But if the truth can be found, there is no other system which will normally and habitually find so much truth. Until we have thoroughly understood this principle, we shall not know why we must value our liberty, or how we can protect and develop it.
不过,真理要是能够为人发现,那就没有其他体制可以正常和惯常地发现这类真理。只有在彻底理解了这条原则之后,我们才会懂得为什么必须珍惜我的自由或我们怎样才能保护和发展这种自由。
Let us apply tJiis principle to the system of public speech in a totalitarian state. We may, without any serious falsification, picture a condition of affairs in which the mass of the people are being addressed through one broadcasting system by one man and his chosen subordinates. The orators speak. The audience listens but cannot and dare not speak back. It is a system of one-way communication; the opinions of the rulers are broadcast outwardly to the mass of the people. But nothing comes back to the rulers from the people except the cheers; nothing returns in the way of knowledge of forgotten facts, hidden feelings, neglected truths, and practical suggestions.
我们且把这条原则应用于一个极权国家公众言论的体制。我们可以不做严重歪曲地想象这样一个事态:通过广播设备,一个人和由他选出的下属在向民众发表演讲。演讲者髙谈阔论。听众静听而不能也不敢回嘴。这是一言堂的交流体制,统治者的意见向外广播给民众听。除了喝彩声,人民没有任何声音反馈给统治者;也没有任何东西以了解遗忘的事实、隐藏的情绪、忽视的真相、实际的建议的途径转达回来。
But even a dictator cannot govern by his own one-way inspiration alone. In practice, therefore, the totalitarian rulers get back the reports of the secret police and of their party henchmen down among the crowd. If these reports are competent, the rulers may manage to remain in touch with public sentiment. Yet that is not enough to know what the audience feels. The rulers have also to make great decisions that have enormous consequences, and here their system provides virtually no help from the give-and-take of opinion in the nation. So they must either rely on their own intuition, which cannot be permanently and continually inspired, or, if they are intelligent despots, encourage their trusted advisers and their technicians to speak and debate freely in their presence.
不过即使一个独裁者也无法单凭一言堂的授意实行统治。因此,实际上极权统治者们从秘密警察和安插在群众中的党徒亲信那里弄回汇报内容。如果这些汇报内容是法定许可统治者有可能设法与公众情绪保持一致。但是知道听众的感受还远远不够,统治者还得做出具有巨大影响的重大决策,在这方面上他们的体制在全国进行意见交流过程中其实提供不了任何帮助。所以他们要么必须依靠手中的权力机构,而机构是无法永远不断地起激励作用的,要么如果是聪明的专制君主的话,就鼓励受到信赖的顾问和专家当面畅所欲言、自由辩论。