Fantasy thinking substitutes passive imagined futures for real present transformation

Evidence

Yet none of this means that we should, or that we can, give up in our attempts to steer the juggernaut. The minimising of high-consequence risks transcends all values and all exclusionary divisions of power. “History” is not on our side, has no teleology, and supplies us with no guarantees. But the heavily counterfactual nature of future-oriented thought, an essential element of the reflexivity of modernity, has positive as well as negative implications. For we can envisage alternative futures whose very propagation might help them be realised. What is needed is the creation of models of Utopian realism. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 365 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

A man with one clay pot of flour is wealthier than a man who has imagined ten thousand buffaloes — if the imagining is what costs him the pot. — , A Year of World Stories, 5595 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Imagining alternative futures can help bring them into being — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 365; Imagining a future gain can destroy present wealth — , A Year of World Stories, 5595; Regressive childhood memory replaces lost potential with dreams of non-existence (+1 more)

Related

• Imagining a future gain can destroy present wealth (similarity 0.87)
• Imagining alternative futures can help bring them into being (similarity 0.83)
• A future-oriented unconscious drives creation forward into the not-yet-existent (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Imagining alternative futures can help bring them into being #contradicts (0.90) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 365
• Imagining a future gain can destroy present wealth #exemplifies (0.75) — , A Year of World Stories, 5595