It may seem an exaggeration to say that ambition is the linchpin of society, holding many of its disparate elements together, but it is not an exaggeration by much. Remove ambition and the essential elements of society seem to fly apart.Ambition, as opposed to fantasizing about desires, implies work and discipline to achieve goals, personal and social, of a kind society cannot survive without. Ambition is intimately connected with family, for men and women not only work partly for their families; husbands and wives are often ambitious for each other, but harbor some of their most ardent ambitions for their children.Yet to have a family nowadays-- with birth control readily available, and inflation a good economic argument against having children is nearly an expression of ambition in itself. Finally, though ambition was once the domain chiefly of monarchs and aristocrats, it has, in more recent times, increasingly become the domain of the middle classes. Ambition and futurity a sense of building for tomorrow-- ar＇e inextricable. Working, saving, planning--these, the daily aspects of ambition .... have always been the distinguishing marks of a rising middle class. The attack against ambition is not incidentally an attack on the middle class and what it stands for. Like it or not, the middle class has done much of society＇s work in America; and it, the middle class, has from the beginning run on ambition.
It is not difficult to imagine a world shorn of ambition. It would probably be a kinder world: without demands, without abrasions, without disappointments. People would have time for reflection. Such work as they did would not be for themselves but for the collectivity. Competition would never enter in. Conflict would be eliminated, tension become a thing of the past. The stress of creation would be at an end. Art would no longer be troubling, but purely celebratory in its functions.The family would become superfluous as a social unit, with all its former power for bringing about neurosis drained away.Longevity would be increased, for fewer people would die of heart attack or stroke caused by tumultuous endeavor. Anxiety would be extinct. Time would stretch on and on, with ambition long departed from the human heart.
Ah, how unrelievedly boring life would be!
雄心
若把雄心的許多不相關(guān)的因素結(jié)合起來，說雄心是社會發(fā)展妁關(guān)鍵似乎有些夸張，但也不算太夸張。沒有雄心一個(gè)社會的基本組成要素似乎就分崩離析了。因?yàn)榉磳τ牟磺袑?shí)際的幻想，雄心意味著通過工作和磨練來達(dá)到一個(gè)社會生存所必不可少的個(gè)人和社會的目標(biāo)。雄心與家庭的關(guān)系也很緊密，因?yàn)槟腥撕团瞬粌H在一定程度上是為了家庭而奮斗；丈夫和妻子通常都對對方抱有高的期望，但是他們把烈的雄心抱負(fù)寄托在他們的孩子身上。在當(dāng)今這個(gè)時(shí)代，要組織一個(gè)家庭本身就幾乎是一種雄心勃勃的表示——因?yàn)楝F(xiàn)在已經(jīng)有辦法控制生育，而且物價(jià)飛漲也是不要孩子的經(jīng)濟(jì)方面的好理由。最后，雖然雄心勃勃曾主要是君王和貴族的領(lǐng)域，現(xiàn)今卻越來越成為中產(chǎn)階級的領(lǐng)地。雄心和展望未來——一種創(chuàng)造未來的感覺——是不可遏制的。工作，儲蓄，計(jì)劃——這些日常生活方面的雄心——一直是正在崛起的中產(chǎn)階級的識別性標(biāo)志。對雄心的批判并不是偶然地對中產(chǎn)階級及其代表的一切的攻擊。不管你喜不喜歡，在美國，中產(chǎn)階級承擔(dān)了社會的大部分工作，而正是中產(chǎn)階級從一開始就是以雄心為動(dòng)力的。
沒有雄心的世界不難想象。它可能是個(gè)更好的世界：沒有需求，沒有磨擦，沒有失望。人們有時(shí)間反思，他們所做的工作不是為了自己而是為了大家。永遠(yuǎn)不會有競爭。矛盾消失了，緊張關(guān)系成為歷史，創(chuàng)造的壓力不復(fù)存在。 藝術(shù)不再令人困擾，而只單純起到令人愉快的作用。隨著家庭給人帶來的神經(jīng)壓力漸漸消失，其作為社會單位的作用也將形同虛設(shè)。人的壽命將越來越長，因?yàn)楹苌儆腥藭驗(yàn)檫^于辛勞而死于心臟病或心肌梗塞。焦慮將絕跡。雄心與人的心靈長久地告別，時(shí)間將向前一直延伸，似乎沒有盡頭。
啊，那生活將變得多么無聊而不可救藥啊!
It is not difficult to imagine a world shorn of ambition. It would probably be a kinder world: without demands, without abrasions, without disappointments. People would have time for reflection. Such work as they did would not be for themselves but for the collectivity. Competition would never enter in. Conflict would be eliminated, tension become a thing of the past. The stress of creation would be at an end. Art would no longer be troubling, but purely celebratory in its functions.The family would become superfluous as a social unit, with all its former power for bringing about neurosis drained away.Longevity would be increased, for fewer people would die of heart attack or stroke caused by tumultuous endeavor. Anxiety would be extinct. Time would stretch on and on, with ambition long departed from the human heart.
Ah, how unrelievedly boring life would be!
雄心
若把雄心的許多不相關(guān)的因素結(jié)合起來，說雄心是社會發(fā)展妁關(guān)鍵似乎有些夸張，但也不算太夸張。沒有雄心一個(gè)社會的基本組成要素似乎就分崩離析了。因?yàn)榉磳τ牟磺袑?shí)際的幻想，雄心意味著通過工作和磨練來達(dá)到一個(gè)社會生存所必不可少的個(gè)人和社會的目標(biāo)。雄心與家庭的關(guān)系也很緊密，因?yàn)槟腥撕团瞬粌H在一定程度上是為了家庭而奮斗；丈夫和妻子通常都對對方抱有高的期望，但是他們把烈的雄心抱負(fù)寄托在他們的孩子身上。在當(dāng)今這個(gè)時(shí)代，要組織一個(gè)家庭本身就幾乎是一種雄心勃勃的表示——因?yàn)楝F(xiàn)在已經(jīng)有辦法控制生育，而且物價(jià)飛漲也是不要孩子的經(jīng)濟(jì)方面的好理由。最后，雖然雄心勃勃曾主要是君王和貴族的領(lǐng)域，現(xiàn)今卻越來越成為中產(chǎn)階級的領(lǐng)地。雄心和展望未來——一種創(chuàng)造未來的感覺——是不可遏制的。工作，儲蓄，計(jì)劃——這些日常生活方面的雄心——一直是正在崛起的中產(chǎn)階級的識別性標(biāo)志。對雄心的批判并不是偶然地對中產(chǎn)階級及其代表的一切的攻擊。不管你喜不喜歡，在美國，中產(chǎn)階級承擔(dān)了社會的大部分工作，而正是中產(chǎn)階級從一開始就是以雄心為動(dòng)力的。
沒有雄心的世界不難想象。它可能是個(gè)更好的世界：沒有需求，沒有磨擦，沒有失望。人們有時(shí)間反思，他們所做的工作不是為了自己而是為了大家。永遠(yuǎn)不會有競爭。矛盾消失了，緊張關(guān)系成為歷史，創(chuàng)造的壓力不復(fù)存在。 藝術(shù)不再令人困擾，而只單純起到令人愉快的作用。隨著家庭給人帶來的神經(jīng)壓力漸漸消失，其作為社會單位的作用也將形同虛設(shè)。人的壽命將越來越長，因?yàn)楹苌儆腥藭驗(yàn)檫^于辛勞而死于心臟病或心肌梗塞。焦慮將絕跡。雄心與人的心靈長久地告別，時(shí)間將向前一直延伸，似乎沒有盡頭。
啊，那生活將變得多么無聊而不可救藥啊!