《乌合之众·第二编·群体的意见与信念·群体意见与信念的间接因素》第17节
[11] This phenomenon, moreover, is not peculiar to the Latin peoples. It is also to be observed in China, which is also a country in the hands of a solid hierarchy of mandarins or functionaries, and where a function is obtained, as in France, by competitive examination, in which the only test is the imperturbable recitation of bulky manuals. The army of educated persons without employment is considered in China at the present day as a veritable national calamity. It is the same in India where, since the English have opened schools, not for educating purposes, as is the case in England itself, but simply to furnish the indigenous inhabitants with instruction, there has been formed a special class of educated persons, the Baboos, who, when they do not obtain employment, become the irreconcilable enemies of the English rule. In the case of all the Baboos, whether provided with employment or not, the first effect of their instruction has been to lower their standard of morality. This is a fact on which I have insisted at length in my book, "The Civilisations of India"--a fact, too, which has been observed by all authors who have visited the great peninsula. It is evidently too late to retrace our steps. Experience alone, that supreme educator of peoples, will be at pains to show us our mistake. It alone will be powerful enough to prove the necessity of replacing our odious text-books and our pitiable examinations by industrial instruction capable of inducing our young men to return to the fields, to the workshop, and to the colonial enterprise which they avoid to-day at all costs.
注释摘要
在这段充满偏见的注释里，勒庞试图把他对法国教育的批评扩展成一个似乎是普遍性的规律，但他的论证实际上深深根植于十九世纪殖民主义的认知框架之中。我们先来看他要证明什么：勒庞认为，那种以死记硬背教科书和竞争性考试为核心的教育体系，必然会产生大量找不到工作的文凭持有者，这些人会成为社会不满和革命的温床——这就是他在正文里对法国拉丁教育体系的指控。现在他要把这个指控…