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ラッセル「明晰な思考のための弁明」n.2 (松下彰良・訳)A Plea for Clear Thinking (1947) |
「民主主義」の意味
(注:"home sweet home"はコーラスでよく歌われる歌:下記のページ左上の「melody」をクリックすると聴けます。) ★"home sweet home" |
The Meaning of "Democracy" All the stock words of political controversy, in spite of having a definite dictionary meaning, have in use meanings which differ according to the political affiliation of the speaker, and agree only in their power of rousing violent emotions. The word "liberty" originally meant chiefly absence of alien domination; then it came to mean restrictions of royal power; then, in the days of the "rights of man," it came to denote various respects in which it was thought that each individual should be free from governmental interference; and then at last, in the hands of Hegel, it came to be "true liberty," which amounted to little more than gracious permission to obey the police. In our day, the word "democracy" is going through a similar transformation: it used to mean government by a majority, with a somewhat undefined modicum of personal freedom; it then came to mean the aims of the political party that represented the interests of the poor, on the ground that the poor everywhere are the majority. At the next stage it represented the aims of the leaders of that party. It has now come, throughout Eastern Europe and a large part of Asia, to mean despotic government by those who were in some former time champions of the poor, but who now confine such championship exclusively to inflicting ruin upon the rich, except when the rich are "democratic" in the new sense. This is a very potent and successful method of political agitation. Men who have long heard a certain word with a certain emotion are apt to feel the same emotion when they hear the same word, even if its meaning is changed. If, some years hence, volunteers are required for a trial journey to the moon, they will be more easily obtained if that satellite is re-christened "home sweet home." |