The Future of The English J . B. Priestley |
1 To write about the English in standard and cosmopolitan political terms, the usual Left-Centre-Right stuff, is almost always wasting time and trouble. The English are different. The English are even more different than they think they are, though not more different than they feel they are. And what they feel — Englishness again - is more important than what they think. It is instinctive feeling and not rational thought that shapes and colours actual events in England. 2 For example, although the English em to be so sharply divided, always indulging in plenty of loud political abu, there are nothing like so many Communists or neo- or potential Fascists in England as there are in most other countries. Again, although the English em to have more than their share of rallies, protest marches, confrontations with authority, what could begin to look like a murderous encounter in France or America, or might be a bloody street battle in Japan, would in England end at the worst in a few scuffles and arrests. This is becau there are fewer fanatical believers among the English, and at the same time, below the noisy arguments, the abu and the quarrels, there is a rervoir of instinctive fellow-feeling, not yet exhausted though it may not be filling up. Not everybody can draw on that rervoir. No doubt there are in England some snarling shop stewards 有关感恩的作文who demand freedom for the workers when what they really want is to bring the whole system crashing down, together with every guarantee of liberty. No doubt there are wealthy employers who smile at the TV cameras and declare that all they desire is the friendliest relation with their work force, when at heart they would like to take a whip to the whole idle troublesome mob of them. But there are not many of the men, either on the board or the shop floor, and they are certainly not typical English. Some cancer in their character has eaten away their Englishness. 3 The real English, who are ‘different’, who have inherited Englishness and have not yet thrown away their inheritance, cannot feel at home in the contemporary world, reprenting the accelerated development of our whole age. It demands bigness, and they are suspicious of bigness. (And there is now not only Industrial bigness; there is also Scientific bigness, needing more and more to discover less and less.) Clearly everything cannot be done by smallish and reasonably human enterpris. No cosy shipyard can undertake to build a 150,000-ton ship, though we may not be in our right minds if we want such a ship. But it is safe to say that while Englishness may reluctantly accept bigness, its monsters are never heartily welcomed. They look all right in America, itlf so large, but em altogether out of scale in England. Along with the demand for bigness goes a demand for vere efficiency, often quite rational but not reasonable, therefore alien to Englishness. A further necessary demand, to feed the monster with higher and higher figures and larger and larger profits, is for enormous advertising campaigns and brigades of razor-keen salesmen. Finally, from the monster and all its spokesmen comes a message, endlessly repeated. It runs more or less as follows: ‘You ought to be happy. But you are not happy. You can be happy, though, if you buy what we are making for you.’ And a postscript might be added from Iago: ‘Put money in thy pur.’ 4 I like to call this ‘Admass’ , and will do so from now on. I will also announce what the future of the English hangs upon, while at the same time, unlike almost everybody el, keeping well clear of economics. It hangs upon the final result of a battle that has been going on for some years now and that explains why the English em so odd, eccentric, unsatisfactory, not only abroad but to many persons at home. It is a battle that is being fought in the minds of the English. It is between 'Admass', which has already conquered most of the Western world, and 'Englishness', 木瓜牛奶怎么做ailing and impoverished 情人节图片, in no position to receive vast subsidies of dollars, francs, deutschmarks and the rest, for public relations and advertising campaigns. The triumphs of 'Admass' can be plainly en. It operates in the outer visible world, where it offers more and more things - for more and more money of cour - and creates the so-called ‘Good Life’. Against this, at least superficially, 'Englishness' ems a poor shadowy show - a faint pencil sketch beside a poster in full colour - belonging as it really does to the invisible inner world, merely offering states of mind in place of that rich variety of things. But then while things are important, states of mind are even more important. 5 It is easy to understand why there should be this conflict between 'Admass' and 'Englishness'. What is central to 'Admass' is the production and consumption of goods. If there is enough of this — though of cour there never is, becau dissatisfaction is built into 'Admass' - there will be sufficient money to pay for its ‘Good Life’. But it is worth noting along the way that while America has been for many years the chief advocate of 'Admass', America has shown us too many desperately worried executives dropping into early graves, too many exhausted salesmen taking refuge in bars and breaking up their homes, too many workmen suffering from monotony or time-and-motion studies and wondering how the hell they got into the traps. And America, to its credit, can also show us a lot of nsible men and women who have denounced all this and have walked out of it. But this book is about the English, not the Americans. Now 'Englishness', with its relation to the unconscious, its dependence upon instinct and intuition, cannot break its links with the past: it has deep long roots. Being itlf a state of mind, it cannot ignore other states of mind and cannot help feeling that 'Admass', with its ruthless competitiveness, its idea of man simply as a producer and consumer, its dependence upon dissatisfaction, greed and envy, must be responsible for bad and not good states of mind. Furthermore, while 'Englishness' is not hostile to change, it is deeply suspicious of change for change’s sake, rejecting the idea that we are now committed to some inevitable mechanical progress. Here we might take a concrete example. 'Englishness' would support an immediate demand, at the expen of many other things, for more and better housing. Without adequate shelter and a decent place to call their own, people feel wretched. But people in England, not a big country, do not have to have more and more and larger and larger cars, with longer and wider motorways, wrecking the countryside, to take the cars. If they think they do, this is 'Admass' at work. People have wanted hous for centuries, and cars of their own only for a very short time. To put cars and motorways before hous ems to 'Englishness' a communal imbecility . 6 The battle that will decide the future of the English is going on all round us. At this time of writing, we in England are in the middle of it. I must add that while 'Englishness' can still fight on, 'Admass' could be winning. There are various reasons why this may be happening. To begin with, not all the English hold fast to 'Englishness'. Some important and influential men carefully train themlves out of it - politicians, academics, bureaucrats, ambitious financiers and industrialists, can be found among the men - and a horde of others, shallow and foolish, wander away from it, shrugging off their inheritance. 'Englishness' is not as strong as it was even thirty years ago. It needs to be nourished by a n of the dignity and possible destiny of mankind. It must have some moral capital to draw upon, and soon it may be asking for an overdraft . The Zeitgeist ems to be working for 'Admass'. So does most of what we read and what we hear. Even our inflation, which keeps everybody nudging everybody for more money, is often en not as a warning, not as an enemy of the genuine good life, but as a proof that we need more and not less 'Admass'. 7 Some battles have been won or lost becau the commander of a large force, arriving late, decided almost at the last moment to change sides. I feel that a powerful ction of English workers, together with their union boss, is in the same situation as that commander just before he could make up his mind. The men believe that if there is a ‘Good Life’ going, then it’s high time they had their share of it. But some remaining 'Englishness' in them whispers that there may be a catch in it. Where’s this ‘Good Life’ in sweating your guts out, just becau the managers are on the productivity-per-man-hour caper? It’s all a racket anyhow. If we don’t work like the old man ud to do, we’re not turning out the honest stuff the old man was expected to turn out. It’s the profit now, not the product. Half the time, we cheat the foremen, the foremen cheat the management, the management cheats the customers. Okay, we want shorter hours, more holidays, bigger pay packets - then the ‘Good Life’ of the adverts for us. Or are we kidding ourlves? 8 Now I am not pretending that something like this is being said in every branch of English industry, and certainly not where there is a genuine - if rather old-fashioned - pride in the work on hand. But something like it is being said, thought or felt, in the very places where there is the most money, the most boredom, the most trouble and ‘industrial action’, and indeed the most 'Admass'. Behind the constant bickering , the sudden walk-outs and strikes, the ‘bloody-mindedness’, which bewilder so many foreign commentators, is the conflict between 'Admass', offering so much, and the 'Englishness' that instinctively recoils from 'Admassian' values and life-style. There are, of cour, people on the management side who may be aware of this conflict in themlves, but it is probably nothing like so sharp, the 'Admass' spoils being greater for them and their instinctive feeling not being so strong. The common people have clung harder to tradition than any other class. In addition to this conflict, all the more worrying becau it is hardly ever openly discusd, there is something el that must disturb many officials and members of the more powerful trade unions. This is the anomalous position of the huge organizations. What exactly are they? One day they describe themlves as existing simply to negotiate rates of pay, hours and conditions of work. Another day they talk and behave as if the country was moving towards syndicalism and they were in the van. A week later they will be back in their purely negotiating role. They make the rest of us feel that either they should be more important and if possible creative, or less important, just minding their own business. As it is they are like a hippopotamus blundering in and out of a pets’ tea party. Moreover, sooner or later they will have to put an end to this conflict between 'Admass' and what remains of their 'Englishness', coming down decisively on one side or the other, for they cannot enjoy both together. The future of the English may be shaped by this decision. 9 There are, of cour, people belonging to all class who do not want to be fascinated and then enslaved by 'Admass', and who if necessary are ready to make a few sacrifices, largely material, to achieve a satisfying state of mind. They probably believe, as I do, that the 'Admass Good Life’ is a fraud on all counts. Even the stuff it produces is mostly junk, meant to be replaced as soon as you can afford to keep on buying. Such people can be found among workers in smallish, well-managed and honest enterpris, in which everybody still cares about the product and does not assume the customers are idiots. They can be found, too - though not in large numbers becau the breed is dying out - among crusty High Tories who avoid the City and directors’ fees. But they are strongest and, I fancy, on the increa in the professional class, men and women who may or may not believe in my 'Englishness' but have rejected 'Admass'. They are usually articulate; they have many acquaintances, inside or outside their professions, ready to listen to them; and not a few of them have a chance to talk on TV and radio. If the battle can be won, it will probably be the men and women who will swing 夫妻交it. 爱雪 10 But what about the young? Here we might remember that as soon as we consider even the fairly immediate future then our young will not be the young any more; some other young will have arrived. It is one difficulty the American counter-culture enthusiasts have to face - that while they are still praising the rebellious young, half tho lads and girls may have already lost their youth and may be as busy conforming to Madison Avenue as they conformed earlier to Hippy California or the road to Katmandu. So far as the English young are concerned, I am dubious about the noisy types, whether they are shouting in the streets or joining the vast herds at pop festivals. Too many of them lack the individuality to stand up to 'Admass', which can provide them with another and even larger herd to join. I have far more faith in the quieter young, who never swaggered around in the youth racket , who may have come under the influence of one or two of tho professional men and women, who have probably given some thought to what life may be like at forty or forty-five. They, too, might help to swing the battle. 11 What follows does not apply to old-age pensioners, to people still overworked and underpaid, to all the English who have some integrity, some individual judgment and real values. Far too many of the other English - though 1 don’t say a majority - are sloppy people. They are easy to get along with, rarely unkind, but they are not dependable; they are inept , shiftless, slovenly , messy . This is not entirely their own fault. Unlike their fathers or grandfathers, they have not been disciplined by grim circumstances. They are no longer facing starvation if they don’t work properly or go on strike, no longer told to clear out if they aren’t properly respectful and start answering back, no longer find themlves the victims of too many hard facts. And this, in my opinion, is how things should be in a civilized society. But people who have been liberated from the harsh discipline of circumstance should then move on to acquire some measure of lf-discipline. Without lf- discipline a man cannot play an adequate part in a civilized society: he will be just slopping around, accepting no responsibility, skimping the work he is suppod to be doing, cheating not only ‘the boss’, the capitalists, but even his neighbours. And unless he is an unusual type, he will not even find much satisfaction in this scrounging messy existence, which does nothing for a man’s lf-respect. (I am keeping this on the male side, if only becau a woman’s problems are generally more personal, immediate, emotionally urgent, so that unless she is a hopeless ca she has to face and deal with some of them.) And this is the situation that many of the English, decent at heart, find themlves in today. Bewildered, they grope and mess around becau they have fallen between two stools, the old harsh discipline having vanished and the esntial new lf-discipline either not understood or thought to be out of reach. 12 Boredom is a menace, now and in the future. All heavily industrialized societies are in the boredom business. This is not simply becau so much of the work they offer is boring. It is also becau, after having shattered the slow rhythms, the traditional skills, the cloly knit communities of rural societies, they crowd people together, excite them by large promis that cannot be kept, so drive them into boredom. Now the English - at least the contemporary English of my experience - can soon feel bored, which largely explains why they gamble and booze 正宗红烧羊肉窍门so much and enjoy any dramatic change in public life, any news that encourages excited talk: the urban English have always emed to me a dramatic people. When boredom can’t be banished, there is always danger ahead. Teenagers, ‘who have not been able to u up enough energy during the day (they should be worked harder), turn at night to idiot vandalism . Later, if boredom hardens into frustration, some of them, too many of them, take to crime, all kinds, from petty shop-lifting to ferocious robbery with violence. 欧洲色图片 13 Life in fact was much rougher, harder, more superficially incure, when I was young, but there emed to be more honesty about, less constant cheating and pilfering and certainly far less vicious criminality. Other elements apart from boredom of cour have been at work here. There is Iago’s ‘Put money in thy pur’; there is the fal notion that the world owes you something while you owe it nothing; the other idea that so long as you are not found out, then all will be well - no final damnation threatening you any longer, and no understanding yet that there can be plenty of Hells on a do-it-yourlf basis. Behind it all, whether people are sunk into almost mindless apathy or scream out of their frustration for violence, there is a feeling that everything is different now, that life has been ‘found out’ to be without meaning, without purpo, equally negative for all mankind or for your own nation. Naturally I am not saying all the English are down on this level. We still have some 'Englishness' left, keeping our minds open to the past and retaining some faith in our future, rejecting the logic-chopping rational for the widely if hazily reasonable, refusing to be cut off from instinct and intuition. 14 Yes, 'Englishness' is still with us. But it needs reinforcement, extra nourishment, especially now when our public life ems ready to starve it. There are English people of all ages, though far more under thirty than over sixty, who em to regard politics as a game but not one of their games – polo , let us say. To them the 'Hou of Commons' is a remote squabbling-shop. Recognized political parties are repertory companies staging ghostly campaigns, and all that is real between them is the arrangement by which one t of chaps take their turn at ministerial jobs while the other t pretend to be astounded and shocked and bring in talk of ruin. The whole thing, in the eyes of the people, is an expensive and tedious farce. In my view they are mistaken, indeed quite dangerously wrong, and I can only hope that no young demagogue of genius and his friends are listening to them. Otherwi they could soon learn, in the worst way, that heavy hands can fall on the shoulders that have been shrugging away politics. You can ignore politics, taking what has been gained for granted, only to discover your cousins have vanished and you are being knocked up at three in the morning. Dictatorships have thrived on majorities that are apathetic and then frightened, and on minorities that are fanatically divided, brutally quarrelsome and stupid. 15 At this time of writing (1973) both the cynical or frivolous majority, which imagines itlf to be outside politics, and the stubbornly divided minority, only agreeing in being myopic and entirely lf-interested, exist in England. But I believe there must also still exist, if only on a hidden level, what remains of a characteristically English n of community, decent fellow-feeling, fairness. (‘It isn’t fair’, children still cry.) In spite of the 'Admass' atmosphere, inflation, the all-round grab, all this must yet exist even now, for there are deep roots here. But tho roots must be needing nourishment. 'Englishness' cannot be fed with the east wind of a narrow rationality, the latest figures of profit and loss, a constant appeal to lf-interest. Politicians are always making such appeals, whereas statesmen, when they can be found, prefer to take themlves and their hearers out of the stock exchanges, shareholders’ meetings, counting-hous. They offer men the chance of behaving better and not as usual. They create an atmosphere in which the familiar greed and envy and rentment begin to em small and contemptible. They restore to people their idea of themlves as a family. It has been done in England over and over again. But not lately. There has been little or no appeal from deep feeling to deep feeling, from imagination to imagination. Recent years have ‘robbed us of immortal things’. But we do not have to go on like that, to enter a 'Common Market of national character'. It is now many years since I first declared in public my belief that the English, despite so many appearances to the contrary, are at heart and at root an imaginative people immediately responsive to any suggestion of drama in their lives. Deprived of it, they drift towards boredom, sulks and foolish short-sighted quarrels. And this is true, whether they are wearing bowler hats or ungovernable mops of hair. To face the future properly they need both a direction and a great lift of the heart. A rather poorer and harder way of life will not defeat them so long as it is not harder and poorer in spirit, so long as it still refus to reject 'Englishness' - for so many centuries the cret of the islanders’ oddity and irrationality, their many weakness, their creative strength. The Final Chapter from ‘The English’ published by William Heinemann in 1973 NOTES 1. Iago: the villain in Shakespeare's Othello. His advice to Roderigo is, "Put money in thy pur", (to get rich, to have a lot of money) if he wants to win the favor of Desdemona. (Act I, Scene Ⅲ, Line 340) 2. Admass: a system of commercial marketing that attempts to influence great mass of consumers by mass-media advertising 爱没走3. time-and-motion studies: an investigation of the motion performed and time taken in industrial work with a view to increa production 4. adverts: colloquial abbreviation of "advertiments" 5. bloody-mindedness: a show or a mood of aggressive obstinacy 6. High Tories: a bigoted or extreme conrvative in politics 7. Hippy: same as "Hippie" 8. road to Katmandu: a arch for truth in Eastern religions or mysticism 9. east wind: the spring wind that revitalizes nature |
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