Future Dreaming
Some resources that I hope are helpful and fun at the end!
I was walking through the heart of Washington, D.C. last week. It wasn’t too far from the White House, past all the federal buildings and lobbyists’ offices. The night was crisp and strikingly windy, and just north of the halls of power were countless luxury stores, expensive restaurants, and men in suits. The architecture in that part of town reeks of heartlessness and money. But then, in the middle of the glass and metal and concrete was one nice little block. The center had been carved out for pedestrians: a place for people to walk, and sit, and get away from it all. Each of the four corners of the block were still filled with luxury shops and restaurants, but the stroll between the buildings, into a semi-oasis apart from the city made me pause, and think.
My first thought was, “What if the buildings around this square were for all of us, not just people spending tons of money? What would happen?” And then it kept going, the thought process pushed outward in concentric circles: “What if this little pedestrian zone expanded to fill the whole block? What if it kept on going? What would that world look like?”
This series of thoughts turned into something beautiful, I think. While I do value breaking down and better understanding the problems we face, I want to be sure that we turn an eye to the future in a way that inspires and helps us build. If we don’t dream dreams that move us to transform the world, it’s easier to get stuck in the sludge, to give in to doom, to forget that an incredible world is possible. We have the resources, we have the ability, and we have the technology to create a radically better society. Although powerful people want to stifle your imagination, want you to think changing things for the better, especially in any radical way, is impossible, we can each reject that small-mindedness and dream beyond our wildest dreams.
So what if? What if our cities and towns looked a little different? What if a lot of the luxury stores where things we don’t need are sold at exorbitant prices were replaced by community spaces? Kids could be learning to mess around with technology. They could be hanging out at free inventor centers where teachers foster their innate potential. And across the street adults could be engaged in lifelong education at Continued Learning Centers. Next door we could have public art institutes. People could be making music, and people could also be putting on public performances. These institutes where we all gather to make art, if we want, could also have spaces for folks to paint, sculpt, learn digital tools and infinitely more. We could have community buildings where people screen films and places where we make our own movies as well. Some restaurants could be replaced with public meal halls, and those spots could serve as teaching kitchens too, so everyone would know how to whip up a great meal.
Of course, some of this already exists. Public universities and other community centers sometimes have spaces like the ones I’m describing above. And some libraries have really cool resources like 3D printing stations, recording equipment, and more. But what if these gathering places and communal hubs were funded the way our military and police forces were funded? What could we collectively have access to then? Maybe the latest technology would be less focused on blowing people up from a distance, and more focused on making art and beauty and knowledge more accessible to everyone on Earth. We don’t know, yet, what that would lead to, but I’d like to find out.
This world I’d like to imagine rests on the simple fact that we already have everything we need. We have enough food, we have enough housing, we have what we need to make survival guaranteed for just about everyone, and easier for all all of us too. The basics of living don’t need to be hard to come by. If resources weren’t hoarded, that reality would become clear, quickly. What we would then be able to focus on is how to make life pleasant, meaningful, enjoyable. And while we’re sold the idea that massive adrenaline boosts from skydiving, or the material excess of private jets, or the luxury of clothing that costs more than most people’s rent is what life is all about, I firmly believe most of us know, somewhere, that none of that matters much. Even though most people need more money in this life, we know that money can’t provide real fulfillment or satisfaction. And if you don’t know that, I’ve interacted and worked for people who are much richer than I’ll ever be. Most were miserable. They lacked community, meaning, and real, deep satisfaction in this life.
So if we all had enough, if we had a post-capitalist economy where people got what they needed, how would we find our purpose? Where would we find it, and with who? We would need more than just entertainment, luxury, and things. We would need more connection. Cities and towns could be filled with spaces where we come together. We could explore spirituality, the meaning of life, and have the time to build the relationships with nature and with each other that I believe are the foundation of a good life. Parks could flourish, public outdoor and indoor exercise spaces could replace private gyms, and community gardens could pop up in every town, every neighborhood. Our gardens would be places to grow healthy food, to come together to gather around fire pits and BBQs, and to let children play and explore. Our housing complexes could be beautiful, merged with nature, free, and have amenities to help us flourish like exercise spaces and green spaces and libraries and more.
One of the countless benefits of a post-capitalist and post-scarcity world where we distribute what we have, while de-emphasizing over-consumption because the profit motive to sell endless crap would no longer be present, is that we wouldn’t have to work so much. Some people would still want to work, pursuing cures to diseases or teaching or caring for the sick or a whole range of fields that people want to devote themselves to. And others of us would need to work, maintaining the fabric of society and feeding one another and more. But there’s no doubt that we could work far, far less, and that we would have infinitely more freedom to live our lives the way we want.
This slower society would help ecosystems survive, help us avoid mass extinction, and allow us to begin reversing climate change. And that would help us, it would help humanity. Some of it’s obvious, like we’d be happier not working 40+ hours and it would be infinitely better for our future to have a reciprocal relationship with the planet. We’d also be healthier; I mean that literally. Our bodies would be less hurt by physically demanding jobs and by microplastics and by this society we’ve created as a whole. This way of life we have now is not healthy for us: staring at screens, toxic chemicals, and the isolation of many modern jobs. All of that could be done away with.
In its place we could have a world that is healthy for human life, for all life, and for our future. We could have a world where people's talents and dreams are cultivated rather than stifled. The writer of the next great novel could have the time to write instead of being stuck in an Amazon warehouse. The team that cures cancer could have the time and resources to learn and develop rather than being trapped behind a Starbucks counter. The children who might grow up to help us explore space could have their research funded instead of working in a sweatshop. There is an immense and clear pragmatism to fostering this alternative society. In addition to countless benefits that would materialize in our communities, on the regional and even international level we would have more resources to devote to high-speed trains or restoring the oceans or collaborative projects of a scale and impact we can't even imagine right now. This world would help everyone except that handful of people who hoard and hoard and tell us we're somehow benefiting from their greed.
This piece is meant to be a question rather than an answer. It's meant to just be a start, a spark. I know I've thrown out a lot of ideas, but the purpose of all of them is to get you thinking about what you'd do if work wasn't such a big part of our lives, if our basic needs were met, if we were more free to pursue our interests and dreams. And I don't mean just you, on an island. I hope we'll think about what we would do as communities, as collectives, not just where our individual pursuits would take us. How would we build purpose? What structures and organizations would we create? What rituals and customs and events would we set up to make life more joyous and meaningful? What relationship would we want our species to have with this precious planet?
I don't have many answers, just one or two. I know my life would be richer and more intertwined with the people around me if work didn't take so much of my time. And I know we need to start now, that we can't wait for that future to come to us, we need to go after it. That means organizing to build power and move past capitalism. But it also means planting seeds and growing community and starting to craft a better life together, now. These aren't mutually exclusive, of course. Today I'm going to a friend's farm in the first step towards using a little chunk of the land that he and his wife own for a community garden. It’ll hopefully become a gathering space where we build power together, but also where we see a little slice of what the future could hold. We can take steps now, and cultivate our North Stars to help us be bolder, excited, and steady on the path from where we are now to where we want to go. We can build community centers and feed our neighbors and start book clubs and do urban farming together and so much more, right now. We have to imagine the future we want to see as we build it. So what future do you choose to imagine?
P.S. Here are a handful of resources to help us imagine what a better future could look like, in ways that are tangible and possible.
Books: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin and A Country of Ghosts by Margaret Killjoy are both incredible works.
Substacks: Margaret has a newsletter called Birds Before the Storm and if you liked this piece even a little bit you’ll love SolarPunk Stories on Substack for sure.
Video: Lastly, the video embedded below is a fun and inspiring example, to me. Enjoy!
Medellin (where I was born) is doing really cool stuff: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230922-how-medellin-is-beating-the-heat-with-green-corridors
Are you familiar with Gemeindebauten in Vienna? It was a housing complex built after WWI by the Socialist government that was in power from 1918-1936. It’s still one of the most livable parts of any European city. It should be a model.