Nothing exists except human consciousness.
這兩天的討論的話題讓我想起了很久以前看的一本書,就是George
Orwell的「1984」。 那天在翻老的博文里看到了一個詞「烏托邦」,一下子豁然開朗,原來「烏托邦」就是Utopia。今天拿出"1984"來又簡單讀了一下,特別是後面的幾個章節。看上去「1984」是寫斯大林和德國納粹的權利控制手段使人性在強度壓榨下變得如行屍走肉,但不能不說所有人類政治群體都存在著這種潛力。「1984」是dystopia(wikipedia中文翻譯:反烏托邦/敵托邦)。
1. Doublethinking(雙重思想)。「1984」說
「To know and not to know, to be
conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to
hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be
contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to
repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was
impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget,
whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at
the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above
all, to apply the same process to the process itself---that was the ultimate
subtlety; consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to
become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to
understand the word 『doublethink』 involved the use of doublethink」。
「 The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one』s
mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them……To tell deliberate lies while
genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient,
and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for
just as long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and
all the while to take account of doublethink it is necessary to exercise
doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tempering with
reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on
indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth」.
舉個doublethink例子,書中描寫O』Brien教給Winston 2+2=5。O』Brien明明知道2+2不等於5,可他相信2+2=5。Winston相信2+2=4,他從意識里無法理解為什麼2+2會等於5。而Winston犯的錯是在他不能將自己的意識在否認謊言時完全阻止它,書中叫crimestop,」in short, means protective stupidity」. 另一個例子是最優秀的統治者都非常堅信自己可以統治世界,但同時又深深知道這是無法實現的。「For
the secret of rulership is to combine a belief in one』s own infallibility with
the power of learn from past mistakes。 World-conquest
is believed in most firmly by those who know it to be impossible. This peculiar
linking-together of opposites---knowledge with ignorance, cynicism with
fanaticism」.
當Winston被問到為什麼O』Brien和Party這樣打他餓他時,Winston回答『你們想讓我屈服』,而O』Brien說「你錯了!我們不想讓你屈服,我們不想讓任何人屈服在我們之下。我們是在拯救你,因為你病了,我們愛你,我們不想讓任何人受壓迫受痛苦,但Winston你有病了,你的病在於你認識不到自己的病,因為意識到自己的病需要自我毀滅。你認為你看到的2+2=4是不爭的事實,但這是你腦子裡的認識,不是事實。只有通過Party才能看到事實,你要將你自己謙卑下來」。
當Winston被問到Party的目的是什麼,Winston回答「你統治我們是為了我們的好處,因為party認為人民沒有統治自己的能力」。O』Brien大叫到「你錯了!大大的錯了!The
Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good
of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life
or happiness; only power, pure power. We are different from all the oligarchies
of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who
resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the
Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had
the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even
believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and
that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be
free and equal. We are not like that! We know that no one ever seizes power
with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One
does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes
the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship!」
2. 社會的三個基本層次:高,中,低。
高層的目的是呆在高層;中層的目的是變為高層;低層的目的(如果他有目的的話)是將所有層次廢除,然後建立一個平等和諧的社會。所以,歷史就充滿的這樣的來來回回的鬥爭。高層呆在高層一段時間后,他們自己就對自己缺乏了信心,或他們喪失了統治能力,這樣,中層就起來推翻了高層。中層利用的手段是他們假裝是為了低層的正義和平等來為跟高層鬥爭,這樣低層就為這個目的給中層賣命。但一旦中層變成高層以後,低層則跟以前的地位一樣,還是低層。
所以,「No advance in wealth, no softening
of manners, no reform or revolution has ever brought human equality a
millimeter nearer. From the point of view of the Low, no historic change has
ever meant much more than a change in the name of their master」. 低層永遠換主不換位。
3. 四種可以顛覆統治者的力量。「 There are only four
ways in which a ruling group can fall from power: 1) Either it is conquered
from without, or 2)it governs so inefficiently that the masses are stirred to
revolt, or 3) it allows a strong and discontented Middle Group to come into
being, or 4)it loses its own self-confidence and willingness to govern.
Ultimately the determining factor is the mental attitude of
the ruling class itself. The masses never revolt of their own accord, and they
never revolt merely because they are oppressed. 因為只要低層沒有比較,他們根本就不會意識到自己是被壓迫的。「1984」中的Party意識歷史上所有統治者們犯的錯誤,包括殺一警百的意識錯誤。殺一警百是不管用的,因為殺了一個反抗者,但如果他的精神還在就會留下「禍根」,所以,Party要改造這些反抗者,將他們的病治好,讓他們好好的活著,完全沒有反抗的活著,不但沒有反抗,還要從內心裡愛Party.
最後,Winston完全失去了對Julia的愛,因為他真的愛「The Big Brother」.