Sometimes finding the right balance is relatively easy. We all agree, for instance, that society has a right to constrain individual freedom when it threatens to do harm to others. The First Amendment doesn't give you the right to yell "fire"in a crowded theater; your right to practice your religion does not encompass human sacrifice. Likewise, we all agree that there must be limits to the state's power to control our behavior, even if it's for our own good. Not many Americans would feel comfortable with the government monitoring what we eat, no matter how many deaths and how much of our medical spending may be due to rising rates of obesity.
有时候寻找恰当的平衡相对容易些。例如当个人自由可能危害他人时,我们都认同社会有权对其限制。宪法第一修正案没有赋予你在人头攒动的剧院里大叫“着火了”的权利;你有信奉宗教的权利,但不包括人的牺牲。同样,我们都赞同,国家控制我们行为的权力不能无度,哪怕是出于良好的愿望。很多美国人对政府监视我们的饮食感到不满,不管高肥胖率会导致多少人死亡和给我们带来多少医疗费用。
More often, though, finding the right balance between our competing values is difficult. Tensions arise not because we have steered a wrong course, but simply because we live in a complex and contradictory world. I firmly believe, for example, that since 9/11, we have played fast and loose with constitutional principles in the fight against terrorism. But I acknowledge that even the wisest president and most prudent Congress would struggle to balance the critical demands of our collective security against the equally compelling need to uphold civil liberties. I believe our economic policies pay too little attention to the displacement of manufacturing workers and the destruction of manufacturir towns. But I cannot wish away the sometimes competing demands of economic security and competitiveness.
然而,在矛盾的价值观之间寻找恰当的平衡通常并不容易。紧张局势的出现不是因为我们走了一条错误的路,而仅是因为我们生活在一个复杂而矛盾的世界里。例如,我深信,自从“9·11”事件以来,我们在反恐斗争中对宪法原则时松时紧,变化无常。但我承认,即使是最英明的总统和最审慎的国会也会在我们对集体安全的必然要求和同样重要的对公民自由权的拥护之间艰难地寻找平衡。我认为,我们的经济政策极少关心产业工人的无家可归和产业城镇的破坏。但我不能凭我的主观愿望将有时出现的经济安全和竞争力的需求一笔勾销。
Unfortunately, too often in our national debates we don't even get to the point where we weigh these difficult choices. Instead, we either exaggerate the degree to which policies we don't like impinge on our most sacred values, or play dumb when our own preferred policies conflict with important countervailing values. Conservatives, for instance, tend to bristle when it comes to government interference in the marketplace or their right to bear arms. Yet many of these same conservatives show little to no concern when it comes to government wiretapping without a warrant or government attempts to control people's sexual practices. Conversely, it's easy to get most liberals riled up about government encroachments on freedom of the press or a woman's reproductive freedoms. But if you have a conversation with these same liberals about the potential costs of regulation to a small-business owner, you will often draw a blank stare.
不幸的是,我们在全国性辩论中谈到这些艰难选择时常常不能切中要害。我们要么夸大我们讨厌的政策损害最神圣价值观的程度,要么对我们心仪的政策与一些相对立的重要价值产生冲突充耳不闻。例如,当政府干预市场或者质疑拥有武器权利时,保守主义者往往会怒发冲冠。然而恰恰就是这批保守主义者,他们大多数在遇到政府未经许可搭线窃听或者试图控制人的性行为时,采取了听之任之的态度。相反,多半自由主义者会因为政府对出版自由或者妇女生育自由的侵犯而发火;但是如果你再与这批自由主义者探讨管理一名小商户可能的成本时,你得到的是木然的凝视。