バートランド・ラッセル「臨機応変の才(気転を働かせること)」(1933.02.01)(松下彰良 訳)* 原著：On tact, by Bertrand Russell* Source: Mortals and Others, v.1, 1975. |
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* 改訳しました。（2011.3.6） * 2005.??.?? 掲載 大部分の若者にとって,教育は辛い過程であるが,（特に）正しい社会的行動に関する訓育(しつけ)は,少なからず苦痛の大きいものである。私は,公園で遊んでいる子供たちのそばを通りすぎる時に子供がはっきりと大声で,「ママ,あの変なおじいさんは誰?」と言うのを,時々聞く。それに続いて,びくびくし,押し殺したような,「し！,し！（黙って!）」という声が聞こえてくる。子供は何か具合の悪いことを言ったらしいとぼんやりと気付くが,一体何がまずかったのか想像するがよくわからずに途方に暮れる。（また）子供は皆,たまにあまり欲しくないプレゼントをもらうが,プレゼントをもらったらうれしそうな顔をするように,親に教えられる。（しかし）子供たちは,一方で,嘘をついてはいけないと言われるので,道徳的混乱が生ずることになる。われわれは大人になるまでに,「臨機応変の才（気転を働かせること）」と「誠実」の２つの徳目をはっきり区別すべきもの(←防水区画すべきこと)として,場合に応じていずれを適用すればよいかわかるようになる。
極度に誠実さを重視する人々は,常にこうした臨機応変の才（気転を働かせること）に対する憎悪を持ってきた。ゲーテに会うためにワイマールを訪れたべートーベンは,偉大な人間（ゲーテ）が宮廷において馬鹿者どもに対して慇懃に振舞っているのを見て我慢がならなかった。クロポトキンは,初期のロシア革命家たち(その多くは貴族出身)がいかにして熟考の上あらゆる形式の慇懃さ（儀礼的行為）を廃止したか,語っている。私自身も,いかなる状況においても誠実であり,けっして慇懃な嘘をつかなかった人々を知っている。彼らの純粋さは好感を持たれ,それゆえ他の人々の場合なら無作法と考えられただろうことも,彼らに限っては他人の感情を損なわなかった。それを知って私は,彼らの手前,自分の慇懃な行為を内心恥ずかしく思ったけれども,これまでけっして彼らの真似をしようとしたことはなかった。 この問題の要点は,聖人は慇懃であることなしに生きることができ,慇懃さは聖人の性格とは両立不可能である,という点にあると思われる。しかし常に誠実でありたいと考える人間は,怨恨（恨み）,羨望（ねたみ）,悪意,狭量（卑劣）などの感情を免れていなければならない。われわれは大部分の者がこれらの悪徳の要素を備えており,人に不快を与えないためには「臨機応変の才（気転を働かせること）」を働かせざるをえない。われわれが皆聖人であるはずはない。従って聖人らしくあること（のマネ）が不可能であるならば,せめてあまり人に不快を与えぬように努めるべきであろう。 |
Education is, to most young people, a painful process, and not its least painful part is instruction in correct social behaviour. I have sometimes passed children playing in the park and heard them say in a loud, clear voice, 'Mummy, who is that funny old man?' To which comes a shocked, subdued, 'Hush ! Hush !' The children become dimly aware that they have done something wrong but are completely at a loss to imagine what it is. All children occasionally get presents that they do not like and are instructed by their parents that they must seem to be delighted with them. As they are also informed that they ought not to tell lies, the result is a moral confusion. By the time we grow up we have learned to keep the virtues of tact and truthfulness in watertight compartments and to know which are the occasions for the one and which for the other. It cannot be denied that tact is a virtue. The sort of person who always manages to blurt out the tactless thing, apparently by accident, is a person full of dislike of his or her fellow creatures. But although tact is a virtue, it is very closely allied to certain vices; the line between tact and hypocrisy is a very narrow one. I think the distinction comes in the motive: when it is kindliness that makes us wish to please, our tact is the right sort; when it is fear of offending, or desire to obtain some advantage by flattery, our tact is apt to be of a less amiable kind. Men accustomed to difficult negotiations learn a kind of tenderness towards the vanity of others and indeed towards all their prejudices, which is infinitely shocking to those who make a cult of sincerity. George Fox, like all early Quakers, objected to conventional forms of respect as savouring of idolatry. When, by order of King Charles II, an officer came to arrest him, the officer, who was a gentleman and did not like the job, took off his hat to Fox, who retorted by exclaiming, 'Repent, thou beast!' It was not the officer's arresting him that he minded, but his taking off his hat. Men who are profoundly in earnest have always had this dislike of tact. When Beethoven went to visit Goethe at Weimar, he could not bear to see the great man behaving politely at Court to a set of fools. Kropotkin relates how the early Russian revolutionaries, many of whom were aristocratic, deliberately abandoned all forms of politeness. I have known myself men who were in all circumstances sincere and never told a polite lie, and I have found that their genuineness was appreciated and that what in others would have been thought rude gave no offence when coming from them. They have made me feel ashamed of practising politeness, and yet I have never ventured to imitate them. I think the gist of the matter is that a saint can live without politeness, and indeed that politeness is incompatible with a saintly character. But the man who is always to be sincere must be free from spite and envy and malice and pettiness. Most of us have a dose of these vices in our composition and therefore have to exercise tact to avoid giving offence. We cannot all be saints, and if saintliness is impossible, we may at least try not to be too disagreeable. |
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