How to be Right in a World Gone Wrong – James O’Brien
Written by Elisa Garbil – 29.09.2025
Albeit a short book, James O’Brien discusses multiple issues he has heard on his radio show at LBC where he engages with callers on contentious topics like Brexit, immigration, political correctness, and Islam and discusses their ideas, the international risks, and misconceptions. O’Brien uses these conversations to dissect and challenge the underlying assumptions, biases, and risks of his callers, aiming to expose the fallacies in their arguments. James dives into various topics, highlighting the raise of racism, anti-capitalism, and the slow decent into fascism if we are not careful as nations. I received this book from my partner and enjoyed reading it, as stated before, it is short and concise but gets the point across. It asks you to think, as discussion can only occur if both parties are willing to listen to opposing views and trying to understand where people are coming from. From a risk management perspective, the book How to be Right in a World Gone Wrong is a timely reminder of how populism, misinformation, and polarised narratives pose real threats to democratic stability, social cohesion, and international relations. The themes explored, such as xenophobia, nationalism, and ideological extremism, are not just domestic issues, but critical indicators of emerging international risk. In an era where public opinion can rapidly influence policy and global alliances, understanding the roots of these sentiments becomes essential for all politicians, advisors, business leaders, and risk professionals.
The more fractured and divided a society becomes, the more fertile the ground is for terrorists to plant their views and ideologies.
How to be right in a world gone wrong – James O’Brien
How the world is faring right now shows us a rise in fascism and authoritarianism. It is therefore necessary to understand where people are coming from when it comes to viewpoints that might be very much opposing to your own. Nonetheless, James does explain well that we cannot accept defeat when it comes to debating the far-right. It is nearly impossible as (often) far-right (and far-left) voters do not engage in dialogue as they do not listen to the other party. Overall, I do believe that people sometimes vote for certain parties because they are fearful of “the other”, of the differences we all have, of a changing world, and are doing badly economically. It is important to remember that politicians like Le Pen, Bardello, Farage, Wilders, Trump, and others, are not after improving our lives, they are after improving their own. If they have to do so by ensuring you and I fall into poverty, they will do so.
Racism helps to excuse the employers who aren’t paying decent wages, the politicians who are underfunding the public sector.
How to be right in a world gone wrong – James O’Brien
As mentioned in the quote above, racism is a scapegoat. If we do not understand this as a society we will fall further in to fascism. Imagine a world where there are no immigrants, this would arise a few questions first:
- When are you considered an immigrant?
- When being not part of country A where you are currently living?
- When you are born in country A but your parents are not?
- When your parents are born in country A as are you?
- You are third generation of country A
- How many centuries do we have to go back to prove ‘nativeness’?
- Do we only consider immigrants who are not white?
- Because let’s be honest, that is usually the issue, the rampant racism protruded by the far-right…
- Are we racist towards everyone who isn’t born in country A or just the poor ones?
- Where do we consider refugees? Fleeing for war seems legitimate to me…
- Why do we consider rich immigrants, i.e. the top five percent, part of country A but not the ones at the bottom five percent?
And well… more could be said. But the first questions do really spark discussion, because looking back into ones genealogy one might find a mixed heritage. Migration has been part of this world for centuries, arguably it is what we have done most as humans, think of hunters and gatherers who never stayed in one spot for long. So racism is the tool for ensuring that there is divide, because we have a (common) nationality but maybe not a common skin tone. Yet, how can countries who proudly colonised half of the world – yes looking at you France, Britain, and the Netherlands – be so opposed to diversity. Seems it is, as it was before, just a question of who is rich. If the richest profit from it, then it is okay. The racism, the colonialism, the hatred. This isn’t just a moral contradiction, it is a geopolitical risk. When historical amnesia and systemic racism shape immigration policy, social unrest, and diplomatic posture, the result is heightened tension and increased international risk within states and between them. For governments, ignoring the legacy of colonialism while resisting diversity undermines global trust, weakens alliances, and inflames the very international risks they seek to manage.
Quotes That Might Encourage You Read the Book:
The true liberal is cursed with a desire, even a duty, to understand other points of views. It’s a worldview that admits disagreement and dissident but seeks to establish objective parameters by which the fundamental truth of being judged.
How to be right in a world gone wrong – James O’Brien
Most accounts of how societies fall to fascism cite rampant sexism as a key indicator.
How to be right in a world gone wrong – James O’Brien
he choice of whether to buy something or not can’t be really ‘free’ if on one side a multi-national conglomerate is spending millions upon millions of pounds to persuade parents to pour it down their children’s throats, while on the other, if we’re lucky, a tine non-for-profit campaign group is trying to be heard.
How to be right in a world gone wrong – James O’Brien
Authoritarian fraudsters only prosper when a population has been persuaded that an invisible enemy army exists.
How to be right in a world gone wrong – James O’Brien
