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Our individualism has always been bound by set of communal values, the glue upon which every healthy society depends. We value the imperatives of family and the cross-generational obligations that family implies. We value community, the neighborliness that expresses itself through raising the barn or coaching the soccer team. We value patriotism and the obligations of citizenship, a sense of duty and sacrifice on be half of our nation. We value a faith in something bigger than ourselves, whether that something expresses itself in formal religion or ethical precepts. And we value the constellation of behaviors that express our mutual regard for one another: honesty, fairness, humility, kindness, courtesy, and compassion.
我們的個人主義始終和一套共有的價值觀黏在一起，這種黏合劑每個健康的社會都會需要。我們重視家族規則和家族默契的代與代之間的責任。我們珍視社區，這種鄰里關系體現在幫鄰舍建谷倉和為足球隊當教練。我們珍重愛國主義和國民責任，一種為國家的責任感和奉獻精神。我們珍視超乎我們自己的信仰，不管它是以正式宗教還是以道德規范的形式表現出來。我們也珍視我們表達互相關注的一些行為表現：誠實、公正、謙虛、和善、禮貌和同情。
In every society (and in every individual), these twin strands-the individualistic and the communal, autonomy and solidarity-are in tension, and it has been one of the blessings of America that the circumstanc of our nation's birth allowed us to negotiate these tensions better than most. We did not have to go through any of the violent upheavals that Europe was forced to endure as it shed its feudal past. Our passage from an agricultural to an industrial society was eased by the sheer size of the continent, vast tracts of land and abundant resources that allowed new immigrants to continually remake themselves.
每個社會里（和每個人身上），這些成對的方面個人主義和集體主義，意志自由和團結都關系緊張。還好天佑美國，我們民族誕生的境遇使得我們能夠更好地調解這種緊張關系。歐洲在破除封建歷史的時候被迫經歷激烈的動蕩，我們連一個這樣的動蕩都不必經歷。北美大陸廣袤無垠，廣闊的土地和豐富的資源使得新移民可以不斷改造自己，我們得以從農業社會輕易地過渡到工業社會。
But we cannot avoid these tensions entirely. At times our values collide because in the hands of men each one is subject to distortion and excess. Self-reliance and independence can transform into selfishness and license, ambition into greed and a frantic desire to succeed at any cost. More than once in our history we've seen patriotism slide into jingoism, xenophobia, the stifling of dissent; we've seen faith calcify into self-righteousness, closed-mindedness, and cruelty toward others. Even the impulse toward charity can drift into a stifling paternalism, an unwillingness to acknowledge the ability of others to do for themselves.
但是我們無法完全避免這種緊張關系。我們的價值觀經常發生碰撞，因為在人們手里每種價值觀都容易被扭曲和膨脹。自力更生和獨立自主會變成自私自利和無法無天，雄心抱負會變成貪婪和一種不惜一切代價獲取成功的狂熱欲望。在我們的歷史上我們不止一次地看到愛國主義漸漸變為侵略主義、恐外癥、扼殺異見；我們看到信念僵化為自以為是、閉關排外和施暴于人。甚至做善事的沖動變成一種令人窒息的家長作風，不愿意承認別人自力更生的能力。
When this happens-when liberty is cited in the defense of a company's decision to dump toxins in our rivers, or when our collective interest in building an upscale new mall is used to justify the destruction of somebody's home—we depend on the strength of countervailing values to temper our judgment and hold such excesses in check.
當這種情況發生時一當自由權被援引來為決定向我們的河道里傾倒有毒物質的公司進行辯護時，或者當我們建造一棟高品質的新購物中心這一共同利益被用來當作摧毀某人的房屋的理由時，我們靠的是與這種價值觀相對的力量來調和我們的判斷和抑制這種無度。
