We hold fast to the conviction that anything is possible—whether or not it is grounded in reality—and it is precisely this conviction that has propelled the United States to its ascent as the world's largest economy.
我们笃信一切皆有可能——无论其是否植根于现实——正是这一信念助推美国跃升为全球最大经济体。
It has also, time and again, left us hopelessly enthralled by charlatans and quacks.
它亦屡屡令我们无可救药地痴迷于骗徒与江湖郎中。
If so many possibilities already exist here in America, who can say that the next new supplement, device, or regimen could not make you young, strong, and wealthy all at once—or some combination thereof?
倘若在美国此地，如此之多的可能性皆已存在，谁又能断言下一款新补充剂、新设备或新方案，不可能令你同时臻于年轻、强壮、富有，抑或兼而有之？
In 1897, a Baptist minister persuaded us to believe that his company could extract gold from the seawater near Lubec, Maine.
1897年，一位浸信会牧师令我们笃信，其公司能够自缅因州卢贝克附近的海水中提炼出黄金。
In 1925, a company in East Orange, New Jersey, called the Bailey Radium Laboratories brought out a wildly popular product, Radithor, advertised as "a cure for the living dead" and claimed to restore vitality and cure impotence.
新泽西州东奥兰治一家名为贝利镭实验室的公司于1925年推出了一款风靡一时的产品Radithor，广告中将其标榜为“活死人的解药”，宣称可恢复活力并治愈阳痿。
America gave us Clark Stanley — the self-styled "Rattlesnake King" — who peddled his so-called "snake oil liniment," claiming it could remedy "pain and lameness, for rheumatism, neuralgia, sciatica, sprains, bunions," cure "partial paralysis of the upper and lower limbs," and "reduce swollen joints to natural size."
美国引进了克拉克·斯坦利——号称“响尾蛇之王”——此人向我们兜售所谓“蛇油搽剂”，宣称其可疗愈“疼痛与跛行，适用于风湿、神经痛、坐骨神经痛、扭伤、拇囊炎”，能治愈“上肢及下肢的部分瘫痪”，并“使肿胀的关节回缩至自然尺寸”。
America also produced Charles Ponzi, who, under the guise of a postal-reply-coupon investment scheme, promised a 50 percent return in a mere 45 days.
美国亦催生了查尔斯·庞兹，其以邮票券投资为幌子，许诺短短45天内即可奉上50%的回报。
These hoary examples may easily provoke mirth or a pang of shame, yet we ought to remain circumspect: we are as willing as ever to credit claims that, upon even the slightest application of common sense, stand revealed as preposterous.
这些陈旧的例证极易引人发噱或令人汗颜，然而我们理应保持审慎：我们一如既往地甘愿轻信那些即便仅经些许常识检验亦显荒诞不经的说法。
Does raw milk possess extraordinary virtues?
生牛奶具有特殊功效？
Can peptides restore us to youth?
肽能令我们重返青春？
Can megadoses of intravenous vitamins dispel a hangover?
经静脉注射大剂量维生素可消解宿醉？
So says Dr. Lydia Kang, an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
内布拉斯加大学医学中心内科副教授莉迪亚·康博士如是说。
She is the author of a book examining medical fads, titled Quackery.
她曾著有一部探讨医学时尚的著作，题为《庸医》。
Within this lies a kind of desperation.
这其中蕴含着一种绝望。
"Deep in everyone's heart is a profound desire to have a long and fruitful life," she says, "without disability or suffering, with the brain intact."
“每个人的内心深处都怀有一个深切的愿望，即拥有长久而富有成果的人生，”她说道，“没有残疾或痛苦，大脑完好无损。”
Admittedly, this is by no means a phenomenon unique to the United States.
诚然，此非美国所独有之现象。
Yet in America these instincts and proclivities are magnified, attended as they are by a remorseless optimism, an individualistic ethos, a lightly regulated capitalism, a frantic ambition to become richer, healthier or more beautiful, and a suspicion-driven desire to get in on the act: surely others have already gamed the system, so why shouldn't I?
然而，这些本能与倾向在美国得到了放大，与其无情的乐观主义、个人主义精神、监管宽松的资本主义、对变得更富有、更健康或更漂亮的拼命野心，以及一种由怀疑驱动的想参与其中的欲望相伴：别人肯定已经钻了制度的空子，那我为什么不能？
"It has a distinctly Wild West cowboy feel to it," Kang observed.
“这颇有些狂野西部牛仔情境的况味，”康说道。
"People think to themselves, 'Well, if you won't do it, then I'll just go ahead and do it myself.'"
“人们会暗自思忖，‘也罢，倘若你不为之，那我便亲力为之。’”
Tali Sharot, a professor of neuroscience at University College London, points out that the purpose of our holding beliefs is not to construct an accurate representation of the world.
伦敦大学学院神经科学教授塔利·沙罗特指出，我们之所以拥有信念，其目的并非在于建构对世界的精准表征。
She goes on to explain that it is simply "in order to hold beliefs that bring us the greatest rewards and help us avoid harm.
她进而阐明，这不过是“为了拥有能给我们带来最大回报并帮助我们规避伤害的信念。
Sometimes these beliefs are accurate, but sometimes they are not."
有时这些信念是准确的，但有时则不然。”
For instance, she points out, overconfidence may help you win a partner, or else land a job for which you are not actually qualified.
譬如，她指出，过度自信或可助你赢得伴侣，抑或谋得一份你本不具备资格的工作。
And by believing what others in the group believe, people gain a sense of community, support, and belonging.
而通过信奉群体中他人所信奉之物，人们则能获得社区感、支持与归属感。
"If it's a false belief, that's fine," Sharot says.
“倘若这是一种错误信念，那也无妨，”沙罗特如是说。
Although conclusive evidence has already demonstrated that there is no causal link between vaccines and autism, the tenacious adherence to this belief nonetheless furnishes families and their closest kin with an object upon which to pin the blame, and endows them with a sense of belonging — situated as they are within a community of people equally indignant, equally fearful, and equally anguished, mutually sustaining one another and mutually corroborating one another.
尽管确凿证据已然表明疫苗与自闭症之间并无因果关联，然而对这一信念的执守，却为家庭及其至亲提供了一个可供归咎的对象，并赋予他们一种归属感——置身于同样愤懑、同样恐惧、同样痛苦的群体之中，彼此扶持，彼此印证。
Yet hope and belief are sufficient to engender a sense of optimism, fostering the conviction that circumstances may yet take a turn for the better, which in turn can, at least temporarily, redound to the benefit of one's emotional and psychological well-being.
而希冀与信念足以催生一种乐观情绪，使人相信事态或有转圜之余地，这反过来至少能暂时裨益于情绪与心理健康。
"To hold fast to the conviction that your future will surpass your past and your present—even if your future will not in fact be any better," Sharot observes, "may, under many circumstances, prove to be the optimal course of action."
“笃信你的未来将优于你的过往与当下——即便你的未来并不会真的更好，”沙罗特如是说，“在诸多情形下，这或许不失为最优解。”
A lottery ticket is all but guaranteed to leave you financially worse off—it is an utterly deplorable financial decision.
彩票几乎注定会使你蒙受经济损失——这是一项糟糕透顶的财务决策。
People are perfectly well aware of this.
人们对此心知肚明。
Yet they are equally cognizant that a lottery ticket carries with it a glimmer of hope, an opportunity to indulge in reveries of a more prosperous future.
然而他们同样明白，一张彩票承载着一缕希冀，一个得以遐想更为富足未来的契机。
"What you assuredly purchase is nothing more than the pleasure of contemplating it," she says.
“你所笃定购得的，无非是思索它时的那份愉悦，”她说。
"That is what you are guaranteed to receive."
“这是你 guaranteed 能够获得的。”
When it comes to supplements, salves, and technologies that promise highly improbable benefits, our thinking follows the same pattern.
当关乎那些承诺着极不可能兑现之裨益的补充剂、药膏与技术时，我们的思维亦复如是。
On the one hand, they represent a painful waste of hard-earned money, sometimes accompanied by adverse side effects.
一方面，它们是对来之不易的钱财的惨痛挥霍，有时更伴有负面副作用。
On the other hand, "you always get something out of trying," as Sharot puts it—such as a sense of positive anticipation or excitement.
另一方面，“你从尝试中总有所得，”沙罗特如是说，譬如积极的期待或兴奋之感。
Throughout American history, a stark pattern emerges with unmistakable clarity: the moment a hint that something might work pries open the slightest crack in the door, corporations storm straight through, seizing the desperation of the wounded, the weary, or the fearful—and their paychecks along with it.
纵观美国历史，一个清晰的模式赫然浮现：一旦某事物可能奏效的暗示在门上撬开一道缝隙，企业便长驱直入，攫取那些受伤、疲惫或恐惧之人的绝望——以及他们的薪水。
Dr. Benjamin Rush was a practicing physician in Philadelphia and one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence.
本杰明·拉什医生身为费城的一位执业医师，亦为《独立宣言》的签署者之一。
When the yellow fever epidemic was raging in 1793, he was deeply disheartened by his utter inability to save his patients.
1793年黄热病疫情肆虐之际，他因回天乏术而倍感沮丧。
Thereafter, he pored over autopsy reports, which hinted that purging and bloodletting might prove effective.
嗣后，他披阅尸检报告，其中暗示催泻与放血或可奏效。
So he took this to its extreme, administering large doses of calomel and jalap to his patients — a mercury compound combined with a powdered Mexican plant root, the two together forming an exceptionally powerful purgative — while vigorously applying bloodletting as well.
于是他将其推向极致，给病人服用大剂量的甘汞与jalap——一种汞化合物与一种墨西哥植物根粉的混合物，二者合而为极强的泻药——同时积极施以放血疗法。
As one account put it: "So much blood flowed in the front yard that it became foul-smelling and buzzing with flies."
据一份记载所云：“前院流淌了太多血液，以至于那里变得恶臭并嗡嗡飞着苍蝇。”
Charles Stanley's snake oil was utterly spurious: in 1916 the United States Bureau of Chemistry determined that its composition consisted chiefly of mineral oil, along with "fatty oil (possibly beef tallow), capsicum, and possibly traces of camphor or turpentine."
查尔斯·斯坦利的蛇油纯属伪劣之品——1916年美国化学局查明，其成分以矿物油为主，另含“脂肪油（或为牛脂）、辣椒，以及可能微量的樟脑或松节油”。
Yet the notion itself actually originated with Chinese labourers, and the oil they used — extracted from one highly specific species of snake — may indeed have possessed a certain anti-inflammatory efficacy.
然而，此一构想实源自中国劳工，彼等所用之油——取自某一极为特定的蛇种——或许确具若干抗炎之效。
Meanwhile, companies swoop in.
与此同时，公司便猛扑上来。
"The terrible thing is that they seize upon that hope, try to bottle it, and then sell it back to you at whatever price they reckon you can bear," Kang said.
“可怕之处在于，他们会攫取那份希望，试图将其封入瓶中，再以他们认定你所能承受的任何价格兜售给你，”康说道。
Countless supplements and unapproved "treatments" have their origins in the faintest hints of potential benefit suggested by animal experiments or small observational studies — research that is fundamentally incapable of establishing causation.
无数补充剂与未经批准的“治疗”皆源于动物实验或小型观察性研究中所示潜在获益的蛛丝马迹，而此类研究根本无从确立因果关系。
As things stand today, some of those devoted to prolonging life have pinned their hopes on rapamycin — a drug administered to organ transplant recipients — which has been shown to extend the lifespan of yeast, flies, and mice.
时至今日，一些矢志于延年益寿者已将希冀寄予雷帕霉素——一种供器官移植患者使用的药物，它曾延长酵母、苍蝇与小鼠的寿命。
Several remarkably successful drugs—insulin and the weight-loss medications Wegovy and Zepbound among them—are peptides, that is, short chains of amino acids capable of folding into a myriad of configurations.
若干成就斐然的药物——诸如胰岛素以及减肥药物Wegovy与Zepbound——皆属肽类，即能够折叠为无数构型的短氨基酸链。
This has spawned an entire industry peddling other peptides—largely unproven and untested—that are purported to promote muscle growth, hasten recovery, and combat ageing.
此举催生了一整个产业，其推销的是其他肽类——大多未经证实与检验——据称可促进肌肉生长、加速恢复并对抗衰老。
Does this sound at all familiar?
听起来是否似曾相识？
Admittedly, science, technology, and this country's ruthlessly efficient economic engine have already spawned countless genuine miracles and enduring anecdotes; and all of this, in turn, has loosened the soil for credulity.
诚然，科学、技术以及这个国家那冷酷无情的经济引擎，已然催生出无数名副其实的奇迹与历久弥新的轶事；而这一切，反过来又为轻信之心松软了土壤。
We are able, within a matter of hours, to traverse the entire country in metallic flying tubes.
我们得以在数小时之内，搭乘金属质地的飞行管道横贯全国。
We are able, by means of a small slab of metal and glass, to seize hold of virtually the entirety of human knowledge.
我们得以凭借一小块金属与玻璃，攫取几乎全部人类知识。
Advances in medicine, vaccination above all—once a radical notion—have all but eradicated the pediatric diseases that, at the nation's founding, carried off as many as half of all children before their fifth year.
医学的进步，尤其是疫苗接种——这一度曾是一个激进的概念——已近乎根除建国之初致使多达半数儿童于五岁前夭折的儿科疾病。
An American born in 1900 could expect to live perhaps a mere 47 years.
1900年出生的美国人，其预期寿命或许仅为47岁。
Today, life expectancy in the United States has reached 79 years, the highest level ever recorded.
如今，美国的预期寿命已达79岁，为有史以来最高水平。
And who is to say it will not double once more?
谁又能断言它不会再度翻倍？
And why should there be any ceiling at all?
又何以应当存在任何上限？
Kang points out that we may now be more susceptible to influence than at any other time in history.
康指出，我们当下或许比历史上任何时期都更易受到左右。
We are surrounded by an ever-proliferating array of seductive pitches, all because the devices in our pockets ceaselessly push forth those hawkers—euphemistically dubbed "influencers"—peddling every manner of "remedy" and other shortcuts, shadowing our 250-year pursuit of happiness every step of the way.
我们被愈发层出不穷的诱人说辞所环绕，皆因口袋中的设备源源不断地推送那些叫卖者——委婉地称之为“影响者”——兜售形形色色的“疗法”及其他捷径，与我们250年来追寻幸福的历程如影随形。
Social media is exceptionally adept at mimicking the very kind of information that scientists have revealed our brains are most inclined to accept: direct, personalized appeals emanating from individuals who appear credible and who claim to speak from firsthand experience.
社交媒体极为擅长仿效科学家所揭示的、我们大脑最易采信的那类信息：源自看似可信、且自称有亲身经历者的直接而个人化的诉求。
And in the United States, when confronted with a healthcare system that is expensive, dehumanizing, and so absurd as to be unmanageable, it may prove a particularly alluring alternative.
而在美国，面对昂贵、非人性化且荒诞到令人难以驾驭的医疗体系，它或许尤其构成一种颇具吸引力的替代之选。
Even the nation's foremost health official, Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has endorsed or lent his support to purveyors and promoters of unproven remedies and wellness products — among them the exaltation of vitamin A as a treatment for measles, along with the likes of peptides and raw milk.
甚至美国最高卫生官员、卫生部长小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪亦对宣扬或经销未经证实之疗法与保健产品者予以推崇或声援，其中包括将维生素A奉为麻疹疗法，以及肽与生牛奶之流。
"The guardrails have now vanished entirely," Kang said.
“护栏如今已然荡然无存，”康说道。
"The reality is, if anything, worse than ever before, and the reason for that lies in social media, in the content circulating on the internet, and in the fact that those supposedly trustworthy figures from whom we ought to be seeking advice are, in truth, anything but trustworthy.
“实际情况较之以往可谓有过之而无不及，究其原因，在于社交媒体，在于互联网上的内容，亦在于那些我们本应从中获取建议的所谓可信人士实则并不可信。
In my view, this has plunged the American public into an even graver predicament of peril."
我认为，这致使美国公众陷入了更为严峻的危险境地。”
George C. Parker, that consummate American swindler who time and again put the Brooklyn Bridge up for sale, would surely nod in delighted approval at such a spectacle; and he, for his part, would toss in a bargain for you while he was at it.
那位曾屡次将布鲁克林大桥挂牌出售的旷世美国巨骗乔治·C·帕克，定会对此等景象欣然颔首；而他，还会顺手予你一桩交易。
Jonathan Fay is Reporters' global health and science editor.
乔纳森·法伊系Reporters全球健康与科学编辑。
Reporters' health and science coverage receives financial support from the Journalists' News Fund and private foundations.
Reporters的健康与科学报道接受记者新闻基金及私人基金会的财务资助。
The Associated Press bears sole responsibility for all content.
美联社对全部内容承担全权责任。
For the AP's standards governing collaborations with philanthropic organizations, a list of supporters, and the coverage areas that receive funding, please consult AP.org.
有关美联社与慈善机构合作的标准、支持者名录及受资助报道领域，请查阅AP.org。
