Brief Thoughts: On Imagining

We won’t get what we don’t ask for. What we can’t imagine. What we can’t make irresistible.

On Imagining

“Remember to imagine and craft the worlds you cannot live without, just as you dismantle the ones you cannot live within.” - Ruha Benjamin

“Whenever you think you have incompatible needs, it’s often just a crisis of imagination.” - Dr. Alison Ash 

“Empowerment comes from ideas—our revolution is fought with concepts, not with guns, and it is fueled by vision. By focusing on what we want to happen we change the present. The healing images and narratives we imagine will eventually materialize.” - Gloria Anzaldúa

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I’ve been thinking about the importance of imagining. 

Last summer, I was at a (virtual) organizing conference, and we were doing a visioning exercise: “It’s 100 years from now, and we’ve achieved all our goals. What’s your dream headline?”

As the answers cascaded into the chat, I felt deflated by how limited they were. For example, “Green Party Wins Supermajority in Oregon Legislature.”

I want a future where everyone belongs and everyone’s needs are met. Where all people enjoy lives free from violence. Where we live in right relationship with each other, non-human beings, and the land. People have created that world before (e.g. many Indigenous cultures) and I believe we can do it again. As Ursula Le Guin reminds us, “Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.”

In that future, does land ownership exist? Private property in general? Money? Debt? Jobs? Wages? Police? Prisons? Punishment? Borders? What is our relationship with the land we live on? Is the land we live on and the land we live from the same? How do we get food? How do we make decisions? Where/how do we sleep, cook, learn, love, play, connect? Is there a state? If so, what is the role of the state? 

Currently, I don’t see (or I’m not yet familiar with) a lot of left/progressive/radical visions that ask these questions or that fall much outside the status quo. And because we can’t imagine it, we’re not asking for enough.

And we won’t get what we don’t ask for. What we can’t imagine. What we can’t make irresistible.

I’m not saying I know how to get there. But we need to be able to imagine the what, so we can tell whether our actions are getting us closer or not. 

Shout-out to the orgs/individuals I’ve seen imagining truly liberatory futures: Culture Hack Labs’ Interbeing. Building Belonging. Movement Generation’s Living Economy. The visions of adrienne maree brown, ALOK, Mariame Kaba, and Mia Birdsong, as well as many of the guests on the For the Wild podcast. 

Who do you admire who’s imagining liberatory futures? Let me know.