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建议 Last Essay: “1967”
This is Bertrand Russell's last manuscript. Untitled, it was annotated “1967” by Russell, at the age of 95, two or three years before he died. Ray Monk published it first in The Independent of London on the 25th anniversary of the Russell Archives. The essay's politics are uncannily prescient.
The time has come to review my life as a whole, and to ask whether it has served any useful purpose or has been wholly concerned in futility. Unfortunately, no answer is possible for anyone who does not know the future. Modern weapons make it practically certain that the next serious war will exterminate the human race. This is admitted by all competent authorities, and I shall not waste time in proving it. Any man who cares what the future may have in store therefore has to choose between nothingness and conciliation, not once, but throughout future ages until the sun grows cold.
Unfortunately, our politicians are not accustomed to such a choice. However hard they try, their minds inevitably slide back to the courtroom and the criminal world. If, out of kindness, the last man foresees the murder of the last man but one, the whole law-enforcement campaign imagines all the apparatus of police, Scotland Yard, judges and wigs ready to catch and punish him. But this is not how the scene will be. There will be first the death of nearly all the inhabitants of New York or London or Peking or Tokyo, then a gradual extension of deaths to the country, then famine due to failure of trade, and at last gasping, horrifying lonely death in the mountains, and then eternal silence.
If the Great Powers continue their present policies, some such end as this is inevitable. When two or more Powers disagree, what can they do? A can yield to B, or B can yield to A, or they can reach a compromise, or they can fight. If either yields, it is thought pusillanimous: either it loses caste, or, next time, it must fight; or it must secure an ally. Since the number of States is finite, this process must soon come to an end. We have seen all the steps in this development since the end of the Second War. Consider what happened in the Cuba crisis. Both sides were willing to fight, but at the last possible moment Khrushchev's nerve failed and he allowed the world to live till the next crisis. But it turned out that Russia would have preferred death, and Khrushchev fell.
Can we count on this always happening?
What is the present system?
When there is a quarrel, a conference is summoned, each side debates, they reach two compromises, one favoured by one side, the other by the other. If each contains disarmament clauses, each is aware that they may be infringed. Each considers the tiniest chance of infringement a greater misfortune than the end of the human race. And so nothing is done. The powers must learn that peace is the paramount interest of everybody. To cause this to be realized by governments should be the supreme aim.
What has been achieved towards this end, and what have I personally contributed?
Publicly, in the relations between states, very little, but still something. Russia has expressed willingness to transform NATO by joining it; but China is a new threat. The Vietnam war seems likely to end in negotiation. Generally, the powers (except the U.S.) show a reluctance to go to war. France is uncertain, but leaves room for hope. At any rate, the stark opposition of Communist and non-Communist is breaking down. If peace can be preserved for the next 10 years, it will be possible to hope.
What can private persons do meanwhile? They can agitate, by pointing out the effects of modern war and the danger of the extinction of Man. They can teach men not to hate peoples other than their own, or to cause themselves to be hated. They can value, and cause others to value, what Man has achieved in art and science. They can emphasize the superiority of co-operation to competition.
Finally, have I done anything to further such ends?
Something perhaps, but sadly little in view of the magnitude of the evil. Some few people in England and the U.S.A. I have encouraged in the expression of liberal views, or have terrified with the knowledge of what modern weapons can do. It is not much, but if everybody did as much this Earth would soon be a paradise. Consider for a moment what our planet is and what it might be. At present, for most, there is toil and hunger, constant danger, more hatred than love. There could be a happy world, where co-operation was more in evidence than competition, and monotonous work is done by machines, where what is lovely in nature is not destroyed to make room for hideous machines whose sole business is to kill, and where to promote joy is more respected than to produce mountains of corpses. Do not say this is impossible: it is not. It waits only for men to desire it more than the infliction of torture.
There is an artist imprisoned in each one of us. Let him loose to spread joy everywhere.
罗素遗作（1967）
这是罗素最后的手稿，无标题，罗素于逝世前两三年95岁时注明“1967”
回顾一生的时候已经到了---究竟我的人生是服务于任何有用的目标还是徒劳的。遗憾的是，除非知道未来没有人能够得出结论。现代武器的发展确定了下一次大战将会灭绝人类。这一点已经世所公认，我不想再浪费时间证明。任何关心未来的人们必须在无所作为和积极行动两者中做出选择，不是一劳永逸的，而是直到太阳变老为止。
如果超级大国继续他们的政策，这样的结局就是不可避免的。如果一个或者两个放弃了，他们可以如何行事？A屈服于B，或者达成妥协，或者爆发战争。如果屈服了，他就会被认为是懦弱的；他就会失去他的地位；或者下次他必须战斗，或者必须争取盟友，由于国家的数目是有限的，这个过程很快就会走到尽头。自从二战后我们已经看到了整个的发展过程。想想在古巴导弹危机的时候发生了什么吧？两方都想战争，直到最后一刻赫鲁晓夫的神经绷不住了，让我们活到下次危机。然而显然俄罗斯更青睐死亡，所以才有赫鲁晓夫的倒台。
不幸的是我们的政治家还不习惯这样的选择。尽管他们努力想挣脱，他们的思想还是不可避免的滑回这个罪恶的世界。假如出于善意的想象，最后一个人预见到谋杀他的凶手，整个法律机器包括苏格兰场，法官会抓到他并加以惩罚。可是事情不是这样的。首先是纽约，东京和伦敦，北京的全部居民都死去---这是第一波，然后死亡向乡村蔓延，由于贸易中断饥荒开始，在山间的孤独死亡，最后是永恒的沉寂。
我们能够指望这一切一再发生吗？
哪种制度才是较好的呢?
发生争论时，会议召集起来，双方进行辩论，各自拿出方案。如果每个方案都包含解除武装的条款，双方都知道他们可能受到侵犯。双方都直到最小的侵犯都可能导致人类的毁灭。那就没办法了。超级大国必须明白和平符合每个人的利益。让政府明白这一点是我们的最高目标。
为达到这个目标我们已经做了什么，我有何贡献呢？
在大国的关系中，有很细微的迹象表明。俄罗斯表达愿意加入北约以改变它，中国是个新的威胁。越南战争看来将以谈判结束。看来超级大国除了美国显得不愿走向战争。法国还不确定，可是有希望的。鲜明的共产主义和反共产主义阵线正在瓦解。如果和平能够继续十年，那么一切就都还有希望。
那么个人可以做些什么呢？他们可以行动起来，指出现代战争的影响和人类灭绝的危险。他们可以教导人们不要去憎恨他人。也不要让自己被人恨。他们可以去珍惜，让别人珍惜人类在艺术和科学上达到的成就。强调合作优于竞争。
最后，我为了这些目标做了些什么？
也许做了一些，可是相对罪恶的规模来说太少了。我鼓励英国和美国的一些人们表达自由主义观点，提醒他们现代武器的可怕后果。并不多，可是如果世界上的每个人都行动起来，这个世界很快就会变成天堂。花一小会想象我们的世界可能变成的样子和它现在的样子。现在，它充满了苦难，饥饿，危险，比爱更多的恨。这个世界可以很美好，合作胜过竞争，单调的劳动让机器承担，在那里人们热爱自然，不会拿出地方建造唯一目的只是屠杀的机器，在那里人们更想促进快乐而不想制造堆积如山的尸体。不要说这不可能。
在我们的心里都囚禁着一位艺术家，把他释放出来把欢乐撒播向四方吧。
