論工業社會及其未來-40

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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 the 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 the 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.

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在現代工業社會只需要極少的努力就可以滿足一個人的生理需求。只需要參加訓練課程獲取一些普通技能，然後準時上班並盡保住工作的少量努力即可。只需要普通智力以及最重要的，單純的服從即可。如果一個人有這些，社會就會從搖籃到墳墓照顧他。（確實，存在下層階級無法將生存必需品視為理所當然，但我們這裡所說的是主流社會。）因此不意外的現代社會充滿替代性活動。這些活動包括科學工作、運動成就、人道主義工作、藝術和文學創作、在團體向上升遷、賺取遠超出需要的金錢和物質以至於無法提供任何額外的生理滿足，以及參與議題與倡議份子本人無關的社會運動，例如白人倡議者為非白人少數族群的權益的工作。這些並不總是純然的替代性活動，因為對許多人來說他們可能被除了需要有目標可追求之外的原因驅動。科學工作可能部分是由追求聲望所驅動，藝術創作是為了表達情感，好戰的社會運動主義由敵意驅使。但對大多數追求他們的人來說，這些活動很大程度上是替代性活動。舉例來說，大多數的科學家可能會同意從工作中得到的「滿足感」比他們賺到錢或聲望還重要。