(单词翻译:单击)
A lot of evil is done in the world by people who can’t imagine that they have any power to hurt anyone.
世界上很多邪恶的行为都是那些无法想象自己有能力伤害他人的人实施的。
It’s their sense that nothing is at stake in their behaviour towards others that leads them to ignore the rules of politeness and humanity - and to kick people as if they were plated in armour.
正是因为他们觉得自己对待他人的行为没有没有任何风险，才导致他们无视礼貌和人道的规则，并像对待全副武装的人一样伤害他人。
They are - in this respect - paying homage to childhood.
在这方面，他们是在向童年致敬。
Think of the situation of a young child, of perhaps six, who has fun mocking a parent’s double chin or the wrinkles around their eyes.
想一想一个年幼的孩子，大概6岁，他以嘲笑父母的双下巴或眼睛周围的皱纹为乐。
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To this child, the parent is still, in many ways, an invulnerable deity.
对这个孩子来说，父母在很多方面仍然是无懈可击的神。
They live in a remote, impressive world of work, credit cards, driving and the news.
他们生活在一个偏远的、令人印象深刻的世界里，充斥着工作、信用卡、驾驶和新闻。
How could someone of such stature be hurt by a comment about their less than perfect physique by a tiny person who can’t spell properly?
这么高的一个人怎么会被一个不会正确拼读的小个子说他们的身材不够完美而受到伤害呢?
But the child is missing the point.
但这孩子没有抓住要点。
Their words do hurt. They can make their parents cry (in private).
他们的话确实伤人。他们可以让他们的父母(私下)哭泣。
The child simply can’t grasp how desperate and anxious their parent might be,
孩子们根本无法理解他们的父母可能会多么绝望和焦虑，
how every morning they might stare in dismay into the bathroom mirror at the visible signs of ageing that speak to them relentlessly of a wrongly lived-life.
他们可能每天早上都会沮丧地盯着浴室的镜子看着可见的衰老迹象，这些迹象无情地告诉他们过着错误的生活。
The parent, out of dignified generosity, has shielded their child from their own fragility.
父母出于尊严给予慷慨，保护他们的孩子不受自己脆弱的伤害。
And now their child is paying them a beautiful if misguided, compliment: a belief that they are beyond suffering.
现在，他们的孩子正在给他们一个很好的、尽管被误导了的赞美：一种相信他们不会遭受痛苦的信念。
Something related may happen when employees get together to gossip about the person they work for.
当员工们聚在一起八卦他们的老板时，可能会发生一些相关的事情。
In their imagination, the boss is so far above them that it couldn’t possibly matter what they say about them.
在他们的想象中，老板远远高于他们，他们怎么说他们根本无关紧要。
It’s only when they themselves move to senior positions that they start to realise how vulnerable the person in charge might feel,
只有当他们自己升到高级职位时，他们才开始意识到负责人可能会感到多么脆弱，
how completely normal it is to want to be liked (even if you have a seat on the board) and how imperfect your self-esteem might be.
想要被喜欢是多么正常(即使你在董事会有一个席位)，以及你的自尊心有多么强。
This idea casts a useful light on the activity of particularly dangerous people online.
这一想法对特别危险的人在网上的活动提供了有用的线索。
Their venom isn’t the expression of a feeling of power.
他们的恶意不是权力感的表现。
Rather, the troll tends to feel like a medieval vagabond outside a heavily fortified city, hurling insults and threats at what they take to be comfortable inhabitants sleeping behind meters of stone walls lined by vigilant troops.
相反，发挑衅帖子的人感觉就像一个中世纪的流浪汉，在戒备森严的城市外，对他们认为睡在几米石墙后、周围排列着警惕的士兵的舒适居民进行侮辱和威胁。
They want to hurt, but they don’t in any way actually imagine they can; that is what renders them quite so vicious.
他们想要伤害，但他们实际上并没有以任何方式想象他们能做到；这就是他们如此恶毒的原因。
True kindness may require us to take on board a very unfamiliar idea:
真正的善良可能需要我们接受一个非常陌生的想法：
however young we are, however forgotten and ignored we feel we are, we have a power to cause other people serious damage.
无论我们多么年轻，无论我们觉得自己多么容易被遗忘和忽视，我们都有能力给他人造成严重伤害。
It isn’t because we aren’t wealthy or revered in elite circles that we thereby lose a capacity either to comfort or to wound strangers.
并不是因为我们在精英圈子里不富有或不受尊敬，我们就失去了安慰或伤害陌生人的能力。
We become properly moral, and properly adult, when we understand that we may all, whoever we may be, ruin someone’s day, and on occasion, through a few incautious and misplaced words, their life.
当我们明白我们所有人，无论我们是谁，都可能毁掉某人的一天，有时还会通过几句粗心和不合时宜的话，毁掉他们的生活，我们就会变得合乎道德，合乎情理，也会变得成熟起来。
