評論
打印
Right and left have much cause to criticize government.
左右兩派都有很多理由對政府提出批評。
For the right, as Ronald Reagan famously said, the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
對右派來說，正如羅納德•里根的名言所說，“英語里最可怕的九個詞就是:I’m from the government and I’m here to help.(我是政府派來幫你的。）”
For the left, government has failed to tame the cruelty of markets and lift the poor out of their misery.
而對于左派來說，政府沒能夠駕馭住市場的殘酷，未能幫助窮人擺脫他們的痛苦。
From their different perspectives, both sides complain that government regulation is often costly and ineffectual.
雙方從不同的角度都抱怨政府的調控常常成本巨大但卻收效甚微。
Yet, even if it is often inefficient and self-serving, it also embodies moral progress.
然而，即便它常常效率很低，而且常常為自己謀利，它仍然代表著道德的進步。
That is the significance of the assertion, in the American Declaration of Independence, that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights."
《美國獨立宣言》里聲明“人人都生來平等，都享有造物主賦予的不可剝奪的權利”的意義就在于此。
It is the significance of laws guaranteeing free speech, universal suffrage, and equality before the law.
那些保證言論自由、普選權和法律面前人人平等的法律的意義也在于此。
And it is the significance of courts that can hold states to account when they, inevitably, fail to match the standards that they have set for themselves.
當政府有一天不可避免地達不到為自己設定的標準時，法院能讓政府做出解釋的意義也在于此。
Such values are the institutional face of the fundamental engines of progress—"moral sensibility."
這些價值觀念是進步的根本動力——“道德觀念”——在制度方面的體現。
The very idea probably sounds quaint and old-fashioned,
這種想法本身很可能聽起來有些古怪和過時，
but it is the subject of a powerful book by Susan Neiman, an American philosopher living in Germany.
但它卻正是蘇珊•尼曼，一位生活在德國的美國哲學家，所寫的一本頗具影響力的書的主題。
