評(píng)論
打印
Like many conservatives, I believe in the power of culture to determine both individual success and social cohesion, and I believe we ignore cultural factors at our peril. But I also believe that our government can play a role in shaping that culture for the better-or for the worse.
我和許多保守人士一樣，相信文化力量在個(gè)人成功和社會(huì)團(tuán)結(jié)中的決定作用，相信我們?nèi)艉鲆曃幕蛩鼐蜁?huì)自食其果。但是我也相信我們的政府能在塑造這種文化方面起作用，使之更好或者使之更壞。
A sense of empathy is one that I find myself appreciating more and more as I get older. It is at the heart of my moral code, and it is how I understand the Golden Rule-not simply as a call to sympathy or charity, but as something more demanding, a call to stand in somebody else's shoes and see through their eyes.
同情心是一種隨著年齡的增長(zhǎng)我越來越欣賞的品質(zhì)。它是我道德準(zhǔn)則的核心，是我所遵循的“金箴”，不僅僅是呼喚同情或呼喚慈善，而是一種更高的要求，一種設(shè)身處地為別人著想和從他人的角度來認(rèn)識(shí)事情的品質(zhì)。
Like most of my values, I learned about empathy from my mother. She disdained any kind of cruelty or thoughtlessness or abuse of power, whether it expressed itself in the form of racial prejudice or bullying in the schoolyard or workers being underpaid. Whenever she saw even a hint of such behavior in me she would look me square in the eyes and ask, "How do you think that would make you feel?"
和我多數(shù)價(jià)值觀一樣，我從母親那里學(xué)會(huì)了同情。種族歧視、學(xué)校毆斗，或者克扣工資——我母親討厭任何形式的殘暴、冷漠無情或權(quán)力濫用。每次她看到我即使有一點(diǎn)這種行為，她就會(huì)直盯著我的眼睛問：“你認(rèn)為這樣讓你感覺如何？”
It's not a question we ask ourselves enough, I think; as a country, we seem to be suffering from an empathy deficit. I believe a stronger sense of empathy would tilt the balance of our current politics in favor of those people who are struggling in this society. After all, if they are like us, then their struggles are our own. If we fail to help, we diminish ourselves. But that does not mean that those who are struggling-or those of us who claim to speak for those who are struggling-are thereby freed from trying to understand the perspectives of those who are better off. That's what empathy does-it calls us all to task, the conservative and the liberal, the powerful and the powerless, the oppressed and the oppressor. We are all shaken out of our complacency. We are all forced beyond our limited vision.
這個(gè)問題我們只問自己是不夠的，我想，作為一個(gè)國(guó)家，我們正遭受著同情心的缺失。隨著同情心的增強(qiáng)，我們當(dāng)前政治天平就會(huì)傾向于這個(gè)社會(huì)中正在抗?fàn)幍娜藗儭．吘梗麄兒臀覀円粯樱敲此麄兊目範(fàn)幰簿褪俏覀兊呐Ψ较?，如果我們不伸出援助之手，我們將自取滅亡。但是這并不表示那些正在奮斗的人一或者我們當(dāng)中那些聲稱要替這些人說話的人一因此不必試圖了解富人的想法。這就是同情心的作用，它呼吁我們所有的人去行動(dòng)：保守主義者和自由主義者，當(dāng)權(quán)者和無權(quán)者，受壓迫者和壓迫者。我們必須將所有的自滿拋棄，我們必須超越有限的視域。
No one is exempt from the call to find common ground.
在達(dá)成共識(shí)的號(hào)召下，沒有人可以保持沉默。
