The battle that will decide the future of the English is going on all round us. At this time of writing, we in England are in the middle of it.
决定英国人的未来的战斗正在我们周围进行着。就在本人撰写本文的时候,我们英国人正处于激战之中。
I must add that while 'Englishness' can still fight on, 'Admass' could be winning.
本人还要补充说明的是,尽管英国人特性目前尚能在战斗中坚持下去,但最终取胜的可能还是商业广告推销。
There are various reasons why this may be happening. To begin with, not all the English hold fast to 'Englishness'.
之所以会出现这种结果,其原因是多种多样的。
Some important and influential men carefully train themselves out of it-politicians, academics, bureaucrats, ambitious financiers and industrialists, can be found among these men-and a horde of others, shallow and foolish, wander away from it, shrugging off their inheritance.
首先,并不是每一个英国人都牢固地保持着英国人特性。一些有权势有影响的人物正处心积虑地设法使自己摆脱它--这些人中有政客、有文人、有官僚、有野心勃勃的金融家和企业家一而另外还有一大群浅薄愚鲁的人也丢掉了它.随随便便地抛弃了自己的传统。
Englishness is not as strong as it was even thirty years ago.
英国人特性的影响力连三十年前也比不上了。
It needs to be nourished by a sense of the dignity and possible destiny of mankind.
它需要用人们对于人类的尊严和命运的认识来培育和加强。
It must have some moral capital to draw upon, and soon it may be asking for an overdraft.
它必须拥有一些可以支取的道德资本,而且不久以后就有可能要求透支。
The Zeitgeist seems to be working for 'Admass'.
"时代精神"似乎在为商业广告推销推波助澜,
So does most of what we read and what we hear.
我们所读到和听到的东西,一多半都是如此。
Even our inflation, which keeps everybody nudging everybody for more money, is often seen not as a warning, not as an enemy of the genuine good life, but as a proof that we need more and not less 'Admass'.
甚至连那使得大家为求多赚钱而你争我夺的通货膨胀,也往往不被视为一种危险的讯号,不被视为真正的美好生活的敌人,而往往倒是被视为我们需要更多而不是更少的商业广告推销的证明。