Society works not because we have consciously invented it, but because it is an ancient product of our evolved predispositions. It is literally in our nature. Matt Ridley More Quotes by Matt Ridley More Quotes From Matt Ridley A cumulative change of less than 2°C by the end of this century will do no net harm. It will actually do net good [...] rainfall will increase slightly, growing seasons will lengthen, Greenland's ice cap will melt only very slowly, and so on. Matt Ridley increase growing ice The average Mexican lives longer now than the average Briton did in 1955. Infant mortality is lower today in Nepal than it was in Italy in 1951. The proportion of Vietnamese living on less than $2 a day has dropped from 90 per cent to 30 per cent in twenty years. The rich have got richer, but the poor have done even better. Matt Ridley mexican average years Note even Jonathan Swift would dare to write a satire in which politicians argued that - in a world where species are vanishing and more than a billion people are barely able to afford to eat - it would somehow be good for the planet to clear rain-forests to grow palm oil, or give up food-crop land to grow biofuels, solely so that people could burn fuel derived from carbohydrate rather than hydrocarbons in their cars, thus driving up the price of food for the poor. Ludicrous is too weak a word for this heinous crime. Matt Ridley giving-up rain writing It is the assumption of this book that there is a typical human nature. It is the aim of this book to seek it. Just like a surgeon, a psychiatrist can make all sorts of basic assumptions when a patient lies down upon the couch. He can assume that the patient knows what it means to love, to envy, to trust, to think, to speak, to fear, to smile, to bargain, to covet, to dream, to remember, to sing, to quarrel, to lie. The 'smile' of a baboon is a threat; the smile of a man is a sign of pleasure: it is human nature, the world over. Matt Ridley dream book lying Prosperity has brought complications. Our lives are busier, faster, more stressful. They're nostalgic for a simpler, slower time. Matt Ridley stressful nostalgic prosperity Simple determinism, whether of the genetic or environmental kind, is a depressing prospect for those with a fondness for free will. Matt Ridley environmental depressing simple The genome is a book that wrote itself, continually adding, deleting and amending over four billion years. Matt Ridley four book years The evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in 1976 coined the term ‘meme’ for a unit of cultural imitation. Matt Ridley memes imitation term At some point, human intelligence became collective and cumulative in a way that happened to no other animal. Matt Ridley collectives animal way How much more generous it would be if, instead of writing parables about childhood wounds, psychologists were to accept that some differences between the sexes just are, that they are in the nature of the beasts, because each sex has an evolved tendency to develop that way in response to experience. Matt Ridley differences writing sex Uniqueness is the commodity of glut. Matt Ridley uniqueness commodity We consciously decide whether to consider people; we fall in love despite ourselves; we entirely fail to fall in love with people who fall in love with us. It is a mightily complicated business. Matt Ridley falling-in-love complicated people I opted for a freelance writing career. I was lucky enough to have the means to do it. Matt Ridley career lucky enough writing I started out wanting to be a naturalist. My obsession in my youth was with bird-watching. I collected things, I spent a lot of time outdoors. I only vaguely realized that science was a little more than natural history, but by then I was hooked. Matt Ridley youth time science history I sense very little appetite for green efforts to persuade people to accept a frozen or declining standard of living for the sake of the environment. Recessions remind us that economic retreat or stagnation is painful, whatever the goal. Matt Ridley accept environment green people I'm perfectly happy to eat organic food, but if I choose to pay more for it, I don't pat myself on the back ethically. Quite the reverse. I think I'm actually being quite greedy, because what I'm doing is essentially saying, 'I want more land to be devoted to growing my food.' Matt Ridley myself think happy food I thought journalism would enable me to be a mile wide and an inch deep. Matt Ridley deep thought me journalism If people are all the same underneath, how has society changed so fast and so radically? Life now is completely different to how it was 32,000 years ago. It's changed like that of no other species has. What's made that difference? Matt Ridley difference society life people I think if you put people in front of some huge temptation where it's possible to grab as much as they can for themselves, almost everyone will. The beauty of commerce is that it mutes that. The chap behind the counter in the corner shop has no interest in short-changing you, because he wants you to come back. Matt Ridley think you beauty people I felt cheated by the way grown-ups told me that the future of the world was bleak when I became a teenager in the 1970s. The pollution explosion was unstoppable. Global famine was inevitable. I genuinely want the next generation, my own kids, to know that actually it's possible that the future might be better than the past. Matt Ridley me future past world
