The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves (P.S.) Paperback – Illustrated, 7 Jun. 2011

Like The God Delusion, this will hopefully come to be thought of as one of the key books of its time.For me, it articulated every thought I'd ever had about consumer capitalism. What a delight to read someone as intelligent as Matt Ridley eloquently voice my thoughts about the free market, how it has helped bring prosperity, learning, democracy, freedom and charity wherever it has been applied. The book certainly proves that the current intellectual force is with what could loosely be termed the right, if only in the sense that socialism gets another huge battering here.As the title suggests, Ridley is a rationalist. He's also a humanist and a capitalist which, as he convincingly demonstrates time after time, is anything but a dirty word. It's the opposite: it's the way to health and happiness, the way to the stars. Where financial enrichment appears, so do cultural and scientific enrichment. He exposes those who would wish to stop the economy dead as dunderheads, showing how it is only an advanced, innovative, risk-taking economy that can provide the best solutions to problems that life and the planet can throw at us. Entrepreneurs are the answer, not the clumsy hand of the state.My only slight criticism would be that there's a few too many historical examples from history of specialisation and exchange working their magic - with a few less we'd still get the point.But this is still a brilliant book, and note that those who give it low marks are those who do not comment on the book itself but only choose to abuse the author. Ignore these skulking socialists and buy this book to make this planet's future a whole lot better.

The Rational Optimist is one of the bravest books I have read. As Ridley himself points out optimists are regarded as fools whist pessimists are seen as earnest sages. For Ridey, himself an academic of some standing, to risk the opprobrium and scorn of his colleagues (and many others besides) is a valiant and selfless act of one who, of course, knows he's right.This book is very uncomfortable reading, not only for people such as myself who would regard themselves on the liberal left, but for the far right, the middle and every bit either side. Quite simply it preaches the unfashionable, and often the publishingly disastrous, notion that we're not all going to hell in a hand cart. Quite the reverse actually. For anyone who wishes to stand Canute like in the face of progress this book is a deep embarrassment and I suspect, destined for their own Bonfire of the vanities.What Ridley does is point out the blindingly, bleeding obvious that the world is a better place to be for the vast majority of its ever increasing population as every decade passes. Crucially this are not the insane musings of some kind of Darwinist evangalist; this book contains page after page of well researched empirical evidence to support his observations - you just cannot argue with the science.Human progress, Ridley argues, is a certainty but for one thing - restrictions to human trade in both commerce and ideas imposed by the benighted self-interest of the few - the anti-genetic engineering lobby who are happy to leave millions starving or suffering from curable diseases for no good scientific reason, the anti-globalists who cannot see that the local prosperity provided by factory jobs is the most potent antidote to poverty yet invented, the environmentalists who believe that turning millions of acres of farm land over to the production of biofuels is the answer to our energy challenges. The list goes on. This is indeed uncomfortable reading as it's so much common sense and flies in the face of our insatiable appetite for bad news. Recently David Cameron was met with howls of derision for suggesting that politics might be about making people's lives happier - good gracious surely every politician knows that a people in fear are a people in thrawl, so let's just drop this absurd idea shall we David and rule on. Happily for readers of this book good news may not sell papers or help our rulers to rule but it's unquestionably and irrefutably out there. Read this and go seek.

Ridley argues with a volume of credible justification and evidence, that it is man's unique ability/tendency to connect, in order to exchange and barter goods, knowledge and know-how, that has led to advances in the economy and a gradual improvement in the welfare and relative wealth of the species over the last 100,000+ years.The author points out that there is no equilibrium in nature, only constant dynamism. The earth has been warming and cooling for millennia, tyrannical and benign leaders come and go, fads and fashions come and go, creativity, trade, specialisation and wealth blossom, only to be preyed on and supressed by the elite, chiefs and priests forcing a reversion to self sufficiency, but over time, things have got better and will continue to improve as long as we continue to share and build on knowledge. Ridley suggests that our perception that relatively recent periods of depravity and savagery in the history of man, point to an overall regression, is rather due to an awakening of awareness, standards and morals, and educational advances that have allowed for improvements in communication and literacy. Not because these conditions had not existed before. "Our view of the past can be rosy because we know so little about the hardships of our ancestors".Ridley concludes that it is bottom up exchange, not money, government intervention or policy that is the "flywheel of the perpetual innovation machine that drives the modern world" and this "ever increasing exchange of ideas causes an ever increasing rate of innovation".Ridley does not avoid the `two great pessimism of the day': Africa & Climate Change, nor does he decry `community', `green values' or `local', in fact, quite the opposite. It is Ridley's awareness of the importance of these values to many, along with the challenges of on-going war, poverty, starvation and unjust societies, that have led him to question some western values and their wholesale, global application, which at times, although well meaning, arguably cause more harm to man and planet, than good.Ridley's opinions are bold, and brave. His optimism is rare and as such, refreshing. The only problem I have with this optimistic viewpoint and Ridley's `you see it didn't happen in the end' bias, is that I do believe a number of potential disasters have been averted and `didn't happen in the end' because of timely action taken by socially conscious governments and/or individuals.That said, this book is definitely worth reading, certainly to bring some balance and context to the pessimism of today and to focus attention on the value and role of innovation.

Great book that everyone should read