追求幸福不是政府的工作_BEC初级作文

追求幸福不是政府的工作

All this is innocent enough; and if the official statisticians pursue their research they may find something more interesting. It is what may lie at the end of the road that is more worrying. Aldous Huxley sounded a warning in his 1932 novel Brave

这一切真是十足的天真；如果官方统计人员在调研时再深入一些，就可能会发现一些有趣的结论。而最终极的结果可能更加令人担忧。1932年，奥尔德斯•赫胥黎(Aldous Huxley)便在小说《美丽新世界》(Brave New World)中发出了警告。在这本小说中，人都是有选择性的孵化器培育出来的，分为"阿尔法(α)"、"贝塔(β)"、"伽玛(γ)"、"德尔塔(δ)"、 "爱普西隆(ε)"五种人，他们都安心于自己的命运。一旦出现幸福感减弱的蛛丝马迹，就给他们服用一种名叫索麻(soma)的麻醉药。

New World. People are bred in selective incubators to be alphas, betas, gammas, deltas and epsilons, and to be content with their lot. At the slightest sign of waning happiness, they are given a top-up drug, soma.

如果我们从世俗而非宗教的角度思考这个问题，赫胥黎笔下的"美丽新世界"到底有什么不对呢？问题是我们没有索麻这种东西。据我所知，世界上不存在没有副作用或后遗症的幸福药片。

If we think the matter through from a secular rather than a religious point of view, what is really wrong with Huxley's Brave New World? It is that there is no such thing as soma. To the best of my knowledge, there are still no happiness drugs devoid of side or after effects.