Future movements resort to incantations to reassure themselves of their cherished illusions.

Evidence

There is a pronounced tendency, however, for prophets and movements to resort to incantations to reassure themselves about their cherished illu- sions. The enthusiasts of the Tennessee Valley Authority a generation ago, as Harold Ickes observed sardonically in 1944, began to believe that they might breathe life into a new democracy merely by intoning “TVA, TVA, TVA.” Similarly, the “greening of America” and like-minded counterculture scen- arios impress one as nothing more than a chanting exercise for a new generation of Americans sent to their rendezvous with another electric des- tiny. — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 725

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘chanting exercise’ trope connects to Carey’s ritual view — these futurists are performing a ritual of solidarity rather than building reality. — connects to: Imagining alternative futures can help bring them into being — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 365; Intensified ephemerality drives a reactive craving for eternal truths and secure moorings. — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 1843; Utopic certainty derives from millenarian traditions of ordained futures. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 690
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 725