Imagination: A Manifesto (A Norton Short)

I like how cultural historian Thomas Berry put it when he said “We are in between stories.” The Old Stories, as I see them, include those scripted by colonialism, capitalism, ableism, white supremacy, nationalism, and cis-heteropatriarchy. All require us to believe in the inherent, God-given superiority of some groups over others. They include mast

“Aporophobia” is what philosopher Adela Cortina calls the fear, hatred, and rejection directed at poor people. The question is, should we try to change the rules to allow for more winners? Or is it possible to subvert the game, maybe even stop playing, and imagine a social and economic system that doesn’t immiserate the masses to enrich the few?

As each new generation expands their imagination, let them also develop a keener ability to detect bullshit.

A world that relies on social inequality to keep its machinery running can only afford for a handful of people to imagine themselves “gifted.”

Standardized testing has always been predicated on a racist, classist, sexist, and ableist standard.

Like author Arundhati Roy, I believe “another world is not only possible, she is on her way. . . . On a quiet day, if I listen very carefully, I can hear her breathing.”

These youth are born into environments of state-sanctioned deprivation, or “organized abandonment,” as political geographer Ruth Wilson Gilmore calls it.

Imagination, then, does not just animate sci-fi-inspired scientific endeavors or explicitly creative pursuits like Broadway musicals, viral TikTok dances, and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s paintings. Imagination is also embedded in the more mundane things that govern our lives, like money, laws, and grades.

reflected back at us in our institutions and social relationships.