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It is clear that we have developed a society which depends on having the right amount of anxiety to make it work. Psychiatrists have been heard to say, "He didn't have enough anxiety to get well," indicating that, while we agree that too much anxiety is inimical to mental health, we have come to rely on anxiety to push and prod us into seeing a doctor about a symptom which may indicate cancer, into checking up on that old life-insurance policy which may have out-of-date clauses in it, into having a conference with Billy's teacher even though his report card looks all right.
显然，我们已经造就了一个依赖适度的焦虑来维持正常运作的社会。我们听到过心理医生这样说:“他没有足够的焦虑，所以身体好不起来，”这表明尽管我们一致认为过多的焦虑对心理健康有害，我们已变得依赖焦虑来促使我们找医生诊断某个症状是否是癌症的先兆，促使我们去检查一下陈旧的人寿保险单，看看里面有没有过时的条款，促使我们去和孩子的老师谈一谈，尽管他的成绩单看上去还相当不错。
People who are anxious enough keep their car insurance up, have the brakes checked, don't take a second drink when they have to drive, are careful where they go and with whom they drive on holidays. People who are too anxious either refuse to go into cars at all — andso complicate the ordinary course of life — or drive so tensely and overcautiously that they help cause accidents. People who aren't anxious enough take chance after chance, which increases the terrible death toll etc. of the roads.
有足够焦虑的人总是及时交汽车保险，检查刹车，要开车时不喝第二杯酒，对于假日去哪里以及和谁一起开车去，都十分当心。过于焦虑的人要么拒绝使用汽车——从而把普通的日常生活搞得复杂不堪——要么开车时过于紧张、过于小心谨慎，结果反而容易造成车祸。而不够焦虑的人一次又一次地冒险，结果增加了本已为数惊人的死于车祸的人数。
On balance, our age of anxiety represents a large advance over savage and peasant cultures. Out of a productive system of technology drawing upon enormous resources, we have created a nation in which anxiety has replaced terror and despair, for all except the severely disturbed. The specter of hunger means something only to those Americans who can identify themselves with the millions of hungry people on other continents. The specter of terror may still be roused in some by a knock at the door in a few parts of the South, or in those who have just escaped from a totalitarian regime.
权衡起来，我们的焦虑时代相对于野蛮文化和农民文化是大大进步了。凭借我们富有成效的、充分运用巨大资源的技术体系，我们创造了一个除了严重的精神病患者而外人人感到焦虑代替了恐怖和绝望的国度。饥饿的幽灵只对那些关注其他大陆上千百万饥饿人们的疾苦的美国人才有意义。夜半敲门在南方的少数地方还可能令某些人感到恐怖，或者令那些刚刚逃离极权统治的人们感到惶惶不安。
But in this twilight\ world which is neither at peace nor at war, and where there is insurance against certain immediate, downright, personal disasters, for most Americans there remains only anxiety over what may happen, might happen, could happen.
但是在这个既不和平也不交战的朦胧世界上，在防止眼前的、十足的个人灾难有保障的情况下，大多数美国人焦虑的只是一些可能发生，也许会发生，说不定会发生的事情。
