Can We Collectively Envision a Better Future?

How good is your imagination?

Growing up in a progressive, international community in Manhattan in the 1980s and 90s, we were told all sorts of lies about the world as children. Ok, maybe calling them lies is a bit extreme, but I can’t help but feel like we were misled. We were optimistically taught that the world was in a process of progressing, that world hunger would be eliminated in our lifetime, that poverty and war were going to inevitably end, and they only existed because of technological limitations and misunderstandings. We were never taught that there are literally people who exist, and people in power no less, who want war to be a perpetual part of the human landscape. We were never taught that world hunger is a problem that, if not created by, then certainly exacerbated by men who perpetuate food scarcity for either ideological or material reasons, or both.

How shocking to grow up and learn that the things we were taught as children about the values we all aspire to have as sustainable humanists are not actually values held by a majority of adults. I learned this in my own life as a seeker of truth and as a critical thinker. I have alienated people from me that I once considered friends because I assumed they were as interested in the truth as I was. Now I know that the rare individual who actually values Truth regardless of how it might negatively impact them is a rare person indeed, especially in America.

I’ve learned that the average person, and even exceptional people, would rather preserve their own illusions of reality than be confronted by truths that are uncomfortable or inconvenient. You may tell yourself that you are an agent of good in the world, but if you find out your favorite brand is on the boycott list because of their support of genocide, what do you do? Do you part ways from your favorite clothes, or food, or TV programs because your integrity is important to you? If you’re most people, probably not.

I saw a Youtube video recently of a courtroom scene where the father of a murdered young man publicly forgave the killer of his son. You can see it here:

Reading the comments, it shocked me how many people expressed how hard it would be for them to forgive. Of course, I am not claiming it would be easy to forgive the killer, but finding a way to do so would be necessary for everyone to be able to move on. The father essentially says this himself in the video: holding onto resentment will just poison his own life.

Can we envision a future where forgiveness is normalized? Where violent retaliation is frowned up, and people are instead encouraged to find other ways towards resolution of conflict? As children in our privileged bubble, we were taught to use our words rather than our fists. Why is this principle forgotten when it comes to the behavior of nation-states? Forget trying to live in a peaceful world, can we even envision this type of world, where diplomacy is the primary response to conflict? That’s our first step, just using our imagination to visualize what this ideal world might look like.

I have been working on this kind of vision for years now, and I am working to share it with you and with the world at large. There are some widespread psychological shifts that are going to be necessary before we can create this kind of world, including normalizing empathy, detachment, and compassion, but this is the path we must take if we expect humanity to survive this coming era. I expect these shifts in values to come from radical art that disseminates and demonstrates the importance of these values if we want to live sustainably and peacefully.

Of course I may be fighting a useless struggle, and humanity may be doomed to perpetual war and violence. But I’m not going to give up easily. In my own lifetime so far, I’ve evolved tremendously towards more sustainable values, and if I can mature, so can anyone else that wants to. If you think you’re one of those people, let’s be friends and try and do it together.