Imagination as Rebellion
Last night we ran a Glimpse event at the beautiful 42 Acres in London. It’s a converted church which looks like this:
The event was called ‘Imagination as a tool of rebellion’. We talked about the power of stepping outside your existing reality to imagine a world that is more just, more fair or more beautiful. The traditional form of activism is to start with the problem, and to criticise it clearly, like this:
This is super important, and there’s plenty of bad stuff happening in the world that needs to be called out (incidentally, this is also how most commercial briefs work too — “The Problem” is usually the core of the brief).
But we’re interested in a different approach, one that seeks to leapfrog the existing system and invoke something radically different.
What we did.
Every participant wore a blindfold for a bit (thanks for being such good sports everyone), and we ran through a basic meditation with a creative brief tacked on at the end. I’m not a meditation teacher, but even the act of relaxing into your breath and sitting in silence is pretty different to any brainstorm I’ve ever been in.
For this Glimpse we looked at the idea of a post-work society, or a world where menial work was no longer necessary. Someone once said that ‘it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism’, so we thought we’d give that one a bash.
Here’s a sample from the script:
“Imagine a world where your life is completely free. Where you no longer have to work to make ends meet, but can spend your days whichever way you choose.
Imagine the feeling of waking up in the morning with limitless possibility. You might choose to spend the day outside in nature, or with the people and things you love the most.
Perhaps you decide to make or build something. Perhaps you’re working with others on something useful for the community, or a piece of beautiful art.”
This felt like a good subject for a Glimpse because it’s so weird to think about. We’ve inherited the idea that hard work equals a respectable, successful life, and that to be ‘lazy’ or spend more time at leisure is somehow wrong. We inherited this morality from the Puritans, who also burned witches at the stake.
With automation around the corner and fewer jobs to go around, maybe it’s time we rethink the idea that working 50+ hours a week, 50 odd weeks a year is the only possible way our society could ever work.
Afterwards we split into groups to see what came up. A few of us found this quite emotional — the idea of being free from pressure, and having more time to spend with people and things we love is really powerful. Spookily, several groups came up with the idea that they would grow more food if they had the time and space to do so. Growing is laborious, time intensive and requires regular care — that’s why most of us don’t bother. It’s a form of work that we outsource to machines and industrial farming because we have ‘more important things to do’. And yet most of us would actually like to do more of it.
This led to a really good discussion about what ‘work’ actually is. Younger children often enjoy helping with chores — Zac’s son likes to put the shopping away in the right places. But at some point it becomes onerous, a chore, something uncool. How can we help things like gardening feel less like a form of work and more like a rewarding part of life, even for teenagers? Can we imagine a world where growing your own salad is as popular and desirable as cultivating your instagram feed?
We finished the evening feeling connected to these ideas, and pleased to have been able to share them with each other. I’m quickly realising that these Glimpse events are less about coming up with the killer idea on the day and more about building a supportive community which people can come back to. Just like with gardening, we have some kind of deep desire to connect with other people which isn’t being met enough in our urban lives. If we look after this community, water it and sing lullabies to it then I’m confident the next great idea is going to spring up at any moment.
Links
- 42 Acres event and co-working space
- The line about Puritans is from Dan Palotta in the Harvard Business Review
- On the subject of gardening, we’re big fans of OrganicLea, a worker’s cooperative growing food on the edge of London
