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A place for optimism, relentless positivity, anti-doomerism, and snuggle sessions.

We're all in this together, and a better world is possible!

This is now also a space for organizing tips for our collective survival as we confront climate change and everything else. Still no doom-posting. We're here to work together, support each other, and boldly face the future.

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Tell me your story about the future (hexbear.net)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by StillNoLeftLeft@hexbear.net to c/bloomer@hexbear.net

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"I've been to the future, we won."

This quote on a t-shirt was brought up in this podcast episode and it made me tear up in the bus. A pretty powerful reaction. The quest in this episode is Rob Hobkins who has written a book called How to Fall in Love with the Future. which is essentially a book that invites us to travel to future worlds we would actually want to live in.

The podcast episode is sort of lib and idealist, but imo it reaches something very important. It for example goes over possible future soundscapes and places like carless cities but the important part is the whole idea of why we should spend time imagining better futures. It made me think about how Marx points out that humans make things first in their mind and how this also applies to the futures we build. We imagine them first.

And if we can only build things that we can imagine and can only imagine doom and despair, then only those get cultivated.

I feel like this might sort of explain the China bloomer/doomer mentalities we now see or the hard crackdown on the solidarity that tried to spring up at the start of covid (it did show some people a possible better world). The machines of conservativity like LLMs also only serve to destroy our ability to dream better futures imo.

So I thought it would be lovely to hear others stories of the futures they imagine. I'll add my own once I've really thought about it. I'd suggest listening to the podcast episode as a primer if your cupboard of better futures is all empty.

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[–] jack@hexbear.net 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

comfy

I appreciate the prompt! I also listened to the episode that inspired you when it came out, and since then I've been thinking a ton about what it is I'm actually fighting for so hard. There is so much incredible potential in the people and places around me, so much horribly suppressed and crushed in the pursuit of profit, and everything that could be seems to be hiding just below the surface, always ready to burst forward if it could ever find the path.

This very specific, local manifestation I described above is just a little slice of an idea I have, following six generations of a family, from the revolutionaries who toppled the system to the children who finally get to live under communism. I think, if a socialist revolution won in the US, that we'd be about 150 years from true global communism, the end of all class conflict, the abolition of war, the dissolution of the state, and finally enter an era of unbound potential where our species reaches maturity.

Of course, I imagine that old revolutionary as myself and my comrades. I know that the truth end of all oppression and injustice and war is outside my lifespan in even the most optimistic scenarios I can imagine. I hope, though, that when my time comes, it will be leaving behind a world that has stood up and stepped over capital, where the path to liberation is open to all people, and I dedicated everything I have to moving that forward. I would be proud to die after living such a life.

[–] StillNoLeftLeft@hexbear.net 3 points 9 months ago

I hope, though, that when my time comes, it will be leaving behind a world that has stood up and stepped over capital, where the path to liberation is open to all people, and I dedicated everything I have to moving that forward. I would be proud to die after living such a life.

Same, very much so. And yes, it probably will be past our lifespans, but that is ok.

This whole thought experiment made me realize how incredibly deeply our minds are trapped in "capitalist realism". I really struggled with coming up with a story from the future which made the "easier to imagine the end of the world then..." quote become more concrete than ever. But when I got going, it was very satisfying to think about. Genuinely made me feel more hopeful.

I am also finding out that my reaction to these stories of better futures is very emotional, in a good way. Like getting exposed to something I didn't really know I was missing.

But the stories that we build our understanding of the world from are all stories of the ruling class. It's reactionary and competitive. Full of war, destruction and hopelesness day in and day out. Even the comics we read as kids like Donald Duck steer our imagination to capitalist realism.

I love the idea that the old revolutionary in your story is you. If I had the spoons I'd start collecting stories like this and publish them online somewhere. I also genuinely think these would be good agitprop, we need to tell stories of a future that people want to live in. The doom and despair only creates hopelesness and apathy, because nobody is painting pictures of a better tomorrow. This is why I think China is such a powerful story right now. People see the progress and want to live like that.