【推文】James Lindsay - The primary drive of most human beings most of the time...

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• 原推文1 - x.com/conceptualjame...

原文及個人翻譯

推文

The primary drive of most human beings most of the time, I have concluded, is the vain and fundamentally insecure effort to feel superior to others, especially when one knows they aren't. Think about it even a little, and you'll see it behind many things.

我認為，大多數人，在大多數情況下，最主要的驅動力是徒勞且根深蒂固的不安全感，這種感覺源於想要在他人眼中顯得更優秀，尤其是在自己明知不如他們的情況下。仔細思考一下，你會發現這隱藏在許多事情的背後。

回應 1

Lewis on pride:

There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. I have heard people admit that they are bad-tempered, or that they cannot keep their heads about girls or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice.…

The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility.… According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.

路易斯關於驕傲：

世上沒有人能完全擺脫一種罪惡，每個人在看到別人犯這種罪惡時都會厭惡它，而且幾乎沒有人，除了基督徒之外，會認為自己也犯了這種罪。我聽過人們承認自己脾氣暴躁，或者無法控制對女性或酒精的慾望，甚至承認自己是懦夫。但我似乎從未聽說過非基督徒自認有這種罪惡……

我所談論的罪惡是驕傲（或傲慢，下同）（Pride）或自負；而在基督教倫理中，與之相對應的美德被稱為謙卑（Humility）……根據基督教教導，最根本的罪惡，最大的邪惡就是驕傲。不貞、憤怒、貪婪、酗酒等等，相比之下都只是一些微不足道的東西：正是因為驕傲，魔鬼才變成了魔鬼；驕傲導致了所有其他的罪惡；它是一種完全反對上帝的心態。

Does this seem to you exaggerated? If so, think it over. I pointed out a moment ago that the more pride one had, the more one disliked pride in others. In fact, if you want to find out how proud you are the easiest way is to ask yourself, “How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or shove their oar in, or patronize me, or show off?” The point is that each person’s pride is in competition with everyone else’s pride. It is because I wanted to be the big noise at the party that I am so annoyed at someone else being the big noise.

Two of a trade never agree. Now what you want to get clear is that Pride is essentially competitive—is competitive by its very nature—while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If every one else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest.

你覺得這聽起來誇張嗎？如果是的話，請仔細思考一下。我剛剛指出，一個人越是自負，就越是不喜歡別人自負。事實上，如果你想知道自己有多自負，最簡單的方法就是問自己：「當別人無視我、不理睬我、過於干涉我、對我居高臨下或炫耀時，我就有多麼惱火？」。重點在於，每個人的驕傲都在與其他人的驕傲競爭。正是因為我想成為派對上最受矚目的人，所以我才會對別人成為焦點感到厭煩。

同行是冤家。現在你需要清楚的是，驕傲的本質就是競爭性的——它天生就是競爭性的——而其他的罪惡只在某種程度上，可以說是偶然地具有競爭性。驕傲並不會因為擁有某些東西而感到快樂，而是因為擁有的比其他人更多而感到快樂。我們說人們為自己富有、聰明或外貌出眾而自豪，但事實並非如此。他們為自己比別人更富有、更聰明或更具吸引力而自豪。如果每個人都變得同樣富有、聰明或具有吸引力，那就沒有什麼好驕傲的了。正是比較讓你感到自豪：是高於他人的快感。

The Christians are right: it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began. Other vices may sometimes bring people together: you may find good fellowship and jokes and friendliness among drunken people or unchaste people. But Pride always means enmity—it is enmity. And not only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God.

In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that—and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison—you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.

基督徒是對的：從世界開始以來，驕傲一直是每個國家和每個家庭帶來痛苦的主要原因。其他罪惡有時可能會將人們聚集在一起：你可能會在醉酒的人或不貞的人中找到友誼、玩笑和友好。但驕傲總是意味著敵意——它就是敵意。不僅是人與人之間的敵意，也是對上帝的敵意。

在上帝面前，你會遇到一些東西，這些東西在各個方面都遠遠超過你自身。除非你認識上帝，並將自己視為與之相比一無所有，否則你就根本不了解上帝。只要你還自負，就無法認識上帝。一個驕傲的人總是俯視事物和人：而且，當然，只要你還在往下看，你就看不到更高層次的東西。