From What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want

Akuno talked about how important it is to be grounded in history, like the prison abolition movement, which sees itself as a long-term project. This means keeping focused on the longer-term goal, rather than being sidetracked by minor reforms and policy changes, what he calls remaining ‘consistently orientated towards the North Star’.

When I say we need to become better storytellers, I mean that we need to become willing and skilful tellers of visionary stories of How Things Turn Out OK – like what Stephen Duncombe and the mothers at that workshop did – and work back from there. Many of us are resistant to these kinds of visions – they seem impossible, naive – and yet, who can s

As Sherry Turkle puts it, ‘Boredom can be recognized as your imagination calling you.’

‘If you create legislation that is punitive,’ she told me, ‘it won’t engage people’s imaginations. Encouraging the imagination takes an enormous amount of bravery. It has to be a long-term commitment, and it has to have political support.’

Free, unstructured, cheeky, loud, reflective, spontaneous, crazy, attentive, wild play is vital to the health of our children, and also to our ability to reimagine the world. Without it, we are all the poorer, our streets fall silent and our imagination begins to dessicate.

It was as though he were learning to see again, to notice, to pay attention to the world around him, to see his world in more detail, more colour, more focus. It was coming alive to him.

As English artist Ryan Gander puts it, ‘Art is the source of creative citizenship and art education makes innovative thinkers that filter into every part of our society.’

We don’t have to read two hundred books this year. Reading even one book is a meaningful act of resistance – and enough to remind us how pleasurable, calming and nourishing it can be. Let us read more books.

The mythologist Martin Shaw refers to the internet as a ‘toxic mimic’.52 What does he mean? Well, as a species, we have evolved over tens of thousands of years to immerse ourselves in stories, to let ourselves be taken on imaginary journeys. A good storyteller can send us to distant realms and settings, warm firesides in imagined castles, imposing