel with her- the Legislature would not wholly waive the subject the following winter.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison. The proper place today, the only place which Massachusetts has provided for her freer and less desponding spirits, is in her prisons, to be put out and locked out of the State by her own act, as they have already put themselves out by their principles. It is there that the fugitive slave, and the Mexican prisoner on parole, and the Indian come to plead the wrongs of his race should find them; on that separate, but more free and honorable, ground, where the State places those who are not with her, but against her- the only house in a slave State in which a free man can abide with honor. If any think that their influence would be lost there, and their voices no longer afflict the ear of the State, that they would not be as an enemy within its walls, they do not know by how much truth is stronger than error, nor how much more eloquently and effectively he can combat injustice who has experienced a little in his own person. Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose. If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible. If the tax-gatherer, or any other public officer, asks me, as one has done, "But what shall I do?" my answer is, "If you really wish to do anything, resign your office." When the subject has refused allegiance, and the officer has resigned his office, then the revolution is accomplished. But even suppose blood should flow. Is there not a sort of blood shed when the conscience is wounded? Through this wound a man's real manhood and immortality flow out, and he bleeds to an everlasting death. I see this blood flowing now.

I have contemplated the imprisonment of the offender, rather than the seizure of his goods- though both will serve the same purpose- because they who assert the purest right, and consequently are most dangerous to a corrupt State, commonly have not spent much time in accumulating property. To such the State renders comparatively small service, and a slight tax is wont to appear exorbitant, particularly if they are obliged to earn it by special labor with their hands. If there were one who lived wholly without the use of money, the State itself would hesitate to demand it of him. But the rich man- not to make any invidious comparison- is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue; for money comes between a man and his objects, and obtains them for him; and it was certainly no great virtue to obtain it. It puts to rest many questions which he would otherwise be taxed to answer; while the only new question which it puts is the hard but superfluous one, how to spend it. Thus his moral ground is taken from under his feet. The opportunities of living are diminished in proportion as what are called the "means" are increased. The best thing a man can do for his culture when he is rich is to endeavor to carry out those schemes which he entertained when he was poor. Christ answered the Herodians according to their condition. "Show me the tribute-money," said he;- and one took a penny out of his pocket;- if you use money which has the image of Caesar on it, and which he has made current and valuable, that is, if you are men of the State, and gladly enjoy the advantages of Caesar's government, then pay him back some of his own when he demands it. "Render therefore to Caesar that which is Caesar's, and to God those things which are God's"- leaving them no wiser than before as to which was which; for they did not wish to know.

When I converse with the freest of my neighbors, I perceive that, whatever they may say about the magnitude and seriousness of the question, and their regard for the public tranquillity, the long and the short of the matter is, that they cannot spare the protection of the existing government, and they dread the consequences to their property and families of disobedience to it. For my own part, I should not like to think that I ever rely on the protection of the State. But, if I deny the authority of the State when it presents its tax-bill, it will soon take and waste all my property, and so harass me and my children without end. This is hard. This makes it impossible for a man to live honestly, and at the same time comfortably, in outward respects. It will not be worth the while to accumulate property; that would be sure to go again. You must hire or squat somewhere, and raise but a small crop, and eat that soon. You must live within yourself, and depend upon yourself always tucked up and ready for a start, and not have many affairs. A man may grow rich in Turkey even, if he will be in all respects a good subject of the Turkish government. Confucius said: "If a state is governed by the principles of reason, poverty and misery are subjects of shame; if a state is not governed by the principles of reason, riches and honors are the subjects of shame." No: until I want the protection of Massachusetts to be extended to me in some distant Southern port, where my liberty is endangered, or until I am bent solely on building up an estate at home by peaceful enterprise, I can afford to refuse allegiance to Massachusetts, and her right to my property and life. It costs me less in every sense to incur the penalty of disobedience to the State than it would to obey. I should feel as if I were worth less in that case.

Some years ago, the State met me in behalf of the Church, and commanded me to pay a certain sum toward the support of a clergyman whose preaching my father attended, but never I myself. "Pay," it said, "or be locked up in the jail." I declined to pay. But, unfortunately, another man saw fit to pay it. I did not see why the schoolmaster should be taxed to support the priest, and not the priest the schoolmaster; for I was not the State's schoolmaster, but I supported myself by voluntary subscription. I did not see why the lyceum should not present its tax-bill, and have the State to back its demand, as well as the Church. However, at the request of the selectmen, I condescended to make some such statement as this in writing:- "Know all men by these presents, that I, Henry Thoreau, do not wish to be regarded as a member of any incorporated society which I have not joined." This I gave to the town clerk; and he has it. The State, having thus learned that I did not wish to be regarded as a member of that church, has never made a like demand on me since; though it said that it must adhere to its original presumption that time. If I had known how to name them, I should then have signed off in detail from all the societies which I never signed on to; but I did not know where to find a complete list.

I have paid no poll-tax for six years. I was put into a jail once on this account, for one night; and, as I stood considering the walls of solid stone, two or three feet thick, the door of wood and iron, a foot thick, and the iron grating which strained the light, I could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up. I wondered that it should have concluded at length that this was the best use it could put me to, and had never thought to avail itself of my services in some way. I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through before they could get to be as free as I was. I did not for a moment feel confined, and the walls seemed a great waste of stone and mortar. I felt as if I alone of all my townsmen had paid my tax. They plainly did not know how to treat me, but behaved like persons who are underbred. In every threat and in every compliment there was a blunder; for they thought that my chief desire was to stand the other side of that stone wall. I could not but smile to see how industriously they locked the door on my meditations, which followed them out again without let or hindrance, and they were really all that was dangerous. As they could not reach me, they had resolved to punish my body; just as boys, if they cannot come at some person against whom they have a spite, will abuse his dog. I saw that the State was half-witted, that it was timid as a lone woman with her silver spoons, and that it did not know its friends from its foes, and I lost all my remaining respect for it, and pitied it.

Thus the State never intentionally confronts a man's sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength. I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest. What force has a multitude? They only can force me who obey a higher law than I. They force me to become like themselves. I do not hear of men being forced to have this way or that by masses of men. What sort of life were that to live? When I meet a government which says to me, "Your money or your life," why should I be in haste to give it my money? It may be in a great strait, and not know what to do: I cannot help that. It must help itself; do as I do. It is not worth the while to snivel about it. I am not responsible for the successful working of the machinery of society. I am not the son of the engineer. I perceive that, when an acorn and a chestnut fall side by side, the one does not remain inert to make way for the other, but both obey their own laws, and spring and grow and flourish as best they can, till one, perchance, overshadows and destroys the other. If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man.

The night in prison was novel and interesting enough. The prisoners in their shirt-sleeves were enjoying a chat and the evening air in the doorway, when I entered. But the jailer said, "Come, boys, it is time to lock up"; and so they dispersed, and I heard the sound of their steps returning into the hollow apartments. My room-mate was introduced to me by the jailer as "a first-rate fellow and a clever man." When the door was locked, he showed me where to hang my hat, and how he managed matters there. The rooms were whitewashed once a month; and this one, at least, was the whitest, most simply furnished, and probably the neatest apartment in the town. He naturally wanted to know where I came from, and what brought me there; and, when I had told him, I asked him in my turn how he came there, presuming him to be an honest man, of course; and, as the world goes, I believe he was. "Why," said he, "they accuse me of burning a barn; but I never did it." As near as I could discover, he had probably gone to bed in a barn when drunk, and smoked his pipe there; and so a barn was burnt. He had the reputation of being a clever man, had been there some three months waiting for his trial to come on, and would have to wait as much longer; but he was quite domesticated and contented, since he got his board for nothing, and thought that he was well treated.

He occupied one window, and I the other; and I saw that if one stayed there long, his principal business would be to look out the window. I had soon read all the tracts that were left there, and examined where former prisoners had broken out, and where a grate had been sawed off, and heard the history of the various occupants of that room; for I found that even here there was a history and a gossip which never circulated beyond the walls of the jail. Probably this is the only house in the town where verses are composed, which are afterward printed in a circular form, but not published. I was shown quite a long list of verses which were composed by some young men who had been detected in an attempt to escape, who avenged themselves by singing them.

I pumped my fellow-prisoner as dry as I could, for fear I should never see him again; but at length he showed me which was my bed, and left me to blow out the lamp.

It was like travelling into a far country, such as I had never expected to behold, to lie there for one night. It seemed to me that I never had heard the town clock strike before, nor the evening sounds of the village; for we slept with the windows open, which were inside the grating. It was to see my native village in the light of the Middle Ages, and our Concord was turned into a Rhine stream, and visions of knights and castles passed before me. They were the voices of old burghers that I heard in the streets. I was an involuntary spectator and auditor of whatever was done and said in the kitchen of the adjacent village inn- a wholly new and rare experience to me. It was a closer view of my native town. I was fairly inside of it. I never had seen its institutions before. This is one of its peculiar institutions; for it is a shire town. I began to comprehend what its inhabitants were about.

In the morning, our breakfasts were put through the hole in the door, in small oblong-square tin pans, made to fit, and holding a pint of chocolate, with brown bread, and an iron spoon. When they called for the vessels again, I was green enough to return what bread I had left; but my comrade seized it, and said that I should lay that up for lunch or dinner. Soon after he was let out to work at haying in a neighboring field, whither he went every day, and would not be back till noon; so he bade me good-day, saying that he doubted if he should see me again.

When I came out of prison- for some one interfered, and paid that tax- I did not perceive that great changes had taken place on the common, such as he observed who went in a youth and emerged a tottering and gray-headed man; and yet a change had to my eyes come over the scene- the town, and State, and country- greater than any that mere time could effect. I saw yet more distinctly the State in which I lived. I saw to what extent the people among whom I lived could be trusted as good neighbors and friends; that their friendship was for summer weather only; that they did not greatly propose to do right; that they were a distinct race from me by their prejudices and superstitions, as the Chinamen and Malays are; that in their sacrifices to humanity they ran no risks, not even to their property; that after all they were not so noble but they treated the thief as he had treated them, and hoped, by a certain outward observance and a few prayers, and by walking in a particular straight though useless path from time to time, to save their souls. This may be to judge my neighbors harshly; for I believe that many of them are not aware that they have such an institution as the jail in their village.

It was formerly the custom in our village, when a poor debtor came out of jail, for his acquaintances to salute him, looking through their fingers, which were crossed to represent the grating of a jail window, "How do ye do?" My neighbors did not thus salute me, but first looked at me, and then at one another, as if I had returned from a long journey. I was put into jail as I was going to the shoemaker's to get a shoe which was mended. When I was let out the next morning, I proceeded to finish my errand, and, having put on my mended shoe, joined a huckleberry party, who were impatient to put themselves under my conduct; and in half an hour- for the horse was soon tackled- was in the midst of a huckleberry field, on one of our highest hills, two miles off, and then the State was nowhere to be seen.

This is the whole history of "My Prisons."

I have never declined paying the highway tax, because I am as desirous of being a good neighbor as I am of being a bad subject; and as for supporting schools, I am doing my part to educate my fellow-countrymen now. It is for no particular item in the tax-bill that I refuse to pay it. I simply wish to refuse allegiance to the State, to withdraw and stand aloof from it effectually. I do not care to trace the course of my dollar, if I could, till it buys a man or a musket to shoot one with- the dollar is innocent- but I am concerned to trace the effects of my allegiance. In fact, I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make what use and get what advantage of her I can, as is usual in such cases.

If others pay the tax which is demanded of me, from a sympathy with the State, they do but what they have already done in their own case, or rather they abet injustice to a greater extent than the State requires. If they pay the tax from a mistaken interest in the individual taxed, to save his property, or prevent his going to jail, it is because they have not considered wisely how far they let their private feelings interfere with the public good.

This, then, is my position at present. But one cannot be too much on his guard in such a case, lest his action be biased by obstinacy or an undue regard for the opinions of men. Let him see that he does only what belongs to himself and to the hour.

I think sometimes, Why, this people mean well, they are only ignorant; they would do better if they knew how: why give your neighbors this pain to treat you as they are not inclined to? But I think again, This is no reason why I should do as they do, or permit others to suffer much greater pain of a different kind. Again, I sometimes say to myself, When many millions of men, without heat, without ill will, without personal feeling of any kind, demand of you a few shillings only, without the possibility, such is their constitution, of retracting or altering their present demand, and without the possibility, on your side, of appeal to any other millions, why expose yourself to this overwhelming brute force? You do not resist cold and hunger, the winds and the waves, thus obstinately; you quietly submit to a thousand similar necessities. You do not put your head into the fire. But just in proportion as I regard this as not wholly a brute force, but partly a human force, and consider that I have relations to those millions as to so many millions of men, and not of mere brute or inanimate things, I see that appeal is possible, first and instantaneously, from them to the Maker of them, and, secondly, from them to themselves. But if I put my head deliberately into the fire, there is no appeal to fire or to the Maker of fire, and I have only myself to blame. If I could convince myself that I have any right to be satisfied with men as they are, and to treat them accordingly, and not according, in some respects, to my requisitions and expectations of what they and I ought to be, then, like a good Mussulman and fatalist, I should endeavor to be satisfied with things as they are, and say it is the will of God. And, above all, there is this difference between resisting this and a purely brute or natural force, that I can resist this with some effect; but I cannot expect, like Orpheus, to change the nature of the rocks and trees and beasts.

I do not wish to quarrel with any man or nation. I do not wish to split hairs, to make fine distinctions, or set myself up as better than my neighbors. I seek rather, I may say, even an excuse for conforming to the laws of the land. I am but too ready to conform to them. Indeed, I have reason to suspect myself on this head; and each year, as the tax-gatherer comes round, I find myself disposed to review the acts and position of the general and State governments, and the spirit of the people, to discover a pretext for conformity.

"We must affect our country as our parents,

And if at any time we alienate

Our love or industry from doing it honor,

We must respect effects and teach the soul

Matter of conscience and religion,

And not desire of rule or benefit."


I believe that the State will soon be able to take all my work of this sort out of my hands, and then I shall be no better a patriot than my fellow-countrymen. Seen from a lower point of view, the Constitution, with all its faults, is very good; the law and the courts are very respectable; even this State and this American government are, in many respects, very admirable, and rare things, to be thankful for, such as a great many have described them; but seen from a point of view a little higher, they are what I have described them; seen from a higher still, and the highest, who shall say what they are, or that they are worth looking at or thinking of at all?

However, the government does not concern me much, and I shall bestow the fewest possible thoughts on it. It is not many moments that I live under a government, even in this world. If a man is thought-free, fancy-free, imagination-free, that which is not never for a long time appearing to be to him, unwise rulers or reformers cannot fatally interrupt him.

I know that most men think differently from myself; but those whose lives are by profession devoted to the study of these or kindred subjects content me as little as any. Statesmen and legislators, standing so completely within the institution, never distinctly and nakedly behold it. They speak of moving society, but have no resting-place without it. They may be men of a certain experience and discrimination, and have no doubt invented ingenious and even useful systems, for which we sincerely thank them; but all their wit and usefulness lie within certain not very wide limits. They are wont to forget that the world is not governed by policy and expediency. Webster never goes behind government, and so cannot speak with authority about it. His words are wisdom to those legislators who contemplate no essential reform in the existing government; but for thinkers, and those who legislate for all time, he never once glances at the subject. I know of those whose serene and wise speculations on this theme would soon reveal the limits of his mind's range and hospitality. Yet, compared with the cheap professions of most reformers, and the still cheaper wisdom and eloquence of politicians in general, his are almost the only sensible and valuable words, and we thank Heaven for him. Comparatively, he is always strong, original, and, above all, practical. Still, his quality is not wisdom, but prudence. The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency. Truth is always in harmony with herself, and is not concerned chiefly to reveal the justice that may consist with wrong-doing. He well deserves to be called, as he has been called, the Defender of the Constitution. There are really no blows to be given by him but defensive ones. He is not a leader, but a follower. His leaders are the men of '87- "I have never made an effort," he says, "and never propose to make an effort; I have never countenanced an effort, and never mean to countenance an effort, to disturb the arrangement as originally made, by which the various States came into the Union." Still thinking of the sanction which the Constitution gives to slavery, he says, "Because it was a part of the original compact- let it stand." Notwithstanding his special acuteness and ability, he is unable to take a fact out of its merely political relations, and behold it as it lies absolutely to be disposed of by the intellect- what, for instance, it behooves a man to do here in America today with regard to slavery- but ventures, or is driven, to make some such desperate answer as the following, while professing to speak absolutely, and as a private man- from which what new and singular code of social duties might be inferred? "The manner," says he, "in which the governments of those States where slavery exists are to regulate it is for their own consideration, under their responsibility to their constituents, to the general laws of propriety, humanity, and justice, and to God. Associations formed elsewhere, springing from a feeling of humanity, or any other cause, have nothing whatever to do with it. They have never received any encouragement from me, and they never will."

They who know of no purer sources of truth, who have traced up its stream no higher, stand, and wisely stand, by the Bible and the Constitution, and drink at it there with reverence and humility; but they who behold where it comes trickling into this lake or that pool, gird up their loins once more, and continue their pilgrimage toward its fountain-head.

No man with a genius for legislation has appeared in America. They are rare in the history of the world. There are orators, politicians, and eloquent men, by the thousand; but the speaker has not yet opened his mouth to speak who is capable of settling the much-vexed questions of the day. We love eloquence for its own sake, and not for any truth which it may utter, or any heroism it may inspire. Our legislators have not yet learned the comparative value of free trade and of freedom, of union, and of rectitude, to a nation. They have no genius or talent for comparatively humble questions of taxation and finance, commerce and manufactures and agriculture. If we were left solely to the wordy wit of legislators in Congress for our guidance, uncorrected by the seasonable experience and the effectual complaints of the people, America would not long retain her rank among the nations. For eighteen hundred years, though perchance I have no right to say it, the New Testament has been written; yet where is the legislator who has wisdom and practical talent enough to avail himself of the light which it sheds on the science of legislation?

The authority of government, even such as I am willing to submit to- for I will cheerfully obey those who know and can do better than I, and in many things even those who neither know nor can do so well- is still an impure one: to be strictly just, it must have the sanction and consent of the governed. It can have no pure right over my person and property but what I concede to it. The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual. Even the Chinese philosopher was wise enough to regard the individual as the basis of the empire. Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government? Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man? There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly. I please myself with imagining a State at least which can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor; which even would not think it inconsistent with its own repose if a few were to live aloof from it, not meddling with it, nor embraced by it, who fulfilled all the duties of neighbors and fellow-men. A State which bore this kind of fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State, which also I have imagined, but not yet anywhere seen.

THE END

论公民的不服从

作者:亨利·梭罗

译文来自:https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/32749639

我由衷地同意这个警句——“管得越少的政府越是好政府”。我希望看到这个警句迅速并且系统地得到实施。我相信,实施后,其最终结果将是——“最好的政府是根本不进行治理的政府”。当人们做好准备之后,这样的政府就是他们愿意接受的政府,政府充其量不过是一种权宜之计,而大部分政府、有时甚至是所有的政府却都是不合宜的。对设置常备军的反对意见很多、很强烈,而且理应占主导地位,它们最终可能转变为反对常设政府。常备军队不过是常设政府的一支胳臂。政府本身也只不过是一种人民通过选择来行使他们意志的形式,在人民还来不及通过它来运作之前,它同样也很容易被滥用或误用,看看当前的墨西哥战争,就是少数几个人将常设政府当作工具的结果,因为,从一开始,人民本来就不同意采取这种做法。

目前这个美国政府——它不过是一种传统,尽管其历史还不久,但却竭力使自己原封不动地届届相传,可是每届却都丧失掉一些自身的诚实和正直。它的活力和气力还顶不上一个活人,因为一个人就能随心所欲地摆布它。对于人民来说,政府是支木头枪。倘若人们真要使用它互相厮杀,它就注定要开裂。不过,尽管如此,它却仍然是必不可少的,因为人们需要某种复杂机器之类的玩意儿,需要听它发出的噪音,藉此满足他们对于政府之理念的要求。于是,政府的存在表明了,为了人民的利益,可以如何成功地利用、欺骗人民,甚至可以使人民利用、欺骗自己。我们大家都必须承认,这真了不起。不过,这种政府从未主动地促进过任何事业,它只是欣然地超脱其外。它未捍卫国家的自由。它未解决西部问题。它未从事教育。迄今,所有的成就全都是由美国人民的传统性格完成的,而且,假如政府不曾从中作梗的话,本来还会取得更大的成就。因为政府是一种权宜之计,通过它人们可以欣然彼此不来往;而且,如上所述,最便利的政府也就是最不搭理被治理的人民的政府。商业贸易假如不是用印度橡胶制成的话,绝无可能跃过议员们没完没了地设置下的路障;倘若完全根据议员们行动的效果、而不是以他们行动的意图来作评价的话,那么他们就应当理所当然地被视作如同在铁路上设路障捣蛋的人,并受到相应的惩罚。

但是,现实地以一个公民的身份来说,我不像那些自称是无政府主义的人,我要求的不是立即取消政府,而是立即要有个好一些的政府。让每一个人都表明能赢得他尊敬的政府是什么样的政府,这样,也就为赢得这种政府迈出了一步。

到头来,当权力掌握在人民手中的时候,多数派将有权统治,而且继续长期统治,其实际原因不是因为他们极可能是正义的,也不是因为这在少数派看来是最公正的,而是因为他们在物质上是最强大的。但是,一个由多数派作出所有决定的政府,是不可能建立在正义之上的,即使在人们对其能有所理解的意义上都办不到。在一个政府中,如果对公正与谬误真正作出判定的不是多数派而是良知,如果多数派仅仅针对那些可以运用便利法则解决的问题做出决定,难道是不可能的吗?公民必须——哪怕是暂时地或最低限度地——把自己的良知托付给议员吗?那么,为什么每个人还都有良知呢?我认为,我们首先必须做人,其后才是臣民。培养人们像尊重正义一样尊重法律是不可取的。我有权承担的惟一义务是不论何时都从事我认为是正义的事……

那么一个人应当怎样对待当今的美国政府呢?我的回答是,与其交往有辱人格。我绝对不能承认作为奴隶制政府的政治机构是我的政府。

人人都承认革命的权利,即当政府是暴政或政府过于无能令人无法忍受的时候,有拒绝为其效忠并抵制它的权利。但是,几乎所有人都说,现在的情况并非如此。他们认为,1775年的情况才是如此。如果有人对我说,这个政府很糟糕,它对运抵口岸的某些外国货课税,我极有可能会无动于衷,因为没有这些外国货,我照样能过日子。所有的机器都免不了产生摩擦,但这也许是具有抵消弊端的好处。不管怎么说,为此兴师动众是大错特错的。可是,如果摩擦控制了整个机器,并进行有组织的欺压与掠夺,那么,就让我们扔掉这部机器吧。换句话说,如果在一个被认作是自由的庇护所的国家里,人口的1/6是奴隶,如果整个国家任由一个外国军队蹂躏、征服,并被置于军管之下,那么,我认为,诚实的人都应立刻奋起反抗、革命。使这个责任变得更加迫切的是,这个被如此蹂躏的国家不是我国,恰恰相反,我们的军队却正是入侵的军队……

事实上,反对马萨诸塞州改革的人不是南方的万把政客,而是这儿的千千万万商人和农场主,他们更感兴趣的是他们的商业和农业,而不是他们属于人类的这个事实。不论花费什么代价,他们都不打算公平对待奴隶和墨西哥。我要与之争论的敌人,不是远在天涯、而是就在我们周围的那些敌人。他们与远方的敌人合作,按照他们的旨意办事。要不是这些人的话,远方的敌人不会为害。我们习惯于说,群众还未做好准备。可是情况的改善是缓慢的,因为这些少数人实质上并不比多数人高明多少或好多少。在某处树立某种绝对的善,比起让许多人都像你这么好更重要。因为绝对的善将像酵母一样影响整体。成千上万人具有反对奴隶制、反对战争的观点,但实际上却未做任何事情来结束奴隶制和战争。他们自以为是华盛顿和富兰克林的子孙,却是两手插在裤兜里,坐在那儿,借口不知道该做些什么而无所事事,他们甚至优先考虑自由贸易问题,而不是事关自由的问题。饭后,他们安然地同时阅读时价表和来自墨西哥的消息,也许,读者读着便睡着了……

美国人已经蜕变成奇怪的家伙——以爱交际的器官发达而著称,同时又显示出智力低下的沾沾自喜。在世界上,他最最关心的是确保救济院情况良好;他还未披上合法的外衣,便四下募捐以扶助孤寡,尽管这些孤寡眼下还不是孤寡。总之,他冒险光靠互助保险公司的资助过日子,而该公司已经答应将他体面地安葬……

不公正的法律仍然存在:我们必须心甘情愿地服从这些法律吗,还是应该努力去修正它们、服从它们直至我们取得成功,或是立刻粉碎它们呢在当前这种政府的统治下,人们普遍认为该应等待,直到说服大多数人去改变它们。人们认为,如果他们抵制的话,这样修正的结果将比原来的谬误更糟。不过,如果修正的结果真比原来的谬误更糟的话,那也是政府的过错,是政府使其变得更糟的。为什么政府不善于预见改革并为其提供机会呢?为什么政府不珍惜少数派的智慧呢为什么政府不见棺材不落泪呢?为什么政府不鼓励老百姓提高警惕、为政府指出错误,以避免犯错误呢?为什么政府总是把基督钉在十字架上,把哥白尼和路德逐出教会,并指责华盛顿和富兰克林是叛乱分子呢……

如果不公正是政府机器必然产生的摩擦的一部分,那么就让它去吧,让它去吧:也许它会磨合好的。——不过,毫无疑义,机器终将被彻底磨损掉。如果不公正的那部分有其独自的弹簧滑轮、绳索,或者曲柄,那么你可能会考虑修正的结果会不会比原来的谬误更糟;但是,如果不公正的那部分的本质要求你以其人之道还治其人之身时,那我说就别管这法规了。以你的生命作为反磨擦的机制来制止这部机器吧。我不得不做的是,无论如何都要确保自己不为我所唾弃的谬误效劳。

至于采纳州政府业已提出的修正谬误的方法,我听都没听过。那些方法太费时日,不等它们奏效,已经命赴黄泉了。我还有别的事要干。我到这世上来主要不是为了把这世界变成个过日子的好地方,而是到这世上来过日子,不管它是好日子还是坏日子。一个人办不了每一件事,但是可以做些事。正因为他不必样样事情都要做,所以他也不一定必然做出什么错事来。州长和议员们用不着向我请愿,我也犯不着向他们请愿。如果他们不听从我的请愿,那么我该怎么办呢如果事到如此,州政府也就自绝其路了:其宪法本身也就是谬误的了。这似乎显得粗暴、顽固和毫无调和之意。但是,最温和的、最体贴的做法,只适用于能够欣赏它、并能够配得上它的人;一切能使情况好转的变迁都是如此,正如振撼整个人体的生与死一样。

我毫无反顾地认为,凡是自称废奴主义者的人都必须立刻撤回对马萨诸塞州政府的人力和财力的支持,不必等到废奴主义者在政府中形成多数,不必等到他们让正义通过他们占了上风才动手。我认为,如果有上帝站在他们一边的话,就足够了,不必再等另一个了。况且,任何人只要比周围的人更正义一些,也就构成了一人的多数……

在一个监禁正义之士的政府的统治之下,正义之士的真正栖身之地也就是监狱。当今马萨诸塞州为自由和奋发图强之士提供的唯一妥当的处所,是监狱。在狱中,他们为州政府的行径而烦恼,被禁锢在政治生活之外,因为他们的原则已经给他们带来麻烦了。逃亡的奴隶,被假释的墨西哥囚犯和申诉白人犯下的罪孽的印第安人可以在监狱里找到他们,在那个与世隔绝,但却更自由、更尊严的地方找到他们。那是州政府安置不顺其道的叛逆者的地方,是一个自由人在蓄奴制州里惟一能够骄傲地居住的地方。如果有人以为他们的影响会消失在监狱里,他们的呼声不再能传到政府的耳朵里,他们无法在囹圄四壁之内与政府为敌,那么他们就弄错了。真理比谬误强大得多,一位对非正义有了一点亲身体验的人在与非正义斗争时会雄辩有力得多。投下你的一票,那不仅仅是一张纸条,而是你的全部影响。当少数与多数保持一致时,少数是无足轻重的,它甚至算不上是少数;但是当少数以自身的重量凝聚在一起时,便不可抗拒。要么把所有正直的人都投入监狱,要么放弃战争与奴隶制,如果要在这两者之间做出选择的话,州政府会毫不犹豫地做出选择。如果今年有1000人不交税,那不是暴烈、血腥的举动,但是若交税则不然,那将使政府得以施展暴行,让无辜的人流血。事实上,这正是和平革命的定义,如果和平革命是可能的话。如果税务官或其他政府官员问我,正如有位官员问我的那样,“那么,我怎么办呢”我的回答是,“如果你真希望做什么的话,那你就辞职。”如果臣民拒绝效忠,官员辞职,那么革命就成功了。即使假定这会导致流血,难道当良心受伤害的时候就不流血吗,从良心的创伤里流出的是人的气概和永生,将使他永世沉沦于死亡之中。此时此刻,我就看到这种流血……

我已经6年未交投票税了。我还一度为此进过监狱,被关了一夜。当我站在牢房里,打量着牢固的石壁——那石壁足有二、三尺厚,铁木结构的门有一尺厚,还有那滤光的铁栅栏,我不由地对当局的愚昧颇有感触。他们如此对待我,就好像我不过是可以被禁锢起来的血肉之躯。我想,当局最终应当得出这么个结论:监禁是它处置我的最好办法,而且我还从未想到我还能对它有什么用处。我知道,如果说我与乡亲之间挡着堵石墙的话,那么乡亲若想获得我这种自由,他们还得爬过或打破一堵比这石墙更难对付的墙才行。我一刻也不觉得自己是被囚禁着。这墙看来是浪费了太多的石头和灰泥了。我觉得,似乎所有公民中,只有我付清了税款。他们显然不知道该怎样对付我,他们的举止就像些没教养的人。他们的威胁恭维,样样都显得荒唐可笑。他们以为我惦记的是挪到这堵墙的另一边。我不禁觉得好笑,我在沉思时,他们却煞有介事地锁起牢门,全然不知我的思绪就跟在他们身后出了牢房,丝毫不受任何阻碍,而他们自己才真正是危险的。他们既然奈何不了我,便打定主意惩罚我的身躯,就像群顽童,无法惩罚他们憎恨的人,就冲他的狗撒野。我看,州政府是个傻子,如同一位揣着银匙的孤女,怯生生的,连自己的朋友和敌人都分不出来。我已经对它失去了所有的敬意,我可怜它。

州政府从未打算正视一个人的智慧或道德观念,而仅仅着眼于他的躯体和感官。它不是以优越的智慧或坦诚,而是以优越的体力来武装自己。我不是生来让人支使的。我要按照我自己的方式来生活。让我们来看看谁是最强者。什么力量能产生效果他们只能强迫却无法使我顺从。因为我只听命于优越于我的法则。他们要迫使我成为像他们那样的人。我还不曾听说过,有人被众人逼迫着这样生活或那样生活。那会是什么样的生活呢当我遇到的政府对我说:“把你的钱给我,不然就要你的命!”我为什么要忙着给它钱呢那政府可能处境窘迫不堪,而且不知所措。我不能帮它的忙。它必须像我一样,自己想办法。不值得为这样的政府哭哭啼啼。我的职责不是让社会机器运转良好。我不是工程师的儿子。我认为,当橡果和栗子并排从树上掉下来时,它们不是毫无生气地彼此谦让,而是彼此遵循各自的法则,发芽、生长,尽可能长得茂盛。也许直到有一天,其中的一棵超过另一棵,并且毁了它。如果植物不能按自己的本性生长,那么它就将死亡,人也一样……

我不想同任何人或同国家争吵。我不想钻牛角尖或自我标榜比旁人强。我倒倾向于认为,我寻求的是遵守我国的法则的理由。我是太容易遵守这些法则了。我完全有理由怀疑我有这毛病。每年,当税务官造访时,我总是忙着回顾国家与州政府的法令和主张,回顾人民的态度,以便找到个遵命的理由。我相信州政府很快就能免除我的这类操劳,那么我简直就同其他国民一样爱国了。从较低层次的角度看,宪法尽管有缺点,但还是非常好的。法律和法庭是非常令人尊敬的,甚至这个州政府和这个美国政府在许多方面也是非常令人敬佩、非常难得可贵、令人感激的,对此人们已经大加描述过了。但是,如果从稍高层次的角度看,它们就不过是我所描绘的那个样子。如果从更高或最高层次的角度看,那么有谁会说它们是什么玩意儿,或者会认为它们还配让人瞧上一眼或值得让人考虑考虑呢

不过,政府同我没有多大关系,我尽可能不考虑它。我不常生活在政府之下,我甚至不常生活在这个世界上。如果一个人思想自由,幻想自由,想像自由,那么不自由的东西在他看来就绝不会长期存在。愚蠢的统治或改良者们不可能彻底妨碍他……

政府的权威,即使是我愿意服从的权威——因为我乐于服从那些比我渊博、比我能干的人,并且在许多事情上,我甚至乐于服从那些不是那么渊博、也不是那么能干的人——这种权威也还是不纯正的权威:从严格、正义的意义上讲,权威必须获得被治理者的认可或赞成才行。除非我同意,否则它无权对我的身心和财产行使权力。从极权君主制到限权君主制,从限权君主制到民主制的进步是朝着真正尊重个人的方向的进步。甚至连中国的哲学家也充分明智地将个人视作帝国的基础。民主,如同我们所知道的民主,就是政府进步的尽头了吗?不可能进一步承认和组织人的权利了吗?除非国家承认个人是更高的、独立的权力,而且国家的权力和权威是来自于个人的权力,并且在对待个人方面采取相应的措施,否则就绝对不会有真正自由开明的国家。我乐于想像国家的最终形式,它将公正地对待所有的人,尊重个人就像尊重邻居一样。如果有人履行了邻居和同胞的职责,但却退避三舍,冷眼旁观,不为其所容纳的话,它就寝食难安。如果一个国家能够结出这样的果实,并且听其尽快果熟蒂落的话,那么它就为建成更加完美、更加辉煌的国家铺平了道路。那是我能想像到、却在任何地方都不曾见到的国家。


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