バートランド・ラッセル「権力愛」
* 出典：牧野力(編)『
ラッセル思想辞典』
最も広い意味での権力愛とは、自分が意図した結果を得たいという欲求である。この欲求は人間性の欠くべからざる一部であり、精力的な人々にあっては、広範囲かつ重要な部分をなすものである。 欲求を満た 能力を持ちたいと望む時、ある種の形態の権力愛が生れる。 このことは、最悪の権力愛にも、最良の権力愛にも当てはまる。 ・・・。従って、あらゆる形の権力愛を非難するのはおかしい。また、手段として権力を望むのと、権力それ自体を目的として望むのとでは、大きな相違がある。・・・。
権力愛は色欲と同様に強力な動因だから、普通想像される以上に、多数の人々の行動に甚大な影響を与える。
技術が権力愛の形態に及ぼす重要性はとても大きい。 破壊（行為）には技術をほとんど必要としないのに、建設（行為）には常に技術が必要であり、その最高度の形の建設には大量の技術が必要である。・・・。 技術的訓練は権力愛の形式がきまる上に多大の影響を与える。・・・。
人間の権力愛の現れ方は、気質と技術とに左右される。気質は環境に支配されるから、権力愛の現れ方を方向づけるのは、正しい環境と正しい機会と適切な型の技術とを与える問題となる 先天性の気質は優生学の扱う問題である。残酷な衝動の生れる原因は、気質に悪影響を及 す環境や幼年期の不幸、内乱の体験、青少年時代に精力の正しいはけ口が与えられなかったことなどがあげられよう。
若い頃、知恵に富んだ教育を受け、暴力に慢性化せず、 世間を渡るのに不当な苦労をせずに育てば、残酷になる人はまずないと信ずる。
Love of power, in its widest sense, is the desire to be able to produce intended effects upon the outer world, whether human or non-human. This desire is an essential part of human nature, and in energetic men it js a very large and important part. Every desire, if it cannot be instantly gratified, brings about a wish for the ability to gratify it, and therefore some form of the love of power. This is true of the best desires as well as the worst. If you love your neighbour, you will wish for power to make him happy. To condemn all love of power, therefore, is to condemn love of your neighbour.
There is, however, a great difference between power desired as a means and power desired as an end in itself. The man who desires power as a means has first some other desire, and is then led to wish that he were in a position to achieve it. The man who desires power as an end will choose his objective by the possibility of securing it. In politics, for example, one man wishes to see certain measures enacted, and is thus led to take part in public affairs, while another man, wishing only for personal success, adopts whatever programme seems most likely to lead to this result. ...
Love of power, like lust, is such a strong motive that it influences most men's actions more than they think it should. ...
The importance of of skill in determining the form taken by love of power is very great. Destruction, broadly speaking, apart from certain forms of modern war, requires very little skill, whereas construction always requires some, and in the highest forms requires a great deal. Most men who have acquired a difficult type of skill enjoy exercising it, and prefer this activity to easier ones ; this is because the difficult kind of skill, other things being equal, is more satisfying to love of power. The man who has learnt to throw bombs from an aeroplane will prefer this to the humdrum occupations that will be open to him in peace time; but the man who has learnt (say) to combat yellow fever will prefer this to the work of an army surgeon in war time. Modern war involves a very great deal of skill, and this helps to make it attractive to various kinds of experts. Much scientific skill is needed equally in peace and in war; there is no way by which a scientific pacifist can make sure that his discoveries or inventions will not be used to increase the destruction in the next struggle. ...
以下省略
(Source: Power, a New Social Analysis, 1938, chapt. 17: The ethics of power)
