Law is stable the societies we are speaking of are progressive. The greater or less happiness of a people depends on the degree of promptitude with which the gulf is narrowed.

Happiness is a real objective phenomenon scientifically verifiable. That means people and whole societies can now be measured over time and compared accurately with one another. Causes and cures for unhappiness can be quantified.

We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.

I think there's a lot of work to be done with our societies. My biggest passions are the environment and health. And when I say 'health' I mean the secrets behind health and our food system.

In contrast fear societies are societies in which dissent is banned.

When we are unwilling to draw clear moral lines between free societies and fear societies when we are unwilling to call the former good and the latter evil we will not be able to advance the cause of peace because peace cannot be disconnected from freedom.

Human societies like human beings live by faith and die when faith dies.

Feudal societies don't create great cinema we have great theatre. The egalitarian societies create great cinema. The Americans the French. Because equality is sort of what the cinema deals with. It deals with stories which don't fall into 'Everybody in their place and who's who ' and all that. But the theatre's full of that.

Any serious shift towards more sustainable societies has to include gender equality.

I'm a latecomer to the environmental issue which for years seemed to me like an excuse for more government regulation. But I can see that in rich societies voters are paying less attention to economic issues and more to issues of the spirit including the environment.