The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity
Evolves
By Matt
Ridley
(Harper, 438 pages,
$26.99)
Those of us who are interested in evolution have often wondered,
while pondering the theory of Darwinian natural selection, how it
happened that mankind evolved rather gradually over hundreds of
thousands of years and then, about 50,000 years ago (extremely
recently in the long history of organic life), suddenly began a
process of continuous innovation that changed humans from wandering
groups of primitive Stone Age creatures to the technologically
endowed, complex, urban types that we see today.
The changes in our way of life over the last 50 or so millennia
cannot be explained by biological, genetic evolution alone, because
the genetic process of natural selection operates only over longer
periods of time. The changes that have produced our complex and
technologically sophisticated society are the result of what we can
call “cultural evolution,” which involves a process of selection
among ideas, not among genes.
What explains mankind’s relatively recent cultural explosion? To
find the answer, see Matt Ridley’s very readable and persuasive
book, The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves.
Ridley’s theory is not entirely novel. He gives appropriate credit
to Frederic Hayek, who wrote in 1960 that social evolution involves
“selection by imitation of successful institutions and habits.”
Ridley brings historical depth and analytical precision to Hayek’s
insight. He concludes that, some time around 100,000 years ago,
humans began to exchange things with each other, that “once they
started doing so, culture suddenly became cumulative,” and what we
call “progress” began. “Barter,” says Ridley, “was the trick that
changed the world.”
By exchanging ideas as well as things, humans discovered the
division of labor (that is, the specialization of efforts and
talents). The ability to specialize through exchange gave man the
capacity to continuously improve his condition and, indeed, to
dominate the earth. Ridley is not just another observer of culture,
but is a trained biologist and well-known writer on evolution and
other scientific topics, who expertly traces this history of
exchange and specialization and the resulting increase in human
prosperity. The story, for Ridley, is an optimistic one. Today,
“the vast majority of people are much better fed, much better
sheltered, much better entertained, much better protected against
disease and much more likely to live to old age than their
ancestors have ever been.” This is probably true (with the possible
exception of entertainment), although there are some aspects of our
civilization that might be listed on the pessimistic side of the
ledger — a point to which we will return.
Ridley shows, with detailed examples from millennia of
development, how exchange leads to specialization, to expertise, to
technological innovation, and then to increasingly complex and
sophisticated trade. The pattern continues today. In the terms
defined by Adam Smith and David Ricardo, it is the story of free
trade and comparative advantage. It is also the basis of human
freedom and prosperity. “The lesson of the last two centuries is
that liberty and welfare march hand in hand with prosperity and
trade.” The free market has a liberating effect and is the key to
prosperity for those who allow it to operate.
In a sample of 127 countries, Ridley notes, the 63 with the most
economic freedom had more than four times the income per capita and
nearly twice the growth rate of the countries with less economic
freedom. The successful countries are those that have institutions,
such as rules protecting private property, that make successful
commerce possible.
Ridley notes that trade flourishes in eras of political
fragmentation, such as the age of the Greek city-states between 600
and 300 BC and the towns of northern Italy during the Renaissance.
The rise of strong centralized government is usually a threat to
commerce. “Because it is a monopoly, government brings inefficiency
and stagnation to most things it runs.…” All too frequently, the
activities of merchants have been appropriated by rulers, leading
to “societies of rigid dirigisme, extravagant bureaucracy and
feeble individual rights, stifling technological innovation,
crowding out social innovation and punishing creativity.”
WHILE THE VALUE of economic liberty and the dangers of big
government are well known to readers of this magazine, Ridley’s
book provides persuasive evidentiary support, with numerous
examples and observations.
Ridley concludes on an optimistic note, celebrating “the flames
of free thought and reason,” which he anticipates will bring more
liberty and prosperity to the world.
I would have liked to have seen Ridley address more specifically
some of the arguments for pessimism that could be advanced. The
20th century bore witness to some of history’s most bloody and
tragic events. Today, the civilized world is threatened by a
seemingly unstoppable wave of terrorism by bloodthirsty fanatics,
while those nations formerly known as the “Great Powers” are
gradually sinking into a state of genteel decline, hedonism,
apathy, and dependence on government. Ridley also might have
devoted a little more space to tracing the benefits of the rule of
law, which is a necessary condition of commercial enterprise.
But no author can cover everything. The Rational
Optimist is an intelligent and interesting guide to mankind’s
cultural evolution and technological innovation. This is sufficient
reason for us to be grateful for this very impressive book.
