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The Lowest Animal
Man is the only animal that robs his helpless fellow of his country – takes possession of it and drives him out of it or destroys him. Man has done this in all the ages. There is not an acre of ground on the globe that is in possession of its rightful owner, or that has not been taken away from owner after owner, cycle after cycle, by force and bloodshed.
Man is the only slave. And he is the only animal who enslaves. He has always been a slave in one form or another, and has always held other slaves in bondage under him in one way or another. In our day his is always some man’s slaves for wages, and does that man’s work; and this slave has other slaves under him for minor wages, and they do his work. The higher animals are the only ones who exclusively do their own work and provide their own living.
Man is the only Patriot. He sets himself apart in his own country, under his own flag, and sneers at the other nations, and keeps multitudinous uniformed assassins on hand at heavy expense to grab slices of other people’s countries, and keep them from grabbing slices of his. And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for “the universal brotherhood of man” – with his mouth.
Man is the Religious animal. He is the only Religious animal. He is the only animal that has true religion – several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself, and cuts his throat if his theology isn’t straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother’s path to happiness and heaven. He was at it in the time of the Caesars, he was at it in Mahomet’s time, he was at it in the time of the Inquisition, he was at it in France a couple of centuries, he was at it in England in Mary’s day, he has been at it ever since he first saw the light, he is at it today in Crete – as per the telegrams quoted above – he will be at it somewhere else tomorrow. The higher animals have no religion. And we are told that they are going to be left out, in the Hereafter. I wonder why? It seems questionable taste.
Man is the Reasoning Animal. Such is the claim. I think it is open to dispute. Indeed, my experiments have proven to me that he is the Unreasoning Animal. Note his history, as sketched above. It seems plain to me that whatever he is not a reasoning animal. His record is the fantastic record of a maniac. I consider that the strongest count against his intelligence is the fact that with record back of him he blandly sets himself up as the head animal of the lot; whereas by his own standards he is the bottom one.
In truth, man is incurably foolish. Simple things which the other animals easily learn, he is incapable of learning. Among my experiments was this. In an hour I taught a cat and a dog to be friends. I put them in a cage. In another hour I taught them to be friends with a rabbit. In the course of two days I was able to add a fox, a goose, a squirrel and some doves, finally a monkey. They lived together in peace; even affectionately.
By Mark Twain
马克 吐温（1835-1910），美国批判现实主义文学的奠基人，世界著名的短篇小说大师。本人并不完全赞同Mr. Mark Twain 这篇文章中的观点，但却不得不承认，现实生活中，像文章中所描述的这类人大量存在。这是我们无法回避的事实，也是人类作为万物之灵必须自我反省，自我净化，自我调整的。有人每天做着不劳而获的事，有人每天都想尽办法剥削别人，有人每天都在争抢别人的地盘，这种人在这个地球上越来越多的话，终有一天将人类带入万劫不复的境地。 |  |  |  |  |
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发表于 2008-10-4 22:08
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