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viding ecological balance. It may well eliminate also busts the leftist myth dents and thinkers who
The next four lessons trains, cars and traffic that Denmark is a social- shaped the post-World
we need to learn to survive jams — and civic pollution ist, planned economy. It is War II international
and prosper in the post- (see p. 238). ranked higher than the US order which he reminds
pandemic world are titled In Lesson 7, Zakaria on the Heritage Founda- us, has unprecedentedly
‘What matters is not the warns that income and tion’s Index of Economic prevented a major global
quantity of government, living standard inequali- Freedom, he notes. war for over 80 years. This
but quality’; ‘Markets ties between nations and Although cursorily ad- has happened because of
are not enough’; ‘People within nations, will get dressed by your reviewer establishment of interna-
should listen to experts worse. Rising dispar- because of space con- tional governance organ-
and experts should listen ity is already generating straints, all the ten lessons isations such as the UN,
to people’; and ‘Life is international and national delivered by Zakaria IMF, Unesco, UNDP, Uni-
digital’. tensions. According to have valuable takeaways. cef and several regional
The somewhat puz- him, the post-pandemic Yet perhaps the most trade blocs. The chapter
zling Lesson 5 titled important point raised ends with a plea for per-
‘Aristotle was right — we The purpose of this by the learned author is sistence with international
are social animals’ makes work of penetrative that addressing climate cooperation because “it
the point that despite insights is to provide change is an urgent global can change the world… it
plagues, pandemics, two important advice to imperative, and prevent- is common sense”.
world wars and the latest national governments ing continuous destruction Unsurprisingly this
Covid-19 pandemic which and societies of the environment and insightful book — the out-
hit crowded cities hard- coexisting in a very Earth’s habitat by extrac- come of deep scholarship,
est, a reverse migration to inter-connected world tive industries has to be tightly written and argued
rural spaces is unlikely. stopped. Even at the cost with noble purpose — has
The author highlights of accepting de-growth received scant attention
that the number of cities era “demands burial of the and reduction of standards in the Indian academy
in the world with popula- Washington Consensus — of living in developed and media. It ends with
tions of over 1 million has free market reforms that OECD countries. a message of hope and
increased from just two rich countries have been The other vitally im- declaration of faith in
(London and Beijing) in prescribing to poor ones”. portant recommendation human agency. “Noth-
1800 to 371 in 2000 and The market economy Zakaria makes in this riv- ing is written (in stone),”
will “surpass 700 in 2030,” the world needs to learn eting compendium replete concludes Zakaria. “It (the
because homo sapiens is a from, if not follow, is of with data and penetrating pandemic) has opened up
social animal, and loves to Denmark that is “prosper- insights, is for national a path to a new world. It’s
huddle in cities. ous, democratic, secure, leaders and publics to ours to take that opportu-
But a new metropolitan well-governed and experi- resist the temptation to nity or squander it.”
model city in which every ences low levels of corrup- retreat into cynicism and Recommended reading
citizen can reach wher- tion,” in which business isolationism. for all trying to shape this
ever she needs to go by a and industry are lightly In an insightful chapter straggler country’s future.
15-minute walk or a short and transparently regulat- (Lesson 10), Zakaria lauds And all concerned about it.
bike ride, is taking shape. ed. In this chapter, Zakaria America’s idealist presi- DILIP THAKORE

276 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2021