‘I’m optimistic about 2021 because…’

After a year to forget, 40 well-known figures tell us why they’re feeling positive about the future

Is there too much negativity in the world? If there is, it’s probably our fault – the media, that is. Famously in the hard-hearted world of journalism, “if it bleeds it leads” and our tendency to highlight bad news may have made an objectively terrible year seem even worse.

Scary headlines hold our attention because of negativity bias – the human desire not only to seek out bad news but to give it more credence. It’s why people remain scared of plane crashes when 99.99997 per cent of commercial flights land safely, and why the majority of people think extreme poverty is rising when it’s falling fast. (In one survey, only one per cent of respondents knew that it had decreased by half in 20 years. The rest were too pessimistic.)

Social media has turbocharged negativity. Former Google employee Tristan

Harris describes smartphones as a “slot machine in your pocket” where each swipe to refresh your feed brings a hit of dopamine as you anticipate your next like or your next moral outrage. It keeps us addicted to “doomscrolling”, especially when locked up indoors.

Perhaps we can take a break as we look forward to next year. Doubtless there will be bad news in the headlines and the good news buried in the weeds.

But neither will be the things we predict. Look back at last January’s predictions, with snazzy titles like “20/20 vision”. Did any of them foresee genuine 2020 headlines such as, “Thai Police Say Monkeys Have Taken Over City”, “FA Confirm They Are Not Turning Wembley Into Giant Lasagna” and, just last weekend, “Can Animal Poop Ward Off Murder Hornets?”

The world is unpredictable. The best approach may be optimism. Inside, 40 open-minded people from the worlds of policy, culture, science, the environment and showbiz, as well as The Telegraph’s most cheerful columnists, share their reasons for being optimistic about 2021. This year’s been ugly. But tomorrow is another day.

Matt Ridley, author of The Rational Optimist, is looking forward to a new era of prosperity

As always, when humanity is in a hole, it is a technical fix that comes to our rescue. Vaccines will almost certainly halt the pandemic, and thanks to messenger RNA we may enter a new era when we can quickly devise a new vaccine for any disease threat. More generally, I suspect the next few decades will be dominated by biotechnology, in a way that the past few were dominated by digital software. Everything from cancer and ageing to pesticides and the decline of biodiversity can begin to be sorted with genomic wizardry. Emerging from the pandemic we will also begin to rethink our attitude to work, not by retreating into some grim ecoausterity, but by advancing into a bright eco-prosperity, working from home if we can and summoning unmanned cars or drones when we cannot. The 2010s, like every decade, were dominated by bad news stories – financial crises, terrorism, Syria, ebola, populism, identity politics, corona – but they were actually the best decade ever for humanity by a mile, with collapsing poverty and child mortality and booming growth and lifespan, in Africa especially. If we unleash the energy of entrepreneurs, the roaring 2020s will be even better.

Author Matt Haig believes dark times reveal the light

I know that optimism has been in short supply in 2020, and times have been tough, but I now find myself feeling hopeful. And it’s a hope that extends beyond the good news of vaccines and medical breakthroughs to more philosophical things. I think we have seen how we, as a species, can respond and react to uncertain events, and that has been positive. This year I delved into a lot of Ancient Greek philosophy for comfort. The Stoic philosopher Epictetus said that “it’s not what happens to you but how you react to it that matters” and I think that has been the lesson of 2020. If we’d been told a year ago about lockdowns and daily virus briefings and excess death rates we’d have turned very pale in fear, and yet, here we are. As the cliché puts it, we have survived every day we have lived. So my reason for hope in 2021 isn’t a specific external thing, event or breakthrough – though, my goodness, I am looking forward to visiting a Greek island at the first chance – but more a new sense of stoicism and survival and embrace of uncertainty. Just as volcanic ash creates the most fertile soil, so it is that the most intense times often lead to the most growth. Without the dark, stars have no way to shine. And next year, whatever light emerges will be there to dazzle us. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (Canongate Books) is out now

Mary Portas, retail entrepreneur and high street champion, foresees the dawn of a kinder economy

I’m so over data defining how we live. Creativity is the future’s most important economic resource. The kindness economy is here, where we realise that the drive for more and more growth and profit was killing our planet and that it is time for considerate consumerism. While this has been the most painful time, regeneration and new ways of working will come. The next generation won’t consume in the same way.

Columnist Allison Pearson is optimistic that the new normal will actually be the new better

Alas, as Boris Johnson kept saying, in 2020 the light at the end of the tunnel usually did turn out to be the full beam of an express train. So, in 2021, I will be making a conscious choice to be optimistic for my family and my country. For my mother who, like so many elderly people, has endured many fearful months alone. Thank God – and all those brainy scientists – for the vaccine that is the key to spending time with her beloved grandchildren without fretting whether it’s “safe”. I am optimistic that we will have a renewed appreciation of all those little things we took for granted. Having a cup of tea in Mum’s kitchen will feel more exotic than a fortnight in the Maldives. I’m positive that I will hug my friends. A lot. I’m optimistic for my children. Both young musicians, they’ve been deprived of a whole year of doing what they love best. I am adamant that the theatres and the concert venues will reopen and the soul food, of which we’ve all been starved, will be on life’s menu again. Whatever happens, we mustn’t settle for some “new normal”. The intense human desire for connection will reassert itself. Of that I’m hopeful.

Robert Peston, journalist and presenter, thinks we will build back stronger

The challenges of 2021 will be huge but I am feeling positive. Because like millions of us I no longer take for granted family, friendships, the communities to which I belong and all that connects us to other nations. So I am confident that we will work together and be all the stronger as we rebuild. Oh, and going to football, concerts and movies again will feel like the greatest treats of my life.

Cressida Cowell, Waterstones Children’s Laureate, has high hopes for the next generation

I’ve been impressed with the creativity and spirit of children in 2020. I’ve been sent so many drawings and stories that show the next generation are imaginative, innovative and resilient. Bravo to them for making it through a hard year.

However ghastly it’s all been, I regularly shout: “In your face, Covid!” when I notice another thing that furthers my hope for 2021. We’ve been reminded that we’re all vulnerable, that we all have times we need to ask

for help. And more importantly, that people are not only happy to help but there is incredible skill, strength, resilience and resolve to rely on. I believe we’ll remember the power of the small neighbourly acts of kindness we witnessed

during the pandemic. There’s way more good in the world than bad, but the bad always gets the press. I have hope that we’ll focus on and develop the good from what we’ve seen of its power this year and because we’re ever more grateful for

it. In your face, Covid!

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