到底要不要锁门?

The No Lock People: You may doubt their existence, particularly in big cities like New York, but people who do not lock the doors to their houses and apartments do exist — and in surprising numbers. A 2008 survey of 1,000 homes across the country reported that fewer than half of those surveyed always locked their front doors. And while people who habitually lock their doors are incredulous that others do not, those who don’t lock are surprised that anyone would be shocked by it.
不闭户一族：你也许怀疑他们的存在，尤其是在纽约这样的大城市，但世上确实有不锁门的人——人数还多得惊人。09年一项调查显示，1000户受调查的人家中居然只有少于一半的会锁门。那些习惯锁上门的人不相信有人不会这么做，而那些不锁门的奇怪为什么别人对此大惊小怪。

In fact, just as there are cat people and dog people, Mac people and PC people, there seem to be Lock People and No Lock People. And when a committed Lock Person lives in the same building as a No Lock Person, things can heat up.
其实，有爱猫人士和爱狗人士，有苹果机拥趸和个人电脑粉丝，自然也就有关门者和不关门者。当这两种人碰巧住一栋楼里，事情就大条了。

“It’s the height of naïvete,” says a New York businesswoman who identifies herself as a Double Lock Person. “I live in a high rise with a doorman, I’ve been there 15 years and I’ve never heard of a burglary in the building, but that has absolutely nothing to do with it — it’s common sense,” she says. “There is someone in my building who never locks her door. She has told the building staff to just go in.”
“真是天真之极，”一位女性商业界人士自称是双保险一族，她如此说道，“我在一幢有看门人的大楼里住了15年了，从未听说过有发生入室抢劫，但这不是一回事——锁门是常识。这幢楼里有个人从来不锁门，她还告诉物业人员，直接进门就可以。”

The condo board sent this resident a letter notifying her, “If you are stupid enough to keep the door open and yell to anyone within hearing distance that the door is open, and anyone who hears it can go on in, the building isn’t going to be responsible for it” if anything happened to her belongings.
住户管理委员会给这位住户送了一封信，警告如果她的财物受损的话，“如果你蠢到敞开大门并喊得路人皆知，那么随便什么人都能进来，我们是不会对此负责的。”

The decision to lock or not lock is not always logical — often, it is based entirely on emotion. Locking or not locking, it would seem, has more to do with one’s internal geography than with the externals — or the stories one tells oneself:
锁不锁门的决定不一定总是明智——有时候那全由心情决定。是锁，还是不锁，似乎受心理环境的影响大于外部环境——或者受自我暗示的影响：

I am a free and easy person who is more concerned that my house is open to any friend who wants to drop by than with possessions. I live in a fine building in which people know and respect one another and there is no need to lock my door. I live in a building in which we are all good friends, and if someone who has a few too many drinks walks in by mistake one night and falls asleep on the couch, it’s a good story that proves what a friendly place this is.
我是一个自由而随和的人，我关心的不是我的财产，而是我的朋友，我希望他们能想来就来。我住在一幢安全的大楼里，人人互相熟识并互相尊重，没必要锁上大门。如果谁哪天晚上喝多了，迷迷糊糊走错门，在我家沙发上睡了一觉，这能很好地证明我家是一个多么友好的地方。