A few years ago I posted (on my political blog) an initial response to reading a sample of Rutger Bregman's "Humankind"
(Bloomsbury, 2020, ISBN 978-0316418539 [I haven't bought it yet, so
can't give an e-book ISBN 978-1-4088-9896-3], Amazon). It's been too long since I read it for me to remember enough of that book to post any sort of sensible review or critique, other than:
- it describes what is considered the real life basis for the dreadful book “Lord of Flies” - and, in real life, it was cooperative, community-based, and caring;
and
- overall I thought it was good, but I disagreed with some aspects of it (which I will not describe, as you should read it - knowing I consider it good or maybe even very good, but not perfect - and make up your own mind).
The author has a new book out, titled “Moral Ambition” (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2025, ISBN 9781526685575, Kobo, Apple Books, Amazon); , which I found out about through a podcast interview:
“How to Be a Good Person in a Bad World: A Conversation with Rutger Bregman” The PoliticsGirl Podcast (who I first came across on YouTube) “Historian and author, Rutger Bregman believes there’s an antidote to the sense of emptiness that so many people feel, and it’s the will to make the world a better place. To devote your career to the greater challenges of our time rather than just making money. That the time has come for a moral reawakening. That moral ambition not just financial ambition is what we need if we want to fix the world and actually like our place in it”
The interview was interesting, and is well worth a proper listen - the blurb above gives a good sense of what mostly it was about, but it also introduced a new organisation the author has created/helped create with a view to making the world a better place:
Moral Ambition https://www.moralambition.org/
The non-profit organisation is aiming to acheive its aims in a number of ways, including funded fellowships, organised activities including “ambition circles”.
I don’t know the organisation, and I haven’t read the book, so I can't definitively say anything one way or another, but a quick Internet search was promising and didn’t throw up any red flags (which doesn’t mean they don’t exist, so keep your thinking caps on).
Probably the best search result, in my opinion (IMO), was:
“Effective altruism is stumbling. Can “moral ambition” replace it?” https://bigthink.com/high-culture/effective-altruism-moral-ambition/ “In “Moral Ambition,” Dutch historian Rutger Bregman argues that all would benefit from a collective redefinition of success” which includes a reference to
“The consequences of having a ‘bullshit job’” https://www.eur.nl/en/news/consequences-having-bullshit-job NPO Radio 1
There was also an excellent review in The Big Issue (with some surprising info about the advance and where that is going), The Guardian, goodreads, and Readings.
PS - see also “The EA's guide to Moral Ambition” https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/piNDCbpmGiy8P85hL/the-ea-s-guide-to-moral-ambition “Epistemic status: An email thread with a representative for Moral Ambition, consumption of Rutger Bregman's and Moral Ambition's book and social media. A year of leading my local EA group, deep understanding of EA ideas”
I have subscribed to the website’s email service, but have not become a member - partly because I am already busy.
I also wish to point out that this has been addressed before - most notably, IMO, the organisation 80,000 hours. The new organisation will, I suspect, do more than what 80,000 hours was able to do with their resources - which could not match what the new organisation has (see The Big Issue review), through no fault of their own.
In any case, I consider this is all worth a look and a think.
Possible flaws
Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:
- there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”;
- I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below, and there’s also other options.
Note that I am cutting back on aspects of my posts - see here.
(Gnwmythr is pronounced new-MYTH-ear)
Remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither).#PsychicABetterWorld and may all that I do be of value and actively BPM used for and by the nonphysical BPM because #KindnessIsThePoint
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