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I started wondering why I refused to run the light. I was not afraid of being arrested, because there was obviously no cop around, and there certainly would have been no danger in going through it.
我开始琢磨起自己为什么不肯闯红灯这个问题来。我并不是害怕被抓住，因为周围根本没有警察，即使闯红灯也不会有什么危险。
Much later that night, after I'd met with a group in Lewisburg and had climbed into bed near midnight, the question of why I'd stopped for that light came back to me. I think I stopped because it's part of a contract we all have with each other. It's not only the law, but it's an agreement we have, and we trust each other to honor it: we don't go through red lights. Like most of us, I'm more apt to be restrained from doing something bad by the social convention that disapproves of it than by any law against it.
当晚在刘易斯堡会见了不少人，半夜时分我才上床，自己为什么不肯闯红灯的问题又一次回到我的脑海中。我想我之所以停车，是因为这是我们大家彼此之间契约的一部分，不仅是法律，也是我们的协议，而且我们相信人人都会遵守这一协议：我们不闯红灯。跟绝大多数人一样，我之所以不做坏事,主要是因为做坏事为社会习俗所不容，而不是害怕哪条法规。
It's amazing that we ever trust each other to do the right thing, isn't it? And we do, too. Trust is our first inclination. We have to make a deliberate decision to mistrust someone or to be suspicious or skeptical. Those attitudes don't come naturally to us.
我们竟然相信彼此会做正确的事情，这着实令人惊奇，不是吗？而我们也确实会做正确的事情。信任是我们的第一心理取向。怀疑某人或对某事起疑心，我们要有意为之。猜忌与怀疑并不是我们的本能反应。
It's a damn good thing too, because the whole structure of our society depends on mutual trust, not distrust. This whole thing we have going for us would fall apart if we didn't trust each other most of the time. In Italy, they have an awful time getting any money for the government, because many people just simply don't pay their income tax. Here the Internal Revenue Service makes some gestures toward enforcing the law, but mostly they just have to trust that we'll pay what we owe. There has often been talk of a tax revolt in this country, most recently among unemployed auto workers in Michigan, and our government pretty much admits if there was a widespread tax revolt here, they wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
这的确令人非常欣慰，因为我们的整个社会体系依赖于人们的相互信任，而不是猜疑。如果我们在大部分时间里不能相互信任，那么我们享有其利益的整个社会体系就会分崩离析。在意大利，政府很难收到税款，因为很多人公然不缴所得税。在美国，国内税务局也做出姿态说要执行法律，但政府主要还得靠信任，相信公民会依法纳税。在美国时常听到有人扬言要抗税，最近的例子是密歇根州的一些失业汽车工人。我们的政府也基本承认，如果“抗税”蔓延开来，政府将束手无策。
