Lesson40
Populations increase and decrease relatively not only to one another, but also to natural resources. In most parts of the world, the relation between population and resources is already unfavourable and will probably become even more unfavourable in the future. This growing poverty in the midst of growing poverty constitutes a permanent menace to peace. And not only to peace, but also to democratic institutions and personal liberty. For overpopulation is not compatib1e with freedom. An unfavourable relationship between numbers and resources tends to make the earning of a living almost intolerably difficult. Labour is more abundant than goods, and the individual is compelled to work long hours for little pay. No surplus of accumulated purchasing power stands between him and the tyrannies of unfriendly nature or of the equally unfriendly wielders of political and economic power. Democracy is, among other things, the ability to say 'no' to the boss. But a man cannot say 'no' to the boss, unless he is sure of being able to eat when the boss's favour has been withdrawn. And he cannot be certain of his next meal unless he owns the means of producing enough wealth, for his family to live on, or has been able to accumulate a surplus out of past wages, or has a chance of moving to virgin territories, where he can make a fresh start. In an overcrowded country, very few people own enough to make them financially independent; very few are in a position to accumulate purchasing power; and there is no free land. Moreover, in any country where population presses hard upon natural resources, the general economic situation is apt to be so precarious that government control of capital and labour, production and consumption, becomes inevitable. It is no accident that the twentieth century should be the century of highly centralized governments and totalitarian dictatorships; it had to be so for the simple reason that the twentieth century is the century of planetary overcrowding.
ALDOUS HUXLEY Themes and Variations
参考译文
各地人口的增减不仅是彼此间有相对关系，也关系到自然资源。在世界的大多数地区，人口与资源间关系已显得不利，也许在将来会变得更糟。在日益贫困的状态中越来越贫困构成了对
和平的持久威胁。它不但威胁和平，还威胁着民主制度和个人自由，因为人口过剩是与自由相悖的。人口与资源间的不利关系往往使得赚钱谋生成为极端艰难。劳力多于货物，工人不得不为
了微薄的收入每天去干许多小时的活。在个人与不友善的大自然残暴之间，在个人与冷酷无情的政治、经济权力主宰者的残暴之间，不存在积累购买的剩余。民主的力量之一，是可以向老板说
“不”字。但是在老板不施恩惠工人便会失去饭碗的情况下，还有人还敢说“不”字吗？如果他无法挣得足够的钱养家活口，如果他没有工资源的积累，如果他没有迁往未来开垦处女地重建
家园的机会，那么，他肯定会挨饿。在一个人口过多的国家里，很少有人能拥有足够财富处于经济独立的地位；极少有人能够积累购买力；那里也不能有空闲的土地可供开垦。此外，在人口
对自然资源造成很大压力的国家里，总的经济形势往往是十分不稳定的，于是，政府对资本和劳工，生产和消费进行控制成为不可避免的了。20世纪成为一个高度中央集权化政府和极权主义
独裁的世纪决不是偶然的；这是必然无疑的，因为道理很简单：20世纪是这个行星上人口剧增的一个世纪。
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