The German philosopher Georg W.F. Hegel (1770-1831) argued that the course of history is the rational, inevitable progress in the consciousness of freedom. He believed that history is not a chaotic series of events, but a deliberate process – the “march of Spirit” (Geist) – aiming toward the goal of humans knowing themselves to be truly free. He explained that man’s fight for freedom moves through a dialectical, three-stage evolution from East to West, where freedom shifts from being exclusive to one person, to a privilege of some, and finally to a right of all. In summary, for Hegel, history is a purposeful, often violent, and agonizing process whereby humanity learns to stop living by arbitrary impulses and starts living in accordance with rational, communal laws, ultimately achieving complete, self-conscious freedom. Like the epic times we are experiencing, Hegel lived during the French and American revolutions. In over 50 military conflicts Napoleon was able to overthrow the European nobility and usher in the massive growth of the industrial revolution economic class of entrepreneurs. This small group, led by the Rothschild’s, Sasson’s, Warburg’s, Baring’s, Schroeder’s, Oppenheim’s, and Goldsmid’s in Europe along with the Rockefeller’s, Morgan’s, Carnegie’s, Vanderbilt’s, Jay Gould, and Henry Clay Frick among the most prominent in America, gave an immense rise to the middle or bourgeois classes. It should be noted that the Europeans were more financiers while the Americans were industrialists. Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle in 1906, exposed the incredible exploitation during the 19th century, and again expanded the benefits to a greater majority of humankind in joining in the material wealth of society at large. China, India, Russia, and a host of other historically poorer countries are radically increasing their living standards giving more and more evidence that Hegal may have had a clear view of human progress, albeit with much suffering along the way!