Rutger Bregman’s book, Moral Ambition tells us to aim higher. Why not have an ambition to improve the world? People have achieved amazing things in the past and there is no reason why we can’t make stunning progress again.
Ambition Isn’t Bad
In making the world better it helps to have ambition. That ambition needs to be tied to action.
The only kind of person we can’t use in this fight is the fool who thinks good intentions alone are enough. [Author’s emphasis]
Bregman, 2025, page 64
Moral ambition — a desire to make a significant change to the world in a positive sense — is way of thinking. Critically, Bregman argues that this is contagious. When you see people trying to change the world for the better you gain confidence that you too can make a positive difference. While moral ambition might seem too grandiose for most people it is precisely the presence of people with moral ambition that gives power to others to do more.
Are morally ambitious people a bit arrogant. Sure, what’s the problem? If you think you can make the world better then go ahead and try. Even if you only achieve 10% of what you aim to do that is likely a massive contribution.
Progress Is Progress However It Happens
Sometimes people who have a moral position insist everyone adopt their position. It is important to remember that it is the end that matters most, how we get to the end often doesn’t matter too much. If you think animals are mistreated in our food supply chains (and how could you not?) then if people give up beef to avoid that meat’s greenhouse gas implications that is great. People don’t have to agree with you on the why — that eating meat is morally wrong — as long you achieve the what — reducing cruel farming practices.
Bregman has a running theme around the emancipation (anti-slavery) movement in the UK. This eventual abolition took generations. Progress was made with the 1772 Somerset Case, which was interpreted as saying slavery was illegal in the UK. Yet, it was still 60+ years till the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act which committed Britain to worldwide abolition. Across the years the movement kept on going. Lots of different influences and wins were taken at various stages. Individuals made a real difference, from those who has escaped from slavery telling their stories, through the religious dissenters creating action groups, and privileged politicians being happy to be the face of the movement.
Try Anything To Make The World Better
What is interesting is that the anti-slavery campaigners weren’t afraid to try arguments that seem odd, even offensive.
Clarkson [a major anti-slavery campaigner] knew he needed other arguments [beyond the obvious barbarity] against the slave trade, so he turned his attention to the fate of British sailors on the slave ships. That’s right, one of the greatest abolitionists of all time shifted his focus to the suffering among the perpetrators.
Bregman, 2025, page 71
Anything that could stop slavery was worth a try.
Ambition To Improve The World
To Bregman moral ambition is an extremely practical thing. It isn’t just being moral, it is being moral with a plan to change the world. The British abolitionists where largely businesspeople (often Quakers). They liked to get things done. It was pretty obvious that slavery was awful, and so not much thinking beyond that was needed. Instead, their efforts went into how to change the world. These groups were a key part of the great successes in the fight against slavery in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Go through the archives of [the 18th century British Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade] today, and you’ll mostly find to-do lists, actions plans. While the abolitionist movement in France was led by writers and intellectuals (and didn’t get much done).
Bregman, 2025, page 52
If you have ambition to improve the world then think about what you can do. But thinking isn’t enough, then you must give it a go. You’ll need a plan and healthy self-confidence as well as a strong cause. Beyond what you can personally achieve you should help inspire others to be morally ambitious themselves.
For more on progress see Recognizing Trade-offs Is Critical To Progress, Are We Making Any Progress On Sustainability?, Progress Exists And Is A Good Thing, Time Prices Are Useful But Not Everything, and Denial, Doom, Or Informed Optimism
Read: Rutger Bregman (2025) Moral Ambition: Stop wasting your talent and start making a difference, Little, Brown and Company
