1、1The only way to travel is on footThe past ages of man have all been carefully labelled by anthropologists. Descriptions like Paleolithic Man, Neolithic Man, etc., neatly sum up whole periods. When the time comes for anthropologists to turn their attention to the twentieth century, they will surely
2、choose the label Legless Man. Histories of the time will go something like this: in the twentieth century, people forgot how to use their legs. Men and women moved about in cars, buses and trains from a very early age. There were lifts and escalators in all large buildings to prevent people from wal
3、king. This situation was forced upon earth dwellers of that time because of their extraordinary way of life. In those days, people thought nothing of travelling hundreds of miles each day. But the surprising thing is that they didnt use their legs even when they went on holiday. They built cable rai
4、lways, ski-lifts and roads to the top of every huge mountain. All the beauty spots on earth were marred by the presence of large car parks. The future history books might also record that we were deprived of the use of our eyes. In our hurry to get from one place to another, we failed to see anythin
5、g on the way. Air travel gives you a birds-eye view of the world or even less if the wing of the aircraft happens to get in your way. When you travel by car or train a blurred image of the countryside constantly smears the windows. Car drivers, in particular, are forever obsessed with the urge to go
6、 on and on: they never want to stop. Is it the lure of the great motorways, or what? And as for sea travel, it hardly deserves mention. It is perfectly summed up in the words of the old song: I joined the navy to see the world, and what did I see? I saw the sea. The typical twentieth-century travele
7、r is the man who always says Ive been there. You mention the remotest, most evocative place-names in the world like El Dorado, Kabul, Irkutsk and someone is bound to say Ive been there meaning, I drove through it at 100 miles an hour on the way to somewhere else. When you travel at high speeds, the
8、present means nothing: you live mainly in the future because you spend most of your time looking forward to arriving at some other place. But actual arrival, when it is achieved, is meaningless. You want to move on again. By traveling like this, you suspend all experience; the present ceases to be a
9、 reality: you might just as well be dead. The traveler on foot, on the other hand, lives constantly in the present. For him travelling and arriving are one and the same thing: he arrives somewhere with every step he makes. He experiences the present moment with his eyes, his ears and the whole of hi
10、s body. At the end of his journey he feels a delicious physical weariness. He knows that sound, satisfying sleep will be his: the just reward of all true travelers.2Only stricter traffic laws can prevent accidentsFrom the health point of view we are living in a marvelous age. We are immunized from b
11、irth against many of the most dangerous diseases. A large number of once fatal illnesses can now be cured by modern drugs and surgery. It is almost certain that one day remedies will be found for the most stubborn remaining diseases. The expectation of life has increased enormously. But though the p
12、ossibility of living a long and happy life is greater than ever before, every day we witness the incredible slaughter of men, women and children on the roads. Man versus the motor-car! It is a never-ending battle which man is losing. Thousands of people the world over are killed or horribly mutilate
13、d each year and we are quietly sitting back and letting it happen.It has been rightly said that when a man is sitting behind a steering wheel, his car becomes the extension of his personality. There is no doubt that the motor-car often brings out a mans very worst qualities. People who are normally
14、quiet and pleasant may become unrecognizable when they are behind a steering-wheel. They swear, they are ill-mannered and aggressive, willful as two-years-olds and utterly selfish. All their hidden frustrations, disappointments and jealousies seem to be brought to the surface by the act of driving.T
15、he surprising thing is that society smiles so benignly on the motorist and seems to condone his behavior. Everything is done for his convenience. Cities are allowed to become almost uninhabitable because of heavy traffic; towns are made ugly by huge car parks; the countryside is desecrated by road n
16、etworks; and the mass annual slaughter becomes nothing more than a statistic, to be conveniently forgotten.It is high time a world code were created to reduce this senseless waste of human life. With regard to driving, the laws of some countries are notoriously lax and even the strictest are not str
17、ict enough. A code which was universally accepted could only have a dramatically beneficial effect on the accident rate. Here are a few examples of some the things that might be done. The driving test should be standardized and made far more difficult than it is; all the drivers should be made to ta
18、ke a test every three years or so; the age at which young people are allowed to drive any vehicle should be raised to at least 21; all vehicles should be put through stringent annual tests for safety. Even the smallest amount of alcohol in the blood can impair a persons driving ability. Present drin
19、king and driving laws (where they exist) should be mad much stricter. Maximum and minimum speed limits should be imposed on all roads. Governments should lay down safety specifications for manufacturers, as has been done in the USA. All advertising stressing power and performance should be banned. T
20、hese measures may sound inordinately harsh. But surely nothing should be considered as too severe if it results in reducing the annual toll of human life. After all, the world is for human beings, not motor-cars.3Its high time men ceased to regard women as second-class citizensThis is supposed to be
21、 an enlightened age, but you wouldnt think so if you could hear what the average man thinks of the average woman. Women won their independence years ago. After a long, bitter struggle, they now enjoy the same educational opportunities as men in most parts of the world. They have proved repeatedly th
22、at they are equal and often superior to men in almost every field. The hard-fought battle for recognition has been won, but it is by no means over. It is men, not women who still carry on the sex war because their attitude remains basically hostile. Even in the most progressive societies, women cont
23、inue to be regarded as second-rate citizens. To hear some men talk, youd think that women belonged to a different species!On the surface, the comments made by men about womens abilities seem light-hearted. The same tired jokes about women drivers are repeated day in, day out. This apparent light-hea
24、rtedness dose not conceal the real contempt that men feel for women. However much men sneer at women, their claims to superiority are not borne out by statistics. Lets consider the matter of driving, for instance. We all know that women cause far fewer accidents than men. They are too conscientious
25、and responsible to drive like maniacs. But this is a minor quibble. Women have succeeded in any job you care to name. As politicians, soldiers, doctors, factory-hands, university professors, farmers, company directors, lawyers, bus-conductors, scientists and presidents of countries they have often p
26、ut men to shame. And we must remember that they frequently succeed brilliantly in all these fields in addition to bearing and rearing children.Yet men go on maintaining the fiction that there are many jobs women cant do. Top-level political negotiation between countries, business and banking are alm
27、ost entirely controlled by men, who jealously guard their so-called rights. Even in otherwise enlightened places like Switzerland women havent even been given the vote. This situation is preposterous! The arguments that men put forward to exclude women from these fields are all too familiar. Women,
28、they say, are unreliable and irrational. They depend too little on cool reasoning and too much on intuition and instinct to arrive at decisions. They are not even capable of thinking clearly. Yet when women prove their abilities, men refuse to acknowledge them and give them their due. So much for a
29、mans ability to think clearly!The truth is that men cling to their supremacy because of their basic inferiority complex. They shun real competition. They know in their hearts that women are superior and they are afraid of being beaten at their own game. One of the most important tasks in the world i
30、s to achieve peace between the nations. You can be sure that if women were allowed to sit round the conference table, they would succeed brilliantly, as they always do, where men have failed for centuries. Some things are too important to be left to men!World governments should conduct serious campa
31、igns against smoking4If you smoke and you still dont believe that theres a definite link between smoking and bronchial troubles, heart disease and lung cancer, then you are certainly deceiving yourself. No one will accuse you of hypocrisy. Let us just say that you are suffering from a bad case of wi
32、shful thinking. This neednt make you too uncomfortable because you are in good company. Whenever the subject of smoking and health is raised, the governments of most countries hear no evil, see no evil and smell no evil. Admittedly, a few governments have taken timid measures. In Britain for instanc
33、e, cigarette advertising has been banned on television. The conscience of the nation is appeased, while the population continues to puff its way to smoky, cancerous death.You dont have to look very far to find out why the official reactions to medical findings have been so lukewarm. The answer is si
34、mply money. Tobacco is a wonderful commodity to tax. Its almost like a tax on our daily bread. In tax revenue alone, the government of Britain collects enough from smokers to pay for its entire educational facilities. So while the authorities point out ever so discreetly that smoking may, conceivabl
35、e, be harmful, it doesnt do to shout too loudly about it.This is surely the most short-sighted policy you could imagine. While money is eagerly collected in vast sums with one hand, it is paid out in increasingly vaster sums with the other. Enormous amounts are spent on cancer research and on effort
36、s to cure people suffering from the disease. Countless valuable lives are lost. In the long run, there is no doubt that everybody would be much better-off if smoking were banned altogether.Of course, we are not ready for such a drastic action. But if the governments of the world were honestly concer
37、ned about the welfare of their peoples, youd think theyd conduct aggressive anti-smoking campaigns. Far from it! The tobacco industry is allowed to spend staggering sums on advertising. Its advertising is as insidious as it is dishonest. We are never shown pictures of real smokers coughing up their
38、lungs early in the morning. That would never do. The advertisement always depict virile, clean-shaven young men. They suggest it is manly to smoke, even positively healthy! Smoking is associated with the great open-air life, with beautiful girls, true love and togetherness. What utter nonsense!For a
39、 start, governments could begin by banning all cigarette and tobacco advertising and should then conduct anti-smoking advertising campaigns of their own. Smoking should be banned in all public places like theatres, cinemas and restaurants. Great efforts should be made to inform young people especial
40、ly of the dire consequences of taking up the habit. A horrific warning say, a picture of a deaths head should be included in every packet of cigarettes that is sold. As individuals we are certainly weak, but if governments acted honestly and courageously, they could protect us from ourselves.New fas
41、hions in clothing are created solely for the commercial exploitation of women5Whenever you see an old film, even one made as little as ten years ago, you cannot help being struck by the appearance of the women taking part. Their hair-styles and make-up look dated; their skirts look either too long o
42、r too short; their general appearance is, in fact, slightly ludicrous. The men taking part in the film, on the other hand, are clearly recognizable. There is nothing about their appearance to suggest that they belong to an entirely different age.This illusion is created by changing fashions. Over th
43、e years, the great majority of men have successfully resisted all attempts to make them change their style of dress. The same cannot be said for women. Each year a few so-called top designers in Paris or London lay down the law and women the whole world over rush to obey. The decrees of the designer
44、s are unpredictable and dictatorial. This year, they decide in their arbitrary fashion, skirts will be short and waists will be high; zips are in and buttons are out. Next year the law is reversed and far from taking exception, no one is even mildly surprised.If women are mercilessly exploited year
45、after year, they have only themselves to blame. Because they shudder at the thought of being seen in public in clothes that are out of fashion, they are annually black-mailed by the designers and the big stores. Clothes which have been worn only a few times have to be discarded because of the dictat
46、es of fashion. When you come to think of it, only a woman is capable of standing in front of a wardrobe packed full of clothes and announcing sadly that she has nothing to wear.Changing fashions are nothing more than the deliberate creation of waste. Many women squander vast sums of money each year
47、to replace clothes that have hardly been worn. Women who cannot afford to discard clothing in this way, waste hours of their time altering the dresses they have. Hem-lines are taken up or let down; waist-lines are taken in or let out; neck-lines are lowered or raised, and so on.No one can claim that
48、 the fashion industry contributes anything really important to society. Fashion designers are rarely concerned with vital things like warmth, comfort and durability. They are only interested in outward appearance and they take advantage of the fact that women will put up with any amount of discomfor
49、t, providing they look right. There can hardly be a man who hasnt at some time in his life smiled at the sight of a woman shivering in a flimsy dress on a wintry day, or delicately picking her way through deep snow in dainty shoes.When comparing men and women in the matter of fashion, the conclusions to be drawn are obvious. Do the constantly changing fashions of womens clothes, one wonders, reflect basic qualities of fickleness and instability? Men are too sensible to let themselves be bullied by fashion designers. Do their unchanging styl
