BlackOxford’s review of Progress - Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future > Likes and Comments

Oh dear, one should already be warned by seeing the disgusting smiley on the cover! Good review, Michael!

Hanneke wrote: "Oh dear, one should already be warned by seeing the disgusting smiley on the cover! Good review, Michael!"
Yes, it's beyond gauche isn't it? I find it somewhat disconcerting that it comes out of Sweden.

Creepy people can be found in Sweden too!

I am a bit confused. Apparently Mr. Norberg is arguing in favor of 'well tested liberal values' but it works for the Koch brothers libertarian Cato Institute, which opposes liberal values.

However, consistent with the libertarian view, he is also arguing that progress in human endeavors from sanitation to civil rights was achieved independent of politics. That is not the world I have observed. The political system in Eastern Europe gave short shift to the environment and it took an overthrow of that system to get improvements in sanitation. In the US, it required years of political action to gain real civil rights and even today there is price tag the Democrats are still paying in the South for this action. Furthermore, one of the first changes Trump Republicans made was to gut the EPA and standards for water quality. I find contrary to the Koch brothers would like us to believe all this is very much political.

Lastly, while I can fully agree that internationally much progress has been made in reducing poverty, extending life expectancy, raising education attainment, etc., but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be concerned about global warming, environmental degradation, growing income inequality and loss of democracy to the wealthy in the developed world.

Bureaucracy is behind anti-globalisation? How do they think the wages and pensions of those scientists get paid?

Jan wrote: "I am a bit confused. Apparently Mr. Norberg is arguing in favor of 'well tested liberal values' but it works for the Koch brothers libertarian Cato Institute, which opposes liberal values.

However..."

'Liberal values' is my phrase, and maybe Deirdre McCloskey's. Norberg wouldn't utter such a politically charged term. What I meant with some irony is the suburban idea of stable routine that allows us all to get on without getting too upset by political issues. He doesn't use the term 'libertarian' either but it certainly appears that he might support such a regime. On the other hand his proposed patronisation of the real 'sources of wealth', namely scientists and entrepreneurs suggests a sort of corporate fascism of the right sort, say that of a 45th who doesn't want to stop science just the science that doesn't pay within the next quarter. Since he doesn't comment on politics, except obliquely, I really don't know what his are. But I believe that this is a crucial part of the message. There is a certain Whiggishness which suggests that if we just get out of the way, our fate will make us free. Given that, I wouldn't expect too much in the way of relevance to current debates.

Jan-Maat wrote: "Bureaucracy is behind anti-globalisation? How do they think the wages and pensions of those scientists get paid?"

Interestingly, Tan Hecheng in The Killing Wind blames bureaucracy for the Cultural Revolution, even though it was the apparent target of the event. Perhaps Norberg is playing a similar card. One possibility is that he is pitching to the middle managers who are in fact the bureaucracy but perceive themselves as the cogs that make the machine run smoothly. I do think that the key to the book is not in its arguments but in its target audience. This is neither the movers and shakers, nor the short straw holders in the globalisation game, but those who just got really frightened by the 45th's appearance. If so, it's part of a new ideology of the urban middle class that McCloskey has been pushing for sometime.

Greg wrote: "God, I need a slew of books with an optimistic bent. Thanks as always for your wonderful reviews, Michael."

Thanks Greg. I'll keep an eye out for upbeat economics books. Meanwhile you could do worse than Deirdre's latest: Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World.

Greg wrote: "Even if they are deeply imperfect like this one, as you point out."

Here you go Greg. Hans Rosling was the best population geographer on the planet. He died last month. But he is not forgotten: https://www.gapminder.org/videos/dont...

Well, the title was nice. Shame the book itself was such a disappointing muddle. A very interesting review - and comments.

Cecily wrote: "Well, the title was nice. Shame the book itself was such a disappointing muddle. A very interesting review - and comments."

I recently found it that his last big book was Defending Global Capitalism in 2001. I think he has his ideology.

Blindered optimism keeps its adherents from acknowledging the walls in the curved cattle chute down which they are being led, and the end result.

Will wrote: "Blindered optimism keeps its adherents from acknowledging the walls in the curved cattle chute down which they are being led, and the end result."
Yes. I read with dismay XLV's latest directive to increase environmental destruction.

Swamp Thing golfs while America burns. It is a daily carnival of horrors here. Thankfully, there at least some brakes on his antics. The immediate razing of the ACA was thwarted by a groundswell of popular sentiment. And the feral right in the Freedom Caucus seem opposed to the existence of government at all. But one bright light is the steady drip, drip, drip of revelations about his connections to Russia. There are enough people in the GOP who are as alarmed at this as Dems are. I truly expect that it is only a matter of time before smoking guns are revealed. Impeachment is a real possibility but it will take a while. Hopefully he does not get us all killed or do irreparable harm before he is driven from office.

Will wrote: "Swamp Thing golfs while America burns. It is a daily carnival of horrors here. Thankfully, there at least some brakes on his antics. The immediate razing of the ACA was thwarted by a groundswell of..."

It was clearly not his brightest move to irritate the intelligence and the justice communities. I fanatasise about family dinners at the Bush's, deciding about the right moment to drop a bomb on him. We live in hope.

Dubyah must be ecstatic that the horrors of his time are being papered over by the almost comedic corruption and ineptitude of the current administration. Ladies and gentlemen, step aside. There is a new clown car in town.

Even the book was disappointing you made it interesting by writing this review .......

Gauthami.. wrote: "Even the book was disappointing you made it interesting by writing this review ......."

Thanks Gauthami, much appreciated.

Excellent review! This is certainly dangerous political ammunition for the environmentally naive.

panda wrote: "After I read your review and started the book, I was on the lookout for mention of Trump. He did not write about Trump. The one and only time he is even mentioned is neutrally: "These perceptions [..."

Then again, it might be you who gets sidetracked by my mention of Trump, don’t you think? I made an argument you don’t respond to at all.

Under-culture? What under-culture?! They’re not meant to have disposable time and income to be reading books like this. Get them back on the amazon packing line. If they’re lucky they’ll get a look at the cover, a marginal job benefit to brighten their day with all the thoughts of the progress their great grandchildren might (nit) get to enjoy, so long as everyone stays in line.

Sounds like a book for people who depend on prozac to get through their lives, and need something on their shelves to validate that the choices they’ve made are intelligent.