We Must Rediscover Our Ability To Imagine Different, Better Worlds

The world stands on the brink of dramatic change. As things are getting worse, it will fall to all of us to rebuild and make something better. Collapse can be an opportunity.

All children are dreamers.

You, too, were once a child. You, too, used to imagine different worlds and existences. You had dreams, once. What happened to you? To all of us?

Why did you stop?

All in all, you're just another brick in the wall.

— Pink Floyd

We grew up. We went to school. We learned to obey. We learned to conform. We learned to accept the reality presented to us. We learned to stop dreaming.

We were told there is no alternative. That this capitalist existence is the best and only system that works. That any attempt to change the world would lead to disaster. That we should be grateful for what we have and not ask for more.

We were told that dreaming is childish. That imagination is useless. That reality is harsh and immutable. That we should be realistic and pragmatic. Art? Forget it. Artists are naive, penniless eccentrics; a burden to the rest of productive society. Writing? Better write to market and be ready to work thrice as much as an average office worker and still make less money. Helping people, caring for the elderly, raising children, making music, gardening, reading and learning, philosophy — all useless activities. The market says so.

“Go to university, dear. Learn something valuable. Earn money. Become a manager. Work, work, work, as the days, the weeks, the months, the years… life passes.”

Then marry, have some children, keep the system alive, and let the cycle continue.

We were told we are free! That we can choose our own destiny. That we can pursue our own happiness. That we can make a difference.

All lies.

The cage can feel, at times, vast and full of possibilities. Yet still a cage it is. A golden one for some — those lucky enough to be born in the right place — a rotten, disgusting one for most others.

There is no alternative.

— Margaret Thatcher

This is how we were conditioned into what philosopher Mark Fisher called capitalist realism. An unfulfilled generation that has lost its ability to imagine different worlds. A generation that has internalized — and become, in some ways — the logic of capitalism and its ideology of neoliberalism. A generation that has surrendered to the status quo and given up on any aspiration of change:

Capitalist Realism and the End of History

Capitalist realism, according to Fisher, is “the widespread sense that not only is capitalism the only viable political and economic system, but also that it is now impossible even to imagine a coherent alternative to it.”

This is not a positive affirmation of capitalism, mind you, but a resigned acceptance of its supposed inevitability. “The end of history,” as Francis Fukuyama called it. Not by conscious choice, but by subconscious and constant conditioning. The world is set up in a way that only those who conform can enjoy a life of relative material comfort and social respect.

Rome will exist as long as the Coliseum does;
when the Coliseum falls, so will Rome;
when Rome falls, so will the world.

— Saint Venerable Bede

While Fisher merely described a social undercurrent, Fukuyama actually thought he was right. He still does. History had ended when the Soviet Union collapsed and the last opposition to capitalism fell, he thinks. A laughable claim.

So many empires thought themselves eternal. They claimed ideological and material superiority. They held vast standing armies, unprecedented power, unrivaled propaganda, never-ending bloodthirst, modern technology, and still… they fell. The Romans of the glory days would not have thought themselves a passing curiosity, and yet we now stare at their crumbling columns, both in awe and disgust, for every empire, no matter how large, requires an even larger host of the oppressed. Slaves. Imperialism.

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

— Karl Marx

Material conditions and the never-ending struggle against life under unjustified authority determine the course of history. Ideology, philosophy, and contemporary morality are merely products of this. A ruling elite decides what is moral and what is not, and always it presents those decisions as the penultimate result of progress, development, and human evolution. “We have arrived at the end-point,” they claim. The capitalist class, the self-reinforcing Bürger, has decided so. Yet it is not ideology that determines how life unfolds, but life that determines ideology!

Of course, most of those who live in comfort today will defend that comfort at any price. It’s why the Western worker has allied himself to the Bürger. The Western worker may be exploited by the Bürger, but at least he’s granted scraps from the reward of exploiting the foreign worker. Concessions are all he requires. It could be worse. He could live like the foreign worker.

History is written by those who write history; those who enjoy the material conditions to be able to write in the first place. Yet change always comes from the oppressed. From below. It will begin in the Global South.

We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.

— Ursula K. Le Guin

Material conditions are the underlying causes of change. As material conditions worsen for the vast majority of the populace, revolutions become inevitable. So claim Marxists. They are right.

The internal contradictions of the current, temporary system are piling up as they crash and falter against ecological realities. The first truly globalized society was achieved by ignoring the impossibility of endless growth on finite resources and twisting this contradiction into logic. Yet nothing can change the laws of physics. Capitalism cannot recover depleted soils. It cannot end poverty. It cannot stop global warming, for doing so would mean its own demise. Capitalism cannot just switch to degrowth, for it is the exact opposite. It cannot be incorporated. A failing status quo cannot be subtly adjusted to suddenly fit vastly changing external circumstances. Capitalism has served a certain part of the populace for a very long time but now threatens to bury us all. We have drawn out the inevitable, thereby making the inevitable worse with every passing year.

Everyone who knows anything knows this. Everyone admits this. We only hope the system can last long enough for us to live and die in comfort. Let the next generation deal with it:

Daddy, What’d Ya Leave Behind for Me?

The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something we make,
and could just as easily make differently.

— David Graeber

The next generation has already begun, in some ways, to deal with it. Pressure on politicians is piling up. Political radicalization — both the constructive and the destructive kind — is increasing. Many reject long working hours and the prevalence of useless bullshit jobs. New forms of social experimentation such as Universal Basic Income (UBI), and trends such as anti-consumption or degrowth are being seriously considered for the first time. Anarchism and communism are gaining popularity, both on the internet and in real life. I have seen it. I live in the imperial core and my city’s mayor is a communist. This would have been impossible just a decade ago.

God is change.

— Octavia E. Butler

Slowly, way too slowly, we are regaining our capability of imagining different, better worlds. Inevitably, we will have to rebuild after all is said and done. Fiction and art, as Ursula K. Le Guin said, can be our guide. Human imagination is, after all, infinite and indestructible. We just have to get used to applying it again.

Everything is possible, and there is hope… for after. For the vast majority of humankind, things can only get better anyway. History has not ended — what nonsense. Capitalist realism is just a passing fad. Nothing is eternal. Even from ashes, a phoenix rises. Things are getting worse, but that doesn’t mean they will get worse forever.

Be brave! Imagine! Cooperate! Use your brain! Do not listen to the many, many status quo defenders. Nothing is determined. Change, change, change, is the only reality, the only truth.

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