Anarchy in the UK 英国的乱局 SHAME was the first response of many people in Britain to the riots that started in theTottenham neighbourhood of London on August 6th, skipped across the capital in the followingdays and nights and spread to Manchester, Birmingham and many other cities. Alongside theshame, there was a jolting bafflement. The law-abiding majority suddenly saw that some oftheir compatriots were happy to torch cars and buildings, loot shops, and attack firemen andambulance crews. The confidence trick at the heart of the social order was violently laid bare:it turns out that if sufficient numbers of criminals want to create havoc on the streets, theycan. In the absence of internal, moral restraints, external ones can only do so much. 许多英国人对该国骚乱的第一反应是羞耻。这场骚乱8月6日始发于伦敦托特纳姆地区,在随后几天里掠过首都蔓延到曼彻斯特、伯明翰和其他一些城市。人们在羞耻之余,还深感困惑。那些守法的大多数突然看到,一些国人竟乐于焚烧汽车和房屋、劫掠商店以及袭击消防员和救护人员。社会秩序深层的骗局昭然若揭:原来,如果意图在街头制造大破坏的罪犯足够多,那么他们就能达到目的。当缺乏内在道德制约的情况下,外在制约的作用仅此而已。 The world watched London in fascinated amazement. Other nations tend to regard Britain asenviably orderly and law-abiding, at least compared with many of its more excitablecontinental neighbours. That peaceable image is only partly justified: contagious rioting hasbroken out before, typically during the summer, including in the 1980s, when Tottenham andsome of the other flashpoint areas this week last erupted. This time, however, the complexionof the trouble is different from those earlier flare-ups. In its sheer mindlessness, it was, in away, even more depressing. |