弗洛姆 《存在的艺术》 (3)
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PART II
第二章
2. Great Shams
二 华而不实
1. Perhaps the most difficult obstacle to learning the art of living is what I would call the “great sham.” Not as if it were restricted to the field of human enlightenment; on the contrary, the latter is only one of the manifestations of the great sham pervading all spheres of our society. Phenomena such as products with built-in obsoleteness, products that are overpriced or actually useless if not harmful to the buyer, advertising that is a blend of a little truth and much falsehood, and many other social phenomena are part of the great fake—of which the law prosecutes only the most drastic forms. Speaking merely of commodities, their real value is covered up by the value that advertising and the name and greatness of their producers suggest. How could it be otherwise in a system whose basic principle is that production is directed by the interest in maximal profit and not by the interest in maximal usefulness for human beings?
也许，学习存在的艺术的最大障碍是被我称为“华而不实”的现象。这不仅仅指宣称能够启迪人生的“大师”，相反，那只是弥漫于我们社会各个领域的“虚假”表现之一。又如迟早要被淘汰的产品、价格过高或对消费者无用（甚至有害）的产品、混杂着一点儿真实和大部分虚假的广告以及其他许多社会现象等也是构成虚假的一部分。对此，法律只能起诉造假最厉害的那些人。仅仅就商品而言，其真实价值已被铺天盖地的广告、品牌以及生产商的声望所掩盖。在以追求利润最大化，而非益处最大化为基本原则的社会，虚假再正当不过。
2. The great sham in the sphere of politics has become more visible recently through Watergate and the conduct of the Vietnam War, with its untrue statement about “near victory” or direct faking (as in false reports of aerial attacks). Yet only the tip of the iceberg of political sham has been exposed. In the spheres of art and literature the sham is also rampant. The public, even the educated public, has largely lost its capacity to know the difference between what is genuine and what is fake. This defect is caused by several factors. Foremost of all is the purely cerebral orientation of most people. They read or listen to only words and intellectual concepts, and do not listen “with a third ear” for proof of the author’s authenticity. To give an example: In the literature on Zen Buddhism there are writers such as D.T. Suzuki, whose authenticity is beyond doubt; he speaks of what he has experienced. The very fact of this authenticity makes his books often difficult to read, because it is of the essence of Zen not to give answers that are rationally satisfying. There are some other books, which seem to portray the thoughts of Zen properly but whose authors are mere intellectuals whose experience is shallow. Their books are easier to understand, but they do not convey the essential quality of Zen. Yet I have found that most people who claim to have a serious interest in Zen have not noticed the decisive difference in quality between Suzuki and others.
在政治领域，水门事件和越南战争愈发暴露了虚假，具体表现在“接近胜利”的模糊陈述或直接伪造（如虚报空袭）。然而，这仅仅是假政治的冰山一角。在艺术和文学领域，虚假也很猖獗。公众，即使是受教育程度高的公众，也很大程度上失去了鉴别真伪的能力。这种缺陷是由多种因素造成的。最重要的一点，是大多数人有着定向思维。他们阅读或聆听的仅仅是一些字词和抽象概念，而不是用“第三只耳朵”去倾听，求证说话人的真实性。例如，禅宗作家铃木大拙，其真实性不容置疑，因为他用自己的经历说话。正因为真实，他的书往往晦涩难懂，因为禅宗本就不会给出合理的答案。而其他的书看似真确描绘了禅宗的思想，但其作者是经验浮浅的知识分子。这类书浅显易懂，但他们没有传达禅宗本质所在。然而我发现，大多数声称对禅宗非常感兴趣的人并没有注意到铃木大拙和其他禅宗作家之间的重要区别。
3. The other reason for our difficulty to discern the difference between the authentic and the sham lies in the hypnotic attraction of power and fame. If the name of a man or the title of a book is made famous by clever publicity, the average person is willing to believe the work’s claims. This process is greatly helped by another factor: In a completely commercialized society in which salability and optimal profit constitute the core values, and in which every person experiences himself as “capital” that he has to invest on the market with the aim of optimal profit (success), his inner value counts as little as that of a dental cream or a patent medicine. Whether he is kind, intelligent, productive, courageous matters little if these qualities have not been of use to make him successful. On the other hand, if he is only mediocre as a person, writer, artist, or whatever, and is a narcissistic, aggressive, drunken, obscene headline maker, he will—given some talent—easily become one of the “leading artists or writers” of the day. Of course, not only he is involved: The art dealers, literary agents, P.R. men, publishers all are interested financially in his success. He is “made” by them, and once he is a nationally advertised writer, painter, singer, once he is a “celebrity,” he is a great man—just as the soap powder is the best whose name you cannot help remembering if you are a TV viewer. Of course, fake and fraud are nothing new; they have always existed. But there was perhaps no time in which the fact of being in the public eye was of such exclusive importance.
我们辨别真假之困难的另一个原因在于权力和名声所具有的催眠般的魅力。如果一个人的名字或一本书的标题经过了巧妙的宣传，普通人便愿意相信书中内容。该过程还大大得益于另外一个因素：在一个完全商业化的社会中，畅销和最大利润成了主导，其中的每个人都经历着把自己变成“资本”的过程，要把自己投资到市场上，以寻求最佳利润（成功），他的内在价值如牙膏或中成药般“利润微薄”。他是否善良、智慧、活跃、勇敢都无关紧要，如果这些品质没有使他成功。另一方面，如果他仅仅是个平庸之辈，不论是作为一个人，还是作为一个作家或艺术家，等等，又或者是自恋狂、好斗之人、酒鬼、哗众取宠之人，只要经营得当，却很容易成为当代“卓越艺术家/作家”。当然，这不仅仅是他一个人的事：艺术品经销商、文学经纪人、公关人士和出版商都期盼着他会取得金钱上的成功。他由他们“制造”，一旦他成为家喻户晓的作家（画家或歌手），一旦他成为一个“名人”，那么他就是一个伟大的人——就像如果您是电视观众，会情不自禁想起广告里说它最好的洗衣粉的名称。当然，假货和欺诈行为早已不是什么新鲜事，这种现象一直存在。但是历史上也从不曾像今天这样，公众形象有如此重要的作用。
4. With these examples, we touch upon the sector of the great sham that is most important in the context of this book: the sham in the field of man’s salvation, of his well-being, inner growth, and happiness. I must confess here that I was very hesitant to write this chapter and was even tempted to leave it out after I had written it. The reason for this hesitancy lies in the fact that there are almost no words left in this field that have not been commercialized, corrupted, and otherwise misused. Words such as “human growth” or “growth potential,” “self-actualization,” “experiencing versus thinking,” “the here and now,” and many others have been cheapened by various writers and groups, and even used in advertising copy. Must I not fear that the reader will connect certain ideas I am writing about with others that have the opposite meaning, just because some words are the same? Is it not more adequate to stop writing in this field altogether, or to use mathematical symbols that are defined in a separate list? I beg the reader to be aware of the fact that words, in and by themselves, have no reality, except in terms of the context in which they are used, in terms of the intentions and the character of the one who uses them. If they are read in a one-dimensional way, without a depth perspective, they hide ideas rather than communicate them.
谈到这些例子，我们于是触及涉及本书议题的重大虚假现象，即人类在救赎方面的虚假，在追求康乐、自我成长及幸福方面的虚假。这里我必须承认，在写本章节的时候很犹豫，甚至想写好后删除。犹豫的原因在于，这一领域几乎所有的字词都被商业化了，被腐蚀或滥用。如“人类发展”“发展潜质”“自我实现”“体验与思考”“当下”等许多词都在各类作家和组织的滥用下贬值，甚至被用在广告里。我怎能不担心因为使用了同样的字词，读者会把我所写的东西作完全相反的联想呢？莫不如停止写作，或是单独列表，使用数学符号表述。我恳求读者意识到一个事实：文字本身并没有任何真实性，除非有上下文以及使用者意图的限定。如果以单向思维方式阅读，不去深入理解，文字就是在隐藏观念，而不是在传达观念。
5. Before beginning even a brief sketch, I want to state that in speaking of sham I do not imply that the leaders and practitioners in various movements are consciously dishonest or intend to deceive the public. Although there are some for whom this holds true, I believe that many intend to do good and believe in the usefulness of their spiritual commodities. Yet there is not merely conscious and intended sham; the socially more dangerous is the swindle in which the performers honestly believe, whether it is to plan a war or to offer the way to happiness. Indeed, certain things have to be said, even at the risk of my being taken as personally attacking well-meaning people.
在开始简述之前，我要声明一下，我所说的虚假并不是指这些发起人和参与者不诚实或有意欺骗公众。虽然有少数人会这么做，但我相信大多数人都试图以诚相待，相信自己的精神商品是有用的。然而不只是有意识的和有预谋的虚假；更有危害的是当事人深信不疑的骗局，无论是谋划一场战争还是提供人们通往幸福的道路。有些话必须说出来，即使我会被看成是对那些好人进行人身攻击。
6. There is, in fact, little reason for personal attacks, since these merchants of salvation only satisfy a widespread demand. How could it be different? People are confused and unsure, they seek answers to guide them to joy, tranquility, self-knowledge, salvation—but they also demand that it be easy to learn, that it require little or no effort, that results be quickly obtained. In the twenties and thirties a new movement emerged built upon the genuine interest of a small number of people in new and hitherto unpopular ideas. These ideas were organized around two central issues: the liberation of the body and the liberation of the mind from the shackles into which conventional life had bound and distorted them.
事实上，不需要进行人身攻击，这些兜售自由救赎的商人只是在满足公众的需求。这有什么不同吗？人们感到困惑不解，他们寻求可引导自己通向喜悦、宁静、觉悟乃至拯救的答案，但他们同时也要求简单易学，不费吹灰之力即可迅速获得。在二十世纪二十年代和三十年代，兴起了响应少数人的兴趣的新运动，从中涌现的新观念在普通人看来尚且难以接受。新观念围绕两个核心问题，一是解放身体，二是把心灵从传统生活的约束和扭曲中解放。