1. Far more of the world will have decent standards of living, because of the long, ongoing spread of economic freedom. Every generation since 1750 in the West has lived better by 50% than the last, and that will continue. The last thirty years have seen the first instance in history in which absolute global poverty and inequality have declined. (Mr. Derbyshire could look it up if he had the inclination.) Hundreds of millions of people have been moved out of poverty in the last 35 years, many hundreds of millions more will be in the next 20.
2. Some pop culture is admittedly miserable, and it tends to be the most visible culture. But culture nowadays is far more interesting than it has ever been, because global communications technology allows us to sample and recombine what the world has to offer. Think about American food, for example. It is dramatically more compelling than when I was a child. Americans can eat traditional sushi and Japanese can eat sushi with avocados in it, or vice versa. The world is benefiting immensely because young Chinese and Korean piano wunderkinder want to play Beethoven in New York.
3. China will be tamed by modernity. Their parents will never stomach a war fought with their only child. The Chinese are far more in control of their own lives than in 1979, and will be far more so in a decade. They are a prideful people on the rise, and that is always a dangerous combination, but they and India will be integrated into the modern global system ultimately. (Pakistan is a different story.)
4. The world is in the midst of a great Christian re-awakening, stretching from Alabama to California to Nigeria to Korea. Christianity is more vibrant, more revitalized than in centuries because of the rising up in places where long ago Europeans apread the gospel. Only this time the doctrinal disputes will be carried on without the bloodshed of the European Reformation.
5. Having said all this, I agree that the Arab world is a different story. It may well be hopeless.
American conservatives are happy because of what we are trying to conserve - the pursuit of happiness in an environment of limited government. The European right is just not like that.
Your post is a useful reply to Derbyshire's gloom and doom-thanks.
"Having said all this, I agree that the Arab world is a different story. It may well be hopeless."
All the more reason for Christians (hello, GWB) to lay off the "Islam is a religion of peace" claptrap, and get more serious about preaching the Gospel to the Arab and Muslim world. I am talking about the real Gospel, not the Osteen/Warren/Copeland/Hinn "you are wonderful and God is your genie in a bottle" false gospel.