Daydreaming inverts the present into fantasy rather than transforming it.

Evidence

On daydreams and fantasies. They show lack of character and passivity. One imagines that something has happened to upset the mechanism of necessity. One’s own initiative has become free. Everything is easy. One can do whatever one wants, and one wants a whole series of things which at present one lacks. It is basically the present turned on its head which is projected into the future. Everything repressed is unleashed. On the contrary, it is necessary to direct one’s attention violently towards the present as it is, if one wishes to transform it. Pessimism of the intelligence, optimism of the will. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2194

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gramsci defines fantasy as passivity that unleashes everything repressed while leaving the present untouched.
• APHORISMS: “Pessimism of the intelligence, optimism of the will” is a portable maxim about how to act under conditions you cannot wish away.
• XREF: Connects forward to the ideological-fantasy and ‘common sense’ vocabulary the Islamophobia readings assume. — connects to: Daydreaming substitutes fantasy for the disciplined transformation of present reality; Fantasy thinking substitutes passive imagined futures for real present transformation

Broader Connections

• Daydreaming substitutes fantasy for the disciplined transformation of present reality #corroborates (0.95)
• Fantasy thinking substitutes passive imagined futures for real present transformation #corroborates (0.92)