A common error, however, is to regard the civilizing process and the humanizing pro cess as synonymous. A correlation between the two has yet to be demonstrated.……
We have long supposed that civilization and humanizing are the same thing. Civilization is a product of literacy, and humanizing may or may not be. Slade further says:
What can be claimed for literature and civilization is that they are euphemisms for hope. But hope for a better existence, for self-knowledge and understanding, could only be realized, so it seemed to Western man, by severing his ties with the tangled undergrowth of myth and superstition. He erected a greasy pole, the alphabet, on which he hoped to shinny out of the swamps.
然而，一个常见的错误是把文明化历程和人性化历程视为同义词。两者之间的相干 性另有待证明。……
我们恒久以来一向认为文明与人性化是一回事。文明是读写的一种产品，而人性化或许是或许不是。斯莱德进一步说：
读写和文明可以传播的是，它们是盼望的婉转说法。但是，只有对更好生存的希 望、对自知之明和了解力的盼望才气得到实现，是以在西方人看来，这是由于他断 绝了他与神话、迷信纠结的森林之间的联络。他竖起一根涂油竿——字母表——他 盼望靠它从池沼中攀爬出来。
按：文明化和使人具有人的属性或许是或许不是一回事，看各自若何界说。
对更好生存的盼望、对自知之明和了解力的盼望，是小我私家进展、群体进展、社会进展的偏向。
西方人以字母表为文明的标杆，把随读写而来的文明视为断绝了他与神话、迷信纠结的森林之间的联络。涂油竿，greasy，通往奇迹顶峰困难的路；池沼，swamp，进退维谷的逆境。
这里的引文，麦氏引自Mark Slade, The New Metamorphosis, Mosaic 8 (1975), p. 131.
