The Optimist's Handbook: Facts, Figures and Arguments to Silence Cynics, Doom-Mongers and Defeatists

273 Pages·2007·11.31 MB·English

by  Nick Inman

optimists_fullcover:Layout 1 3/10/07 14:04 Page 1
Nick Inman T The little free things in life that bring a
h HHhh smile to your face
Nick Inma was born in Yorkshire in
e
1956 and studied politics at the • New car, new paint, new anything.
University of Bristol in the 1970s before • Two weeks in shorts and t-shirt.
becoming a travel writer specialising O • Live music (all of it, but especially if
in Spain. He is married with two it’s free).
children and lives in southwest Miserable world. Miserable life. Switch on the telly and it is p • The first morning or evening when
France. always doom and gloom... is there no encouraging news you notice the days are getting
to be had? t longer.
i • A perfect piece of fruit.
m
• The house to yourself.
The bookshops are full of books about how bad things
• The smell of someone cooking for
are, but is the situation really that bad?
i you.
s
• Arriving to find the table laid.
When you start looking, there is quite a lot going on that
t
• Finding a large denomination note
doesn’t make it into the news, onto advertising hoardings ’
in the inside pocket of an old
or onto the book shelves. But should we even try to look s
overcoat.
on the bright side or are we only fooling ourselves?
• Arriving at the station or the airport
H
in time to step straight on to the
This book is not designed to be a slushy collection of
inspiring thoughts that wishes away unpleasant realities. It a train or plane.
• When the chance of having sex
is meant to be a hard-nosed look at whether we have
The
n within the hour are over 75% and
got the balance right: is there more good news to share?
increasing.
And should we be taking a more positive view on the d
• Baby animals that you have no
world today?
Optimist’s responsibility for.
Harriman House b
• Switching on the television and
In this brand new book, Nick Inman pulls together a list of
100 non-sh*t things for us to feel glad about – a book to o chancing upon the most interesting
Harriman House is one of the UK’s programme you have ever
inspire the reader while they are slogging to work or
leading independent publishers of taking a break from the ironing. There may not be a o Handbook watched.
books on finance, business, • A gadget which proves
perfect world round the corner but there can at least be
economics and politics. Our k indispensable and which is
a little hope...(and something to smile about).
catalogue covers a wide range of impossible to break, no matter how
subjects from personal finance, stock hard you try.
Facts, figures and arguments to silence
marketinvesting and trading, through •A moment of convincing
to politics, current affairs, business cynics, doom-mongers and defeatists synchronicity.
ISBN 978-1905641-29-1
and professional guides. For details of • Opening a book and realising that
all of our titles go to: you are not going to bed until you
Nick Inman
have finished it.
www.harriman-house.com
HHhh Harriman House HHhh £9.99
the
optimist’s
handbook
Facts, figures and arguments to silence cynics,
doom-mongers and defeatists
by
nick inman
HHhh
Harriman House Ltd
3A Penns Road
Petersfield
Hampshire
GU32 2EW
Tel. [phone]
Fax [phone]
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.harriman-house.com
First published in Great Britain in 2007 by Harriman House Ltd.
Copyright © Harriman House Ltd
The right of Nicholas Inman to be identified as the author has
been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Design and
Patents Act 1988.
ISBN 1-905-64129-X
ISBN13 978-1-905641-29-1
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the
British Library.
All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of
the Publisher. This book may not be lent, resold, hired out or
otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form of binding
or cover other than that in which it is published without the
prior written consent of the Publisher.
Printed and bound by Biddles Ltd, Kings Lynn, Norfolk.
___________________________________________
No responsibility for loss occasioned to any person or corporate
body acting or refraining to act as a result of reading material
in this book can be accepted by the Publisher or by the Author.
Non si male nunc et olim sic erit
(If things are bad now
they won’t always be)
Horace, Odes II
About the author
Nick Inman was born in Yorkshire in 1956 and studied
politics at the University of Bristol in the 1970s before
becoming a travel writer specialising in Spain. He is
married with two children and lives in southwest
France.
Acknowledgements
Many people contributed ideas or information that
helped shape this book and to all of them I am grateful.
In particular, I would like to thank Steve Eckett for leads
that took me into interesting areas that I might not
otherwise have thought about; Josefina Fernandez;
Philip Jenks, who challenged me to explain myself while
editing the book; Richard Kelly; Ben Soffa, Press Officer
for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND);
Clara Villanueva; and Stewart Wild for his serendipitous
supplies of cuttings.
Another person I would have liked to have thanked for
general inspiration and for reminding me never to be
complacent is Charles Clasen, who died while this book
was being written.
For my mother

Contents
Introduction I
Altruism 1
Anaesthetics 4
Appropriate technology 5
Architecture, ecological 8
Awareness, environmental 10
The best of all possible worlds 12
Body, your 13
Book, the survival of the 15
Boredom, the end of 18
Candide 19
Capital punishment 21
Capitalism, caring 25
Childhood 27
Clarke’s guide to the impossible 29
Climate change (for believers) 30
Climate change (for deniers) 34
Colour 37
Community 38
Conspiracy theories 43
Courage 44
Death 46
Democracy 49
Dentists 51
Diamond, John 52
Disease, eradication of 54
Economics, new thinking in 55
Education 60
Email 61
THE OPTIMIST’S HANDBOOK
Energy 62
Europeans 65
Evil 67
Failure 70
Films to make you feel good 75
Flow 78
Folly 80
Food 81
Freedom 83
Futurology 85
Gadgets 91
Happiness 93
Helen Keller 99
Herd mentality 103
Hope 105
Human nature 108
Humanity, the rest of 111
Humour, a sense of 117
Immigration 118
Immortality 120
India 123
Intelligence 124
Internet 128
Invention 130
Jobs 132
Kennedy’s peace speech 135
Knowledge 142
Life expectancy 146
Little free things in life 147
Long Now 148
Meaning of life 150
Medicine 155
CONTENTS
Memory 156
Men 157
Micawber, Wilkins 159
Millennium Development Goals 160
Nature 163
Nelson Mandela 164
Networking 165
News, good 167
Nukes 169
Old age 172
Optimism bias 175
Pandora’s puzzling present 176
Paradigm shift 179
Particularities 180
Peacemakers 181
Pessimism 186
Philosophical consolations 191
Plastic 193
Politics, optimistic 194
Pollyanna 195
Population 196
Positive thinking 198
Poverty as history 200
Prozac 201
Radical hope 203
Reading, bedtime 206
Reality TV 208
Religion 210
Rights 213
Robinson Crusoe assesses his situation 215
Said/done/written/painted etc. before 217
Scientists 218