内容导读
毋庸讳言，“强权即公理”这一思维是人类文明史上挥之不去的幽灵。对于征服的渴望和崇拜使铁血多于温情，毁灭多于创造，粗犷多于优雅。而这却常常被视为历史中光辉的篇章。在哲学家乔德看来，这是违背文明的定义的：善于搏斗是动物的标准，而不是文明。文明的本质是教化。
英文正文
Most of the people who appear most often and most gloriously in the history books are great conquerors and generals and soldiers,whereas the people who really helped civilization forward are often never mentioned at all.We do not know who first set abroken leg,or launched aseaworthy boat,or calculated the length of the year,or manured afield;but we know all about the killers and destroyers.People think agreat deal of them,so much that on all the highest pillars in the great cities of the world you will find the figure of aconqueror or ageneral or asoldier.And Ithink most people believe that the greatest countries are those that have beaten in battle the greatest number of other countries and ruled over them as conquerors.It is just possible they are,but they are not the most civilized.Animals fight;so do savages;hence to be good at fighting is to be good in the way in which an animal or asavage is good,but it is not to be civilized.Even being good at getting other people to fight for you and telling them how to do it most efficiently—this,after all,is what conquerors and generals have done—is not being civilized.People fight to settle quarrels.Fighting means killing,and civilized peoples ought to be able to find some way of settling their disputes other than by seeing which side can kill off the greater number of the other side,and then saying that the side which has killed most has won.And not only it has won,but,because it has won,it has been in the right.For that is what going to war means;it means saying that might is right.
That is what the story of mankind has on the whole been like.And while today it is true that people do not fight and kill each other in the streets—while,that is to say,we have got to the stage of keeping the rules and behaving properly to each other in daily life—nations and countries have not learnt to do this yet,and still behave like savages.
But we must not expect too much.After all,the race of men has only just started.From the point of view of evolution,human beings are very young children indeed,babies,in fact,of afew months old.So you see there has been little time to learn in,but there will be oceans of time in which to learn better.The past of man has been on the whole apretty beastly business,a business of fighting and bullying and gorging and grabbing and hurting.We must not expect even civilized peoples not to have done these things.All we can ask is that they will sometimes have done something else.
中文译文
文明与历史——C.E.M.乔德
历史书中最为尊崇、最常出现的是征服者、将军和士兵，而真正推动人类文明发展的人却始终不被提及。我们不知道谁第一个医好伤患的断腿，谁第一次用小船远航深海，谁第一个发明日历，谁第一次开垦农田；但我们却对刽子手和文明摧毁者知之甚多。人们推崇这些人，世界大城市中到处可见这些征服者、将军和士兵的雕像矗立在柱子的顶端。我想，大多数人都相信最伟大的国家就是打败了最多对手并统治它们的征服者。可能确实如此，但它们并不是最高的文明。动物搏斗，野蛮人也搏斗，所以善于搏斗仅是动物和野蛮人的择优标准，但并不是文明。即使善于驱使别人为自己打仗，并且告诉他们怎样打最有效——这就是征服者和将军们的所作所为——也不是文明。人们为解决争端而打仗。打仗意味着杀戮，文明的民族应该能够找到某种解决争端的办法，而不是看哪一方能消灭另一方更多的人，而后说杀人最多的一方获胜。战胜者不仅胜利了，而且因为胜利而变得正义。那就是战争的意义，它意味着强权就是公理。
人类的经历大体便是如此。尽管今天人们确实不再在街头斗殴杀人，这就是说，我们已经达到了在日常生活中遵纪守礼的水准，然而民族和国家却还没有学会这一点，仍然表现得像野蛮人一样。
但我们不应该期望过高，人类的行程才刚刚开始。从进化论的观点看，人类还处于非常幼稚的孩童时代，甚至是几个月大的婴儿。所以，人类只学习了极少的时间，还有充足的时间去变得更好。人类的过去是一部相当残忍的历史，一部持续厮杀角逐、恃强凌弱、吞并掠夺、蹂躏践踏的历史。我们不能苛求那些文明民族不曾做过这些事情。我们所能希望的就是人类有时也会做一点其他的事情。
词汇速记
manure v. 施肥
bully v. 欺凌；恐吓
gorge v. 吞
美句欣赏
Animals fight;so do savages;hence to be good at fighting is to be good in the way in which an animal or asavage is good,but it is not to be civilized.动物搏斗，野蛮人也搏斗，所以善于搏斗仅是动物和野蛮人的择优标准，但并不是文明。