Posing a question of the future risks immediately foreclosing that future.

Evidence

The great irony is that although we seem to be living through the anticipa- tory “age of the future,” there is no real future left open to us as a viable site. For the past projections of the future, in their influence as an ideational power- house on the course of policy and history, have foreclosed the formerly available futures filled with variable choices and exhausted the once rich cultural and natural resources that might have provided the basis in the past for a humane future in a livable landscape. — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 751 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Contemporary capitalism sees the risk-taking, entrepreneurial agent of the post–Bretton Woods era being refashioned as a politically disoriented, speculative subject who accepts rather than averts the future’s radical uncertainty. Homo economicus is no longer. But although much has been said about its pronounced death, we still know remarkably little about the social and political subject that has succeeded it. Over the course of this book, I conceptualize the ascendancy of what we may call homo speculans and the consequences of this development for contemporary societies. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 25 (#expands, via linked claim)

But how much longer will those like Trump, Johnson, and company be able to trade successfully on this delicate balance of speculation and insurance? How far will they go in providing no-limit risk protections for the wealthiest, while reserving nationalism’s symbolic insurance to the downwardly mobile? And can a speculative imagination be harnessed in more inclusive ways? Can it be weaponized toward more radical progressive projects? My next and final step will be a foray into these pressing political imperatives of speculative communities. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 297 (#responds-to, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Past predictions have foreclosed genuinely open futures — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 751; Future literature mobilizes people toward predetermined ends — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 747; A failed political future can still function as a haunting question. — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror…, 1037 (+2 more)

Related

• The speculative subject accepts rather than averts the future’s radical uncertainty (similarity 0.86)
• The future is a prejudicative self-relation, not representation or actual potency (similarity 0.85)
• Present conscious states derive meaning only from internal relation to the future (similarity 0.85)
• The speculative imagination keeps the future open to change by collectively owning its indeterminacy (similarity 0.82)
• Shared uncertain futures are central to how imagined communities bind people together (similarity 0.81)
• Impatience with capitalism’s future promises makes personal imagination increasingly speculative. (similarity 0.81)
• Speculation now means endorsing uncertainty as a tactic for social survival (similarity 0.81)
• A collective speculative imagination shapes how capitalist societies cope with future uncertainty. (similarity 0.81)
• Speculative uncertainty is now reshaping democratic politics itself. (similarity 0.81)
• The open question is whether speculation can be weaponized progressively. (similarity 0.80)
• Past predictions have foreclosed genuinely open futures (similarity 0.80)
• Speculation is an imaginative act confronting uncertainty, not mere risk-taking (similarity 0.80)
• Uncertainty is a resource enabling political subjectivity, not merely an outcome of finance (similarity 0.80)
• Collective imagination, not individual gamblers, shapes our shared wagers on the future (similarity 0.79)
• Speculation re-enchants collectivities by projecting broken promises onto shared futures (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Past predictions have foreclosed genuinely open futures #exemplifies (0.85) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 751
• The open question is whether speculation can be weaponized progressively. #responds-to (0.80) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 297
• The speculative subject accepts rather than averts the future’s radical uncertainty #expands (0.80) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 25
• Future literature mobilizes people toward predetermined ends #exemplifies (0.78) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 747
• A failed political future can still function as a haunting question. #complicates (0.75) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 1037