Recently, I was listening to Kristen Tippett interview Adrienne Maree Brown on her podcast “On Being.” One particular phrase from their conversation jumped out at me. Brown said we “are living in the imagination of other people.”
“That’s it,” I thought to myself. As a futurist, I have written and spoken extensively about the vital role imagination plays in shaping and determining our future. I had never, however, considered the idea that the society we live in is the product of other people’s imaginations.
Yet the more I have thought about it, the more I felt Brown was right.
Let me help you think about it this way. Everything that exists today–from farming and cities to commerce and trade, and even money and all the various forms of governance–was first imagined in the human mind.
The truth is this: What we can imagine we can, in fact, create. History proves it.
Let me also add this: Much of what has been imagined has been good, positive and beneficial for society. At the same time, much has also been less than desirable. Fascism, for example, I would argue was–and is–the foul byproduct of evil imagination.
The problem as I see it is that far too many people are now imagining a future from a place of fear and scarcity. These “imagineers” of a dark future will try to convince you they are only “being realistic.” They are not being realistic, what they are is scared.
There is a different way to imagine the future and that is through the lens of love, community and abundance.
I know in my heart we can create a better, bolder and more beautiful world but it starts by first imagining what this future can be.
I intend to write more deeply on this topic moving forward but we CAN create a world where everyone on the planet is treated fairly and has access to clean water, fresh air and healthy food, and where war, poverty, loneliness and homelessness are non-existent.
If all of this sounds too “woo woo,” pollyannaish or idealistic for you, I will leave you with this quote from Walter Brueggemann, “It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of imagination, to keep on conjuring and proposing futures alternative to the single one the king wants to urge as the only thinkable one.”*
What we can imagine we can create, so why not begin by imagining a better and more beautiful world? After all, our future depends upon it.
*To those of you who, like me, come from the Christian stream of faith but are “skittish” about using your “prophetic voice,” I would remind you of 1 Corinthians 14: “Pursue love, but strive eagerly for spiritual gifts, above all that you may prophesy.”
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