Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
Will It Be All Right?
The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves
By Matt Ridley
Fourth Estate 438pp £20 order from our bookshop
Pessimism is the only effective indemnity against disappointment. Optimists are doomed by complacency. Pessimists are forearmed against peril. Optimists are gamblers who sometimes get lucky breaks but usually overplay their hands. In the long run pessimists outdo them with the unspectacular gains of caution, and outlive them by preparing for the worst. In the race of life, optimists are hares – bounding and reckless – while pessimists are tortoises, inching and defensive. Optimism has the advantages of elegance and flair. Pessimism is the more informed, more modest, and more reasonable option. Yet Matt Ridley, who is an excellent biologist and ought to know something about how to adapt for survival, proclaims himself a ‘rational optimist’. He used to be chairman of Northern Rock, but still navigates with the sirens. He should see where optimism leads, but seems irresistibly drawn towards risky speculations.
His new book exhibits his characteristic virtues: trenchancy, fluency, wit and dazzling command of diverse material. In one respect, however, it is a curious departure from his previous work. Formerly, as he admits, he stressed how like other animals humans are. Now, he insists on the difference, focusing
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'We nipped down Mount Pleasant ... me marvelling at London all over again because the back of a Vespa gives you the everyday world like nothing else can.'
Ali Smith writes this month's diary.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/temple-of-vespa
We were saddened to hear of the recent passing of the novelist Elspeth Barker, a valued contributor to Literary Review over the years. (1/2)
Jean Rhys 'had been channelling unhappiness since the publication of her first volume of short stories in 1927. The four novels she published before the war chart journeys that go from bad to worse for heroines who end up alone in dreary hotel rooms.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/she-went-down-well-with-vicars