The process of freedom

Hegel said that history is the process of freedom realizing itself. Assuming you’re in the western world, then you currently live in the most free and tolerant society that has ever existed. There is less racism and sexism than at any other time in history. The world has more economic mobility than ever, and traveling across borders is easier now than ever. 

黑格尔曾经说过：世界历史进程就是自由生活的实现过程。假设你身处西方世界，你正生活在一个有史以来最为开放和包容的社会之中。那里的种族和性别歧视比历史上任何时期都要少。世界经济活力十足，人们可以自由跨越国界。

You may be unhappy with your love life, but just a few generations ago, casual dating was an impossibility, contraception was a rarity, and you could be disowned by your family for fooling around with the wrong person. A few generations before that, you likely never went to school with someone of the opposite gender and your parents chose who you married. In some countries and regions, you could have been killed for sleeping with or even flirting with the wrong person. 

对于你所热爱的生活，你或许并不满足。但仅仅几代人之前，自由随意的约会是不可能的。避孕行为也是罕见的，如果你和不合适的人闲逛厮混，那你可能会因此被家庭抛弃。几代人之前，与异性一起上学是不可能的，你的婚姻也是家长包办的。在一些国家和地区，你甚至可能会因与不合适的人一起睡觉或调情而被杀死。

Your family may frustrate you, but over 1/3 of the world’s population has only one parent and 143 million children are growing up with no parents at all. 

你的家庭或许会阻挠你过自己想要的生活，但要知道，世界上超过三分之一的人失去了父亲或母亲，有1.43亿孩子在压根没有父母陪伴的环境下长大。

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