-
(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
It Can't Happen Here
by Sinclair Lewis
Chapter 29
The propaganda throughout the country was not all to the New Underground; not even most of it; and though the pamphleteers for the N.U., at home and exiled abroad, included hundreds of the most capable professional journalists of America, they were cramped1 by a certain respect for facts which never enfeebled the press agents for Corpoism. And the Corpos had a notable staff. It included college presidents, some of the most renowned2 among the radio announcers who aforetime had crooned their affection for mouth washes and noninsomniac coffee, famous ex-war-correspondents, ex-governors, former vice-presidents of the American Federation3 of Labor4, and no less an artist than the public relations counsel of a princely corporation of electrical-goods manufacturers.
The newspapers everywhere might no longer be so wishily-washily liberal as to print the opinions of non-Corpos; they might give but little news from those old-fashioned and democratic countries, Great Britain, France, and the Scandinavian states; might indeed print almost no foreign news, except as regards the triumphs of Italy in giving Ethiopia good roads, trains on time, freedom from beggars and from men of honor, and all the other spiritual benefactions of Roman civilization. But, on the other hand, never had newspapers shown so many comic strips--the most popular was a very funny one about a preposterous5 New Underground crank, who wore mortuary black with a high hat decorated with crêpe and who was always being comically beaten up by M.M.'s. Never had there been, even in the days when Mr. Hearst was freeing Cuba, so many large red headlines. Never so many dramatic drawings of murders--the murderers were always notorious anti-Corpos. Never such a wealth of literature, worthy6 its twenty-four-hour immortality7, as the articles proving, and proving by figures, that American wages were universally higher, commodities universally lower-priced, war budgets smaller but the army and its equipment much larger, than ever in history. Never such righteous polemics8 as the proofs that all non-Corpos were Communists.
Almost daily, Windrip, Sarason, Dr. Macgoblin, Secretary of War Luthorne, or Vice-President Perley Beecroft humbly9 addressed their Masters, the great General Public, on the radio, and congratulated them on making a new world by their example of American solidarity--marching shoulder to shoulder under the Grand Old Flag, comrades in the blessings10 of peace and comrades in the joys of war to come.
Much-heralded movies, subsidized by the government (and could there be any better proof of the attention paid by Dr. Macgoblin and the other Nazi11 leaders to the arts than the fact that movie actors who before the days of the Chief were receiving only fifteen hundred gold dollars a week were now getting five thousand?), showed the M.M.'s driving armored motors at eighty miles an hour, piloting a fleet of one thousand planes, and being very tender to a little girl with a kitten.
Everyone, including Doremus Jessup, had said in 1935, "If there ever is a Fascist13 dictatorship here, American humor and pioneer independence are so marked that it will be absolutely different from anything in Europe."
For almost a year after Windrip came in, this seemed true. The Chief was photographed playing poker14, in shirtsleeves and with a derby on the back of his head, with a newspaperman, a chauffeur15, and a pair of rugged16 steel-workers. Dr. Macgoblin in person led an Elks17' brass18 band and dived in competition with the Atlantic City bathing-beauties. It was reputably reported that M.M.'s apologized to political prisoners for having to arrest them, and that the prisoners joked amiably19 with the guards . . . at first.
All that was gone, within a year after the inauguration20, and surprised scientists discovered that whips and handcuffs hurt just as sorely in the clear American air as in the miasmic21 fogs of Prussia.
Doremus, reading the authors he had concealed22 in the horsehair sofa--the gallant23 Communist, Karl Billinger, the gallant anti-Communist, Tchernavin, and the gallant neutral, Lorant--began to see something like a biology of dictatorships, all dictatorships. The universal apprehension24, the timorous25 denials of faith, the same methods of arrest--sudden pounding on the door late at night, the squad26 of police pushing in, the blows, the search, the obscene oaths at the frightened women, the third degree by young snipe of officials, the accompanying blows and then the formal beatings, when the prisoner is forced to count the strokes until he faints, the leprous beds and the sour stew27, guards jokingly shooting round and round a prisoner who believes he is being executed, the waiting in solitude28 to know what will happen, till men go mad and hang themselves--
Thus had things gone in Germany, exactly thus in Soviet29 Russia, in Italy and Hungary and Poland, Spain and Cuba and Japan and China. Not very different had it been under the blessings of liberty and fraternity in the French Revolution. All dictators followed the same routine of torture, as if they had all read the same manual of sadistic30 etiquette31. And now, in the humorous, friendly, happy-go-lucky land of Mark Twain, Doremus saw the homicidal maniacs32 having just as good a time as they had had in central Europe.
America followed, too, the same ingenious finances as Europe. Windrip had promised to make everybody richer, and had contrived33 to make everybody, except for a few hundred bankers and industrialists34 and soldiers, much poorer. He needed no higher mathematicians35 to produce his financial statements: any ordinary press agent could do them. To show a 100 per cent economy in military expenditures36, while increasing the establishment 700 per cent, it had been necessary only to charge up all expenditures for the Minute Men to non-military departments, so that their training in the art of bayonet-sticking was debited37 to the Department of Education. To show an increase in average wages one did tricks with "categories of labor" and "required minimum wages," and forgot to state how many workers ever did become entitled to the "minimum," and how much was charged as wages, on the books, for food and shelter for the millions in the labor camps.
It all made dazzling reading. There had never been more elegant and romantic fiction.
Even loyal Corpos began to wonder why the armed forces, army and M.M.'s together, were being so increased. Was a frightened Windrip getting ready to defend himself against a rising of the whole nation? Did he plan to attack all of North and South America and make himself an emperor? Or both? In any case, the forces were so swollen38 that even with its despotic power of taxation39, the Corpo government never had enough. They began to force exports, to practice the "dumping" of wheat, corn, timber, copper40, oil, machinery41. They increased production, forced it by fines and threats, then stripped the farmer of all he had, for export at depreciated42 prices. But at home the prices were not depreciated but increased, so that the more we exported, the less the industrial worker in America had to eat. And really zealous43 County Commissioners45 took from the farmer (after the patriotic46 manner of many Mid-Western counties in 1918) even his seed grain, so that he could grow no more, and on the very acres where once he had raised superfluous47 wheat he now starved for bread. And while he was starving, the Commissioners continued to try to make him pay for the Corpo bonds which he had been made to buy on the instalment plan.
But still, when he did finally starve to death, none of these things worried him.
There were bread lines now in Fort Beulah, once or twice a week.
The hardest phenomenon of dictatorship for a Doremus to understand, even when he saw it daily in his own street, was the steady diminution48 of gayety among the people.
America, like England and Scotland, had never really been a gay nation. Rather it had been heavily and noisily jocular, with a substratum of worry and insecurity, in the image of its patron saint, Lincoln of the rollicking stories and the tragic49 heart. But at least there had been hearty50 greetings, man to man; there had been clamorous51 jazz for dancing, and the lively, slangy catcalls of young people, and the nervous blatting of tremendous traffic.
The Corpos found nothing more convenient to milk than public pleasures. After the bread had molded, the circuses were closed. There were taxes or increased taxes on motorcars, movies, theaters, dances, and ice-cream sodas53. There was a tax on playing a phonograph or radio in any restaurant. Lee Sarason, himself a bachelor, conceived of super-taxing bachelors and spinsters, and contrariwise of taxing all weddings at which more than five persons were present.
Even the most reckless youngsters went less and less to public entertainments, because no one not ostentatiously in uniform cared to be noticed, these days. It was impossible to sit in a public place without wondering which spies were watching you. So all the world stayed home--and jumped anxiously at every passing footstep, every telephone ring, every tap of an ivy54 sprig on the window.
The score of people definitely pledged to the New Underground were the only persons to whom Doremus dared talk about anything more incriminating than whether it was likely to rain, though he had been the friendliest gossip in town. Always it had taken ten minutes longer than was humanly possible for him to walk to the Informer office, because he stopped on every corner to ask after someone's sick wife, politics, potato crop, opinions about Deism, or luck at fishing.
As he read of rebels against the régime who worked in Rome, in Berlin, he envied them. They had thousands of government agents, unknown by sight and thus the more dangerous, to watch them; but also they had thousands of comrades from whom to seek encouragement, exciting personal tattle, shop talk, and the assurance that they were not altogether idiotic55 to risk their lives for a mistress so ungrateful as Revolution. Those secret flats in great cities--perhaps some of them really were filled with the rosy56 glow they had in fiction. But the Fort Beulahs, anywhere in the world, were so isolated57, the conspirators58 so uninspiringly familiar one to another, that only by inexplicable59 faith could one go on.
Now that Lorinda was gone, there certainly was nothing very diverting in sneaking60 round corners, trying to look like somebody else, merely to meet Buck61 and Dan Wilgus and that good woman, Sissy!
Buck and he and the rest--they were such amateurs. They needed the guidance of veteran agitators62 like Mr. Ailey and Mr. Bailey and Mr. Cailey.
Their feeble pamphlets, their smearily printed newspaper, seemed futile63 against the enormous blare of Corpo propaganda. It seemed worse than futile, it seemed insane, to risk martyrdom in a world where Fascists64 persecuted65 Communists, Communists persecuted Social-Democrats, Social-Democrats persecuted everybody who would stand for it; where "Aryans" who looked like Jews persecuted Jews who looked like Aryans and Jews persecuted their debtors66; where every statesman and clergyman praised Peace and brightly asserted that the only way to get Peace was to get ready for War.
What conceivable reason could one have for seeking after righteousness in a world which so hated righteousness? Why do anything except eat and read and make love and provide for sleep that should be secure against disturbance67 by armed policemen?
He never did find any particularly good reason. He simply went on.
In June, when the Fort Beulah cell of the New Underground had been carrying on for some three months, Mr. Francis Tasbrough, the golden quarryman, called on his neighbor, Doremus.
"How are you, Frank?"
"Fine, Remus. How's the old carping critic?"
"Fine, Frank. Still carping. Fine carping weather, at that. Have a cigar?"
"Thanks. Got a match? Thanks. Saw Sissy yesterday. She looks fine."
"Yes, she's fine. I saw Malcolm driving by yesterday. How did he like it in the Provincial69 University, at New York?"
"Oh, fine--fine. He says the athletics70 are grand. They're getting Primo Carnera over to coach in tennis next year--I think it's Carnera--I think it's tennis--but anyway, the athletics are fine there, Malcolm says. Say, uh, Remus, there's something I been meaning to ask you. I, uh--The fact is--I want you to be sure and not repeat this to anybody. I know you can be trusted with a secret, even if you are a newspaperman--or used to be, I mean, but--The fact is (and this is inside stuff; official), there's going to be some governmental promotions71 all along the line--this is confidential72, and it comes to me straight from the Provincial Commissioner44, Colonel Haik. Luthorne is finished as Secretary of War--he's a nice fellow, but he hasn't got as much publicity73 for the Corpos out of his office as the Chief expected him to. Haik is to have his job, and also take over the position of High Marshal of the Minute Men from Lee Sarason--I suppose Sarason has too much to do. Well then, John Sullivan Reek74 is slated75 to be Provincial Commissioner; that leaves the office of District Commissioner for Vermont-New Hampshire empty, and I'm one of the people being seriously considered. I've done a lot of speaking for the Corpos, and I know Dewey Haik very well--I was able to advise him about erecting76 public buildings. Of course there's none of the County Commissioners around here that measure up to a district commissionership--not even Dr. Staubmeyer--certainly not Shad Ledue. Now if you could see your way clear to throw in with me, your influence would help--"
"Good heavens, Frank, the worst thing you could have happen, if you want the job, is to have me favor you! The Corpos don't like me. Oh, of course they know I'm loyal, not one of these dirty, sneaking anti-Corpos, but I never made enough noise in the paper to please 'em."
"That's just it, Remus! I've got a really striking idea. Even if they don't like you, the Corpos respect you, and they know how long you've been important in the State. We'd all be greatly pleased if you came out and joined us. Now just suppose you did so and let people know that it was my influence that converted you to Corpoism. That might give me quite a leg-up. And between old friends like us, Remus, I can tell you that this job of District Commissioner would be useful to me in the quarry68 business, aside from the social advantages. And if I got the position, I can promise you that I'd either get the Informer taken away from Staubmeyer and that dirty little stinker, Itchitt, and given back to you to run absolutely as you pleased--providing, of course, you had the sense to keep from criticizing the Chief and the State. Or, if you'd rather, I think I could probably wangle a job for you as military judge (they don't necessarily have to be lawyers) or maybe President Peaseley's job as District Director of Education--you'd have a lot of fun out of that!--awfully amusing the way all the teachers kiss the Director's foot! Come on, old man! Think of all the fun we used to have in the old days! Come to your senses and face the inevitable77 and join us and fix up some good publicity for me. How about it--huh, huh?"
Doremus reflected that the worst trial of a revolutionary propagandist was not risking his life, but having to be civil to people like Future-Commissioner Tasbrough.
He supposed that his voice was polite as he muttered, "Afraid I'm too old to try it, Frank," but apparently78 Tasbrough was offended. He sprang up and tramped away grumbling79, "Oh, very well then!"
"And I didn't give him a chance to say anything about being realistic or breaking eggs to make an omelet," regretted Doremus.
The next day Malcolm Tasbrough, meeting Sissy on the street, made his beefy most of cutting her. At the time the Jessups thought that was very amusing. They thought the occasion less amusing when Malcolm chased little David out of the Tasbrough apple orchard80, which he had been wont81 to use as the Great Western Forest where at any time one was rather more than likely to meet Kit12 Carson, Robin82 Hood83, and Colonel Lindbergh hunting together.
Having only Frank's word for it, Doremus could do no more than hint in Vermont Vigilance that Colonel Dewey Haik was to be made Secretary of War, and give Haik's actual military record, which included the facts that as a first lieutenant84 in France in 1918, he had been under fire for less than fifteen minutes, and that his one real triumph had been commanding state militia85 during a strike in Oregon, when eleven strikers had been shot down, five of them in the back.
Then Doremus forgot Tasbrough completely and happily.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
cramped
|
|
| a.狭窄的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
renowned
|
|
| adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
federation
|
|
| n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
labor
|
|
| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
preposterous
|
|
| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
worthy
|
|
| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
immortality
|
|
| n.不死，不朽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
polemics
|
|
| n.辩论术，辩论法；争论( polemic的名词复数 )；辩论；辩论术；辩论法 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
humbly
|
|
| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
blessings
|
|
| n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
Nazi
|
|
| n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
kit
|
|
| n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
fascist
|
|
| adj.法西斯主义的；法西斯党的；n.法西斯主义者，法西斯分子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
poker
|
|
| n.扑克；vt.烙制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
chauffeur
|
|
| n.(受雇于私人或公司的)司机；v.为…开车 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
rugged
|
|
| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
elks
|
|
| n.麋鹿( elk的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
brass
|
|
| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
amiably
|
|
| adv.和蔼可亲地，亲切地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
inauguration
|
|
| n.开幕、就职典礼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
miasmic
|
|
| adj.瘴气的；有害的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
22
concealed
|
|
| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
gallant
|
|
| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
apprehension
|
|
| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
timorous
|
|
| adj.胆怯的，胆小的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
squad
|
|
| n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
stew
|
|
| n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
solitude
|
|
| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
Soviet
|
|
| adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
sadistic
|
|
| adj.虐待狂的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
etiquette
|
|
| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
maniacs
|
|
| n.疯子（maniac的复数形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
contrived
|
|
| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
industrialists
|
|
| n.工业家，实业家( industrialist的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
mathematicians
|
|
| 数学家( mathematician的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
expenditures
|
|
| n.花费( expenditure的名词复数 )；使用；（尤指金钱的）支出额；（精力、时间、材料等的）耗费 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
debited
|
|
| v.记入（账户）的借方( debit的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
swollen
|
|
| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
taxation
|
|
| n.征税，税收，税金 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
copper
|
|
| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
machinery
|
|
| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
depreciated
|
|
| v.贬值，跌价，减价( depreciate的过去式和过去分词 )；贬低，蔑视，轻视 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
zealous
|
|
| adj.狂热的，热心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
commissioner
|
|
| n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
commissioners
|
|
| n.专员( commissioner的名词复数 )；长官；委员；政府部门的长官 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
patriotic
|
|
| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
superfluous
|
|
| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
diminution
|
|
| n.减少；变小 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
tragic
|
|
| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
hearty
|
|
| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
clamorous
|
|
| adj.吵闹的，喧哗的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
lessened
|
|
| 减少的，减弱的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
sodas
|
|
| n.苏打( soda的名词复数 )；碱；苏打水；汽水 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
ivy
|
|
| n.常青藤，常春藤 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
idiotic
|
|
| adj.白痴的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
rosy
|
|
| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
isolated
|
|
| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
conspirators
|
|
| n.共谋者，阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
inexplicable
|
|
| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
sneaking
|
|
| a.秘密的，不公开的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
buck
|
|
| n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
agitators
|
|
| n.（尤指政治变革的）鼓动者( agitator的名词复数 )；煽动者；搅拌器；搅拌机 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
futile
|
|
| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
fascists
|
|
| n.法西斯主义的支持者( fascist的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
persecuted
|
|
| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
debtors
|
|
| n.债务人，借方( debtor的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
disturbance
|
|
| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
quarry
|
|
| n.采石场；v.采石；费力地找 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
provincial
|
|
| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
athletics
|
|
| n.运动，体育，田径运动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
promotions
|
|
| 促进( promotion的名词复数 )； 提升； 推广； 宣传 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
confidential
|
|
| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
publicity
|
|
| n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
reek
|
|
| v.发出臭气；n.恶臭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
slated
|
|
| 用石板瓦盖( slate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
erecting
|
|
| v.使直立，竖起( erect的现在分词 )；建立 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
inevitable
|
|
| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
grumbling
|
|
| adj. 喃喃鸣不平的, 出怨言的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
orchard
|
|
| n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
wont
|
|
| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
robin
|
|
| n.知更鸟，红襟鸟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
hood
|
|
| n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
lieutenant
|
|
| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
militia
|
|
| n.民兵，民兵组织 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
购买
在百度中搜索