Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa - The Law of the Jungle 汉译

People in our culture who like to think of themselves as tough-minded and realistic, including influential political leaders and businessmen as well as go-getters and hustlers of smaller caliber, tend to take it for granted that human nature is “selfish” and that life is a struggle in which only the fittest may survive. According to the philosophy, the basic law by which man must live, in spite of his surface veneer of civilization, is the law of the jungle.

　　The “fittest” are those who can bring to the struggle superior force, superior cunning, and superior ruthlessness.

The wide currency of this philosophy of the “survival of the fittest” enables people who act ruthlessly and selfishly, whether in personal rivalries, business competition, or international relations, to allay their consciences by telling themselves that they are only obeying a “law of nature”. But a disinterested observer is entitled to ask whether the ruthlessness of the tiger, the cunning of the ape, and obedience to the “law of the jungle” are actually evidences of human fitness to survive.

在现代文化中，喜欢把自己看作是意志坚强而现实的人们，包括那些有势力的政治领袖和商界翘楚，以及才干较差的野心家和活动家在内，都想要把人性的自私，与人生是一场只有适者才能生存的奋斗，视为当然。由于这种人生哲学，人类为要生存而必须依重的基本原则，就是弱肉强食，纵令他具有文明的外表。所谓适者就是那些能够以过人的力量，过人的狡猾和过人的残忍来奋斗的人。

由于这种“适者生存”的人生观广泛地流行着的缘故，不问是个人方面的敌对，事业上的竞争，或是国际间的关系，都要残忍而自私地来加以处理的人们，只消对自己说这样做只是服从大自然的法则而已，便可获得良心上的安慰。但是一个公正无私的观察者，有资格来问：老虎的残忍，猿猴的狡猾，以及服从弱肉强食的法则，是不是人类适者生存的实际证据呢？