Imaginative consciousness required to engage with the future?

Engendering 2052 through Re-imagining the Present: Review of a report to the Club of Rome (Part #12)

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Imagination: Imaginative consciousness has notably been distinguished from observational and reflective consciousness by H. G. Wells (Experiment in Autobiography, 1934). As noted in his conclusion of an extensive literature review by Colin Wilson (The Strength to Dream: literature and the imagination, 1962), according to Wells a new type of individual is appearing who wants this third dimension of imaginative consciousness for its own sake, not for survival:

The definition of the imagination -- as the third dimension of consciousness -- would seem to be broader than the "escapist" definition. The imagination, like the reasoning faculty, is an extension of the powers for survival. This suggests a speculation that has at least the virtue of unifying the theory of imagination. Wells had already hinted that he suspected that "men of imagination" were a new species, or at least an important variation on the old species... There can be no possible doubt that the imagination is synonymous with freedom -- as synonymous, at least as "air" and "wind". Imagination is man's attempt to break out of the prison of his body to possess an extension beyond the present. But if imagination is meaningless unless defined in terms of freedom, freedom is also meaningless unless defined in terms of evolution... But there can certainly be no doubt that the general notion of evolution is always connected with the imagination. (pp. 179-180)

Imagination and the future: G. Harry Jamieson offers perceptive insights into the nature of imaginative consciousness, in a chapter discussing imagination and the future (Communication and Persuasion, 1985):

In imaginative consciousness the normal restrictions of perception are set aside so that many points of view can coalesce into a single whole. It bears some similarity to Cubist art.... The power of imaginative consciousness is that it can visualise that which is absent, it can construct images which need bear no correspondence to external reality, it can see things as otherwise, and it can project itself to some future condition, at least an envisaged future condition...This is a powerful potential that can be enlisted for a variety of purposes, cultural, political or economic. It is a question to which persuasive communications, whether they be commercial in intent or propagandist, frequently address themselves. (p. 48)

One of Sartre's basic tenets regarding imaginative consciousness is that it possesses intentionality; that although it can be free-ranging, it obtains resolution only through intention.... Intention is a kind of focusing devices in imaginative consciousness, it concentrates and thus excludes; it is a selective device, selecting an image to be raised into consciousness from a range of alternatives. (p. 49)

The creation of illusion for artistic purposes is part of man's cultural heritage; it has its source in the imaginative consciousness, a source which also lies at the heart of scientific endeavour. But the same source which provides the origin of artistic and scientific activity can be exploited by others for the purposes of persuasion. It is only through imagination that we can grasp the future, and its is because we can so project ourselves, psychologically speaking, that we are able to conceive ourselves as otherwise. However, the otherwise we may desire to become may owe something to the influence of others... (pp. 50-51) [emphasis added]

Jamieson appropriately cautions:

Man's imaginative consciousness provides a ready-made vehicle or channel through which the author can appeal in the propagation of his ideas; likewise, it lays itself open to an avenue for those engaged in the business of persuasion. The "persuasion industry" utilises imagery in many of its appeals, inviting its audience to project themselves, via imagination, into some other state of existence, or some other time or place. In doing so, it feeds upon the potentiality of the imaginative consciousness to transcend physical or practical limitations. (p. 44)

Dreaming? With respect to such remarks, and Wilson's title (The Strength to Dream), it is appropriate to contrast:

• dreams, as deliberately marketed by the "persuasion industry" through advertising, whether for products, projects, or political policies (Mark Horvath, Creating Movements and Cause: Marketing Dreams Can Come True, Huff Post, 28 October 2011); most significant has been that associated with the appreciation, exploitation and promotion of cheap credit, enabling life to be lived as a dream. With respect to the concern of the 2052 Report with consumption, such dreams reinforce compulsive buying disorder
• the dreaming of 900 million enabled by Facebook and highly valued commercially (Eliot Van Buskirk, Your Facebook Profile Makes Marketers' Dreams Come True, Wired, 28 April 2009; Rhys Blakely, Facebook debut has California dreaming, The Australian, 19 May 2012)
• the choice of title by eminent physicist Stephen Hawking (The Dreams That Stuff Is Made Of: the most astounding papers of quantum physics -- and how they shook the scientific world, 2011)
• the much-cited speech by Martin Luther King (I Have a Dream, 1963) which can indeed be said to have "shook the world".

Hawking's title is inadvertently significant in that is a reminder that even for the hardest sciences the nature of matter, as conventionally conceived, is to a high degree a perceptual illusion -- since at the atomic level it is imagined to be primarily composed of "empty space" -- whatever that may be. There is a profound irony to the sense in which such sciences, as with the 2052 Report, stress the importance of imagination in any approach to facts. Yet, as with the deprecated scientific quest for the human soul, it might be best understood in terms of the "empty space" within which facts are embedded.

What possibilities does the future hold for re-imagining  human identity, so readily held to be an illusion, as noted by Bruce Hood (The Self Illusion:  Why There is No 'You' Inside Your Head, 2012). The 2052 Report offers a concluding section on What Should You Do? -- but without considering that the illusory "you" may wish to reframe itself, and may need to, as separately suggested (Emergence of Cyclical Psycho-social Identity: sustainability as "psyclically" defined, 2007; Strategic Complexity 8 Attracting Consensus Klein is beautiful 8 Sustaining identity in time, 2011).

Worldmaking: Following the early framing offered by Nelson Goodman (Ways of Worldmaking, 1978), the explosion of creative initiatives in elaborating "worlds" can be variously recognized in:

• the continuing tradition of science fiction
• the invention of engaging board games (Dungeons and Dragons, etc)
• the representation of imagined worlds by the media, with the striking appeal they offer (Avatar, 2009; etc)
• the elaboration of virtual worlds in which people engage imaginatively through avatars of their own invention, possibly involving the emergence of virtual institutions (Second Life, etc)
• following a long tradition, the establishment of intentional communities based on unconventional philosophies and rules, as separately discussed (Renaissance Zones: experimenting with the intentional significance of the Damanhur community, 2003)
• the increasing establishment of gated residential communities, possibly with exceptional security rules and philosophies

Imaginal education: These variously characterize what might be understood as imaginal education, as separately discussed (Imaginal Education: game playing, science fiction, language, art and world-making, 2003). With respect to issues of governance indicated by the 2052 Report, so-called "intelligent games" (peace games, educational games) are indicative of future possibilities of online gaming (Playfully Changing the Prevailing Climate of Opinion: climate change as focal metaphor of effective global governance, 2005; International Journal of Intelligent Games and Simulation). The 2052 Report specifically notes the importance of such games through a "glimpse" (Sarah Severn, Peak Youth Gaming for the Public Good). Missing however is any reflection on an international decision-making game which would integrate the problematic insights of Yes Minister (1980-84), as valued by Margaret Thatcher, as a reflection of the reality of governance -- and engagement with the irresolutique.

More questionable is the recognition that the broadcast media, and associated forms, imaginatively prefigure on a daily basis more than the 2052 Report foresees in terms of problematic dynamics. People are potentially enabled thereby, or become habituated to them as a source of appropriate stimulus. It is to be expected that the call for ever more imaginative entertainment will be a primary characteristic of the future -- as with the circuses of ancient Rome -- effectively "delinking" from the rationality of arguments, such as those of the 2052 Report. This is already evident in the major importance of drugs and alcohol -- at every level of society -- as a means of reframing the experience of an unsatisfactory "factual" daily reality and the depression it engenders.

Imaginary consensus: The 2052 Report assumes that policy-makers will come to their senses in response to the longer-term issues. This reflects a failure to recognize the degree to which the desired consensus, in fact any consensus -- whether democratic or otherwise -- is itself to an important degree imaginary, if not an illusion in its own right, as separately argued (The Consensus Delusion: mysterious attractor undermining global civilization as currently imagined, 2011). To what extent is the "international community" an illusion -- despite the many appeals made to it in the expectation of action? Curiously again, as noted with respect to the climate change debate, science is unable to apply its methodology to the elusive nature of "consensus", or to reach consensus on how this might be done.

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