A Red Light for Scofflaws译文
2013成人高考-前台岗位职责
A Red Light for Scofflaws
By Frank
Trippett
[1]Law-and-order is the longest-
running and probably the best-loved political
issue in U.S.
history. Yet it is painfully
apparent 2 that millions of Americans who would
never think of
themselves as lawbreakers, let
alone criminals, are taking increasing liberties
with the legal codes
that are designed to
protect and nourish their society. 3 Indeed, there
are moments today — amid
outlaw litter, tax
cheating, illicit noise and motorized anarchy —
when it seems as though the
scofflaw
represents the wave of the future. 4 Harvard
Sociologist David Riesman suspects that a
majority of Americans have blithely taken to
committing supposedly minor derelictions as a
matter of course. Already, Riesman says, the
ethic of U.S. society is in danger of becoming
this:
“You're a fool if you obey the rules.”
[2]Nothing could be more obvious than the
evidence supporting Riesman. Scofflaws abound in
amazing variety. 5 The graffiti-prone turn
public surfaces into visual rubbish. Bicyclists
often
ride as though two-wheeled vehicles are
exempt from all traffic laws. 6 Litterbugs convert
their
communities into trash dumps. Widespread
flurries of ordinances have failed to clear public
places of high-decibel portable radios, just
as earlier laws failed to wipe out the beer-soaked
hooliganism that plagues many parks. 7 Tobacco
addicts remain hopelessly blind to signs that say
NO SMOKING. Respectably dressed pot smokers no
longer bother to duck out of public sight to
pass around a joint. The flagrant use of
cocaine is a festering scandal in middle and
upper-class
life. And then there are (hello,
everybody! ) 8 the jaywalkers.
[3]The
dangers of scofflawry vary widely. The person who
illegally spits on the sidewalk
remains
disgusting, but clearly poses less risk to others
than the company that illegally buries
hazardous chemical waste in an unauthorized
location. The fare beater on the subway presents
less threat to life than the landlord who
ignores fire safety statutes. 9 The most
immediately and
measurably dangerous
scofflawry, however, also happens to be the most
visible. The culprit is
the American driver,
whose lawless activities today add up to a
colossal public nuisance. 10 The
hazards range
from routine double parking 11 that jams city
streets to the drunk driving that kills
some
25,000 people and injures at least 650,000 others
yearly. 12 Illegal speeding on open
highways?
New surveys show that on some interstate highways
83% of all drivers are currently
ignoring the
federal 55 m .p.h. speed limit.
1
[4]The most flagrant scofflaw of them
all is the red-light runner. The flouting of stop
signals has
got so bad in Boston that
residents tell an anecdote about a cabby who
insists that red lights are
“ just for
decoration ” .The power of the stoplight to
control traffic seems to be waning
everywhere.
In Los Angeles , red-light running has become
perhaps the city's most common
traffic
violation. In New York City , going through an
intersection is like Russian roulette.
Admits
Police Commissioner Robert J. Mc Guire: “ Today
it's a 50-50 tossup as to whether
people will
stop for a red light. ” Meanwhile, his own police
largely ignore the lawbreaking.
[5]Red-light
running has always been ranked as a minor wrong,
and so it may be in individual
instances. 13
When the violation becomes habitual, widespread
and incessant, however, a great
deal more than
a traffic management problem is involved. The
flouting of basic rules of the road
leaves
deep dents in the social mood. Innocent drivers
and pedestrians pay a repetitious price in
frustration, inconvenience and outrage, not to
mention a justified sense of mortal peril. The
significance of red-light running is magnified
by its high visibility. If hypocrisy is the
tribute that
vice pays to virtue, then
furtiveness is the true outlaw's salute to the
force of law-and-order. The
red-light runner,
however, shows no respect whatever for the social
rules, and society cannot help
being harmed by
any repetitious and brazen display of contempt for
the fundamentals of order.
对违反法律者亮红灯 弗兰克〃特立皮德
[1] 法律和秩序是美国历史上持续时间最长的、也可能是政治上最热门的话题。然而，显然令人烦<
br>恼的是，数以百万计的美国人尽管从没有认为自己会违反法律，更不用说会成为罪犯了，却正在
越
来越随便地对待那些专为保护与造福他们的社会所制定的法规。当然，现今确实有些时候似乎
无视法律代
表了未来的潮流。哈佛大学的社会学家大卫〃莱斯曼怀疑，大多数美国人喜欢犯那种
他们认为是无关紧要
的玩忽职守的错误。莱斯曼说，美国社会的伦理道德已经处于这样的 危险之
中，即
“如果你遵纪守法，你就是个傻瓜”。
[2] 支持莱斯曼观点的证据是再明显不过的。违法乱纪者
屡见不鲜、无奇不有，达到了惊人的程度。
墙上的乱涂乱画把公共场所的外观糟蹋得不堪入目。骑自行车
的人横冲直撞，似乎两个车轮的交
通工具可以不受任何交通法规的束缚。乱丢垃圾的人把他们的生活区域
变成了垃圾场。正如以前
的法令未能扫除危害公园的满身酒气的流氓阿飞一样，广泛宣传的法规也未能消
除公共场所的高
分贝便携式收音机。吸烟成瘾的人们对“不准吸烟”的告示牌熟视无睹。衣冠楚楚的吸
大麻的人
再也不像从前那样躲开公众的视线偷偷摸摸地传递带大麻的香烟了。在中上层人士中毫无顾忌地
使用可卡因已成为令人烦恼的丑闻。而且，(好家伙，人数真不少啊!）还有随意横穿马路的人
2
呢。 [3] 违法行为的危害差别极大。在人行道上随地吐痰
当然令人厌恶，但是很明显，比起那些违
法地在未经许可的地区掩埋危险化学废料的公司对他人造成的危
害要小得多。忽视防火安全法规
的房主对人生命的危害当然要比在地铁逃票的人大得多。然而，最直接和
最引人注目的违法行为
恰恰就是最常见的一种社会现象。首当其冲者就是美国的司机们。今天，他们无法
无天的行为给
公众造成了极大的灾难。其危害既有日常多见的造成城市街道堵塞的并排违章停车，也有司
机 酒
后开车造成的每年死亡大约25 000 人，伤残至少650 000
人。那么高速公路上的违章超速行驶呢？
最新调查显示，在一些州际公路上83%
的司机现在根本无视联邦法定的每小时55 英里的时速限
制。 [4] 所有违章行为中最厚颜无耻的
要数闯红灯了。在波士顿，人们对这种停止通行的信号的藐
视已经到了这样的程度，以至在当地人中竟然
流传着这种笑话：一名出租汽车司机居然坚持说，
红灯信号仅仅起装饰作用。禁止通行的红灯控制交通的
效力在各地都在削弱。在洛杉矶，闯红灯
似乎已经成为最常见的违反交通法规的行为。在纽约，过十字路
口就像俄国轮盘赌一样。警察局
局长罗伯特〃 杰〃 麦克盖尔承认：“
现在人们在红灯面前是否停下来是50% 对50% 的抛硬币的
概率。”
同时，他自己属下的警察们也大都对这种违章行为熟视无睹。
[5] 闯红灯一直被认为是微不足道
的小错，所以这可能是个人的小事。但是当这种违章行为成为习
惯性的、广泛的和没完没了的时候，那么
所涉及的问题就远远不仅是一个交通管理的问题了。这
种对道路基本交通法规的无视极大地危害了社会风
气。无辜的司机和行人们一而再、再而三地为
所遭受的挫折、不便和伤害而付出很大代价，更不用说他们
无法摆脱不安全感了。闯红灯之所以
成为重大问题，就是因为这种现象比比皆是。如果说虚伪是邪恶向美
德呈献的赞美，那么 偷偷摸
摸就是违法者向法律和秩序的威力所表示的衷心的敬意了。然而，闯红灯的
人却连这点对社会法
规的起码的尊重也没有，而这种一再厚颜无耻地蔑视秩序的基本准则不能不极大地危
害社
会。 [6] 这种无视法律的风气无处不在。所以当有些学校发现，孩子们入学时经常连最起码的
集体
生活规则都不懂时，就不足为奇了(有些学校的确是这样认为)。尽管无视法律的人各种各样，但是
他们都是社会基本道德败坏症候的一种表现——一个人失去了为了他人的利益而约束自己的能
力
。
[7] 美国人习惯于认为，固定形式的暴力犯罪是对法律和秩序的主要威胁。然而，却正是由于
普通
的遵纪守法的公民设法钻法律的空子才真正动摇了美国法律的基础。主要例子：禁酒令。唐纳德〃<
br>巴〃契德斯在《戒酒与否》一书中回忆道：“违法事实上是不痛苦的，甚至都没有令人不舒服的
感
觉，反而以一种柔和的、完全安全的方式令人欢喜。”人们终于废除了禁酒令，不仅是因为酒
的问题，而
且因为违法行为严重地损害了政府的威信和合法地位。具有讽刺意味的是，不管今天
这种无视法律的风气
源于何处，它却受到各级政府官员的无可奈何的鼓励。警察未能强制实行某
3
些法律仅仅是问题的表面，他们只不过是从他们为之服务的官员和选民那里接受命令。更糟糕
的
是，大多数的州立法机构在公众遵守联邦法律规定的车速不得超过每小时 55 英里的规定时却帮了
倒忙，其中一些州甚至擅自规定超速仅处以很少的罚款以使大事化小。更高一级的华盛顿政府则
用反对（而不是支持）某些已成为法律条文的取消种族隔离的规定的办法，来实现其取消民权法
律的效力
的愿望，这真是令人啼笑皆非。据《荒原》杂志报导， 环保组织以相当正当的理由指责
当局破坏环境保
护法，因为它未能推行该法规，或是虽然推行但却故意怂恿人们违反法规。这解
释为：最高一级的违法行
为。
[8] 无视法律之风最令人不安之处在于它的极端传染性。只有最愚蠢的社会
才会坐视不管、任其蔓延。
4