Imagine there's no countries
It
isn't hard to do
Nothing' to kill or die for
And no
religion, too
Imagine all the people
living' life in peace
You may say I'm a dreamer
But
I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And
the world will be one
John Lennon.
I challenge you to do what Lennon sings in his iconic Imagine. We are aware of the world we live in and the possible paths humanity can take. We have read and reread George Orwell, and we see how “1984” seems more prophetic than fictional in these post-pandemic years. The dystopias of Terry Gilliam, Ridley Scott, Luc Besson and the Wachowski sisters set our 80s, 90s and early 21st century with their hyper-industrialized environments where humanity is trapped in authoritarian regimes controlled by or through the use of advanced technology.
Now is the time to turn the tables, for our generational revenge, and draw inspiration from ecology, environmental awareness, and activism that defies the status quo. James Lovelock gave us a beautiful book and theory in the 60's called Gaia. For the first time (as a Western society) we saw the whole biosphere as a single living entity. The rise of entheogenic plants immediately after that allowed us to connect with that being. Finally, the opening of science to unorthodox subjects, still taboo today, has allowed us to understand much more, little by little, the meaning of this theory that the instinct of many of us urges us to believe.
The era of Woodstock, of the anti-war movement, of the hippies, of "make love, not war" is now seen as the beginning of a collective awakening. A historian of the future might see 2012 as the next climax of this great awakening. The Arab Spring, the discovery of the Higgs boson, the start of peace talks in Colombia, the landing of Curiosity on Mars, the overcoming of the economic crisis that began in 2008, the near success of the Mayhem project, perhaps the greatest attempt to publish the truth about elite corruption after WikiLeaks (it was thwarted by the FBI with the arrest of members of Anonymous and other cyber-activist groups). Perhaps if we take the events of any year, we could do the same and highlight it as a great moment and that feeling is just a suggestion of the end of the world narrative supposedly prophesied by the Mayan calendar.
In my case, just a few months before the beginning of this year, it was my starting point in veganism. For me, love of animals, anti-speciesism, and the desire to eliminate an animal holocaust type system from our food processes are closely related to the vision of a Solarpunk future. A future in which we use technology to ensure our food sovereignty without enslaving or otherwise using other beings. But that is my vision, and this space has been created so that you can give your own vision of what a Solarpunk future would look like.
There is one thing we can all agree on: A greener world without abandoning the benefits of technology. A world where our relationship with technology and our relationship with nature are in balance. This requires a complete and objective vision of our history, our past, accepting it and adapting the present to the future. Technology must be open to the intervention of all life experiences and be equally accessible to all. Only then will we be able to fully utilize the energy of this universe and take our human existence to the next level in this world before traveling to other worlds and galaxies.
This space is yours, let's make it a safe place for dialog and free exchange of visions of the future that share a Solarpunk ideal. You are welcome, imagine…
