And it is not just that material progress does not seem to be delivering the emotional goods.
并不仅仅是物质的进步似乎没有从情感上满足人们的愿望。
People also fear that mankind is failing to manage it properly—with the result that, in important ways, their children may not be better off than they are.
人们还担心人类没能恰当地管理它——因而造成他们孩子的生活在许多重要方面也许会不如他们的生活好。
The forests are disappearing;
森林在消失,
the ice is melting;
冰山在融化,
social bonds are crumbling;
社会纽带在瓦解,
privacy is eroding;
隐私被侵犯,
life is becoming a dismal slog in an ugly world.
生活正变成在丑恶世界里的惨淡苦熬。
...But the worst nightmares have not come to life so far.
……但是最可怕的噩梦至今尚未成真。
Why?
为什么?
The answer depends on that last pair of engines of progress:
答案就在于推动进步的最后两个动力:
moral sensibility in its widest sense, and the institutions that make up what today is known as "governance."
最广义的道德观念,以及构成当今被称为“管理”的那些机构。
These broadly liberal forces offer hope for a better future—more, indeed, than you may think.
这些大体上自由开放的力量提供了未来更加美好的希望——甚至超乎你的想象。