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I now realize that it is naive to estimate the contents of people's hearts on the basis of their political affiliation, but the principle remains valid: if one is to lay any claim to character, he must live his convictions daily, reflexively, in a hundred tiny ways. "I stopped seeing a man because he was rude to waiters, " reported a woman of my acquaintance, and I understood perfectly. Someone without respect for waiters or salesclerks or business subordinates is unquestionably going to be found wanting on all the big issues.
我现在意识到基于人们的政治联系去评估人们内心的想法是太幼稚了，但原则还是有效的：若想拥有品格，必须践行自己的信念，每天出于本能地以100种细小的方式去践行。“我跟一个男的分手了，因为他对侍者很粗鲁，”我认识的一个女人说，而我完全理解。对侍者或销售人员或商务下属不怀尊重的人无疑在所有大问题上都会有所欠缺的。
But somehow it seems that fewer and fewer of us are able to manage it. Indeed, we seem to behave worse to one another today than we ever have before. There was a time when certain elementary rules of human intercourse were enforced in this society by popular assent. Just a generation or so ago, virtually no citizen over the age of sixty would ever have been obliged to stand on a crowded bus or subway. Today the public conveyances are full of elderly standees while kids and teenagers and lots of young men and women in designer jeans sit staring blankly ahead. We have, quite simply, become a society where lack of consideration is the norm, where it is entirely legitimate to give a damn only about oneself.
然而不知怎么的，我们有越来越少的人能够做到这一点。实际上，我们现在对彼此的行为似乎要比以前糟糕。曾经有一段时间，一些人际交往的基本礼节因为公众的舆论而在这个社会得以实行。也就是一代以前吧，基本上不会有60岁以上的公民会被迫站在拥挤的公共汽车或地铁上。如今公共交通工具上满是站着的老年人，而小孩、十几岁的人，还有很多穿着名牌牛仔裤的青年男女坐着，眼睛茫然地盯着前方。说白了，缺乏关爱已经成为我们社会的常态。在这样的社会里，只在乎自己是完全合理的。
