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20-A. You Can’t Do It Because It Hurts Nobody
Who do you think breaks the law in our society? If you believe that only tough guys commit crimes, you may have to think again. Answer the following questions honestly, Has anyone you know ever driven drunk? Can you think of a friend who has used drugs? Are you aware that your parents may not always tell the truth when they go through customs? Won't some of your friends admit that they have stolen an item from a store? Have any of your friends ever copied a CD onto a tape for someone else?
In case you did not know, all of these acts are against the law. Now, among the people you know, how many have never broken the law? Does that mean that most members of our society should go to jail? Unlike in the movies, we can’t divide the world into bad guys and model citizens. Real life is much more complex. In the same way that diseases range from the common cold to fatal forms of cancer, crimes vary in degree. For example, smoking in an elevator will inconvenience people, but much less than threatening them with a gun.
In addition to breaking the law themselves, people tolerate various levels of crime. Why are we tolerant of some crimes? It may be that, by seeing others do something, we accept it more easily. We may even start committing that crime ourselves. For instance, most people will find it easier to speed on a highway when everybody else is driving over the speed limit. When people celebrate a sports championship, if they see someone breaking store windows, they might start breaking windows themselves or even steal from the store. So the people around us influence how much law-breaking we can tolerate.
We must also wonder whether seeing violence on television or reading about it in the newspapers every day makes us tolerate crime more than we should. We become used to seeing blood on the news on television, or in full color in newspapers and magazines. Because we see thousands of dead people on TV, maybe we just try to ignore the situation behind the violence.
If so many citizens tolerate violence and crime, or even commit crimes themselves, it may simply be because of the human mind. Our minds may not care about specific laws. Instead, our minds may have a system of values that usually prevents us from hurting other people to improve our own lives. Yet, when it comes to respecting the rights of a mass of anonymous individuals, we might not be so responsible. While most people would not steal a wallet containing $50, they may not mind cheating on taxes, because cheating on taxes does not hurt any one person. It hurts society, but "society" remains an abstract idea that is not as real as a neighbor or a friend's friend. Perhaps this is why someone who robs a few dollars by force from a corner store will often end up with a longer jail term than a fraud artist who swindles thousands of dollars: threatening the life of an individual is not acceptable in our society.
When we look at the questions in the first paragraph and realize that many people have misconceptions about law-breaking, we could think it is surprising that only about 10% of Canadians have a criminal record. How could we improve the level of honesty in our society? Would a larger police force keep everyone honest? Would severe laws help make our society better? Probably not. The police would never be able to keep an eye on everyone, and people would still find ways to bend new laws. Honesty will have to come from social pressure: in the family, at school, on the job, each and every one of us can encourage honesty by showing which behaviors are unacceptable. Teaching respect should become everyone’s responsibility.
【课文译文】
这没有伤害谁，但你不能这么做
在我们的社会里，你认为谁会触犯法律?假如你认为只有粗野的家伙才会犯罪，你可能需要再考虑一下。请如实回答下面的问题：你认识的人中有没有酒醉后驾车的?你能想起一个吸过毒的朋友吗?你有没有意识到你的父母在通过海关时说的不都是实话呢?你的一些朋友是不是不承认他们曾经从商店里偷过东西呢?你的朋友中有没有为别人把激光唱盘复制到磁带上的呢?
如果你以前不知道，那么现在该知道所有这些行为都是违法的。现在看看在你认识的人中，还有多少人没有违过法?这是不是意味着我们这个社会的大多数人都应该去蹲监狱呢?我们不能像电影上讲的那样把世上的人分成坏人和好人两类。现实生活要复杂得多。从普通的感冒到各种致命的癌症，疾病有轻有重，违法犯罪也同样有轻重之分。例如，在电梯里吸烟将给人们带来害处，但比起用枪威胁他们来说，危害毕竟小得多。
人们不仅自己违法，还容忍不同程度的犯罪。为什么我们能容忍一些犯罪呢?也许是我们看到别人做某件事情时，比较容易接受，我们自己甚至也可能照着样子犯罪了。例如，多数人看到别人超速驾驶，自己也很容易跟着学。当人们为一个体育冠军欢庆时，如果看到有人砸商店的橱窗，那么他们自己也可能动手砸，甚至还偷商店的东西。所以，我们周围的人会影响我们对犯罪的容忍度。
我们也一定想知道，是否因为我们每天从电视上或者报纸上看到暴力事件而加大了我们对犯罪的容忍度呢?电视新闻里或者报刊上的血淋淋的画面我们都已是司空见惯了；我们在电视上见过成千上万的死人，也许我们就容易忽视暴力环境。
如此众多的公民容忍暴力和犯罪，甚至自己也犯罪，其原因简单说就是人类心理。我们内心可能对具体的法律并不注意；我们内心有一套价值观念，阻止我们不为谋私利而害人。但当涉及到尊重众多不知姓名的个人时，我们也许就不会那么负责了。尽管大多数人不会偷装有50美元的钱包，但他们可能并不在乎偷税漏税，因为偷税漏税并不伤害具体的某一个人。它是损害社会，但“社会”是一个非常抽象的概念，它不像一个邻居或一个朋友的朋友那样具体。为什么一个人在街角商店里用暴力抢劫了几元钱，结果在监狱里蹲的时间比一个诈骗了成千上万美元的冒牌艺术家长得多呢?原因也许就在于：威胁一个人的生命在我们的社会里是让人无法接受的。
当看了本文开头一段的几个问题，认识到许多人对违法持有错误观念后，大家会觉得加拿大只有10%的人有犯罪记录是令人惊讶的。怎样才能提高我们社会的诚实度呢?增大警察队伍就能使每一个人诚实吗?严厉的法律是否有益于社会呢?未必吧。警察不能永远盯着每个人，人们会想办法钻新法律的空子。诚实还得来自社会的压力：在家庭、在学校、在工作中，我们每一个人可以通过自身言行说明哪些行为是不允许的，以此鼓励人们诚实。教人尊重别人和自己是每个人的责任。