Johan Norberg’s "Progress: Ten Reasons To Look Forward To The Future" is a must-read work of such staggering scope in so many ways and on so many levels that I scarcely know where to begin.
So . . . let’s talk Star Trek.
It’s become commonplace to read about many of Star Trek’s technological innovations coming true now, 200 years before the future depicted in the show. But what if some of Star Trek’s cultural predictions started coming true now? What if the fundamental problems of human survival were being solved — not 200 years from now — but today?
What if poverty, for instance — or hunger — or pollution — was being eradicated right now instead of 200 years from now?
“Despite what we hear on the news and from many authorities, the great story of our era is that we are witnessing the greatest improvement in global living standards ever to take place.” — Norberg
Today, people like President Trump paint a horrific picture of the world because they want you to be terrified of it. “American carnage”, anyone? But Johan Norberg presents the facts that overwhelmingly support the proposition that the human race is not just surviving but thriving. And not only are we not destroying each other, by and large — violence is actually at an all-time low — but we’re also not destroying the planet.
Tired of the dystopian Malthusian pessimism you’ve been hearing for the past several decades? If Norberg is right, politicians on both left and right will have a harder time finding crises to exploit. Everyone who’s worried about the rise of emotionalism on both the left and the right should read this book.
Beginning with hunger, Norberg takes ten major components of human progress and illuminates every aspect of them, showing just where they come from and the impact they have had — and are continuing to have. It is almost as though Norberg has taken the classic essay, I, Pencil, and expanded it to encompass the whole of human history. The implications of the facts that Norberg leads the reader through are kaleidoscopic and breathtaking. In chapter after chapter, Norberg shows us how the human race is solving its greatest historical challenges — not in some far off future, but right now, before our eyes — not those of our children or grandchilren! And not just in the “privileged”, most technologically advanced societies, but everywhere. The number of people around the world who are now thriving that would have faced certain starvation and death just fifty years ago is stunning. Back then, pundits were predicting widespread famine on a global scale. Since then, the opposite has happened! And instead of being overwhelmed by a population explosion, people everywhere are having less children because more of them actually survive now.
Norberg makes it clear that private property rights have been just as important in motivating farmers to be more productive as advances in agricultural technology have been — even in China, where local farmers defied the Communist Party to work their own land and became so successful that the Party endorsed the farmers’ reforms. Within two years, the communes of the “Great Leap Forward” were gone and productivity skyrocketed. No longer did farmers have to roam the countryside begging for food. It must be noted here that Progress is not for the squeamish — Norberg does not shy away from reminding us of what it was like for past generations to live through times of crop failures and the resulting famines — down to and including cannibalism.
Progress shows that a future free of poverty, hunger and pollution is not only possible, but happening right now — and it’s because of individual rights and economic freedom, not the socialism of Star Trek. Progress makes it clear that the reason why poverty was endemic for so much of human history was the absence of freedom for so much of human history.
Progress is not a call to complacency. The progress we enjoy today comes from a very real expansion of freedom around the world. That didn’t happen by itself and it won’t continue to happen unless we keep working to see that it does continue. The point is, our efforts are paying off and that is why we need to keep working on these issues. People will have better lives if we continue to uphold their right to live their lives as they see fit. It may seem like a Sisyphean effort in a time when authoritarian doomsayers are using emotion in a desperate bid to distract people from the actual facts to try to make us turn away from freedom. But, in Progress, Johan Norberg demonstrates that there may actually be light at the end of the tunnel. Yes, there are real problems in the world. There always have been and always will be. But problems will always have solutions. That is an actual fact.
Progress is concrete evidence that the future is now and it can and will get even better — but only so long as we continue to work to see that it does. Read it!
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Top reviews from other countries
J. Drew
Things aren't necessary getting worse
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 15, 2017
Frederick Ford
This is an excellent book; it dispels the current thought (media information) ...
Reviewed in Canada on March 4, 2017ManuA
Comprendre le monde autrement que par les médias
Reviewed in France on January 30, 2017