論工業社會及其未來-自由的本質

自由的本質

93

我們將論證工業-科技社會不能加以改革以防止其逐漸縮小人類自由的範圍。但因為「自由」這個詞可以有很多種詮釋方式，我們必須先弄清楚我們所關注的自由是什麼。

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94

我們這裡的「自由」所指的是經歷權力進程的機會，有真實的目標而非替代性活動的人造目標，且沒有任何人，尤其是任何大型組織的干擾、操縱或監督。自由意味著掌控（作為個人或一個小團體的成員）個人攸關生死的問題：食物、衣服、住所和抵禦環境中可能存在的任何威脅。自由意味著擁有權力；不是控制他人的權力，而是控制自己生活狀況的權力。如果任何其他人（尤其是大型組織）對某個人有權力，那麼此人就沒有自由，無論這種權力以多麼仁慈、寬容和放任的方式行使。 不將自由與單單放任混為一談是非常重要的（見第 72 段）。

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THE NATURE OF FREEDOM

93

We are going to argue that industrial-technological society cannot be reformed in such a way as to prevent it from progressively narrowing the sphere of human freedom. But, because “freedom” is a word that can be interpreted in many ways, we must first make clear what kind of freedom we are concerned with.

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94

By “freedom” we mean the opportunity to go through the power process, with real goals not the artificial goals of surrogate activities, and without interference, manipulation or supervision from anyone, especially from any large organization. Freedom means being in control (either as an individual or as a member of a SMALL group) of the life-and-death issues of one’s existence; food, clothing, shelter and defense against whatever threats there may be in one’s environment. Freedom means having power; not the power to control other people but the power to control the circumstances of one’s own life. One does not have freedom if anyone else (especially a large organization) has power over one, no matter how benevolently, tolerantly and permissively that power may be exercised. It is important not to confuse freedom with mere permissiveness (see paragraph 72).