論工業社會及其未來-64

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It seems that for many people, maybe the majority, these artificial forms of the power process are insufficient. A theme that appears repeatedly in the writings of the social critics of the second half of the 20th century is the sense of purposelessness that afflicts many people in modern society. (This purposelessness is often called by other names such as “anomic” or “middle-class vacuity.”) We suggest that the so-called “identity crisis” is actually a search for a sense of purpose, often for commitment to a suitable surrogate activity. It may be that existentialism is in large part a response to the purposelessness of modern life. [12] Very widespread in modern society is the search for “fulfillment.” But we think that for the majority of people an activity whose main goal is fulfillment (that is, a surrogate activity) does not bring completely satisfactory fulfillment. In other words, it does not fully satisfy the need for the power process. (See paragraph 41.) That need can be fully satisfied only through activities that have some external goal, such as physical necessities, sex, love, status, revenge, etc.

[12] The problem of purposelessness seems to have become less serious during the last 15 years or so, because people now feel less secure physically and economically than they did earlier, and the need for security provides them with a goal. But purposelessness has been replaced by frustration over the difficulty of attaining security. We emphasize the problem of purposelessness because the liberals and leftists would wish to solve our social problems by having society guarantee everyone’s security; but if that could be done it would only bring back the problem of purposelessness. The real issue is not whether society provides well or poorly for people’s security; the trouble is that people are dependent on the system for their security rather than having it in their own hands. This, by the way, is part of the reason why some people get worked up about the right to bear arms; possession of a gun puts that aspect of their security in their own hands.

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對許多人甚至是大多數人來說，這些人造形式的權力進程是不夠的。二十世紀後半葉社會評論家的寫作中不斷出現一個主題，即折磨現代社會許多人的無目的感（這種無目的常常有其它名稱例如「道德淪喪」或「中產階級空虛」）。我們認為所謂的「自我認同危機」實際上是對目的感的追尋，經常是為了投入一個適合的替代性活動。存在主義一大部分是對現代生活無目的的回應。[12] 現代社會瀰漫著尋找「滿足感」。但我們覺得對大多數人來說一個主要目標是滿足感的活動（亦即，一個替代性活動）並不能帶來完全滿意的滿足感。換句話說，它不能完全滿足對權力進程的需求（見 41 段）。那種需求只能通過有某些外部目標的活動來完全滿足，例如生理需求、性、愛、地位、復仇等等。

[12] 無目的的問題在近十五年來變得似乎沒那麼嚴重了，因為人們感覺現在人身和經濟上比起過往沒那麼安全了，而對安全的需求提供他們一個目標。但（這只是）無目的性被難以獲取安全的挫折取代。我們會強調無目的的問題是因為自由派和左派會希望以社會保證每個人的安全來解決我們的社會問題；但若此可能達成只會再次回到無目的的問題。真正的問題並非社會是否良好的提供人們安全；問題是人們依賴系統提供他們安全而非將安全掌握在自己手中。順帶一提，這就是為什麼有些人對於攜帶武器如此熱衷的部分原因；持有武器某方面來說是讓自己的安全掌握在自己手中。