“Because those who monopolize resources monopolize imagination.”

Ruha Benjamin has a profoundly simple idea: we need to invest just as much creativity and innovation into reimagining our social structures as we do into developing new technologies.

In a time when the ugliness of fascism is vigorously sprouting, imagination is not just a luxury, but a vital resource for collective liberation and social change. This is the  time to expand our imaginations beyond the constraints of current social and political realities, and to envision new possibilities for a more just and equitable world.

Benjamin's book encourages readers to use their imaginations as a tool for challenging the status quo and creating positive change in society. By highlighting the disparity between our ability to imagine technological progress, and our reluctance to imagine social progress, she urges us to apply our creative energies to addressing entrenched inequality and injustice.

“After all, why is it that we can so readily imagine growing heart cells in a lab, but not growing empathy for other human beings in our everyday lives? For many, the idea that we can defy politics as usual and channel human ingenuity towards more egalitarian forms of social organization is far-fetched. Our collective imaginations tend to shrink when confronted with entrenched inequality and injustice when what we need is just as much investment and innovation in our social reality as we pour into transforming our material lives.”

BOOK:Imagination, A Manifesto