信 任

这的确是件大好事，因为我们的 整个社会体系依赖于人们的相互信 任，而不是相互猜疑。如果我们总 是互不信任，我们享有其利益的整 个社会体系就会解体。在意大利， 政府很难收到税款，因为很多人明 目张胆地不缴所得税。
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.
我讨厌看到关于银行工作人员为 骗取顾客的存款而篡改帐目的报道， 因为我信任银行。我并不喜欢银行， 但我信任银行。我不会总去银行让 工作人员把我的存款拿出来看看， 以弄清他们是否还拿得出这笔款。
It’s the same buying a can of coffee or a quart of milk. You don‘t take the coffee home and weigh it to make sure it’s a pound. There isn’t time in life to distrust every person you meet or every company you do business with. I hated the company that started selling beer in eleven-ounce bottles years ago. One of the million things we take on trust is that a beer bottle contains twelve ounces.
At one point along an open highway , I came to a crossroads with a traffic light, I was alone on the road by now, but as I approached the light, it turned red and I braked to a halt. I looked left, right and behind me. Nothing. Not a car, no suggestion of headlights, but there I sat, waiting for the light to change, the only human being for at least a mile in any direction.
我正驾车行驶在一条畅通的公路上， 前面出现一个有交通指示灯的十字路口。 当时公路上就我一人。我的车刚驶进路 口，红灯就亮了，我赶紧刹住了车。我 环顾四周，什么也没看到，没有一辆汽 车，连车灯的影子也没有。尽管如此， 我还是端坐着，等待指示灯的转换。至 少在一英里范围内，就我一人。
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.
而且我们相信人人都会遵守这一 协议：我们不闯红灯。和大多数 人一样，我之所以不去做坏事， 主要是依据不赞成这种行为的社 会惯例，而不是依据任何禁止做 坏事的法律。
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 mis- trust someone or to be suspicious or skeptical. Those attitudes don’t come naturally to us.
I hate to see a story about a bank swindler who has jiggered the books to his own advantage, because I trust banks. I don’t like them, but I trust them. I don’t go in and demand that they show me my money all the time just to make sure they still have it.
我们大家一向彼此信任，相信彼此都会 做社会公德所倡导的事情，着实令人惊 奇，是不是？然而我们的确是这样做的。 信任是我们固有的心理倾向。当我们对 某人表示不信任，或对某件事情持怀疑 态度时，我们往往深思熟虑后才能做出 决定。这种不信任感并不是自然而然产 生的。
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 don’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 plain don’t pay their income tax.
昨晚，我驱车从宾夕法尼亚州的哈里 斯堡赶往刘易斯堡，其间约有80英里的 路程。天色不早，我动身又晚，要是有 人问我车开得有多快，我就得根据《美 国宪法修正案》第五条不予回答，以免 自陷法网。在狭窄的公路上，我的车
几次被慢慢爬行的货车挡在后面， 左侧是一条严禁超越的白色实线， 急得我把拳头握得紧紧的。
买一听咖啡或一夸脱牛奶也一样，你 并不总是把咖啡拿回家后称一下，看它 够不够一磅。在生活中你没有时间去怀 疑每一个人，或与之做生意的每一家公 司。几年前，有一家公司开始出售只有 11盎司的瓶装啤酒，我对这家公司非常 厌恶，因为我们对无数事情都深信不疑， 其中之一就是每瓶啤酒应装12盎司。
It’s interesting to look around and at people and compare their faith or lack of faith in other people with their success or lack of success in life. The patsies, the suckers, the people who always assume everyone else is as honest as they are, make out better in the long run than the people who distrust everyone—and they’re a lot happier even if they get taken once in a while.
Trust
Andy Rooney
信
任
安迪·鲁尼
Last night I was driving from Harrisburg to Lewisburg, Pa., a distance of about eighty miles. It was late, I was late and if anyone asked me how fast I was driving, I’d have to plead the Fifth Amendment to avoid selfincrimination. Several times I got stuck behind a slow-moving truck on a narrow road with a solid white line on my left, and I was clinching my fists with impatience.
当晚在刘易斯堡如约会见一些人， 在快到半夜上床以后，自己不肯闯 红灯这个问题，又回到我的脑际。 我想我之所以遇红灯而停车，是因 为我们彼此之间契约的一部分。它 既是法律的规定，又是我们共同的 协议。
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.
在美国，国内税务局也表示要执行 法律，但政府主要还得靠信任，相 信公民会依法纳税。人们常常谈到 国内的抗税事件，最近在密执安州 失业汽车工人中间，也在议论着抗 税。我们的政府几乎承认，如果这 里普遍抗税，政府就会束手无策。
We do what we say we’ll do; we’ll show up; we deliver when we say we’ll deliver; and we pay when we say we’ll pay. We trust each other in these matters, and when we don’t do what we’ve promised, it’s a deviation from the normal. It happens often that we don’t act in good faith and in a trustworthy manner, but we still consider it unusual, and we’re angry or disappointed with the person or organization that violates the trust we have in them. (I’m looking for something good to say about mankind today.)