The Future we imagine is the Cause of the Present

Rather than building the Future on Fear, Violence and Despair, we need to build it on Imagination, Desire and Hope

You may have a problem with the direction the world is taking right now.

What do we see happening outside?

Our voracious civilisation is crashing down. So are the “old narratives”, worldviews and myths which sustain it.

This is the collapse of MAD Land (leading to Massive Assured Destruction).An EGO centric world of materialism, focused on Efficiency, driven by value capture, competition, growth, profit, productivity, power over, exclusion. A world maintained by a series of “worldviews” such as the myth of progress, making a career, the story of scarcity, the illusion of control and predictability.

At the same time, we can see the seeds and traces of an emerging radically different Future: an ECOcentric world, focused on resiliency, driven by systemic and regenerative value creation, organic collaboration, Power with, Inclusion. This is NO MAD land (leading to Mutually Assured Development), sustained by radically different values and worldviews about Growth, Business, what it means to be Human and to live a meaningful Life.

There is an interesting metaphor that might help us “decode” the situation. What is happening in the world today is similar to the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a Butterfly: a voracious destructive civilization breaking down and the potential birth of a new viable civilization for the Future. 

Confronted with all that, you can look at the situation in two very different ways which completely change your emotions:

• Either you consider this “falling apart” as "Apocalypse now" - the end of the world and this might lead to Fear, Despair, Cynicism, even to Violence. Some live "Nostalgia" of the Future, a poetic awareness of a Future forever gone

• Or no apocalypse, not now: rather than focusing on a dying world, you adopt the attitude of the imaginal cells, which are inside the body of the caterpilar: they don’t panic at all because they SEE a more beautiful world is possible and are too busy building the FUTURE THEY HAVE IN MIND.

The key rests in the way you look at the world :

The Future you imagine is the cause of the Present.

We all live with an imaginary Future in mind.

The Future is a story we tell ourselves, even implicitly.

It is a representation of what “could happen”, within the limits of our perceptions and Imagination.

But it impacts all aspects of our lives, especially the way we set our priorities and make decisions
HERE and NOW.

The Future is now ! It is an emotional experience in the Present.

This is crucial!

Because ultimately our emotions guide our decisions.

And every day, we all make decisions based on our Vision of the world “as it is” and on our capacity to imagine alternative possibilities.

We need a Future we can Believe in.

A meaning making Story that resonates with our deepest Aspirations and generates hope that a viable human Future is possible together, in a NO MAD LAND (based on Mutually Assisted Development).
A Narrative able to generate what we call the Next appeal: the “Erotica of the Future, a desire for the Future we want to create.
So the Future we imagine can become the cause of our Present.

Now is the time to dare to imagine it.
To make alternative narrative of the Future visible, desirable and actionable.

"Be careful about the Present you create because it must look like the Future you dream of."

Rather than building the Future on Fear, Despair or Violence, Shapership stands for building it on Hope, Imagination and Radical Wisdom. It focuses on the need to boost Creative Thinking, Imagination and to create the Next Appeal: the Erotica of the Future, an irresistible impulse towards the Future we desire.

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