The desire to obtain a confession was the basis of the tortures of the Inquisition. In Old China, torture of suspected persons was habitual, because a humanitarian Emperor had decreed that no man should be condemned except on his own confession. For the taming of the power of the police, one essential is that a confession shall never, in any circumstances, be accepted as evidence.
* inquisition (名):審理;(大文字 The Inquisiiton)で(異端審理の)宗教裁判(所) / decree (動):(法律として)布告する;定める
出典: Power, a new social analysis, 1938, chap. 18: The Taming Power
私と同じ世代の人々と同様,私も「何もしないで怠けている者のところには,悪魔がやってきて,何か不幸の種を見つけ出す」(宗教詩人 Issac Watts, 1674-1748 の句。Moral songs for children にある。)という格言に則って,(いつも何かしているように)育てられた。私は非常に善良な子供だったので,言われたことは何でも信じ,良心の持ち主になり,私はその良心によって現在まで一生けんめい働き続けてきた。しかし,私の良心は,私の「行為」を支配してきたけれども,私の「考え]はすっかり変ってしまっている。私は次のように考えている。即ち,これまで,世界中で,あまりにも多くの仕事(労働)がなされており,仕事は善いものだという信念が,恐ろしく多くの害をひきおこしており,(それゆえ)現代の産業国家で教えさとす必要のあることは,今までいつも説教されてきたこととはまるきり違うものである,と。
日なたぼっこをしている12人の乞食を見つけ(ムッソリーニの時代以前のことであった。),その中で最もなまけものに1リラをやろうと申し出た,あのナポリの旅行者の話を知らない人はいないだろう。。11人の乞食がそれをもらおうと飛び上がったので,その旅行者は,じっとしている12人目のものにお金を与えた。この旅行者のやったことは,正しい。しかし地中海の陽光のめぐみを享受できない寒い国々においては,何もせずに怠惰でいることははるかに難しいので,怠惰を始めるには,大規模な公的宣伝が必要となるだろう。キリスト教青年会の指導者諸君は,以下のページを読まれた後は,善良な青年たちを,何もしないように導く運動を始めてくださることを希望する。もしそうなれば,私としては生き甲斐があったことになろう。
Like most of my generation, I was brought up on the saying: ‘Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.’ Being a highly virtuous child, I believed all that I was told, and acquired a conscience which has kept me working hard down to the present moment. But although my conscience has controlled my actions, my opinions have undergone a revolution. I think that there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what always has been preached. Everyone knows the story of the traveller in Naples who saw twelve beggars lying in the sun (it was before the days of Mussolini), and offered a lira to the laziest of them. Eleven of them jumped up to claim it, so he gave it to the twelfth. This traveller was on the right lines. But in countries which do not enjoy Mediterranean sunshine idleness is more difficult, and a great public propaganda will be required to inaugurate it. I hope that, after reading the following pages, the leaders of the Y.M.C.A. will start a campaign to induce good young men to do nothing. If so, I shall not have lived in vain.
出典: In Praise of Idleness, 1935, chap.1.
詳細情報:http://russell-j.com/cool/32T-0101.HTM
A hundred years ago, in a society now extinct, the point of view which puts charity above independence now seems to us grotesque. But in newer forms it still survives and is still politically powerful. It is this very same outlook which makes large numbers of people think it better that the unemployed should be kept alive by private benevolence than that they should have the legal right to support by the public authorities. In a just world, there would be no possibility of ‘charity’.
出典:Bertrand Russell: On charity,Nov. 2, 1932. In: Mortals and Others, v.1 (1975)
詳細情報:http://russell-j.com/CHARITY.HTM
The flight of time, the transitoriness of all things, the empire of death, are the foundations of tragic feeling. Ever since men began to reflect deeply upon human life, they have sought various ways of escape: in religion, in philosophy, in poetry, in history – all of which attempt to give eternal value to what is transient. While personal memory persists, in some degree, it postpones the victory of time and gives persistence, at least in recollection, to the momentary event. The same impulse carried further causes kings to engrave their victories on monuments of stone, poets to relate old sorrows in words whose beauty (they hope) will make them immortal, and philosophers to invent systems providing that time is no more than illusion. Vain effort! The stone crumbles, the poet’s words become unintelligible, and the philosopher’s system are forgotten. Nonetheless, striving after eternity has ennobled the passing moment.
出典: On old friends (written in Jan. 4, 1933 and pub. in Mortals and Others, v.1, 1975.]
詳細情報:http://russell-j.com/O-FRIEND.HTM
Throughout recent years, a vast amount of money and time and brains has been employed in overcoming sales resistance, i.e. in inducing unoffending persons to waste their money in purchasing objects which they had no desire to possess. It is characteristic of our age that this sort of thing is considered meritorious.
出典: On sales resistance(written in June 22, 1932 and pub. in Mortals and Others, v.1, 1975.]
詳細情報:http://russell-j.com/SALES-R.HTM
One of the unforeseen and unintended results of the increasing importance of experts in the modern world is that, in a great many departments of life, the ordinary man has become passive where he used to be active.
出典: Are we too passive?(written in Feb. 3, 1932 and pub. in Mortals and Others, v.1, 1975.]
詳細情報:http://russell-j.com/PASSIVE.HTM
But nowadays almost every young man has to begin with a very subordinate post in some vast organisation. His superiors seldom have the tolerance of the experienced schoolmaster and are likely to give promotion to the ‘good’ boy. … The man who has learnt to obey will either have lost all personal initiative or will have become so filled with rage against the authorities that his initiative will have become destructive and cruel.
出典: On being good(written in Nov. 18, 1931 and pub. in Mortals and Others, v.1, 1975.]
詳細情報:http://russell-j.com/BEING-G.HTM
We have allowed ourselves to be too much dominated by work and have not sufficiently used machines as a means of liberation from the thraldom of manual and mental labour. We could, if we chose, all have more leisure. We give artistic expression to their impulses, rather than so as to be convenient units in a regiment. We do not do this because we love power more than we love beauty.
出典: In praise of artificiality (written in Nov. 9, 1931 and pub. in Mortals and Others, v.1, 1975.]
詳細情報:http://russell-j.com/ARTIFICI.HTM
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.
出典: On tact (written in Feb. 1, 1933 and pub. in Mortals and Others, v.1, 1975.]
詳細情報:http://russell-j.com/TACT.HTM
I imagine that most Americans view Latvia, for example, without either love or hate, and the consequence is that they know nothing about Latvia. If they love or hate a country their newspapers will supply them with favourable or unfavourable information, as the case may be, and their prejudices will gradually come to be confirmed by a mass of what appears to be knowledge.