| 释义 |
opportunism|ɒpəˈtjuːnɪz(ə)m, ˈɒpətjuːnɪz(ə)m|
[f. opportune, after It. opportunismo, F. opportunisme: see -ism.]
1. a. The policy of doing what is opportune, or at the time expedient, in politics, as opposed to rigid adherence to party principles; often used to imply sacrifice of principle or an undue spirit of accommodation to present circumstances.
A term first of Italian, and then of French politics, which in English use has been extended to characterize any method or course of action by which a party or person adapts himself to, and seeks to make profitable use of, the circumstances of the moment. (The introduction of the word has often been erroneously ascribed to Gambetta.)
1870Contemp. Rev. XV. 389 To lead the [Italian] people away from the idea of unity as Utopian, and induce them [i.e. Cavour and others in 1844] to enter upon the path of compromise, or ‘opportunism’, to use their own term. 188019th Cent. Apr. 632 Among Nonconformists there is not..one who has less of the spirit of opportunism than Mr. Illingworth. 1881Standard 27 May, He [Gambetta] is likewise a master of effect, an adept in the craft of Opportunism in a wider sense than he himself has ever publicly ascribed to a word of his own invention. 1882A. W. Ward Dickens iii. 69 The Daily News was to rise superior to the opportunism..of the Times. 1885Ld. Granville Sp. at Hanley 6 Nov. (Times 7 Nov.), I asked an Englishman, I asked a Frenchman, I asked an Italian what was opportunism... The Englishman said that he thought opportunism was the preference of expediency to principle. The French gentleman said he thought it was the coquetting with principles which you do not approve in your heart. The Italian said it was adapting yourself to those circumstances which were most fitted to get you into power and to maintain you there. 1886G. Allen Darwin vii. 124 The dry and cautious French intelligence, ever inclined to a scientific opportunism. 1898Bodley France II. iv. vi. 407 Opportunism in its wholesome sense is the art of adapting one's self to changing circumstances.
b. Socialism and Communism. A policy of concessions to bourgeois elements of society in the development towards socialism.
1902Social-Democrat Aug. 232 Bernstein's position leads him straight to opportunism, the denial of the class war, reform-politics, classes working together for the common good.., &c. 1903[see Marxism1]. 1921in J. Degras Communist Internat. Documents (1956) I. 247 The parties of the Communist International will become revolutionary mass parties only if they overcome opportunism, its survivals and traditions, in their own ranks. 1930M. J. Olgin tr. Lenin's Conference of Foreign Sect. of R.S.-D.L.P. in Coll. Wks. XVIII. 148 The collapse of the Second International is the collapse of Socialist opportunism. Ibid., The crisis created by the war has exposed the real substance of opportunism, revealing it in the role of a direct aid to the bourgeoisie against the proletariat. 1934tr. Lenin in Lenin on Britain iv. i. 149 To explain to the masses the inevitability and the necessity of breaking with opportunism, to educate them for revolution by a merciless struggle against opportunism,..is the only Marxian line to be followed in the world labour movement.—Autumn 1916. 1942M. J. Olgin tr. Lenin's Imperialism in Coll. Wks. XIX. 194 That bond between imperialism and opportunism, which revealed itself first and most clearly in England. 1957R. N. C. Hunt Guide to Communist Jargon 101 Opportunism stood for that disposition of mind which rejected Marx's revolutionary teaching, with its insistence upon the total destruction of the capitalist system, in favour of concessions made by the bourgeoisie within its framework. 1974tr. Sniečkus's Soviet Lithuania 26 In its relentless struggle against reformism, opportunism and Trotskyism, it [sc. the Lithuanian Communist Party] became even more Bolshevik in character.
2. Opportunistic state or activity.
a. Med. (See opportunistic a. 3.)
1962Laboratory Investigation XI. 1073/1 The concept of microbial opportunism as an important occasional factor in the etiology of infectious disease has been generally recognized and its validity has been accepted.
b. Ecol. (See opportunistic a. 2.)
1967G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. II. xxii. 366 There is reason to believe that the same sort of lognormal distribution may arise by a process of evolutionary opportunism among competitive species. 1973P. A. Colinvaux Introd. Ecol. xxvii. 392 If you are small and short-lived, opportunism is probably the only satisfactory strategy for life in unstable places, but if you are big, and with a low metabolic rate,..you may just sit tight through the bad times, living on your reserves and reducing your life processes to the minimum. |