評(píng)論
打印
Is everyone reasonably sane? No. Some people will always become drug addicts just as some people will always become alcoholics, and it is just too bad. Every man, however, has the power (and should have the legal right) to kill himself if he chooses. But since most men don't, they won't be mainliners either. Nevertheless, forbidding people things they like or think they might enjoy only makes them want those things all the more. This psychological insight is, for some mysterious reason, always denied our governors.
每個(gè)人都能做到理智且清醒嗎？不。就像有些人總要成為嗜酒者一樣，有些人總會(huì)成為癮君子的，這很可悲。但每個(gè)人都可以（應(yīng)該擁有這種法定權(quán)利）結(jié)束自己的生命，假如他愿意這樣做。不過(guò)，既然多數(shù)人不會(huì)選擇這樣做，他們也絕不會(huì)成為靜脈注射吸毒者。可是，禁止人們?nèi)プ鏊麄兿矚g做或者認(rèn)為他們可能喜歡做的事情，只能使他們更加熱衷于這些事情。出于某些神秘的原因，我們的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者們似乎總是否認(rèn)心理學(xué)給我們提供的這種啟示。
It is a lucky thing for the American moralist that we have no public memory of anything that happened last Tuesday. No one in Washington today recalls what happened during the years alcohol was forbidden to the people by a Congress that thought it had a divine mission to stamp out Demon Rum—launching, in the process, the greatest crime wave in the country's history, causing thousands of deaths from bad alcohol, and creating a general (and persisting) contempt among the citizenry for laws of the United States.
對(duì)于美國(guó)道德學(xué)家來(lái)說(shuō)，值得慶幸的是，我們的公眾連上星期二發(fā)生的事情都不記得了。如今，在華盛頓，沒(méi)有人還會(huì)記得國(guó)會(huì)頒布禁酒令的年代所發(fā)生的事情了。當(dāng)時(shí)國(guó)會(huì)認(rèn)為自己肩負(fù)著鏟除“惡魔”朗姆酒的神圣使命。但在禁酒過(guò)程中，引發(fā)了這個(gè)國(guó)家歷史上空前的犯罪浪潮，幾千人死于劣質(zhì)酒，公眾由此普遍（而且持續(xù)很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間）鄙視美國(guó)法律。
The same thing is happening today. But the government has learned nothing from past attempts at prohibition.
類(lèi)似的情形如今還在發(fā)生，不過(guò)政府并沒(méi)有從過(guò)去的禁酒嘗試中吸取任何教訓(xùn)。
Last year when the supply of marijuana was slightly reduced by the Feds, the pushers got the kids hooked on heroin and deaths increased dramatically. Whose fault? I think the Government of the United States was responsible for those deaths.
去年，聯(lián)邦調(diào)查局對(duì)大麻的供給稍加限制，毒販便誘使小孩子們迷上海洛因，死亡人數(shù)因而急劇上升。這是誰(shuí)的過(guò)錯(cuò)？我認(rèn)為，美國(guó)政府應(yīng)該對(duì)這些人的死亡負(fù)責(zé)。
