Imaginations run wild

Our imagination has no bounds. While we can walk a straight path, the mind will wander. In any direction, it so pleases. Impossible, it may be, to tame. Humans are so used to being on top of the food chain that it has made us believe that we can overcome the faults of the mind. But isn’t that what makes us human to begin with? We search for answers to conquer just like we did with animals, the environment, and elements. But the mind still alludes us. Some even say with the discovery of GLP1, someday we could even eliminate mental illness.

For now, let’s stick with what we have. Humans did not evolve to sit 8 hours a day typing TPS reports. They didn’t evolve for assembly line work. Suggesting the problem is for people to be better in a world where people are desperate. With a clear unequal distribution of resources, with everyone starting lines a bit different from the next, it feels insulting. Instead of applying more pressure, the answer could be, for now, to not let your imagination be crushed by the pressures of modern-day life.

Don’t try to picture everything that can go wrong and the worst possible outcomes. For some with the capabilities to read this blog, life isn’t so unbearable that it can’t be endured. These are the products of our times. And the products of our time, just 200 years ago, were different and arguably worse.

That doesn’t mean we don’t live in a dangerous world. Of course, it is dangerous. Our imaginations, however, tend to make it worse. Worrying about careers, social status, and our futures mismatches the operating system we use in prehistoric times. Capitalism and industrialism indeed push against our evolution and nature. This tug of war is why we are left exhausted. But more dangerous today? That’s a tough argument when we can point to many things that show it is better. Better today, and yes, it can be even better tomorrow.

The power of collective imagination, invisible forces that only exist in the ether, dictate so much of our lives. They don’t even breathe, but we know they exist. Anyone in debt can feel its presence even though it doesn’t have a heartbeat. The individual can feel powerless in these circumstances. Invisbile frces, however strong they may appear, are not invincible. We have mastered the idea of humans working together, to create something out of our imaginations, and head that direction.

What’s in jeopardy is more than just democracy or convenience or resource management, but the collective power of working together. It is one of the most essential human assets, yet it is in jeopardy in the name of profits, status, and ideological politics. We can try to send another rocket to space. But we miss that while we have mastered the external realm created only by imagination (shared and realized by those around us), the internal landscape remains a frontier that resists collective solutions and demands personal navigation. In other words, you have agency in all of this. You still choose the terms. You dream the dreams. And you decide which to follow, promote, and inspire others with.

The past doesn’t hold us, and neither does the future. We are here now. Including you. What are you going to do about it?