In his book from What is to what if, Rob Hopkins describes imagination as the ability to look at things as if they could be otherwise. He comments on modern societies’ “poverty of imagination,” and argues that imagination isn’t a childish escape; it is a civic duty.
In his powerful speech in Davos, Mark Carney aptly emphasized that we have all put the sign in the window. He was discussing countries and political leaders, but behind them lie the notions of each one and all of us. We all participated in the rituals. We remained silent or we spoke out depending on what would keep us safe and away from trouble. We behaved – and behave – as if whatever the system was real; we accepted submission, and we became vulnerable to coercion. We very well know that when we are afraid and insecure, we can only think about “What Is”. We are limited in the survival mode. Fear is our ultimate “imagination killer”.
Unless we take the sign from the window, we are doomed to live in a culture of fear and accommodation where everybody focuses on mere survival and nobody tries to change the system. By daring to imagine things “as if they could be otherwise”, we shift from a passive performance to an active longing for a new world. We envision long-term futures. We stop accepting broken systems because we can conceive alternatives.
When we ask “What if?”, we begin to deconstruct the “What is” that keeps us stuck. When we reclaim our imagination, we realize that the walls of our personal “fortress” were only held up by our refusal to imagine a way out. Our “What If?” question are our ultimate tool for personal liberation.
