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Assertions about the irrelevance of universities are part of a broader and growing mistrust of institutions more generally,
认为大学教育无关紧要在一定程度上体现了大众普遍对机构的不信任心理，
one fuelled by our intoxication with the power and charisma of the individual and the cult of celebrity.
这种心理是由对权力和个人魅力的沉迷以及对名人的盲目迷信造成的。
Government, business, non-profits are joined with universities as targets of suspicion and criticism.
和大学一样面对种种质疑和批评的还有政府、企业和非营利组织。
There are few countervailing voices to remind us how institutions serve and support us. We tend to take what they do for granted.
而提醒大众这些机构是如何为我们服务、给我们提供帮助的声音几乎没有。人们常常把这些机构的功劳当作理所当然。
Your food was safe; your blood test was reliable; your polling place was open; electricity was available when you flipped the switch.
食物是安全的、血液检测可以信赖的、投票站为你敞开着、打开开关就会通电。
Your flight to Boston took off and landed according to rules and systems and organizations responsible for safe air travel.
飞往波士顿的航班起飞和降落都按照各种规则执行着，这些规则和各种系统及组织一起负责保证飞行安全。
Just imagine a week or a month without this "civic infrastructure"
但请试想一下，如果让你一周或者一个月不使用这些文化基础设施会怎么样，
without the institutions that undergird our society and without the commitment to our interdependence that created these structures of commonality in the first place.
如果没有任何机构来维护社会运转，没有人保证各种设施之间可以通用，可以互相依赖，又会怎么样。
Think of the countries in West Africa that lacked the public health systems to contain Ebola and the devastation that resulted.
试想一下，如果非洲西部没有公共卫生组织控制埃博拉的发展，那会造成什么样的破坏。
Contrast that with the network of institutions that so rapidly saved lives and contained spread of the disease when it appeared in the United States.
再把它跟美国各机构构成的能快速拯救生命和控制疾病蔓延的网络对比一下。
Think about other elements of our civic infrastructure -- the libraries, the museums, the school committees, the religious organizations
再想想我们文化基础设施中的其他元素--图书馆、博物馆、校委会和各种宗教组织，
that are as vital to moving us forward as are our roads and railways and bridges.
它们就跟我们脚下的道路、铁轨和桥梁一样，在我们前进的路上至关重要。
Institutions embody our present and enduring connections to one other.
机构承载着我们现在和未来对彼此的承诺。
They bring our disparate talents and capacities to the pursuit of common purpose.
它们帮助我们发挥出各自的天赋和才能，从而去追逐我们共同的目标。
At the same time, they link us to both what has come before and what will follow.
同时，它们把我们与过去和未来相联系。
They are repositories of values -- values that precede, transcend, and outlast the self.
它们储存着超前的、比其自身的存在更长久的价值。
They challenge us to look beyond the immediate, the instantly gratifying, to think about the bigger picture, the longer run, the larger whole.
它们要求我们跳出当下的即时满足，去思考更宏大的外界和更漫长的前路。
They remind us that the world is only temporarily ours, that we are stewards entrusted with the past and responsible to the future.
它们提醒我们，这个世界只是暂时属于我们，我们肩负着前人的托付，我们要对未来的人负责。
We are larger than ourselves and our selfies.
我们比我们自身和自拍更伟大。
