有聲英文閱讀-并不能因?yàn)闆]有傷害到任何人，你就可以干壞事

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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.

并不能因?yàn)闆]有傷害到任何人，你就可以干壞事

你認(rèn)為在我們的社會(huì)里哪些人會(huì)觸犯法律？如果你認(rèn)為只有暴徒才會(huì)犯罪，那你可能就必須重新考慮考慮了。老老實(shí)實(shí)地回答下列問題：你所認(rèn)識(shí)的人中有沒有人曾經(jīng)有酒后開車的行為？你能否想起來，你有個(gè)朋友曾經(jīng)使用過毒品？你有沒有覺察到你父母在過海關(guān)時(shí)很可能并不總是講老實(shí)話的？難道你的朋友沒有人曾經(jīng)把激光唱碟CD上的內(nèi)容替另外一個(gè)人轉(zhuǎn)錄到錄音帶上？
假如你過去不懂，那么現(xiàn)在你應(yīng)該知道，這一切做法都是違法的。那么，現(xiàn)在看看在你所認(rèn)識(shí)的人中，有多少人根本從嚴(yán)就沒犯過法？那么，這是否意味著把我們這個(gè)社會(huì)的絕大多數(shù)成員都該關(guān)押起來？跟電影片子里的情況不同，我們不能把世人簡單地分成壞蛋和好人。真實(shí)的生活要復(fù)雜得多。人生病，有的是普普通通的著涼，也有形形色色致使的癌癥，罪行同樣也會(huì)有嚴(yán)重程度上的不同。例如，在電梯里抽煙會(huì)使人感到討厭，但總比用槍來威脅他人要輕得多。
人們除了自己會(huì)犯法，一般也能容忍程度不同的罪行。人們?yōu)槭裁磿?huì)容忍某些罪行呢？這可能是因?yàn)榭纯雌渌烁闪四臣?，我們就輕易接受。我們自己甚至?xí)_始犯那種罪行。例如，在公路上大家都超速行駛時(shí)，大多數(shù)人都會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)自己也比較容易超速行駛。當(dāng)人們在慶賀某項(xiàng)體育冠軍時(shí)，如果他們看見某人正在砸爛商店的櫥窗，也許他們自己也會(huì)開始動(dòng)手去砸櫥窗，甚至?xí)纳痰昀锿禆|西。所以我們周圍的人會(huì)影響到我們對違法行為的容忍程度。
我們也可能會(huì)懷疑，是否因?yàn)槲覀兠刻於伎吹诫娨暽系谋┝雒?，每天都讀報(bào)報(bào)紙上的暴力新聞，這一切都使得我們對本來不應(yīng)容忍的犯罪行為變得更加能夠容忍了?？吹诫娨曅侣勚械难葓雒婊蚩吹綀?bào)刊上的五顏六色的血腥圖片，我們現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)習(xí)以為常了。因?yàn)槲覀冊陔娨暽峡吹搅顺汕先f的死人，也許我們就不大理會(huì)在這些暴行場面背后的情況了。
如果有非常多的市民能容忍暴力和犯罪行為，甚至這些市民自己就在搞犯罪活動(dòng)，這很可能只是因?yàn)槿说乃枷朐谧鞴?。我們思想對某些具體的法律條文可能不夠重視，代替這些法律條文的是我們思想中有一套自己的是非價(jià)值觀念。這些觀念使我們不能為了改善自己的生活而去傷害他人。然而，當(dāng)涉及到尊重眾多的無名小輩的權(quán)利時(shí)，我們很可能就不那么認(rèn)真負(fù)責(zé)地對待這些問題了。盡管絕大多數(shù)人不會(huì)去偷竊里面裝有50美元的一個(gè)男用皮錢包，但是他們很可能在交稅方面有欺騙行為，偷稅漏稅。因?yàn)橥刀惵┒惒粫?huì)傷害任何一個(gè)具體的人。偷稅漏稅傷害到社會(huì)，不過"社會(huì)"仍然是個(gè)抽象概念，社會(huì)并不像某位鄰居或某朋友的朋友那樣具體的人。也許這就是之所以一個(gè)人從街拐角的一家商店里搶劫力三兩美元，其后果常常要比詐騙了數(shù)千美元的冒牌藝術(shù)家蹲監(jiān)獄的刑期還長的原因：用武力來威脅任何一個(gè)人的生命在我們的社會(huì)里都是根本不能允許的。
當(dāng)我們看了本文第一段中的幾個(gè)問題并且我們意識(shí)到了許多人對犯法這一概念有錯(cuò)誤的理解之后，加拿大人只有百分之十的人有過前科，這一點(diǎn)非常令人吃驚。我們怎樣和能讓我們的社會(huì)中的人變得更加誠實(shí)呢？擴(kuò)大警力的隊(duì)伍會(huì)讓每個(gè)人都誠實(shí)嗎？嚴(yán)厲的法律有助至高無上我們把社會(huì)搞得更好一些嗎？未必會(huì)吧。警察們永遠(yuǎn)也不會(huì)用眼睛盯著每一個(gè)人，人們總會(huì)找出種種辦法去曲解新頒布的法律條文。誠實(shí)將不得不來自社會(huì)上的壓力：在家里，在學(xué)校，在工作崗位上，我們每個(gè)人以及我們?nèi)w都要鼓勵(lì)誠實(shí)的言行。要表明哪些行為是人們所不能接受的。教會(huì)人們尊重別人也教會(huì)人們自我尊重，應(yīng)該成為每個(gè)人的職責(zé)。