The late philosopher Isaiah Berlin believed that, rather than aspire to some utopian ideal, a society should strive for something else: "not that we agree with each other'" his biographer explained, "but that we can understand each other."
已故哲学家以赛亚·伯林认为，一个社会应该追求一些其他东西，而不是渴望某种乌托邦式的理想。他在自传中写道：“并非我们意见一致，而是我们彼此相互理解。”
In Shanghai one October evening I joined a group gathered in a small, sterile hotel meeting room. It was the eve of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, and there were diplomats, teachers, and businessmen from many Western countries. Elegant women with lively children, single men, young fathers. Shalom Greenberg, a young Jew from Israel married to an American, was presiding over his first High Holy Days as rabbi of the infant congregation.
在上海某个10月的晚上，犹太人赎罪日前夜，我参加了一群人在一间寻常宾馆的小会议室的聚会。参加聚会的有许多西方国家的外交官、教师和商人，还有带着活泼孩子的漂亮女士、单身男士和年轻的父亲。沙勒姆·格林伯格是个年轻的以色列犹太人，娶了个美国妻子。他是第一次以拉比身份主持新年宗教集会。
"It's part of the Jewish history that Jews went all over the world," Rabbi Greenberg reflected. "They received a lot from local cultures, but they also kept their own identity."
格林伯格拉比说：“犹太人遍布全球，这是犹太历史的一部分。他们吸纳了很多不同的当地文化，可他们仍然保持着自己的本色。”
The solemn liturgy proceeded, unchanged over thousands of years and hundreds of alien cultures: "Create in me a clean heart, 0 God, and renew a right spirit within me," he intoned. I'm neither Jewish nor Chinese, but sitting there I didn't feel foreign—I felt at home. The penitence may have been Jewish, but the aspiration was universal.
庄严的礼拜仪式依照上千年来的传统方式进行，上百种外国文化并没有将其改变。他吟诵：“啊，上帝！赠予我一颗纯净的心，再生我正确的灵魂！”我不是犹太人，也不是中国人，但坐在这里，就像在自己家里一样，我没感觉自己是外人。忏悔仪式可能是犹太教所特有的，但是，渴求的心理却是普遍的。
Global culture doesn't mean just more TV sets and Nike shoes. Linking is humanity's natural impulse, its common destiny. But the ties that bind people around the world are not merely technological or commercial. They are the powerful cords of the heart.
全球文化并不仅仅意味着拥有更多的电视机和耐克鞋。相互联系是人类天生的欲望，是其共同的命运，但是连接全球人类的纽带绝不仅仅是科技或商务。这种连接靠的是强有力的心灵纽带。