冲动真的是魔鬼吗？

此段摘自《个人与群体事件的本质》
第8章“人、分子、力量与自由意志”第857节

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关于冲动的误区

也许从表面上看，冲动的行为在社会上大肆泛滥，诸如在邪教行为、犯罪行为，或年轻人的行为里。但这种行动反而恰恰显示出，当冲动不容许被自然地表达时，它所具有的力量。一方面冲动被强化并集中在高度仪式化的行为模式上，而在其他方面则被禁止表达。

某个理想主义者相信世界正在走向灾难，而他无力阻止。在他否定了自己的冲动并相信那是错误的，在他阻止自己去展现影响他人的力量之后，他也许会“听见上帝的声音”。那声音也许叫他去干任何一种邪恶之事——去暗杀阻挡他实现伟大理想的敌人——而在他和别人看来，他似乎有一种想杀人的自然冲动，似乎的确有一种如此行事的内在天命。

根据不同的情况，这样一个人可以是小型邪教团体的一员或一国元首，一个罪犯或民族英雄，他声称以上帝的权威行事。再说一次，在每个人的内心，去行动的欲望和动机是如此强烈，以至于它不能被否定，而当它被否定时，就可能以一种反常的形式表现出来。人必须采取行动，而且必须采取建设性的行动，他必须感觉自己在为善的目标而行动。

只有当采取建设性行动的自然冲动被一再否定时，理想主义者才会变成狂热分子。每个人都在以自己的方式做一个理想主义者。

力量是自然的。它是肌肉去动、眼睛去看、头脑去想的力量，是情感的力量——这些才代表了真正的力量，这种自然的力量感如若缺失，则再也没有任何财富或声誉的累积可以替代。力量永远在个人身上，而所有的政治力量必须来自个人。

民主制度是一种非常有趣的政体形式，具有非常重大的意义，因为它需要如此多的个体意识，因为它必须首先依赖于对个人力量的相信。在你们美国，民主制度历久犹存，在面对科学与宗教所公认的相反信念时，它还能如此有活力地运作，这都要归功于对个人力量的相信。

民主理念表达了高度理想主义的存在——它要求政治及社会组织能在一定程度上有效地给予那些理想以实际的表达。当那些组织未能有效地运作，而当理想主义与“实现了的善”之间的鸿沟变得太大时，这种状况就会使某些理想主义者变成狂热分子。那些非常严格地遵循科学或宗教律条的人，可以在一瞬间就改变立场。一个科学家可能突然厌恶了科学知识的限制，开始玩起了通灵术，而把所有热忱投向他认为与科学知识相反的、或者说是纯直觉性的知识。于是，他阻挡了自己的理性，就像早先阻挡自己的直觉一样狂热。一个相信达尔文定律及生存竞争的商人，会用“适者生存”的理念替不公正甚至偷窃辩护——这样一个人可能摇身一变，成为基督教的原教旨主义者。他也许会把自己积攒的财富施舍掉，试图以此获得力量感。这全都出于一种纠缠不清的企图，企图在现实世界中表达一种自然的理想主义。

当你读到一个人犯了谋杀罪，是因为他有强烈的冲动去这样做，或是因为上帝的声音命令他去做，你又如何能信任自己的冲动呢？比如说，你们有些人若即刻跟随自己的冲动，那第一个自然的冲动也许看起来是残忍或破坏性的。

你的冲动又是如何影响你未来的经验，并且帮助形成了群体实相的现实世界呢？

It may seem that impulsive actions run rampant in society, in cultish behavior, for example, or in the behavior of criminals, or on the part of youth, but such activities show instead the power of impulses denied their natural expression, intensified and focused on the one hand into highly ritualized patterns of behavior, and in other areas denied expression.

A particular idealist believes that the world is headed for disaster, and that he is powerless to prevent it. Having denied his impulses, believing them wrong, and having impeded his expression of his own power to affect others, he might, for example, "hear the voice of God." That voice might tell him to commit any of a number of nefarious actions ? to assassinate the enemies that stand in the way of his great ideal ? and it might seem to him and to others that he has a natural impulse to kill, and indeed an inner decree from God to do so.

According to conditions, such a person could be a member of a small cult or the head of a nation, a criminal or a national hero, who claims to act with the authority of God. Again, the desire and motivation to act is so strong within each person that it will not be denied, and when it is denied then it can be expressed in a perverted form. Man must not only act, but he must act constructively, and he must feel that he acts for good ends.

Only when the natural impulse to act constructively is denied consistently does the idealist turn into a fanatic. Each person in his or her own way is an idealist.

Power is natural. It is the force, the power of the muscle to move, or the eye to see, of the mind to think, the power of the emotions ? these represent true power, and no accumulation of wealth or acclaim can substitute for that natural sense of power if it is lacking. Power always rests with the individual, and from the individual all political power must flow.

A democracy is a highly interesting form of govern?ment, highly lignifii ani because it demands so much of individual consciousness, and because it must rest primarily upon a belief in the powers of the individual. It is a tribute to that belief that it has lingered in your country, and operated with such vitality in the face of quite opposing beliefs officially held by both science and religion.

The idea of democracy expresses the existence of a high idealism ? one that demands political and social organizations that are effective to some degree in providing some practical expression of those ideals. When those organizations fail and a gulf between idealism and actualized good becomes too great, then such conditions help turn some idealists into fanatics. Those who follow with great strictness the dictates of either science or religion can switch sides in a moment. The scientist begins tipping tables or whatever, and suddenly disgusted by the limits of scientific knowledge, he turns all of his dedication to what he thinks of as its opposite, or pure intuitive knowledge. Thus, he blocks his reason as fanatically as earlier he blocked his intuitions. The businessman who believed in Darwinian principles and the fight for survival, who justified injustice and perhaps thievery to his ideal of surviving in a com?petitive world ? he suddenly turns into a fundamentalist in religious terms, trying to gain his sense of power now, perhaps, by giving away the wealth he has amassed, all in a tangled attempt to express a natural idealism in a practical world.

How can you trust your impulses when you read, for example, that a man commits a murder because he has a strong impulse to do so, or because the voice of God commanded it? If some of you followed your impulses right now, for example ? your first natural ones ? it might seem they would be cruel or destructive.

How do your impulses affect your future experience, and help form the practical world of mass reality?

编译：Laujenny婷/   美编：周周

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