I submit that to the modern minded man it can be no sort of Utopia worth desiring that does not give the utmost freedom of going to and fro. Free movement is to many people one of the greatest of life’s privileges — to go wherever the spirit moves them, to wander and see — and though they have every comfort, every security, every virtuous5 discipline, they will still be unhappy if that is denied them. Short of damage to things cherished and made, the Utopians will surely have this right, so we may expect no unclimbable walls and fences, nor the discovery of any laws we may transgress6 in coming down these mountain places.
And yet, just as civil liberty itself is a compromise defended by prohibitions, so this particular sort of liberty must also have its qualifications. Carried to the absolute pitch the right of free movement ceases to be distinguishable from the right of free intrusion. We have already, in a comment on More’s Utopia, hinted at an agreement with Aristotle’s argument against communism, that it flings people into an intolerable continuity of contact. Schopenhauer carried out Aristotle in the vein7 of his own bitterness and with the truest of images when he likened human society to hedgehogs clustering for warmth, and unhappy when either too closely packed or too widely separated. Empedocles found no significance in life whatever except as an unsteady play of love and hate, of attraction and repulsion, of assimilation and the assertion of difference. So long as we ignore difference, so long as we ignore individuality, and that I hold has been the common sin of all Utopias hitherto, we can make absolute statements, prescribe communisms or individualisms, and all sorts of hard theoretic arrangements. But in the world of reality, which — to modernise8 Heraclitus and Empedocles — is nothing more nor less than the world of individuality, there are no absolute rights and wrongs, there are no qualitative9 questions at all, but only quantitative10 adjustments. Equally strong in the normal civilised man is the desire for freedom of movement and the desire for a certain privacy, for a corner definitely his, and we have to consider where the line of reconciliation11 comes.
The desire for absolute personal privacy is perhaps never a very strong or persistent12 craving13. In the great majority of human beings, the gregarious14 instinct is sufficiently15 powerful to render any but the most temporary isolations not simply disagreeable, but painful. The savage17 has all the privacy he needs within the compass of his skull18; like dogs and timid women, he prefers ill-treatment to desertion, and it is only a scarce and complex modern type that finds comfort and refreshment19 in quite lonely places and quite solitary20 occupations. Yet such there are, men who can neither sleep well nor think well, nor attain21 to a full perception of beautiful objects, who do not savour the best of existence until they are securely alone, and for the sake of these even it would be reasonable to draw some limits to the general right of free movement. But their particular need is only a special and exceptional aspect of an almost universal claim to privacy among modern people, not so much for the sake of isolation16 as for congenial companionship. We want to go apart from the great crowd, not so much to be alone as to be with those who appeal to us particularly and to whom we particularly appeal; we want to form households and societies with them, to give our individualities play in intercourse22 with them, and in the appointments and furnishings of that intercourse. We want gardens and enclosures and exclusive freedoms for our like and our choice, just as spacious23 as we can get them — and it is only the multitudinous uncongenial, anxious also for similar developments in some opposite direction, that checks this expansive movement of personal selection and necessitates24 a compromise on privacy.
Glancing back from our Utopian mountain side down which this discourse25 marches, to the confusions of old earth, we may remark that the need and desire for privacies there is exceptionally great at the present time, that it was less in the past, that in the future it may be less again, and that under the Utopian conditions to which we shall come when presently we strike yonder road, it may be reduced to quite manageable dimensions. But this is to be effected not by the suppression of individualities to some common pattern, [Footnote: More’s Utopia. “Whoso will may go in, for there is nothing within the houses that is private or anie man’s owne.”] but by the broadening of public charity and the general amelioration of mind and manners. It is not by assimilation, that is to say, but by understanding that the modern Utopia achieves itself. The ideal community of man’s past was one with a common belief, with common customs and common ceremonies, common manners and common formulae; men of the same society dressed in the same fashion, each according to his defined and understood grade, behaved in the same fashion, loved, worshipped, and died in the same fashion. They did or felt little that did not find a sympathetic publicity26. The natural disposition27 of all peoples, white, black, or brown, a natural disposition that education seeks to destroy, is to insist upon uniformity, to make publicity extremely unsympathetic to even the most harmless departures from the code. To be dressed “odd,” to behave “oddly,” to eat in a different manner or of different food, to commit, indeed, any breach28 of the established convention is to give offence and to incur29 hostility30 among unsophisticated men. But the disposition of the more original and enterprising minds at all times has been to make such innovations.
This is particularly in evidence in this present age. The almost cataclysmal development of new machinery31, the discovery of new materials, and the appearance of new social possibilities through the organised pursuit of material science, has given enormous and unprecedented32 facilities to the spirit of innovation. The old local order has been broken up or is now being broken up all over the earth, and everywhere societies deliquesce, everywhere men are afloat amidst the wreckage33 of their flooded conventions, and still tremendously unaware34 of the thing that has happened. The old local orthodoxies of behaviour, of precedence, the old accepted amusements and employments, the old ritual of conduct in the important small things of the daily life and the old ritual of thought in the things that make discussion, are smashed up and scattered35 and mixed discordantly36 together, one use with another, and no world-wide culture of toleration, no courteous37 admission of differences, no wider understanding has yet replaced them. And so publicity in the modern earth has become confusedly unsympathetic for everyone. Classes are intolerable to classes and sets to sets, contact provokes aggressions, comparisons, persecutions and discomforts38, and the subtler people are excessively tormented39 by a sense of observation, unsympathetic always and often hostile. To live without some sort of segregation40 from the general mass is impossible in exact proportion to one’s individual distinction.
Of course things will be very different in Utopia. Utopia will be saturated41 with consideration. To us, clad as we are in mountain-soiled tweeds and with no money but British bank-notes negotiable only at a practically infinite distance, this must needs be a reassuring42 induction43. And Utopian manners will not only be tolerant, but almost universally tolerable. Endless things will be understood perfectly44 and universally that on earth are understood only by a scattered few; baseness of bearing, grossness of manner, will be the distinctive45 mark of no section of the community whatever. The coarser reasons for privacy, therefore, will not exist here. And that savage sort of shyness, too, that makes so many half-educated people on earth recluse46 and defensive47, that too the Utopians will have escaped by their more liberal breeding. In the cultivated State we are assuming it will be ever so much easier for people to eat in public, rest and amuse themselves in public, and even work in public. Our present need for privacy in many things marks, indeed, a phase of transition from an ease in public in the past due to homogeneity, to an ease in public in the future due to intelligence and good breeding, and in Utopia that transition will be complete. We must bear that in mind throughout the consideration of this question.
Yet, after this allowance has been made, there still remains48 a considerable claim for privacy in Utopia. The room, or apartments, or home, or mansion49, whatever it may be a man or woman maintains, must be private, and under his or her complete dominion50; it seems harsh and intrusive51 to forbid a central garden plot or peristyle, such as one sees in Pompeii, within the house walls, and it is almost as difficult to deny a little private territory beyond the house. Yet if we concede that, it is clear that without some further provision we concede the possibility that the poorer townsman (if there are to be rich and poor in the world) will be forced to walk through endless miles of high fenced villa52 gardens before he may expand in his little scrap53 of reserved open country. Such is already the poor Londoner’s miserable54 fate. . . . Our Utopia will have, of course, faultless roads and beautifully arranged inter-urban communications, swift trains or motor services or what not, to diffuse55 its population, and without some anticipatory56 provisions, the prospect57 of the residential58 areas becoming a vast area of defensively walled villa Edens is all too possible.
This is a quantitative question, be it remembered, and not to be dismissed by any statement of principle. Our Utopians will meet it, I presume, by detailed59 regulations, very probably varying locally with local conditions. Privacy beyond the house might be made a privilege to be paid for in proportion to the area occupied, and the tax on these licences of privacy might increase as the square of the area affected60. A maximum fraction of private enclosure for each urban and suburban61 square mile could be fixed62. A distinction could be drawn63 between an absolutely private garden and a garden private and closed only for a day or a couple of days a week, and at other times open to the well-behaved public. Who, in a really civilised community, would grudge64 that measure of invasion? Walls could be taxed by height and length, and the enclosure of really natural beauties, of rapids, cascades65, gorges66, viewpoints, and so forth67 made impossible. So a reasonable compromise between the vital and conflicting claims of the freedom of movement and the freedom of seclusion68 might be attained69. . . .
And as we argue thus we draw nearer and nearer to the road that goes up and over the Gotthard crest70 and down the Val Tremola towards Italy.
What sort of road would that be?
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1
prohibitions
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| 禁令，禁律( prohibition的名词复数 )； 禁酒； 禁例 | |
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chary
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| adj.谨慎的，细心的 | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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transgress
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| vt.违反，逾越 | |
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vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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modernise
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| vt.使现代化 | |
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qualitative
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| adj.性质上的，质的，定性的 | |
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quantitative
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| adj.数量的，定量的 | |
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reconciliation
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| n.和解，和谐，一致 | |
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persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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craving
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| n.渴望,热望 | |
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gregarious
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| adj.群居的，喜好群居的 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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isolation
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| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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refreshment
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| n.恢复，精神爽快，提神之事物；（复数）refreshments:点心，茶点 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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necessitates
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| 使…成为必要，需要( necessitate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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discourse
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| n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述 | |
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publicity
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| n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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incur
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| vt.招致，蒙受，遭遇 | |
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hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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unprecedented
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| adj.无前例的，新奇的 | |
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wreckage
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| n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏 | |
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unaware
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| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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discordantly
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| adv.不一致地，不和谐地 | |
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courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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discomforts
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| n.不舒适( discomfort的名词复数 )；不愉快，苦恼 | |
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tormented
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| 饱受折磨的 | |
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segregation
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| n.隔离，种族隔离 | |
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saturated
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| a.饱和的，充满的 | |
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reassuring
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| a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的 | |
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induction
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| n.感应，感应现象 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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distinctive
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| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
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recluse
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| n.隐居者 | |
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defensive
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| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
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48
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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dominion
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| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
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51
intrusive
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| adj.打搅的；侵扰的 | |
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52
villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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53
scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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54
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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55
diffuse
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| v.扩散；传播；adj.冗长的；四散的，弥漫的 | |
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anticipatory
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| adj.预想的，预期的 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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residential
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| adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的 | |
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detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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suburban
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| adj.城郊的，在郊区的 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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grudge
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| n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做 | |
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cascades
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| 倾泻( cascade的名词复数 )； 小瀑布（尤指一连串瀑布中的一支）； 瀑布状物； 倾泻（或涌出）的东西 | |
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gorges
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| n.山峡，峡谷( gorge的名词复数 )；咽喉v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的第三人称单数 )；作呕 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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seclusion
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| n.隐遁，隔离 | |
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attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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