Customer Reviews

Reason Enough to Hope: America and the World of the Twenty-first Century

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This book is fantastic if you read it slowly and with an open mind. They are not promoting a utopia, but instead a better world. The ideas come from far above the harsh realities of day to day life, but they should (could) affect the governments and leaders of the world and voters in democratic societies. Did you know that the rate of increase of the population is slowing? Did you know that for 30 years planes circled the globe carrying nuclear bombs? Do you have any idea of the scales of expenditure related to the military or food or medicine? If you care, read this book.

This is what happens when otherwise brilliant men venture into area where their ignorance outstrips their wisdom. Morrison and Tsipis are both well known and well regarded in physics and les sso in the realm of politics, and not at all in economics. Their solution for conflict and poverty assumes that every individual on the planet is, like themselves, a kind hearted, well-intentioned individual who will readily put their self interest aside for the betterment of others. Would that it were so.

But it's not, and Morrison and Tsipis' naive utopian formula is no different from a thousand other utopian prescriptions. At best, they're ineffectual, and at worst, they lead to opression and dictatorship. For a more realistic view of the typical outcome of utopian societies, read Robert Conquest's "The Great Terror".