《瓦尔登湖·第一章·经济篇·Economy》第28节
The farmer is endeavoring to solve the problem of a livelihood by a formula more complicated than the problem itself. To get his shoestrings he speculates in herds of cattle. With consummate skill he has set his trap with a hair spring to catch comfort and independence, and then, as he turned away, got his own leg into it. This is the reason he is poor; and for a similar reason we are all poor in respect to a thousand savage comforts, though surrounded by luxuries. As Chapman sings,— “The false society of men— / —for earthly greatness / All heavenly comforts rarefies to air.” And when the farmer has got his house, he may not be the richer but the poorer for it, and it be the house that has got him. As I understand it, that was a valid objection urged by Momus against the house which Minerva made, that she “had not made it movable, by which means a bad neighborhood might be avoided;” and it may still be urged, for our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed in them; and the bad neighborhood to be avoided is our own scurvy selves. I know one or two families, at least, in this town, who, for nearly a generation, have been wishing to sell their houses in the outskirts and move into the village, but have not been able to accomplish it, and only death will set them free. Granted that the majority are able at last either to own or hire the modern house with all its improvements. While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy to create noblemen and kings. And if the civilized man’s pursuits are no worthier than the savage’s, if he is employed the greater part of his life in obtaining gross necessaries and comforts merely, why should he have a better dwelling than the former?
注释摘要
梭罗在这一段里，用一个极尖锐的讽刺把整章的经济批判浓缩到了一个农民身上。他说农民为了得到鞋带，养的却是成群的牛。这句话指向的是一种手段对目的的彻底颠倒。鞋带不过几文钱，是生活里最边缘、最不值一提的需要；而养牛，意味着圈地、饲料、过冬的干草、买卖行情的操心，是一整套把人拴在土地上的沉重经营。梭罗的意思是，人本来只需要一点简单的东西就能维生，却为了这一点东西，…