第10章 権力の源泉としての信条 n.10 - ナチスと科学
服従の態度は,-下位の者(自分より劣った者)から強要される時- 知性にとって有害である(知性を損なうもとなる)。何らかの馬鹿げた(不合理な)原理原則を、少なくとも外見的には,受け入れなければならない社会においては,(その社会の)最良の人間(人々)は魯鈍になるか,あるいは,不平不満を抱かざるをえない。その結果,その社会の知的水準は低下し,それは,間もなく,技術的進歩を妨げるに違いない。公(官公吏)の信条が知的な人間であればほとんど受け入れないようなものである場合には,このことは特に真実である(あてはまる)。ナチスは(これまで/1938年本書出版当時まで)最も有能なドイツ人の大部分を追放してきたが,このことは,遅かれ早かれ.彼らナチスの軍事技術の上にも破滅的な影響を及ぼすに違いない。科学なくして技術が長い間進歩し続けることは不可能であり,思想の自由のないところに科学が栄えることも不可能である。従って,原理原則の一律性(一様性)を固執することは,たとえそれが戦争とは全く縁の遠いような事柄においてさえ,科学時代の軍事的効率性にとって,致命的である。 |
Chapter X: Creeds as Sources of Power, n.10When war comes, the policy of concealment may produce effects exactly opposite to those intended. Some, at least, of the unpleasant facts which had been kept dark are likely to become patent to all, and the more men have been made to live in a fool's paradise, the more they will be horrified and discouraged by the reality. Revolution or sudden collapse is much more probable in such circumstances than when free discussion has prepared the public mind for painful events.An attitude of obedience, when it is exacted from subordinates, is inimical to intelligence. In a community in which men have to accept, at least outwardly, some obviously absurd doctrine, the best men must become either stupid or disaffected. There will be, in consequence, a lowering of the intellectual level, which must, before long, interfere with technical progress. This is especially true when the official creed is one which few intelligent men can honestly accept. The Nazis have exiled most of the ablest Germans, and this must, sooner or later, have disastrous effects upon their military technique. It is impossible for technique to remain long progressive without science, or for science to flourish where there is no freedom of thought. Consequently insistence on doctrinal uniformity, even in matters quite remote from war, is ultimately fatal to military efficiency in a scientific age. |