Imagining alternative futures can help bring them into being
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
Categorization
- XREF: The performative/enactment idea of counterfactual futures pairs with Deep Listening’s insight that group possibility statements seed action. — connects to: More planning expands future possibilities and creates new insecurity — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 129; Future literature mobilizes people toward predetermined ends — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 747; A group imagining actions shifts from spectator to potential doer — Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening, 326 (+11 more)
- DEFINE: Definition of ‘Utopian realism’ as Giddens’s key normative concept.
Related
- A future-oriented unconscious drives creation forward into the not-yet-existent (similarity 0.84)
- Fantasy thinking substitutes passive imagined futures for real present transformation (similarity 0.83)
- Future literature mobilizes people toward predetermined ends (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Literature resists Islamophobic universalism by structuring feeling and imagining alternative experiences
#corroborates(0.80) - A group imagining actions shifts from spectator to potential doer
#exemplifies(0.75) — Pauline Oliveros, Deep Listening, 326 - Future literature mobilizes people toward predetermined ends
#complicates(0.70) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 747 - Imagining the absent is the defining human capacity behind story
#corroborates(0.70) — Janet Burroway; Elizabeth Stuckey-French; Ned Stuckey-French, Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition, 24 - Romantics challenged mechanical worldview by celebrating imagination
#corroborates(0.65) — Richard A. Posner, What Has Pragmatism to Offer Law?, 23 - Future movements resort to incantations to reassure themselves of their cherished illusions.
#contradicts(0.60) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 725 - Articulating thoughts leads to self-discovery and meaning.
#qualifies(0.55) — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 831