Lack of Political Imagination

Who believes in politics? Some. Not many. Extremists do, for they want to change the world. Extremists are considered to be mad.

But everyone wants change, right? The cry for change is heard in any election campaign, and no mainstream politician striving for popularity can avoid this magic word.

But what kind of change do they want? For sure, they believe in the system, that is, they believe in nothing.

What is – the system that we have and the conditions in which we live – it is because it is, for something has to be. Our world of today exists by accident. It is a random point in the history of mankind.

You live here and now, but that you have not chosen. What is, doesn’t need your support to be.

You are free to imagine the best of all worlds. In your thoughts you may construct an earth where everything is different. If you could really choose, what would the world look like? Your imagination is limited, but you can still try. If anything were possible, what would you prefer? If you were really free to choose, it’s improbable that you would choose the world in which you actually live, for it is only one of thousands and millions of possibilities. If you were really free to choose…, but you don’t dare. We are creatures of habit to such a degree that we don’t even dare to imagine that we could live differently.

I ask you again: “In what kind of world, in what kind of country, in what kind of political system would you want to live if your choice was perfectly free?”

And you answer: “More or less in the kind of world system that I’m now living in, with only a few adjustments.” And then you add. “I’m a realist, you see.”

Your answer makes me want to tear my hair out! I didn’t give you a realistic choice, I asked you to use your imagination. You are so used to the world in which you happen to live that you can’t even imagine another one. How can you believe in change if you can’t envision something else?

When you elect parties and candidates, your choices are limited to reality, that’s true, but realism is not what limits you. Your imagination is enchained by your habits.

Most people drift toward the political center where they feel safe. In the middle, the world is accepted at it is, and those who belong there, the great majority, say that that is also how the world should be.

We have resigned. We don’t believe in politics.